Emma, Lady Hamilton | Manuscript memorandum recounting her services to the British in Naples, 1813

Property from the Jean Hart Kislak Collection

Emma, Lady Hamilton

Manuscript memorandum signed

reciting in detail her services to Britain, especially whilst in Naples, as wife to the ambassador Sir William Hamilton and close friend and confidante to Queen Maria Carolina, especially in persuading the Neapolitans to allow the secret provisioning of Nelson's fleet before the Battle of the Nile ("...I dictated and she [the Queen] wrote a positive Order [...] to receive with all hospitality the British Fleet..."), later encouraging them to break fully with France, her role in the escape of the royal family to Sicily, her support of Nelson, and encouragement of him in his later commands, complaining of her treatment since Nelson's death and the disregard of the final codicil of his will "bequeathing my services to the justice of the Country", which she claims was suppressed by the current Earl Nelson, and her current desperate financial situation, in a secretarial hand but signed at the foot ("Emma Hamilton"), 24 pages, folio (paper watermarked 1808), [c.1813], soiled and worn at extremities including to signature, outer bifolium split at fold

"...for the fourteen Years that I was Ambassador's Wife at this Court; I might have exercised an Aeconomy that would have secured my provision for life, but such Calculations I would have thought a criminal Prudence, under the Circumstances in which I was placed. My sole view was to maintain the Dignity of our Royaland beloved Master, to advance His Interests, and Wishes; and to soothe and alleviate the toils of His brave seamen in a distant Clime..."

This petition was probably intended for the Prince Regent, and recounts in detail Emma Hamilton's role in public affairs. Many contemporaries noted her influence over Queen Maria Carolina. Emma Hamilton here explains that their friendship began when she brought back to Naples the last letter from the Queen's sister, Marie Antoinette. She also here rightly emphasises the importance Nelson placed on her love and support. This memorandum makes especially clear the betrayal she felt at the hands of her lover's brother William:

"When Captain Blackwood brought it [i.e. Nelson's will, with its final codicil requesting that Emma Hamilton be supported] home, he gave it to the present Earl Nelson who with his wife and Family were then with me, and had indeed been living with me for many Months. To their Son I was a Mother, and their Daughter Lady Charlotte had been exclusively under my care for six Yers. The Earl afraid that IU shoudl be provided for in the sum, that Parliament was expected to grant, to uphold the Hero's Name and Family, kept the Codicil in his pockety until the day £200,000 was voted for that purpose, on that day hhe dined with me in Clarges Street; hearing at Table what was done, he took the Codicil out, threw it to me, and said with a very coarse expression, 'that I might now do as I pleas'd with it'..." 

PROVENANCE

Sotheby's, New York, 15 December 1986, lot 47