Correspondence from Francis Napier, 1862 - 1891

Series — Box: 8

Call Number: MS 30:M

Scope and Contents

The series includes 115 letters and one piece of verse in both English and French. Novikova met Napier at the St. Petersburg court in the 1860s, and Napier may have been Novikova's first political and diplomatic acquaintance. Early letters from Napier mostly consist of excuses for missing Novikova at social occasions or descriptions of what she had missed at other occasions; later letters describe Napier's life elsehwere during his diplomatic career, including during his years at Madras, India.

Dates

Creation: 1862 - 1891

Biography of Francis Napier (1819-1898)

Napier was born in Selkirkshire, Scotland, becoming the 9th baron Napier of Merchistoun and 11th baronet of Scott of Thirlestane in 1834. He married Anne J.C. Lockwood, the granddaughter of the Earl of Arran, in 1845.

Napier was a diplomat in various posts in Vienna, Constantinople, Naples, St. Petersburg, the United States, and the Hague from the 1840s through 1860; in the early 1860s he was ambassador at St. Petersburg during a time when tensions were high between Russia and England. After a stint as ambassador at Berlin, he served as governor of Madras, India from 1866-1872 and then was briefly acting viceroy of India in the winter/spring of 1872 after the Earl of Mayo's assassination.

Returning to England in the summer of 1872, Napier was made Baron Ettrick of Ettrick. He maintained a political and public life in London for several years before returning to Thirlestane and taking up Scottish public life.