HAM/1/20/219
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
71, Queen Street
18th. Janry- 1808
My Dear Sister,
I am much concerned
to hearread so bad an account of Yourself,
as that, Your Letter of the 14th- Instant
furnishes me; and likewise, of Mr.
Dickenson's accident. As he is now
attending Louisa in her dancing parties,
I hope, he does not feel much incon=
venience from it.
My House is an Hospital.
Five Children in the Measles; three of
whom, are now in Bed, and two, in
a state of Convalescence. My two youngest
Boys introduced this disorder into the
family, and my three youngest Girls
have caught it. Lady Napier has
been confined, for these last six
weeks. A cold & Cough of an obstinate
nature, which refused to submit to
the usual remedies, has at length been
succeeded by a violent Eruption over
her Arms & Legs, which has entirely
removed the Cough, and is now bestow=
ing a new skin on her Ladyship. Though
She is well in point of health, yet
care must be taken, in this changeable
weather, to prevent any return of her
Cold, so, She has not been permitted to
go out. This state of my family has
occasioned my remaining at home,
instead of going up to the Meeting
of Parliament, which I should have
done had Maria been able to stump
about, as usual. Besides, the Invalid's
I have mentioned, my Boys Tutor is
confined to Bed, with a feverish Complaint,
which is increased by apprehension. When=
ever anything is the matter with him, he
grows alarmed, and there is more plague
to get up his Spirits again, than to re=
move the disorder.
I had accounts lately from
my eldest Son, who is well, & cruizing
in the Mediterranean. My second Son, who
is cruizing in the Channel, and ought to
have been drowned three weeks ago. He
was conducting a Boat, with Prisoners,
from a Prize to his Frigate, when (probably
being overloaded) the Boat sunk, & left
the contents sprawling in the Water.
Providentially, they were near the Frigate
so that they were all saved. My Francis
swam to the Ship, & got up the Sides of it,
changed his Cloaths, went into another
Boat, & returned to the Prize for more
Prisoners.
As we do not aʃsociate with the
diʃsipated & gambling part of the Com=
munity, I can give you no Intelligence
as to the nature of Miʃs Wynne's return.
I never met any of the Wynne's or Campbell
& his Wife, at any party I have been at.
His character was notorious here, some Years
ago, for having robbed Sir Charles Douglass
Pocket Book. Sir Charles accused him, and
he did not resent the accusation, though,
I believe, he denied it. He then left this
Country, & I heard nothing
more of him, till he brought
down his Wife. His Marriage
did not induce me to seek his
acquaintance, not even, after You had told
me that his Wife was your friend Lady
Charlotte Campbell, as their Sister in Law coun=
tenances them, & so did Lady Augusta Claver=
ing when here; but, I did not find that,
a sufficient reason for my family having
anything to do with them. We live quietly, &
our happineʃs is of the domestic kind, not
depending on the Gay World, with which
we have very little connexion indeed. I am
sorry for Mrs- Holman; but, not at all surprised
at what has happened.
Adieu, My Dear Sister. Maria
joins me in everything kind to You, Mr-
Dickenson & Louisa. Best wishes to my
Countrywoman. Ever your faithful Friend and
Affectionate Brother Napier
▼
Lord Alexander Gordon was thought better,
and it was supposed, might have lived; but,
this appearance of recovery did not last
above two, or three days. I attended his funeral
out of Edinburgh, last Monday, on its way to the
North -- [1]
Edinburgh, Eighteenth January
1808
Mrs- Dickenson[2]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Beds
Napier.[3]
[4]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Normalised Text
71, Queen Street
18th. January 1808
My Dear Sister,
I am much concerned
to read so bad an account of Yourself,
as that, Your Letter of the 14th- Instant
furnishes me; and likewise, of Mr.
Dickenson's accident. As he is now
attending Louisa in her dancing parties,
I hope, he does not feel much inconvenience
from it.
My House is an Hospital.
