Single Letter

HAM/1/19/28

Letter from William Napier (later 7th Lord Napier) to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text


      12th                                                                                 12th-
                             Canterbury Jany 23d 1773

Yours My dearest Mary came to hand two days ago but as
I was from home, did not recieve it till last night
if I may be allowed to make use of the expreʃsion after
saying it came to hand, and am most extremely
concerned for Mrs- Hamiltons indisposition
but am happy its now all over, hope she is in
good health & spirits again enjoying the
agreeable & senʃible sally's of my dear favorite
Girl
& which I know always gives her the great=
=est
pleaʃure imaginable[1] -- you was My dear
Mary employ'd in a Godlike manner & like yr-
self attending a Gentleman & friend that was
in so very precarious a state of health and
who ever could be offended at you for it
dont deserve to be reckoned among the
number of your friends, so be aʃsured My
Dear Girl
that tho I have no greater plea=
sure
then recieving letters from you Yet
I would much rather hear of your being so char employed so charitably
in a duty worthy of a Xtian than neglecting that duty in writing[2]



to me, your last attendance on a Parent worthy
of such a daughter I shall say nothing off as
its quite needleʃs to make Compliments to one
that loves ʃincerity so much as I know My
dear Ward
does, but believe me I hope most
sincerely that by this time both Yr Patients
are well, nor shall I be easy till I hear again
from you abt, Your Mama's health, so beg
You'll write by the return of the Post
if only two lines to let me know how she
is. Now to anʃwer ʃome parts of yours but
remember I am writing to a Young Lady
that I have the greatest Love, regard, and
esteem for, and that I expect she will most
profoundly keep to herself what I write
her, as I would be very sorry to have known
what I chonow am going to ʃay to her made pub=
lick
, or what I may here after write You
at other times -- You ʃay you have most
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------



[3]
Give Me your opinion Sincerely as thats the footing
I hope we are & will always continue to act to
wards
one & other I will not my Dr. Girl allow
ye. Penseroso[4] to prefvail its a bad stileate for a
Young Lady
nor do I find any Musick in it
from You to Me it may do for the Kitten but
I wont allow my Mary to be concerned with
it & as you say my Answer will be your
first pleasure I hearre by virtue of mythe
Authority given Me by Your good Genius
absolutely forbid, prohibit & defend that
same penseroso stile ever to visit my dear
Ward Mary Hamilton again during her natural
Life under no Leʃs a Punishment thatn to be
Banished to westminster Abby where it ought
only to reign & to which place I dont design
to let my Ward go too but with myself &
than I think I can be answerable for her
spirrits spirits not being


[5]
much affected, as it should rather give
us joy to see the memory of so many
great persons preserved to give a just
taste to Posterity to imitate their
actions. Never fear that I'll forget
You, No my faithfull & Affectionate
Ward
, there is no danger of that, and
You may believe that no Man ever had
a truer Friendship for a Young Lady than
that I have for You, nor do I believe any
ever deserved it more. as I have many
letters to write by this post You'll excuse
my not writing more at present My best
Compliments to Mrs- Hamilton & tell
her she has my best prayers & Wiʃhes for
her perfect recovery which I hope to hear
off in a few days -- If my letters gives My dearest
Mary half the pleasure hers gives me
(& I cannot doubt of it as she so often ʃays
they do) I am sure I'll never wait long for
an anʃwer but I for the future beg when you



cannot write long ones that you'll at least
write a few lines to ease my anxiety about
you      Adieu My dearest & best Girl & believe
me Your most faithfull & Affectionate
Guardian who wishes you all Happineʃs poʃsi=
ble
to be enjoyed in this World

(hover over blue text or annotations for clarification;
red text is normalised and/or unformatted in other panel)


Notes


 1. A vertical line in red crayon in the left margin marks the preceding four lines as of interest to, presumably, a member of the Anson family; however there are no annotations in their hand.
 2. These two last lines appear at the bottom of p.1, written in a very cramped space.
 3. This single-sided sheet is likely to be a copy of the innocuous part of a missing original, before it was burnt by Hamilton at Napier's request (see HAM/1/19/29). It is written in a smaller hand than the other sheets, probably the hand of the two cramped lines at the foot of p.1, and it finishes on a short line without any loss of continuity. The hand is not obviously Hamilton's, though it is unclear who else might have been given sight of the original and allowed to copy it, unless perhaps her mother.
 4. ‘Melancholic mood or temperament’ (OED s.v. penseroso n. and adj. A. Accessed 20-08-2020).
 5. The last sheet is again in Napier's hand.

