England's Mistress: The Infamous Life of Emma Hamilton (58 page)

Emma claimed to Queensberry that she wanted only to keep her portraits of Sir William, Nelson, and Maria Carolina. The magnificent days of the
tria iuncto in uno
were gone forever: Sir William was buried next to his wife in Pembrokeshire, Nelson was the possession of the state in St. Paul's, Maria Carolina was a virtual prisoner of Napoleon, and the glamorous star of the Palazzo was a struggling debtor, owing well over a million in today's money. There was no way she could survive. She would never be able to remarry: a husband was legally responsible for his wife's debts, and very few men could pay off such a large amount. It seemed futile to save a few shillings when there were thousands outstanding. Only a grand gesture could save her. Emma began to despair. She fell ill with a form of jaundice in October and decided to write her will. She hoped in death to win the share of the glory that had eluded her in life.

If I can be buried in St Pauls I shou'd be very happy to be near the glorious Nelson whom I Loved & admired and as once Sir William Nelson and myself had agreed we shou'd all be burried near each other, if the King had granted him a publick funeral this would have been that 3 persons who were so much attached to each other from virtues and friendship shou'd have been laid in one grave when they quitted this ill natured slanderous world. But tis past and in Heaven I hope we shall meet.

Realistically, Emma knew that burial in the crypt was reserved for military heroes, and so she requested to be buried next to her mother, although she hoped that "she will live, and be a mother to Nelson's child, Horaria." Still deluded about the value of her house, Emma appeared to think that the sale of the house alone, excluding the furniture or effects, would cover her debts and leave her with enough to provide for Horatia and Mrs. Cadogan.

I beg that Merton may be sold and all Debts paid & what ever money shall be left after all Debts paid I give to my dear mother and after her death to my dear Horatia Nelson. I aliso give all that I am possessed of in this world to my dear mother Mary Doggin or Cadogan for her use & after her death to Horatia Nelson I give them all my ready money, plate, linen, pictures, wearing apparel, household furniture, trinkets, wine in short every thing I have in the world to my mother during her life & after her death to my Dearest Horatia Nelson.
⁷

She asked George Rose to care for her mother and Horatia, and hoped that when he died, his son would "do me this last favour to see justice done to Nelson's Daughter." Still cherishing fond memories of the Christmas visit, she begged "the Prince of Wales, as he dearly loved Nelson, that his R. Highness will protect his child, and be kind to her; for this I beg of him, for there is no one that I so highly regard as his Royal Highness. Also my good friend the Duke of Queensbury, I beg of Him, as Nelson beseeched him to be kind to me, so I commend my dear mother and Horatia to his kind heart."

Emma was clutching at straws: the duke was nearly ninety, and the prince, captivated by the sophisticated Lady Hertford, shut his ears to depressing pleas for money. Emma made one final attempt to beg the help of the state.

I have done my King and Country some service but as they were ungrateful enough to neglect the request of the virtuous Nelson in providing for me I do not expect they will do any thing for his child but if there should be any administration in at my death who have hearts and feelings I beg they will provide for Horatia Nelson the child who would have a father if he had not gone forth to fight his country's battles therefore she has a claim on them.

In early November, Emma was subjected to a barrage of letters and even worse, visits from hired toughs. "Lady Hamilton has been harassed and grievously insulted by her creditors," wrote George Matcham in shock to his parents.
⁸
Emma was on the brink of being arrested for debt.

CHAPTER 52
The Friends of Lady Hamilton

G
oldsmid has been an angel to me and his bounty shall never be abused,” Emma rejoiced to Charles Greville in November. Shocked by the news that she faced arrest for debt, her neighbors had exerted themselves to save her. “When I thought they neglected me, Goldsmid and my Citty friends came forward, and they have rescued me from destruction.”

On November 25, 1808, her friend Sir John Perring, banker and former lord mayor of London, hosted a “meeting of the friends of Lady Hamilton,” a group of influential financiers largely organized by Abraham Goldsmid. The solicitor had advertised for all her creditors to contact him, and he estimated her debts stood at £8,000, with another £10,000 needed to pay off loans. The party decided to appoint trustees for the sale of Merton, judging the house and grounds to be worth £11,000. They also came up with a generous estimate of the contents at £6,500 (including £2,000 for wine), which gave Emma £3,700 to pay off her most pressing creditors, and pledged to form a “Committee to follow up the claim on Government.” Emma was ebullient.