Five Children in the Measles; three of
whom, are now in Bed, and two, in
a state of Convalescence. My two youngest
Boys introduced this disorder into the
family, and my three youngest Girls
have caught it. Lady Napier has
been confined, for these last six
weeks. A cold & Cough of an obstinate
nature, which refused to submit to
the usual remedies, has at length been
succeeded by a violent Eruption over
her Arms & Legs, which has entirely
removed the Cough, and is now bestowing
a new skin on her Ladyship. Though
She is well in point of health, yet
care must be taken, in this changeable
weather, to prevent any return of her
Cold, so, She has not been permitted to
go out. This state of my family has
occasioned my remaining at home,
instead of going up to the Meeting
of Parliament, which I should have
done had Maria been able to stump
about, as usual. Besides, the Invalid's
I have mentioned, my Boys Tutor is
confined to Bed, with a feverish Complaint,
which is increased by apprehension. Whenever
anything is the matter with him, he
grows alarmed, and there is more plague
to get up his Spirits again, than to remove
the disorder.
I had accounts lately from
my eldest Son, who is well, & cruising
in the Mediterranean. My second Son, who
is cruising in the Channel, and ought to
have been drowned three weeks ago. He
was conducting a Boat, with Prisoners,
from a Prize to his Frigate, when (probably
being overloaded) the Boat sank, & left
the contents sprawling in the Water.
Providentially, they were near the Frigate
so that they were all saved. My Francis
swam to the Ship, & got up the Sides of it,
changed his Clothes, went into another
Boat, & returned to the Prize for more
Prisoners.
As we do not associate with the
dissipated & gambling part of the Community
, I can give you no Intelligence
as to the nature of Miss Wynne's return.
I never met any of the Wynne's or Campbell
& his Wife, at any party I have been at.
His character was notorious here, some Years
ago, for having robbed Sir Charles Douglass
Pocket Book. Sir Charles accused him, and
he did not resent the accusation, though,
I believe, he denied it. He then left this
Country, & I heard nothing
more of him, till he brought
down his Wife. His Marriage
did not induce me to seek his
acquaintance, not even, after You had told
me that his Wife was your friend Lady
Charlotte Campbell, as their Sister in Law countenances
them, & so did Lady Augusta Clavering
when here; but, I did not find that,
a sufficient reason for my family having
anything to do with them. We live quietly, &
our happiness is of the domestic kind, not
depending on the Gay World, with which
we have very little connexion indeed. I am
sorry for Mrs- Holman; but, not at all surprised
at what has happened.
Adieu, My Dear Sister. Maria
joins me in everything kind to You, Mr-
Dickenson & Louisa. Best wishes to my
Countrywoman. Ever your faithful Friend and
Affectionate Brother Napier
▼
Lord Alexander Gordon was thought better,
and it was supposed, might have lived; but,
this appearance of recovery did not last
above two, or three days. I attended his funeral
out of Edinburgh, last Monday, on its way to the
North --
Edinburgh, Eighteenth January
1808
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/1/20/219
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 18 January 1808
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. Napier
conveys general news of his family and acquaintances, and also reports an
accident at sea on his son Francis's ship.
Napier writes of John Dickenson having an accident and of his 'attending
Louisa [his daughter] in her dancing parties' and hopes he does not find
this too inconvenient. His own house, he notes, is like a hospital. Five
children are suffering from measles. His two youngest boys 'introduced this
disorder into the family' and his three youngest girls have caught it. Lady
Napier is also ill and Napier has been prevented from going to the meeting
of Parliament because he is needed at home.
Napier's son William is cruising the Mediterranean and his other son,
Francis, 'ought to have been drowned three weeks ago'. Francis Napier was
conducting a boat with prisoners from a 'prize' to his frigate when the boat
sank. Napier assumes that the boat was probably overloaded. The frigate was
close by and they were all saved. Francis 'swam to the ship & got up the
sides of it, changed his clothes, went into another boat & returned to
the Prize for more Prisoners'.
Hamilton had enquired about a Miss Wynne's return and Napier notes that as
he is not part of the gambling community, he has no news of her. He has
never met the Wynnes's or Campbell and his wife although he notes that
Campbell's character was notorious some years ago as he has 'robbed Sir
Charles Douglass's Pocket Book'. His marriage did not induce Napier to seek
his acquaintance even if his wife was a friend of Hamilton's.
Dated at Queen Street [Edinburgh].
Length: 1 sheet, 651 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 14 December 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: 16 March 2022