‘The Death of Nelson,’ going apparently to the theatre for the purpose, throws some discredit on the genuineness of her woe. Under Nelson's will she received 2,000l. in cash, an annuity of 500l. charged on the revenues of Bronte, and the house and grounds of Merton, valued at from 12,000l. to 14,000l. The interest of 4,000l. settled on Horatia was also to be paid to her until the girl should reach the age of eighteen. Nelson further left her, by his dying request, as a legacy to his country, mainly on the ground of her public services. The story of this codicil having been concealed by Nelson's brother, the first Earl Nelson, until the parliamentary grant had been passed (Pettigrew, ii. 625), has been disproved by Mr. Jeaffreson (Lady Hamilton, ii. 291–3), who has shown that the codicil or memorandum was duly handed over to Sir William Scott; that on account of its reference to the queen of Naples it was deemed unadvisable to make it public; but that it was laid before Lord Grenville and decided on adversely, in all probability, on the merit of the alleged claims. After the death of Nelson she was nominally in the possession of upwards of 2,000l. a year; but everything was swallowed up by her debts and by her wasteful expenditure. Within three years she was in almost hopeless difficulties; on 25 Nov. 1808 a meeting of her friends was held to consider her case; as the result of which Merton and the rest of her property was assigned to trustees to be sold for the benefit of her creditors, and a sum of 3,700l., to be charged on the estate, was raised for her immediate necessities. The old Duke of Queensberry, with whom during the life of Nelson she had been on terms of friendly intimacy, and who seems to the last to have been fond of her society, left her in 1810 a further annuity of 500l.; but his will became the subject of a tedious litigation, and she received no benefit from it. Her affairs rapidly grew worse, and in the summer of 1813 she was arrested for debt and consigned to the King's Bench prison. About a year afterwards she was released on bail by Alderman Joshua Jonathan Smith, with whose assistance she escaped to Calais, where she lived for the next seven or eight months, and where she died on 15 Jan. 1815. It has been confidently stated and very generally believed that during this period she was in the utmost penury. Her letters show that she was living on partridges, turkeys, and turbot, with good Bordeaux wine (ib. ii. 321). There is no reason to suppose that she was altogether penniless, and in any case Horatia's 200l. a year was payable to her for their joint use. According to the false story told to Pettigrew by Mrs. Hunter, Lady Hamilton died in extreme want, unattended save by herself and Horatia; she was buried at Mrs. Hunter's expense, in a cheap deal coffin with an old petticoat for a pall; and the service of the church of England was read over the remains by an Irish half-pay officer, there being no protestant clergyman in Calais. Lady Hamilton's daughter assured Mr. Paget (Blackwood, cxliii. 648) that Mrs. Hunter was unknown to her. The funeral was conducted by a Henry Cadogan on the part of Mr. Smith. Of this Cadogan we know nothing; but his name would seem to point to a possible connection with Mrs. Cadogan, as Lady Hamilton's mother had been called for more than thirty years. It is at any rate quite certain that she was buried in an oak coffin, and that the bill, including church expenses, priests, candles, dressing the body, &c., amounting to 28l. 10s., was paid to Cadogan by Mr. Smith (ib. p. 649). The mention of priests and candles agrees with her daughter's statement, and confirms the story that during her later years she had professed the Roman catholic faith (Memoirs, p. 349).
Of her children, the eldest, Emma, was brought up at the expense of Mr. Greville and afterwards of Sir William Hamilton; she appears to have died about 1804. The second, the presumptive child of Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, was probably still-born, or died in infancy. The third, Horatia, lived, after her mother's death, with Nelson's sisters; in 1822 she married the Rev. Philip Ward, afterwards vicar of Tenterden in Kent, became the mother of eight children, and died on 6 March 1881. A fourth, also Emma, of which Nelson was the father, born in the end of 1803 or the beginning of 1804, died in March 1804 (Jeaffreson, Queen of Naples, ii. 257).
The portraits of Lady Hamilton are very numerous, and have been repeatedly engraved. Twenty-three painted by Romney are named by his son in a list admittedly imperfect (Romney, Life of Romney, p. 181). Two of these and engravings after ten others were exhibited at the Royal Academy in the winter of 1878; one, a head only, sketch for a Bacchante, is in the National Gallery; another, as a sybil, with auburn hair and dark grey eyes—of a wondrous beauty—is in the National Portrait Gallery. There are many others by most of the leading artists of the day, English or Italian. One by Madame Lebrun was bought by the prince regent in 1809. As early as 1796 Lady Hamilton was growing very stout, the tendency increased, and in her later years she was grotesquely portrayed in ‘A New Edition, considerably enlarged, of
