Single Letter

HAM/1/19/59

Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Diplomatic Text

[1]
      37th-
                                                 love affair[2]           X
                             Caroline Park Jany 7th 1774.
                                                                            
I will not ʃay My dearest Mary how
happy yours made me yesterday on
my arrival here having been
viʃiting about the Country for ʃome
time and my letters were ʃent home
I can only ʃay that you have made
both Lady Napier & I extremely
happy as we were frighted out
of our witts on yr last but thank
God be are quit for the fear
tho I am glad you opened to yr
Mama
as those things are
best not to be a secret tho you
misunderstood my letter as I
meant that Young Lady's shd-
not carry on those things with=
=out
the[3] knowledge of Parents yet



I do not think its absolutely neceʃsary
to tell of those they refuse as in that
case there can be but little danger
of their happineʃs, its the carrying
on an affair wtout the knowledge
of Parents that I meant, not the
refusing disagreeable People, but
with proper Parents even that
is wrong as they never will force
the inclinations of their Children.
I do beg to hear ʃoon from you
and with your uʃual frankneʃs
otherwise I shall think you have
given up your Guardian for
being so much attached to your
interest as even to ʃeem to be
angry with you indeed My dearest
Girl
I was not, tho I was most
senʃibly concerned as I was afraid



you had been engaged in ʃome
affair you was unwilling to let your
sincere friends know off or ------that
you had been prevailed upon to
keep Secret Adieu My Amiable
Ward
may God bliʃs you & send you
      many returns of this
      seaʃon and may Yr Mama
      have the comfort of
      seeing you rewarded with
      every good thing to make
      you happy that we wish
      & then I am ʃure none can
be more so -- remember us to
Mrs- Hamilton in the best way &
aʃsure her of our best wishes, write
soon and forgive any expreʃsion I may
have made use of in my last
& place it to my anxiety for your happyneʃs.
Adieu My dearest Mary believe me
Your best & affct Friend
                                                         Napier





To                     pd 10[4]
      Miʃs Hamilton
                                                         [5]
           near
           Northampton

T.A.C.[6]
[7]
[8]

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


Notes


 1. Extracts from this letter appear in Anson & Anson (1925: 25).
 2. Moved this annotation here from below the dateline.
 3. Four strokes at the foot of the page under this word and a possible short word under the next are probably pen trials.
 4. This indication of 10d. paid appears to the right of To.
 5. Remains of stamp in red ink reading ‘POST PAID’.
 6. This abbreviation is emphasised by lines above and below. The reading is a little uncertain, but T.A.C. might represent ‘To Await Collection’.
 7. Remains of a Scottish Bishop mark in red ink reading ‘IA 7’ (7 January) and an English one in black ink reading ‘11 IA’ (11 January).
 8. Remains of seal in red wax.

Normalised Text


     
                                                       
                             Caroline Park January 7th 1774.
                                                            
I will not say My dearest Mary how
happy yours made me yesterday on
my arrival here having been
visiting about the Country for some
time and my letters were sent home
I can only say that you have made
both Lady Napier & I extremely
happy as we were frighted out
of our wits on your last but thank
God be are quit for the fear
though I am glad you opened to your
Mama as those things are
best not to be a secret though you
misunderstood my letter as I
meant that Young Lady's should
not carry on those things without
the knowledge of Parents yet



I do not think it's absolutely necessary
to tell of those they refuse as in that
case there can be but little danger
of their happiness, it's the carrying
on an affair without the knowledge
of Parents that I meant, not the
refusing disagreeable People, but
with proper Parents even that
is wrong as they never will force
the inclinations of their Children.
I do beg to hear soon from you
and with your usual frankness
otherwise I shall think you have
given up your Guardian for
being so much attached to your
interest as even to seem to be
angry with you indeed My dearest
Girl I was not, though I was most
sensibly concerned as I was afraid



you had been engaged in some
affair you was unwilling to let your
sincere friends know of or that
you had been prevailed upon to
keep Secret Adieu My Amiable
Ward may God bless you & send you
      many returns of this
      season and may Your Mama
      have the comfort of
      seeing you rewarded with
      every good thing to make
      you happy that we wish
      & then I am sure none can
be more so -- remember us to
Mrs- Hamilton in the best way &
assure her of our best wishes, write
soon and forgive any expression I may
have made use of in my last
& place it to my anxiety for your happiness.
Adieu My dearest Mary believe me
Your best & affectionate Friend
                                                         Napier





To                
      Miss Hamilton
                                                        
           near
           Northampton

To Await Collection

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



 1. Extracts from this letter appear in Anson & Anson (1925: 25).
 2. Moved this annotation here from below the dateline.
 3. Four strokes at the foot of the page under this word and a possible short word under the next are probably pen trials.
 4. This indication of 10d. paid appears to the right of To.
 5. Remains of stamp in red ink reading ‘POST PAID’.
 6. This abbreviation is emphasised by lines above and below. The reading is a little uncertain, but T.A.C. might represent ‘To Await Collection’.
 7. Remains of a Scottish Bishop mark in red ink reading ‘IA 7’ (7 January) and an English one in black ink reading ‘11 IA’ (11 January).
 8. Remains of seal in red wax.

Metadata

Library References

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

Archive: Mary Hamilton Papers

Item title: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Shelfmark: HAM/1/19/59

Correspondence Details

Sender: William Napier, 7th Lord

Place sent: Edinburgh

Addressee: Mary Hamilton

Place received: Northampton

Date sent: 7 January 1774

Letter Description

Summary: Letter from William Napier, 7th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, expressing his concerns about an admirer of hers. He is glad that Hamilton has told her mother all as such things should not be kept secret. Napier notes that 'it[']s the carrying on an affair w[i]t[h]out the knowledge of Parents that I meant, not the refusing disagreeable people'. He continues that 'proper Parents [...] never will force the inclinations of their Children'. Napier writes that he is not angry with Hamilton but was concerned for her, as he was afraid 'you had been engaged in some affair you was unwilling to let your sincere friends know of or that you had been prevailed upon to keep Secret'.
    Dated at Caroline Park [Edinburgh].
   

Length: 1 sheet, 369 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: Raafia Shazad, 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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