| Emma, Lady Hamilton |
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| courtesans and prostitutes | |
| hamilton, emma | |
| people from cheshire | |
| british models | |
| british female singers | |
| 1765 births | |
| 1815 deaths | |
| SHOPPER'S DELIGHT | |
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, 1790-1791. Vesuvius , an interest of Sir Charles', is in the background.]] Emma, Lady Hamilton ( April 26 , 1765 – January 16 , 1815 ) is best remembered as the Mistress of Lord Nelson . She was born Emma Lyon in Cheshire , England , the daughter of a blacksmith, and was brought up at Hawarden . She later changed her name to Emma Hart. By 1782 she was already very well known in London society, having been taken from a brothel "into keeping" as the mistress of several men, and as the model of the "Goddess of Health" for James Graham , a Scottish "quack" doctor. It was rumoured that she had had a child by a "patron", Sir Harry Featherstonehaugh , named Emma Carew, who was sent to live with her grandmother in Wales , where she remained the rest of her life. She lived with Charles Francis Greville , a young gentleman who was deeply fond of her, but whose family responsibilities and financial need for a good marriage were inconsistent with his continuing such a flagrant relationship. He sent her to Naples to learn to be a lady as the mistress of his uncle, Sir William Hamilton , a diplomat, in return for Sir William's payment of Greville's debts. Sir William was equally smitten with the lady's charms, and they married on September 6 , 1791 at St. George's, Hanover Square , London . She became a close friend of spells. Emma reportedly fainted when she saw him. Still, she nursed him under her husband's roof, and arranged a party with 1,800 guests to celebrate his 40th birthday. Their relationship seems to have been tolerated, and perhaps encouraged, by the elderly Sir William, who showed nothing but admiration and respect for Nelson, and vice-versa. Emma gave birth to Horatia Nelson Thompson on January 3 , 1801 at Merton Place, a farm in Norfolk. Sir William died in 1803 and thereafter Emma lived openly with Nelson in a small house in Merton ( South London ). After Nelson's death in 1805 , Emma quickly exhausted the inheritance she had received from Sir William, and by 1813 , she was deeply in debt. In spite of Nelson's status as a national hero, the instructions he left to the government to care for Emma were ignored. She died of Alcoholism in Calais in 1815 . APPEARANCES IN FICTION
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