HAM/1/20/235
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
71, Queen Street
10th- May 1809
My Dear Sister,
I was delighted
at receiving a Letter, purporting
to have been written by Yourself,
and which I really believe to have
been so, though your Daughter cer=
tainly writes very like you. I must,
however, do Louisa the justice to
say that, I can read her writing
without Spectacles -- not so, Yours.
When I reached Doncaster,
I heard of the death of my Brother
Hunter, and at Newcastle of his Fune=
ral being over. He died the 21st. of April,
perfectly resigned, and ready for the
change. His two Sons were unfortunate=
ly absent in the Country, where they
had been detained, to bury a Sister of
their Fathers, whose death was not
communicated to him, so that they
did not arrive till the day after his
death, which took place, sooner than
it was apprehended. He had gone
to preach at Leith, on the Saturday
afternoon, which turned out rainy
and sleety. He walked home, and is
supposed then to have caught cold,
which brought on an Inflammation
on his Lungs, which terminated his
existence in six days. A better Man
never lived. I consider him to be
a public Loʃs, in the Line of his Pro=
feʃsion. Whatever he preached, he
practised. He took an affectionate leave
of such of his family, as were with him,
and prayed for those who were absent,
his friends, and parishioners. His eldest
daughter, is very near the time of pro=
ducing her first Child. He spoke very
kindly to her, expreʃsing his satisfac=
tion that he left her united to a
deserving man, & recommending it
to her to leave his Room, & take care
of herself, as her situation might
be injured, by her being present
at his diʃsolution. His two Girls will
have £3000 each, & his younger Son, £4000.
The eldest Son, will have a Landed Estate
of at least £1200 pr Ann. but, I imagine,
it will be burdened with two, or perhaps
three thousand pounds to make up
the Money for the younger Children.
The Cottagers of Glenburnie[1] ex=
hibit too true an account of that
Claʃs of people in this Country. I doubt,
whether Miʃs Hamilton's Book will
have the effect of reforming them, first,
because, the price will not admit of
their purchasing it, & secondly, because
they never will forgive her, for ex=
posing their manners to the En=
glishers. As for You, I doubt much
whether, you can understand the
language; but my friend Morrison
may aʃsist as an Interpreter.
Lady A. Clavering is at
Charles Claverings in
Hampshire, & a most
intolerable Daudle she is. It w[as]
an unlucky day, when She & her Hus=
band came together. The reason he
remains in Newgate is, that he will not
condescend to tell the House of Commons,
that he did wilfully prevaricate, and
that they acted justly, in committing
him for doing so. Therefore, he must re=
main there, as long as the Seʃsion lasts.
My Rib &c join me in every=
thing kind, to You, your Hub, and Daugh=
ter. Best wishes to my Countrywoman.
Ever My Dear Sister, your faithful
Friend, & Affecte- Brother
Napier
Edinburgh, Tenth May
1809
Mrs- Dickenson[2]
Leighton House
Leighton Buzzard
Beds
Napier.
[3]
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. The Cottagers of Glenburnie (1808) by Elizabeth Hamilton is also discussed by Jane Holman in HAM/1/4/3/28.
2. FREE Frank in red ink, dated 13 May 1809. Second postmark in red ink, dated 10 May 1809.
3. Seal, in black wax.
Normalised Text
71, Queen Street
10th- May 1809
My Dear Sister,
I was delighted
at receiving a Letter, purporting
to have been written by Yourself,
and which I really believe to have
been so, though your Daughter certainly
writes very like you. I must,
however, do Louisa the justice to
say that, I can read her writing
without Spectacles -- not so, Yours.
When I reached Doncaster,
I heard of the death of my Brother
Hunter, and at Newcastle of his Funeral
being over. He died the 21st. of April,
perfectly resigned, and ready for the
change. His two Sons were unfortunately
absent in the Country, where they
had been detained, to bury a Sister of
their Fathers, whose death was not
communicated to him, so that they
did not arrive till the day after his
death, which took place, sooner than
it was apprehended. He had gone
to preach at Leith, on the Saturday
afternoon, which turned out rainy
and sleety. He walked home, and is
supposed then to have caught cold,
which brought on an Inflammation
on his Lungs, which terminated his
existence in six days. A better Man
never lived. I consider him to be
a public Loss, in the Line of his Profession
. Whatever he preached, he
practised. He took an affectionate leave
of such of his family, as were with him,
and prayed for those who were absent,
his friends, and parishioners. His eldest
daughter, is very near the time of producing
her first Child. He spoke very
kindly to her, expressing his satisfaction
that he left her united to a
deserving man, & recommending it
to her to leave his Room, & take care
of herself, as her situation might
be injured, by her being present
at his dissolution. His two Girls will
have £3000 each, & his younger Son, £4000.
The eldest Son, will have a Landed Estate
of at least £1200 per Annum but, I imagine,
it will be burdened with two, or perhaps
three thousand pounds to make up
the Money for the younger Children.
The Cottagers of Glenburnie exhibit
too true an account of that
Class of people in this Country. I doubt,
whether Miss Hamilton's Book will
have the effect of reforming them, first,
because, the price will not admit of
their purchasing it, & secondly, because
they never will forgive her, for exposing
their manners to the Englishers
. As for You, I doubt much
whether, you can understand the
language; but my friend Morrison
may assist as an Interpreter.
Lady Augusta Clavering is at
Charles Claverings in
Hampshire, & a most
intolerable Dawdle she is. It was
an unlucky day, when She & her Husband
came together. The reason he
remains in Newgate is, that he will not
condescend to tell the House of Commons,
that he did willfully prevaricate, and
that they acted justly, in committing
him for doing so. Therefore, he must remain
there, as long as the Session lasts.
My Rib &c join me in everything
kind, to You, your Hub, and Daughter
. Best wishes to my Countrywoman.
Ever My Dear Sister, your faithful
Friend, & Affectionate Brother
Napier
Edinburgh, Tenth May
1809
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/1/20/235
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: Leighton Buzzard
Date sent: 10 May 1809
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton. It relates to
the death of Napier's brother-in-law, Dr [Andrew] Hunter, which he considers
a public as well as a private loss. Hunter left his two daughters £3000
each, his young son £4000 and his eldest son will have a landed estate
of at least £1200 per annum. He imagines that the eldest son will be
burdened with the expense of the younger children.
Napier also writes that he was delighted to receive a letter which was
purportedly written by Hamilton but was in fact written by her daughter,
Louisa. He says that Louisa writes very much like Hamilton but that he can
read her writing without the use of his glasses which he cannot do when
reading Hamilton's letters. He writes of ‘Miss Hamilton's book’ and that he
does not think it will reform those ‘class of people in this Country’ such
as the cottagers of Glenbernie(?). The price of the book ‘will not admit of
their purchasing it, & secondly, because they never will forgive her for
exposing their manners to the Englishers’.
General Clavering remains at Newgate (HAM/1/20/233) as he ‘will not
condescend to tell the House of Commons that he did wilfully prevaricate,
and that they acted justly, in committing him for doing so’ and he must
remain there as long as the session lasts.
Dated at Queen Street [Edinburgh].
Length: 1 sheet, 533 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 20 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