HAM/1/20/131
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
Far be it from me, My Dear
Sister, to deny your Witchlike powers.
By descent, you certainly may inherit
the Gift of second sight; and by Marriage,
you may have obtained a share of such
wonderful qualities as your Husband
may poʃseʃs, in right of the Witches of Lan=
=cashire. Your very letter to Me proves
your dealings with secret Intelligen=
=cers, otherwise, how could You know
that I was to arrive at Liverpool on
the tenth of this Month? True, I may have
written to You, that such was my In=
=tention. But, then, all Wits are said to
have mighty short Memories, and who
can doubt of your being one of that
number? You ought therefore to have
forgotten it.
The day after I returned from
placing my Son at School, the Snow
begun to fall, and in such quantities
that from the thirteenth of January
till last week, the Roads in my neigh=
=bourhood have been totally impaʃsable,
T --- for Carriages. So that Rib & I have been
close Prisoners. Happily, we are not
yet so fashionable, as to be tired of
one another; our solitude consequently
proved no punishment. The vile tenth
of March imperceptibly drew upon Us, and
the eighth, obliged us to separate. How
long I am to remain here, or where to
be disposed of on leaving this, is still kept
secret from Me. I dread a Camp, for many
reasons. I hate sleeping under Canvas, &
know that the expence will ruin my
Subalterns, who have nothing but their
pay to live on. At present, my thoughts
are principally occupied in calculating
when I may probably be able to get
home again. With all my ingenuity,
this will not be effected earlier than
October, as Major Clarkson wishes to
be absent for Six Months, which he is
well entitled to, having been constantly
at Quarters for two Years. Should You
wander into Scotland this Summer,
Maria will be most happy to see
You & Yours. I shall regret the impoʃsi=
=bility of my making one of the party,
and You will have an opportunity of
lamenting my Absence, in Heroics.
You ask me, my opinion
about Invasions. I really think the
French will attempt something of
the sort, though my alarm, for the
consequences of such an absurd proceed=
=ing, is not very great. The pretty Kettle
of Fish cooked lately in Ireland, is to
me, matter of more serious concern.
The head, of somebody, ought to pay for it.
These are not times for half measures.
Either the late chief Governour, or the present
Cabinet, have acted nefariously, and I sin=
=cerely hope, those who have done the
wrong, will meet with severe chas=
=tisement. My sentiments, though very
favourable to the Roman Catholics, are
perfectly hostile to what was called
their emancipation, & restoration to the
bosom of their Country. They ought to
be on the same footing with those
of their Religion, in this Country, and
on no other. Persecution for modes of
Worship, I detest. But a
sufficient degree of cordiality
does not exist between the
Irish Protestants & Catholics, & I muc[h] ------
the late manœuvres will not lead t[o]
an increase of it.
Maria, Children, & Self, ------
escaped the influenza. I trust it has by
this time left Birchhall. Make my best
wishes acceptable to Mr. Dickenson. Kiʃs
Louisa, & Miʃs Morrison too, if you like.
If you dont chuse to do so, pray bid
Mr. D. Adieu My Dear Sister, Ever with
sincere affection & regard, Your very
faithful friend and Brother
Napier.
The Phœnix You want for a Governeʃs
will never be found on the banks of
the Teviot --
[1]
Mrs= Dickenson
Birch Hall[2]
Manchester
[3]
Ld Napier
1795[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
Liverpool, 15th. March
1795.
Far be it from me, My Dear
Sister, to deny your Witchlike powers.
By descent, you certainly may inherit
the Gift of second sight; and by Marriage,
you may have obtained a share of such
wonderful qualities as your Husband
may possess, in right of the Witches of Lancashire
. Your very letter to Me proves
your dealings with secret Intelligencers
, otherwise, how could You know
that I was to arrive at Liverpool on
the tenth of this Month? True, I may have
written to You, that such was my Intention
. But then, all Wits are said to
have mighty short Memories, and who
can doubt of your being one of that
number? You ought therefore to have
forgotten it.
