[3] Constable later asked Napier to write for the Edinburgh Review with articles beginning from 1805 and became an editor in 1814.

In 1817 he had a public fall out with Professor John Wilson in a series of letters published in Blackwood's Magazine under the title of Hypocrisy Unveiled.

In the 1830s he is listed as living and operating from 39 Castle Street in Edinburgh's New Town, a 3-storey townhouse within a four-storey and attic block.

[8] He died in Edinburgh on 11 February 1847, and is buried in St John's Episcopal Churchyard at the east end of Princes Street.

One son, Macvey, edited his father's papers for publication;[10] Alexander became vicar of Holkham, Norfolk; John died in the West Indies; David Skene was a merchant in Singapore and gave George Coleman his first important commission to build a large Palladian residence in 1826; and William went to Singapore as a lawyer in 1833.