HAM/1/20/240
Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton
Diplomatic Text
71, Queen Street
27th- Decr- 1809
My Dear Sister,
I cannot pretend
to condole with You on the death
of Your Uncle Frederick's Son. It
is an Event, which, from the unfortu=
nate situation he had placed him=
self in, cannot be much regretted,
further than what must be felt
for every one, who misconducts him=
self. There being no Children is a very
fortunate circumstance. But, I trust,
your Uncle will do something pro=
per, to prevent the poor Danish
Woman from being driven to act
improperly.[1] My old fashioned Notions
lead me to conceive the Marriage
binding, in the sight of God, though
it may not be strictly so, by the
Laws of this Country. She, could not
be acquainted with them, & having
married in her own Country, ought
not to be left destitute in this. I observe
that your Cousin the Viscount's family
have put on Mourning; but, I did not
chuse to talk to them about the Cause
of their dismals.[2]
How thankful ought I, and
mine, to be to a merciful Providence!
My Son Francis, is a Midshipman, on
board the Huʃsar Frigate. You may
conceive what has been our Suffering,
till the falsity, of the Report relative
to it, was ascertained. For three days, we
had no hopes; but, now our Minds
are set at rest. A friend at Guernsey,
the moment the Report reached that
Island, wrote to tell me that the Huʃsar
was safe, at Anchor, there, and that my
Son was in perfect health, I had
likewise accounts from the Admiralty
which quieted our Apprehensions.
My eldest Son, now a Lieute=
nant in the Navy, has been with Us,
for these last two Months. He leaves
us this Afternoon, in the Mail, having
received an Order to join the Kent at
Portsmouth, without delay. He will
make a great blank in our Society,
from which he had been absent
between five & six Years. We may,
however, be satisfied that we have
had him so long amongst us. There
is the advantage of Miʃs Children. They
stay at home with their old Parents,
till they become old themselves. I ex=
pect to be kept awake, when I am sink=
ing into Dotage, by the amiable Clack
of my four Virgins. At present, it
is quite the contrary, for they usually
gabble, till they put me to sleep
after Supper. Your Louisa is a quiet
good sort of a Soul, and not inclined
to be over Garrulous, which is some=
thing extraordinary,
considering who brought
her into the World. I
must, at the same time,
allow that Mr. Dickenson has infin[ite]
propriety of all sorts, & improved the
Hamilton Breed.
Adieu, My Dear Sister.
My Rib joins me in every kind
wish to You, Mr. Dickenson & Louisa.
Best Complements to my Countrywo=
man. Tell her, the Sun shines bright
here today, & there is no Snow. Perhaps,
the Apples may ripen next Year.
Ever your faithful Friend
& Affecte- Brother
Napier
[3]
Edinburgh, Twenty Eighth December 1809
Mrs- Dickenson[4]
49, Welbeck Street
Cavendish Square
London
Napier.
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)
Notes
1. See HAM/1/4/1/38 for details of Robert Hamilton's parlous financial state upon his death, and the provision Frederick Hamilton made for his Danish wife.
2. ‘Mourning garments’ (OED s.v. dismal n. 4. Accessed 28-02-2022).
3. Remains of a seal, in red wax, split by unfolding.
4. Two round postmarks in red ink, dated 28 December 1809. Faint round postmark in black ink, possibly a free frank.
Normalised Text
71, Queen Street
27th- December 1809
My Dear Sister,
I cannot pretend
to condole with You on the death
of Your Uncle Frederick's Son. It
is an Event, which, from the unfortunate
situation he had placed himself
in, cannot be much regretted,
further than what must be felt
for every one, who misconducts himself
. There being no Children is a very
fortunate circumstance. But, I trust,
your Uncle will do something proper
, to prevent the poor Danish
Woman from being driven to act
improperly. My old fashioned Notions
lead me to conceive the Marriage
binding, in the sight of God, though
it may not be strictly so, by the
Laws of this Country. She, could not
be acquainted with them, & having
married in her own Country, ought
not to be left destitute in this. I observe
that your Cousin the Viscount's family
have put on Mourning; but, I did not
choose to talk to them about the Cause
of their dismals.
How thankful ought I, and
mine, to be to a merciful Providence!
My Son Francis, is a Midshipman, on
board the Hussar Frigate. You may
conceive what has been our Suffering,
till the falsity, of the Report relative
to it, was ascertained. For three days, we
had no hopes; but, now our Minds
are set at rest. A friend at Guernsey,
the moment the Report reached that
Island, wrote to tell me that the Hussar
was safe, at Anchor, there, and that my
Son was in perfect health, I had
likewise accounts from the Admiralty
which quieted our Apprehensions.
My eldest Son, now a Lieutenant
in the Navy, has been with Us,
for these last two Months. He leaves
us this Afternoon, in the Mail, having
received an Order to join the Kent at
Portsmouth, without delay. He will
make a great blank in our Society,
from which he had been absent
between five & six Years. We may,
however, be satisfied that we have
had him so long amongst us. There
is the advantage of Miss Children. They
stay at home with their old Parents,
till they become old themselves. I expect
to be kept awake, when I am sinking
into Dotage, by the amiable Clack
of my four Virgins. At present, it
is quite the contrary, for they usually
gabble, till they put me to sleep
after Supper. Your Louisa is a quiet
good sort of a Soul, and not inclined
to be over Garrulous, which is something
extraordinary,
considering who brought
her into the World. I
must, at the same time
allow that Mr. Dickenson has infinite
propriety of all sorts, & improved the
Hamilton Breed.
Adieu, My Dear Sister.
My Rib joins me in every kind
wish to You, Mr. Dickenson & Louisa.
Best Complements to my Countrywoman
. Tell her, the Sun shines bright
here today, & there is no Snow. Perhaps,
the Apples may ripen next Year.
Ever your faithful Friend
& Affectionate Brother
Napier
Edinburgh, Twenty Eighth December 1809
Mrs- Dickenson
49, Welbeck Street
Cavendish Square
London
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/1/20/240
Correspondence Details
Sender: Francis Scott Napier, 8th Lord
Place sent: Edinburgh
Addressee: Mary Hamilton
Place received: London
Date sent: 28 December 1809
Letter Description
Summary: Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to
the death of Hamilton's cousin, the son of her uncle Frederick Hamilton (see
HAM/1/4/1). Napier writes that he will not pretend to condole with Hamilton
over his death and notes that it is fortunate that he had no children. He
expects that Frederick Hamilton will do something to aid his son's Danish
‘wife’ and ‘prevent her acting improperly’. [Frederick Hamilton was unsure
as to whether or not his son and this woman was married.] Napier continues
noting that his old-fashioned notions lead him to see their marriage as
binding in the eyes of God if not the law of the land. He believes that she
would not know this as she was married to Robert Hamilton in her own country
and believes she lawfully is so and therefore should not be left to become
destitute.
Napier continues his letter with news of his two sons in the navy. He eldest
son, William has been spending some time with Napier who notes that he has
not seen him for five or six years prior to this. He notes that there is
advantages in having daughters as opposed to sons in that ‘they stay at home
with their old Parents till they become old themselves’.
Dated at Queen Street [Edinburgh].
Length: 1 sheet, 506 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 28 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: 18 March 2022