The day after I returned from
placing my Son at School, the Snow
began to fall, and in such quantities
that from the thirteenth of January
till last week, the Roads in my neighbourhood
have been totally impassable,
for Carriages. So that Rib & I have been
close Prisoners. Happily, we are not
yet so fashionable, as to be tired of
one another; our solitude consequently
proved no punishment. The vile tenth
of March imperceptibly drew upon Us, and
the eighth, obliged us to separate. How
long I am to remain here, or where to
be disposed of on leaving this, is still kept
secret from Me. I dread a Camp, for many
reasons. I hate sleeping under Canvas, &
know that the expense will ruin my
Subalterns, who have nothing but their
pay to live on. At present, my thoughts
are principally occupied in calculating
when I may probably be able to get
home again. With all my ingenuity,
this will not be effected earlier than
October, as Major Clarkson wishes to
be absent for Six Months, which he is
well entitled to, having been constantly
at Quarters for two Years. Should You
wander into Scotland this Summer,
Maria will be most happy to see
You & Yours. I shall regret the impossibility
of my making one of the party,
and You will have an opportunity of
lamenting my Absence, in Heroics.
You ask me, my opinion
about Invasions. I really think the
French will attempt something of
the sort, though my alarm, for the
consequences of such an absurd proceeding
, is not very great. The pretty Kettle
of Fish cooked lately in Ireland, is to
me, matter of more serious concern.
The head, of somebody, ought to pay for it.
These are not times for half measures.
Either the late chief Governor, or the present
Cabinet, have acted nefariously, and I sincerely
hope, those who have done the
wrong, will meet with severe chastisement
. My sentiments, though very
favourable to the Roman Catholics, are
perfectly hostile to what was called
their emancipation, & restoration to the
bosom of their Country. They ought to
be on the same footing with those
of their Religion, in this Country, and
on no other. Persecution for modes of
Worship, I detest. But a
sufficient degree of cordiality
does not exist between the
Irish Protestants & Catholics, & I much ------
the late manœuvres will not lead to
an increase of it.
Maria, Children, & Self, ------
escaped the influenza. I trust it has by
this time left Birchhall. Make my best
wishes acceptable to Mr. Dickenson. Kiss
Louisa, & Miss Morrison too, if you like.
If you don't choose to do so, pray bid
Mr. Dickenson Adieu My Dear Sister, Ever with
sincere affection & regard, Your very
faithful friend and Brother
Napier.
The Phœnix You want for a Governess
will never be found on the banks of
the Teviot --
Mrs= Dickenson
Birch Hall
Manchester
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/1/20/131
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Liverpool
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Rusholme, near Manchester
Date sent: 15 March 1795
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
his regiment, the situation in Ireland and the possibility of the French
invading the country.
Napier writes from Liverpool and teases Hamilton on the Lancashire Witches,
suggesting she has the gift of second sight otherwise how could she have
known that he was to arrive in Liverpool when he did. He reports that the
day after he returned from taking his son to school it began to snow so
heavily that he and his wife were virtually prisoners at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire]. Though luckily he notes ‘we are not yet so fashionable, as
to be tired of one another, our solitude consequently proved no punishment’.
He had to leave for his regiment on the March and he has no idea how long he
will be in Liverpool. He writes that he dreads staying in a camp as he does
not like to sleep in a tent and he knows camp life ‘will ruin my subalterns,
who have nothing but their pay to live on’. He does not believe that he will
be able to return home earlier than October.
Napier writes on Hamilton asking him about the possibility of invasions. He
believes that the French will attempt something though his alarm at the
‘consequences of such proceedings is not very great’. To him the situation
in Ireland is of more concern and somebody should pay for it, be it the late
Chief Governor or the previous cabinet. He writes that his sentiments
‘though very favourable to the Roman Catholics, are perfectly hostile to
what was called their emancipation & restoration to the bosom of their
Country. They ought to be on the same footing with those of their Religion,
in this Country’. He detests persecution over modes of worship but ‘a
sufficient degree of cordiality does not exists between the Iris,
Protestants & Catholics’ and he does not believe that the later
‘manoeuvres will not lead to an increase of it’.
Dated at Liverpool.
Length: 1 sheet, 614 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 9 November 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