HAM/1/20/117
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Wilton Lodge
24th. Novr. 1791.
My Dear Sister,
I don't mean to be troublesome,
but not having heard from You for about
Eight Months, I cannot help once more
directing a Letter to Taxall, merely to know,
whether You are Dead or Alive? If defunct,
why e'en rest in Peace, but if in Existence, You
will not easily procure a pardon for neglecting
Me so long. Methinks, you might have taken
some notice of the letter I wrote, the 21st. of last
Month, announcing the birth of another Daughter,
even tho' you did not chuse to acknowledge
that I sent you last March, I think.[1] But, perhaps,
this may be treated in the same way, I shall
therefore conclude, with my best wishes to
Mr. Dickenson & your little Girl, who have
not affronted Me, & as for Yourself, You may
either take my best wishes or let them alone,
as seemeth best unto You. Farewell.
Na[p]ier.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. See HAM/1/20/116 for Napier's notification of his daughter's birth. No letter from him dated March 1791 survives in the present collection.
Normalised Text
Wilton Lodge
24th. November 1791.
My Dear Sister,
I don't mean to be troublesome,
but not having heard from You for about
Eight Months, I cannot help once more
directing a Letter to Taxall, merely to know,
whether You are Dead or Alive? If defunct,
why even rest in Peace, but if in Existence, You
will not easily procure a pardon for neglecting
Me so long. Methinks, you might have taken
some notice of the letter I wrote, the 21st. of last
Month, announcing the birth of another Daughter,
even though you did not choose to acknowledge
that I sent you last March, I think. But, perhaps,
this may be treated in the same way, I shall
therefore conclude, with my best wishes to
Mr. Dickenson & your little Girl, who have
not affronted Me, & as for Yourself, You may
either take my best wishes or let them alone,
as seemeth best unto You. Farewell.
Napier.
quotations, spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)
Notes
Metadata
Library References
Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester
Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers
Item title: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Shelfmark: HAM/1/20/117
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Roxburghshire
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Taxal, near Chapel-en-le-Frith
Date sent: 24 November 1791
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He says that
he has not heard from Hamilton for over eight months and therefore wishes to
know if she is alive or dead.
Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].
Length: 1 sheet, 157 words
Transliteration Information
Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers' (Hannah Barker, Sophie Coulombeau, David Denison, Tino Oudesluijs, Cassandra Ulph, Christine Wallis & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2019-2023).
All quotation marks are retained in the text and are represented by appropriate Unicode characters. Words split across two lines may have a hyphen on the first, the second or both fragments (reco-|ver, imperfect|-ly, satisfacti-|-on); or a double hyphen (pur=|port, dan|=ger, qua=|=litys); or none (respect|ing). Any point in abbreviations with superscripted letter(s) is placed last, regardless of relative left-right orientation in the original. Thus, Mrs. or Mrs may occur, but M.rs or Mr.s do not.
Acknowledgements: Transcription and XML version created as part of project 'Unlocking the Mary Hamilton Papers', funded by the Arts & Humanities Research Council under grant AH/S007121/1.
Transliterator: Christine Wallis, editorial team (completed 29 October 2021)
Cataloguer: Lisa Crawley, Archivist, The John Rylands Library
Cataloguer: John Hodgson, Head of Special Collections, John Rylands Research Institute and Library
Copyright: Transcriptions, notes and TEI/XML © the editors
Revision date: 3 December 2021