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LADY EMMA HAMILTON (c. 1765-1815)

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Originally appearing in Volume V12, Page 885 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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LADY EMMA See also:HAMILTON (c. 1765-1815)  , wife of See also:Sir See also:William See also:Hamilton (q.v.), the See also:British See also:envoy at See also:Naples, and famous as the See also:mistress of See also:Nelson, was the daughter of See also:Henry See also:Lyon, a blacksmith of See also:Great Neston in See also:Cheshire . The date of her See also:birth cannot be fixed with certainty, but she was baptized at Great Neston on the 12th of May 1765, and it is not improbable that she was See also:born in that See also:year . Her baptismal name' was Emily . As her See also:father died soon after her birth, the See also:mother, who was dependent on See also:parish See also:relief, had to remove to her native See also:village, See also:Hawarden in Flintshire . Emma's See also:early See also:life is very obscure . She was certainly illiterate, and it appears that she had a See also:child in 1780, a fact which has led some of her biographers to See also:place her birth before 1765 . It has been said that she was first the mistress of See also:Captain Willet See also:Payne, an officer in the See also:navy, and that she was employed in some doubtful capacity by a notorious See also:quack of the See also:time, Dr See also:Graham . In 1781 she was the mistress of a See also:country See also:gentleman, Sir Harry Featherstonhaugh, who turned her out in See also:December of that year . She was then pregnant, and in her See also:distress she applied to the Hon . See also:Charles Greville, to whom she was already known . At this time she called herself Emily See also:Hart . Greville, a gentleman of See also:artistic tastes and well known in society, entertained her as his mistress, her mother, known as Mrs See also:Cadogan, acting as housekeeper and partly as servant .

Under the See also:

protection of Greville, whose means were narrowed by See also:debt, she acquired some See also:education, and was taught to sing, See also:dance and See also:act with professional skill . In 1782 he introduced her to his friend See also:Romney the portrait painter, who had been established for several years in See also:London, and who admired her beauty with See also:enthusiasm . The numerous famous portraits of her from his See also:brush may have somewhat idealised her apparently robust and brilliantly coloured beauty, but her vivacity and See also:powers of See also:fascination cannot be doubted . She had the temperament of an artist, and seems to have been sincerely attached to Greville . In 1784 she was seen by his See also:uncle, Sir William Hamilton, who admired her greatly . Two years later she was sent on a visit to him at Naples, as the result of an understanding between Hamilton and Greville—the uncle paying his See also:nephew's debts and the nephew ceding his mistress . Emma at first resented, but then submitted to the arrangement . Her beauty, her artistic capacity, and her high See also:spirits soon made her a great favourite in the easy-going society of Naples, and See also:Queen Maria Carolina became closely attached to her . She became famous for her " attitudes," a See also:series of poses plasliques in which she represented classical and other figures . On the 6th of See also:September 1791, during a visit to See also:England, she was married to Sir W . Hamilton . The ceremony was required, in See also:order to justify her public reception at the See also:court of Naples, where See also:Lady Hamilton played an important See also:part as the See also:agent through whom the queen communicated with the British See also:minister—sometimes in opposition to the will and the policy of the See also:king .

The revolutionary See also:

wars and disturbances which began after 1792 made the services of Lady Hamilton always useful and sometimes necessary to the British See also:government . It was claimed by her, and on her behalf, that she secured valuable See also:information in 1796, and wasof essential service to the British See also:fleet in 1798 during the See also:Nile See also:campaign, by enabling it to obtain stores and See also:water in See also:Sicily . These claims have been denied on the rather irrelevant ground that they are wanting in See also:official See also:confirmation, which was only to be expected since they were ex lzypothesi unofficial and See also:secret, but it is not improbable that they were considerably exaggerated, and it is certain that her stories cannot always be reconciled with one another or with the accepted facts . When Nelson returned from the Nile in September 1798 Lady Hamilton made him her See also:hero, and he became entirely devoted to her . Her See also:influence over him indeed became notorious, and brought him much official displeasure . Lady Hamilton undoubtedly used her influence to draw Nelson into a most unhappy participation in the domestic troubles of Naples, and when Sir W . Hamilton was recalled in z800 she travelled with him and Nelson ostentatiously across See also:Europe . In England Lady Hamilton insisted on making a See also:parade of her hold over Nelson . Their child, Horatia Nelson See also:Thompson, was born on the 3oth of See also:January 18or . The profuse habits which Emma Hamilton had contracted in Naples, together with a See also:passion for gambling which See also:grew on her, led her into debt, and also into extravagant ways of living, against which her See also:husband feebly protested . On his See also:death in 18o3 she received by his will a liferent of £800, and the See also:furniture of his See also:house in Piccadilly . She then lived openly with Nelson at his house at Merton .

Nelson tried repeatedly to secure her a See also:

pension for the services rendered at Naples, but did not succeed . On his death she received Merton, and" an See also:annuity of £500, as well as the See also:control of the See also:interest of the £4000 he See also:left to his daughter . But gambling and extravagance kept her poor . In 1808 her See also:friends endeavoured to arrange her affairs, but in 1813 she was put in See also:prison for debt and remained there for a year . A certain See also:Alderman See also:Smith having aided her to get out, she went over to See also:Calais for See also:refuge from her creditors, and she died there in distress if not in want on the 15th of January 1815 . See also:AuTH0RITIES.–The See also:Memoirs of Lady Hamilton (London, 1815) were the See also:work of an See also:ill-disposed but well-informed and shrewd observer whose name is not given . Lady Hamilton and See also:Lord Nelson, by J, C . See also:Jefferson (London, 1888) is based on See also:authentic papers . It is corrected in some particulars by the detailed See also:recent life written by See also:Walter Sichel, Emma, Lady Hamilton (London, 1905) . See also the authorities given in the See also:article NELSON . (D .

End of Article: LADY EMMA HAMILTON (c. 1765-1815)
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