Horatio Nelson's Mistress Emma Hamilton

"I have been a fool, & am a victim to my too open Heart & Soul"

Autographed Letter Signed, to judge of the High Court of Admiralty William Scott.

"How much do I esteem and thank you, my dear Sir William, for your kind letter and advice respecting my Case. I wish you had been in town when I sent my narrative to Lords Liverpool & Sidmouth, as I wou'd have been proud to make every alteration you may have Recommended. Deprived of that advantage, I thought it best to state the fact of the codicil being kept back, & I assure you I softened the conduct of Earl Nelson on that occasion as much as it cou'd  allow of. However, in my memorial I did not mention him at all, as you will see by the enclosed copy, & that will be the Document most attended and referred to, and most like what I had occasion to allude to, respecting his Lordship, may not be further noticed. But if the contrary, I console myself in an honorable adhesion to Truth, and if War be proclaimed against me, that I have not yet let fly the Thunderbolt upon his head, nor do I desire to do so unless provoked. To you, my dear Sir, I say what I feel. I have been a fool, & am a victim to my too open Heart & Soul. All I want now is Quiet & Comfort, & to be enabled to finish Horatia's Education. I wou'd sooner give to my Country than take from it, but sure some justice ought to have been done me, I wish not for much. I have had as much of grandeur as a person cou'd have, it is not that that makes happiness, but why not make Comfortable the Woman who Exerted her Self for her Country's good . . . ?"

In 1805, soon after the Battle of Trafalgar in which Horatio Nelson was mortally wounded, Nelson added a codicil to his will imploring that Emma Hamilton should be provided for, but the codicil was largely ignored. Hamilton's debts accrued rapidly and, in 1813, she was "imprisoned" in King's Bench Prison for debtors (her social status ensured that her accommodations were more comfortable than those of most prisoners). The following year, Nelson's letters to Hamilton were published, damaging her reputation and compelling her into exile in France, where she died soon after, likely from consuming excessive amounts of alcohol and laudanum.

4 pages, 4to, written on a folded sheet; silked on recto and verso, minor loss to terminal page text at fold intersections (but still legible), small expert repair to loss at upper corner of second leaf, ink identification and note in upper margin of first page in unknown hands; custom Morocco-backed clamshell box with gilt titling on spine.

Lady Emma Hamilton 1765 - 1815 Seraphin Gallery, Philadelphia, PA

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