All these things and papers of my services and my ill treatment I have laid before my trustees; they are paying my debts. I live in retirement, and the citty are going to bring forward my claims; in short, I have put myself under their protection, and nothing,
no power on earth shall
make me
deviate
from my present system.
¹

Emma's promises to reform were sincerely meant but futile. Her "Citty friends" persuaded her to sell her beloved horses, but they could do nothing about her fondness for throwing lavish parties, determination to retain her troupe of elderly servants, and her preoccupation with using her position to help poverty-stricken old friends and distant relations of Nelson's siblings. Emma beseeched so often on behalf of others that she destroyed any chance of attracting favor for herself

In spring 1809, the Mary Ann Clarke scandal broke. For Emma, it was an object lesson in how to make money out of a famous lover—which she had conspicuously failed to do. Clarke, a witty courtesan, captured the king's second son, the Duke of'York, commander in chief of the army. When he set her up in 1803 in a large Mayfair house, she spent thousands on exquisite furniture, china and glass, and expensive dinners. The delighted duke had no idea that his allowance of £1,000 a year hardly covered the coal bill. Like Emma, Mary Ann lived on credit, but she added to her income by taking bribes from those seeking army commissions or trade contracts from the duke. When the duke abandoned her and failed to pay her an allowance, Mary Ann embarked on her revenge. Summoned to testify about whether the duke had any knowledge of the bribes, she refused to take the blame, electrifying the stuffy lawyers with smart answers. The humiliated duke hung his head as his love letters were read aloud and the lurid details of his domestic life were bandied around the court. Mary Ann also threatened to publish her memoirs but was bought off with an annuity of £600 a year plus a lump sum of £10,000. In such a delicate climate, the princes would not risk pushing Emma's claims, and the government was even less sympathetic to mistresses who had fallen into debt through keeping up appearances.

Horatia was now nearly nine. Although she had lost her home at Mer-ton and many of her playmates as their parents severed links with Emma, she remained an outgoing and sweet-natured child. She had proved an attentive pupil of singing and music under Mrs. Billington and, proud of how the little girl lived up to Nelson's name, Emma immediately spent some of the money advanced to her by her city friends on appointing her an expensive French governess. She retained Sarah and Cecilia Connor, Horatia's nursery governesses, even though they were no longer of practical use.

The artist David Wilkie was excited to meet the "too celebrated Lady Hamilton" but was disappointed to find that although "lusty and tall, and of fascinating manners," all her attention was focused on her little daughter, a "creature of great sweetness." Emma made it clear that the child was
Nelson's. Referring to her daughter as Miss Nelson, as the will had commanded, was simply too daring for some gatherings, and so Emma introduced her as Horatia Hamilton.

Lady Hamilton, knowing me by name, called me and said that her daughter had the finest taste imaginable, and that she excelled in graceful attitudes. She then made her stand in the middle of the room with a piece of drapery, and put herself into a number of those elegant postures for which her Ladyship in her prime was so distinguished. She afterwards told me of all else her daughter could do, and concluded by asking me if I did not think her very like her father.
²

Emma was socializing with City gentlemen, sure that the government could not ignore their pleas on her behalf. To repay Abraham Goldsmid for his generosity, she persuaded the Dukes of Clarence, Sussex, and Cumberland to stay with him in town and accompany him to a concert at a synagogue, to the horror of the conservative press. Meanwhile, the "friends of Lady Hamilton" were failing to fix her financial affairs. Germain Lavie wrote to George Rose that he had an "excellent" paper from her in which she listed her services, but he was unsure if anyone in government had ever seen it and where to take it. "I believe I could get half the City of London to sign a commendatory Paper if it would be any help," he added.
³
But the government continued to ignore her.

Addicted to spending as a way of dulling the loss of Nelson and all her other ordeals, Emma was too proud to admit to herself that she could not afford to party with London's glitterati. She also had a genius for acquiring some of England's most useless servants. The few she did manage to lose wanted money. Sir William's old secretary, Francis Oliver, upset all his successive employers and resorted to "threatening to publish" secrets about her. One of his disgruntled ex-employers suggested she issue him with an "action for defamation, which would fully put a stop to his nonsense." But he knew too much about her, for Nelson had trusted him to carry some of his most sexually explicit letters to her. As he had written before a torrent of risque comments, "I can give full Scope to my feelings for I dare say Oliver will faithfully deliver this letter."
⁴
Oliver joined a growing list of blackmailers, many of them discharged servants, who had seen everything and were as interested as her creditors in the windfall from her "Citty friends." Her family were equally eager to share her good fortune. Thanks to them, Emma's ruin was ensured.

CHAPTER 53
Trouble with the Relations

I
am sorry to hear that you have so much trouble with your relace tions," Mrs. Marie Thomas sympathized. "It is a pity that your great generosity towards them shou'd be so ill-placed." Emma had asked her old employer to settle her troubled uncle, William Kidd, in Hawarden and to send her the bills for his clothes, lodgings, and debts. Kidd sharply told Mrs. Thomas "he was not brought up to work," and demanded more money. Mrs. Thomas did not give him the £5 Emma offered, "for it wou'd onely be spent in the ale house and then he gets abusive."

Merton remained unsold until Abraham Goldsmid's brother, Asner, agreed to buy it in April 1809. At the news that Lady Hamilton had come into money, more creditors pressed forward, and the money from the sale disappeared into their pockets. In the same month, Charles Greville died at his home in Paddington Green, just a few weeks short of his sixtieth birthday, beaten down after a year of sickness. On his walls were the Romney portraits he had inherited from Sir William, the sophisticated
Emma Hart in Morning Dress
and the glamorous
Bacchante,
in which Emma is draped in pink and gauze. After devoting his life to becoming Sir William's heir, he had never married or had children, and ended his days in the place where he had been young and happy with Emma, so many years before.