HAM/1/20/194
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
38, St. James's Street
5th. March 1805,
My Dear Sister,
You have much to answer for.
When I ought to have been reaching the Respondents
case, in an important fishing Cause, You sent me Lady
Mansfields Letter, which cost me some pains, and some
time to decypher.[1] I now restore it to You, & I think You
may burn it, without doing any eʃsential injustice
to posterity. It is not often that You are in the right,
but I must allow You to be so, when you imagine
that I am comfortleʃs, when separated from my fa=
mily. There, I am a person of consequence, and can
command, and am obeyed. Here, I have nothing
to tyrannise over, and am the very picture of
insignificance itself. This present week, is rather
one of annoyance to me, as Wilton Lodge is to be
exposed to Sale on friday. The Event, I may hear
of on Monday; but, do not expect the accounts till
Tuesday. If it sells, you shall hear of it, but, I do
not say when, because it will force me to write
many more Letters, than I have inclination for.
I am not in habits of acquaintance with the Bishop
of Exeter, & therefore may not have an opportunity
of delivering your Meʃsage, as I never make up to
Courtiers. As to Lady de Clifford, I am told that She is the
intimate friend of Mrs- Fitzherbert, & consequently
▼
▼
a very proper Governeʃs for the Princeʃs
Charlotte. Lady Cathcart is in Ireland, and
her place is filled up in the Queens Esta=
blishment, but why, how, or by whom, I
know not. The story about poor Wm. Cathcart
is perfectly true. As to the number of the
Cathcart Children, I can say nothing. To
Mr. John D. your husband, Louisa Frances Mary
Dickenson your daughter, Miʃs Margaret[2]
Morrison my Countrywoman & your Lumbago'd
Self, I send my Love, Compliments &c &c &c.
Ever My Dear Sisters faithful friend and
Affectionate Brother
Napier[3]
London, Sixth March 1805
Mrs- Dickenson[4]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Beds
Napier.[5]
[6]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. Napier must be referring to HAM/1/18/209.
2. This section appears at the bottom of the page, below the address, and is continued at the top.
3. Moved section (5 lines) here from top of page.
4. FREE frank in red ink, dated 6 March 1805.
5. Moved address here from middle of page, written vertically.
6. Seal, in red wax.
Normalised Text
38, St. James's Street
5th. March 1805,
My Dear Sister,
You have much to answer for.
When I ought to have been reaching the Respondents
case, in an important fishing Cause, You sent me Lady
Mansfields Letter, which cost me some pains, and some
time to decipher. I now restore it to You, & I think You
may burn it, without doing any essential injustice
to posterity. It is not often that You are in the right,
but I must allow You to be so, when you imagine
that I am comfortless, when separated from my family
. There, I am a person of consequence, and can
command, and am obeyed. Here, I have nothing
to tyrannise over, and am the very picture of
insignificance itself. This present week, is rather
one of annoyance to me, as Wilton Lodge is to be
exposed to Sale on friday. The Event, I may hear
of on Monday; but, do not expect the accounts till
Tuesday. If it sells, you shall hear of it, but, I do
not say when, because it will force me to write
many more Letters, than I have inclination for.
I am not in habits of acquaintance with the Bishop
of Exeter, & therefore may not have an opportunity
of delivering your Message, as I never make up to
Courtiers. As to Lady de Clifford, I am told that She is the
intimate friend of Mrs- Fitzherbert, & consequently
▼
▼
a very proper Governess for the Princess
Charlotte. Lady Cathcart is in Ireland, and
her place is filled up in the Queens Establishment
, but why, how, or by whom, I
know not. The story about poor William Cathcart
is perfectly true. As to the number of the
Cathcart Children, I can say nothing. To
Mr. John Dickenson your husband, Louisa Frances Mary
Dickenson your daughter, Miss Margaret
Morrison my Countrywoman & your Lumbagoed
Self, I send my Love, Compliments &c &c &c.
Ever My Dear Sisters faithful friend and
Affectionate Brother
Napier
London, Sixth March 1805
Mrs- Dickenson
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Bedfordshire
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/1/20/194
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: London
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 5 March 1805
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
the proposed sale of Wilton Lodge, family news and court gossip. He has been
told that Lady de Clifford is the 'intimate friend of Mrs Fitzherbert &
[Mrs Maria Fitzherbert (1756-1837), a Roman Catholic Widow and mistress,
possible wife of the Prince Regent], consequently a very proper Governess
for the Princess Charlotte [daughter of the Prince Regent and Caroline of
Brunswick (1796-1817)]'.
Dated at St James's Street [London].
Length: 1 sheet, 344 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 7 February 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: 15 March 2022