Normalised Text


                                    
                             Canterbury January 23d 1773

Yours My dearest Mary came to hand two days ago but as
I was from home, did not receive it till last night
if I may be allowed to make use of the expression after
saying it came to hand, and am most extremely
concerned for Mrs- Hamiltons indisposition
but am happy it's now all over, hope she is in
good health & spirits again enjoying the
agreeable & sensible sally's of my dear favourite
Girl & which I know always gives her the greatest
pleasure imaginable -- you was My dear
Mary employed in a Godlike manner & like your
self attending a Gentleman & friend that was
in so very precarious a state of health and
who ever could be offended at you for it
doesn't deserve to be reckoned among the
number of your friends, so be assured My
Dear Girl that though I have no greater pleasure
than receiving letters from you Yet
I would much rather hear of your being so employed so charitably
in a duty worthy of a Christian than neglecting that duty in writing



to me, your last attendance on a Parent worthy
of such a daughter I shall say nothing of as
it's quite needless to make Compliments to one
that loves sincerity so much as I know My
dear Ward does, but believe me I hope most
sincerely that by this time both Your Patients
are well, nor shall I be easy till I hear again
from you about Your Mama's health, so beg
You'll write by the return of the Post
if only two lines to let me know how she
is. Now to answer some parts of yours but
remember I am writing to a Young Lady
that I have the greatest Love, regard, and
esteem for, and that I expect she will most
profoundly keep to herself what I write
her, as I would be very sorry to have known
what I now am going to say to her made public
, or what I may here after write You
at other times -- You say you have most
------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------------------------------------




Give Me your opinion Sincerely as that's the footing
I hope we are & will always continue to act towards
one & other I will not my Dear Girl allow
the Penseroso to prevail it's a bad state for a
Young Lady nor do I find any Music in it
from You to Me it may do for the Kitten but
I won't allow my Mary to be concerned with
it & as you say my Answer will be your
first pleasure I here by virtue of the
Authority given Me by Your good Genius
absolutely forbid, prohibit & defend that
same penseroso stile ever to visit my dear
Ward Mary Hamilton again during her natural
Life under no Less a Punishment than to be
Banished to westminster Abbey where it ought
only to reign & to which place I don't design
to let my Ward go to but with myself &
then I think I can be answerable for her
spirits not being



much affected, as it should rather give
us joy to see the memory of so many
great persons preserved to give a just
taste to Posterity to imitate their
actions. Never fear that I'll forget
You, No my faithful & Affectionate
Ward, there is no danger of that, and
You may believe that no Man ever had
a truer Friendship for a Young Lady than
that I have for You, nor do I believe any
ever deserved it more. as I have many
letters to write by this post You'll excuse
my not writing more at present My best
Compliments to Mrs- Hamilton & tell
her she has my best prayers & Wishes for
her perfect recovery which I hope to hear
of in a few days -- If my letters gives My dearest
Mary half the pleasure hers gives me
(& I cannot doubt of it as she so often says
they do) I am sure I'll never wait long for
an answer but I for the future beg when you



cannot write long ones that you'll at least
write a few lines to ease my anxiety about
you      Adieu My dearest & best Girl & believe
me Your most faithful & Affectionate
Guardian who wishes you all Happiness possible
to be enjoyed in this World

(consult diplomatic text or XML for annotations, deletions, clarifications, persons,
quotations,
spellings, uncorrected forms, split words, abbreviations, formatting)



 1. A vertical line in red crayon in the left margin marks the preceding four lines as of interest to, presumably, a member of the Anson family; however there are no annotations in their hand.
 2. These two last lines appear at the bottom of p.1, written in a very cramped space.
 3. This single-sided sheet is likely to be a copy of the innocuous part of a missing original, before it was burnt by Hamilton at Napier's request (see HAM/1/19/29). It is written in a smaller hand than the other sheets, probably the hand of the two cramped lines at the foot of p.1, and it finishes on a short line without any loss of continuity. The hand is not obviously Hamilton's, though it is unclear who else might have been given sight of the original and allowed to copy it, unless perhaps her mother.
 4. ‘Melancholic mood or temperament’ (OED s.v. penseroso n. and adj. A. Accessed 20-08-2020).
 5. The last sheet is again in Napier's hand.

Metadata

Library References

Repository: John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from William Napier (later 7th Lord Napier) to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/28

Correspondence Details

Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord

Place sent: Canterbury

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton (certainty: medium)

Date sent: 23 January 1773

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from William Napier [later 7th Lord Napier] to Mary Hamilton. He writes about her mother's poor health and offers his assurances that he will never forget his 'faithful & affectionate Ward'.
    Dated at Canterbury.
   

Length: 3 sheets, 733 words

Transliteration Information

Editorial declaration: First edited in the project 'Image to Text' (David Denison & Nuria Yáñez-Bouza, 2013-2019), now incorporated 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: XML version: Research Assistant funding in 2017/18 provided by the Department of Linguistics and English Language, University of Manchester.

Research assistant: Georgia Tutt, MA student, University of Manchester

Transliterator: Claudia Locatelli, undergraduate student, University of Manchester (submitted May 2018)

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: 2 November 2021

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