HAM/1/20/134
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
My Dear Sister,
Delays being dan=
=gerous, and being about to set out
to join my Regiment at Aberdeen
this very day, I condescend to tell
You that your three Huzza's
reached me within this half hour.
Whether I shall bear my Faculties
meekly, I know not. Hitherto I do
not feel any remarkable change
in myself; but, I suppose, when I
get amongst fine folks, I may grow
fine too. You must know, that
this Parliamenteering is not because
I was very anxious about the
matter, but because, I was obsti=
=nately determined to convince some
of my ill wishers, that I could get
in if I would. Perhaps, like my
Namesake Sir Francis Wronghead,[1]
I may have cause to repent of
my Vanity. Had Parliament met,
I proposed going South, to take
my Seat, and leave my Proxy, wish=
=ing to paʃs the Winter Months
at Wilton Lodge in glorious tran=
=quility. But, Government having
attended more to their own con=
=venience than to mine, some little
interference with my case & comfort
is likely to happen. Our Commander
in Chief has permitted me to leave
Quarters the beginning of October,
and you may be sure, I shall take
advantage of this Leave as soon
as I have signed the Returns on
the first of October. My Troops march=
=ed from hence last Week, and
will reach Aberdeen this day, and
tomorrow.
My Rib is at present in
Yorkshire, and will be a Vagabond
from home till September, as
she proposes visiting her Brother
at Widdrington Castle, for the
purpose of Sea bathing, next
Month. She has been very unwell,
owing to a bad Miscarriage, the
cause of which has not been discover=
=ed. It has made her very much
thinner, and she still feels a con=
=siderable degree of weakneʃs in
her Knees when she walks. The
change of Air, and Scene, has been of
use, and I trust the bathing may
restore her strength. The School,
at which, I told you my eldest
Daughter was placed, is given up,
owing to the bad health of the
Governeʃs. This deranges some of
our plans, but must be submitted
to.
I can easily conceive how
uncomfortable it is, not to be settled
in a house of your own, tho' I rather
think You like wandering
about, & making Visits. That
sort of Life would demolish
me, being nearly as bad as Soldiering
of which I have long been completely
tired. And so We bid thee Farewell.
Love & best wishes to Your better
half, your Brat, & My Countrywo=
=man. Ever My Dear Sister
Your Affect. Brother
Napier
[2][3]
Mrs. Dickenson
Birch Hall
Manchester
Napier.
[4] Answerd 26 Decbr. 1796[5]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. A character in a frequently-revived play, Colley Cibber, The provoked husband (1728) (see Wikipedia).
2. Remains of a stamp, reading 'JY 14', indicating that the letter went through the post on 14 July 1796.
3. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
4. Remains of a seal, in red wax.
5. This annotation was written vertically at the bottom of the page.
Normalised Text
Edinburgh
13th. July 1796.
My Dear Sister,
Delays being dangerous
, and being about to set out
to join my Regiment at Aberdeen
this very day, I condescend to tell
You that your three Huzza's
reached me within this half hour.
Whether I shall bear my Faculties
meekly, I know not. Hitherto I do
not feel any remarkable change
in myself; but, I suppose, when I
get amongst fine folks, I may grow
fine too. You must know, that
this Parliamenteering is not because
I was very anxious about the
matter, but because, I was obstinately
determined to convince some
of my ill wishers, that I could get
in if I would. Perhaps, like my
Namesake Sir Francis Wronghead,
I may have cause to repent of
my Vanity. Had Parliament met,
I proposed going South, to take
my Seat, and leave my Proxy, wishing
to pass the Winter Months
at Wilton Lodge in glorious tranquility
. But, Government having
attended more to their own convenience
than to mine, some little
interference with my case & comfort
is likely to happen. Our Commander
in Chief has permitted me to leave
Quarters the beginning of October,
and you may be sure, I shall take
advantage of this Leave as soon
as I have signed the Returns on
the first of October. My Troops marched
from hence last Week, and
will reach Aberdeen this day, and
tomorrow.
My Rib is at present in
Yorkshire, and will be a Vagabond
from home till September, as
she proposes visiting her Brother
at Widdrington Castle, for the
purpose of Sea bathing, next
Month. She has been very unwell,
owing to a bad Miscarriage, the
cause of which has not been discovered
. It has made her very much
thinner, and she still feels a considerable
degree of weakness in
her Knees when she walks. The
change of Air, and Scene, has been of
use, and I trust the bathing may
restore her strength. The School,
at which, I told you my eldest
Daughter was placed, is given up,
owing to the bad health of the
Governess. This deranges some of
our plans, but must be submitted
to.
I can easily conceive how
uncomfortable it is, not to be settled
in a house of your own, though I rather
think You like wandering
about, & making Visits. That
sort of Life would demolish
me, being nearly as bad as Soldiering
of which I have long been completely
tired. And so We bid thee Farewell.
Love & best wishes to Your better
half, your Brat, & My Countrywoman
. Ever My Dear Sister
Your Affectionate Brother
Napier
Mrs. Dickenson
Birch Hall
Manchester
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/1/20/134
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: unknown
Date sent: 13 July 1786
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. He discusses
his attempts at gaining a seat in the House of Lords as one of the
representatives from Scotland. He notes to Hamilton that ‘this
Parliamenteering is not because I was very anxious about the matter, but
because I was obstinately determined to convince some of my ill wishers,
that I could get in if I would’. He may repent of this vanity at some point
but he notes that had Parliament met he proposed to take his seat. Napier
also writes of his wife who is visiting her brother at Widdington Castle so
that she can bathe in the sea. She has suffered a miscarriage and is still
very weak.
Dated at Edinburgh.
Length: 1 sheet, 445 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 21 January 2022)
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: 4 March 2022