The Mary Hamilton Papers : Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton

Napier, Francis Scott, 8th Lord

The Mary Hamilton Papers

<p style='text-align: justify;'>Letter from Francis Napier, 8th Lord Napier, to Mary Hamilton, relating to Emma Hamilton. Napier writes inviting Mary to Wilton Lodge and notes that it is a shame that the Chevalier Palombi did not travel as far North as he may have taken a liking to his sister, Harriet. He also refers to Sir William Hamilton's wife [they married in 1791] Emma, and Palombi's preference for Hamilton's sister-in-law Sarah Dickenson [whom he was to marry] over Emma Lyon. The 'vexation which his inclination for Miss D has given your family of your Engaging, Charming Emma, I know nothing, except having heard, that Sir W[illia]m H[amilton] had married a young, beautiful woman, of a very musical disposition, & who the ill natured world suspected, had been on a footing of intimacy before their nuptials'. Napier declares that as he did not consider Sir William accountable to him he had not enquired further into the subject.</p><p style='text-align: justify;'>Dated at Wilton Lodge [Roxburghshire].</p>