occupations of a country gentleman. He renovated Middlemarsh Hall and Crichel Hall, and represented the county of Dorset from April 1677 to February 1678, when he was unseated. He next sat as member for Corfe Castle in the two parliaments of 1679, and in those of 1681 and 1685–7. In 1689 he took his seat in the Convention parliament as member for Poole, for which town he had procured the restoration in 1688 of the charter forfeited in 1687; but a double return had been made for the second seat for that borough, and a committee of the House of Commons reported, 9 Feb. 1689, that Thomas Chaffin, who had a majority of the votes of the commonalty paying scot and lot, was entitled to the seat. The house, however, resolved that the franchise should be confined to the ‘select body,’ i.e. the mayor, aldermen, and burgesses, who had voted for Napier by a majority of 33 to 22 (Hist. of Boroughs, i. 219). Napier continued to represent Poole till 1698. He sat for Dorchester from February 1702 until 1705.
Lady Napier died in 1695, and, their first four sons having also died before 1690, Sir Nathaniel married a Gloucestershire lady, Susanna Guise, in 1697. In 1697 also he recommenced his travels by a tour in France and Italy, the events of which he ‘noted in a journal in which he has given a full and true relation of all his travels’ (Wotton, Baronetage, ii. 161–4). In October 1701 he revisited Holland, and in 1704 spent three months in Rotterdam, intending to proceed to Hanover. From March 1706 to September 1707 he was at Spa for his health; and eventually died in England on 21 Jan. 1708–9. He was buried with his ancestors at Great Minterne, Dorset, where he had erected a monument during his lifetime. A mural inscription was added by his son. He was succeeded by his only surviving son, Nathaniel, who was member for Dorchester in nine parliaments between 1695 and 1722. On the death of his grandson, the sixth baronet, in 1765, the estates passed to a cousin, Humphry Sturt, with whose representative, Lord Alington, they remain.
Napier is described by the author of the ‘Memoir’ in Wotton's ‘Baronetage,’ who seems to have been a member of the family, as ‘a gay, ingenious gentleman, well versed in several languages,’ who ‘understood very well architecture and painting; he has left behind him several pieces of his own drawing, besides many others of good value, which he had collected on his travels.’ A portrait is at Crichel Hall. The whereabouts of his manuscripts and drawings is unknown.
[Wotton's English Baronetage, ii. 161–4 (apparently a first-hand memoir); Foster's Alumni Oxon.; Shadwell's Oriel College Register; Hutchins's Dorset, ed. 1868, iii. 123–5, iv. 483; Parl. Hist.; Sydenham's Hist. of Poole, pp. 209 seq. 259, 281.]
NAPIER or NAPPER, RICHARD (1559–1634), astrologer, born at Exeter on 4 May 1559, was third son of Alexander Napier, by his wife Ann or Agnes Burchley. The father, who was sometimes known by the alternative surname of ‘Sandy,’ was elder son by a third wife of Sir Archibald Napier, fourth laird of Merchiston (d. 1522) [see under Napier, Alexander (d. 1473)]; he settled at Exeter about 1540. Richard matriculated at Exeter College, Oxford, as a commoner on 20 Dec. 1577, but took no degree, although he was occasionally described at a later date as M.A., and he sent a donation to the fund for building the college kitchen in 1624. On leaving the university he was ordained, and on 12 March 1589–90 was admitted to the rectory of Great Linford, Buckinghamshire, which he held for forty-four years. According to Lilly, he broke down one day in the pulpit, and thenceforth ceased to preach, ‘keeping in his house some excellent scholar or other to officiate for him, with allowance of a good salary.’ But he was always ‘a person of great abstinence, innocence, and piety; he spent every day two hours in family prayer … his knees were horny with frequent praying’ (Aubrey).
In his youth Napier had been attracted by astrology, and before settling at Great Linford apparently spent some time in London as the pupil of Simon Forman [q. v.] Forman ‘was used to say he would be a dunce’ (Lilly), but Napier ultimately developed so much skill that Forman on his death in 1611 bequeathed to him all his manuscripts. He claimed to be in continual communication with the angel Raphael (Aubrey). With the practice of astrology he combined from an early period that of medicine, and thus made a large income, great part of which he bestowed on the poor (ib.) On 20 Dec. 1604 he received a formal license to practise medicine from Erasmus Webb, archdeacon of Buckingham (Ashmol. MS. 1293). Throughout the midlands his clients were numerous. His medical patients included Emanuel Scrope, eleventh baron Scrope of Bolton and earl of Sunderland [q. v.], who resided at Great Linford in 1627 (ib. 421 ff. 162–4, and 1730, f. 186). He also ‘instructed many ministers in astrology, would lend them whole cloak-bags of books; protected them from harm and violence by means of his power with [Oliver St. John, first] earl of Bolingbroke.’ William Lilly, who occasionally visited him in 1632 and 1633, describes his library ‘as excellently
