Nelson & His World

As most people here know, all the small details, the vivid experience of individuals, recorded in their own words, or accounts published in newspapers, are, for me, one of the most engaging pleasures of exploring the Nelsonian period.

Individual reports of the death of Nelson abound, some of them well-known, some less so.

I wonder if we might have an ongoing thread in which members can record examples that they find.

'The Nelson Almanac' (ed. David Harris, pub. Warwick Leadley Gallery) has the following comment by Lt E. Pryce Cumby of the Bellerophon, made about 4 hours after the guns ceased firing on 21 October 1805. He noticed that there were no admiral's lights on board the Victory, 'from which we were left to draw the melancholy inference that our gallant, our beloved chief, the incomparable Nelson, had fallen.'

Another, recorded in the diary of the Reverend William Holland, vicar of Over Stowey, a small village in Somerset a few miles from my home, notes that, 'My wife went out to Mrs Woodhouse's and returned with the important news of Lord Nelson's victory over the combined fleets of France and Spain off Cadiz......but what has struck a damp on the whole is the Death of the gallant Nelson'. I know the vicarage at Over Stowey so can imagine Mrs Holland flying up the lane with this news.

Holland was a most curmudgeonly man, his diary entries terse and dry, so his brief, uneffusive comment on Nelson is high emotion for him! He also records later that he spent the morning composing a poem on the death of Lord Nelson, again, an uncharacteristically emotional exercise. (He spent most of his time complaining about the locals: 'The Somersetshire people are certainly very slow and unenergetic, very large and strong but lazy and motionless, very ignorant yet very conceited.')

('Paupers and Pig Killers: the diary of William Holland, a Somerset Parson, 1799-1818, ed J. Ayres, pub. Sutton publishing 2003)

The Creevey Papers, diaries, letters etc. by the Georgian figure, Thomas Creevey, have some references to Nelson's death:

Mrs Fitzherbert, mistress of the Prince of Wales, writes to Mrs Creevey on 6 November 1805:

Dr Madam,

The Prince has at this moment recd. and account from the Admiralty of the death of poor Lord Nelson, which has affected him most extremely. I think you may wish to know the news, which, upon any other occasion might be called a glorious victory, - twenty out of three and thirty of the enemy's fleet being entirely destroyed - no English ship being taken or sunk - Cpts. Duff and Cook both kill'd, and the French Adl Villeneuve taken prisoner. Poor Lord Nelson recd. his death by a shot of a musket from the enemy's ship upon his shoulder, and expir'd two hours afterwards, but not till the ship struck and afterwards sunk, which he had the consolation of hearing, as well as his compleat victory, before he died. Excuse this hurried scrawl: I am so nervous I can hardly hold my pen.'

God bless you,

Yours, M. Fitzherbert.

Two days later, on 8 November, Mrs Creevey wrote to her husband:

...the first of my visits this morning was to 'my Mistress' [Mrs Fitzherbert]. I found her alone, and she was excellent - gave me an account of the Prince's grief about Lord N., and then entered into the domestic failings of the latter in a way infinitely creditable to her, and skilful too. She was all for Lady Nelson and against Lady Hamilton, who she said (hero as he was) overpowered him and took possession of him quite by force. But she ended in a natural, good way, by saying: 'Poor creature! I am sorry for her now, for I suppose she is in grief'.


(From 'The Creevey Papers, Ed John Gore, Folio Society edition 1970)

Despite her criticisms of Lady Hamilton, it is interesting that Mrs Fitzherbert does not claim, as many did, that Lady Hamilton cared only for Nelson's fame and not for the man himself. I'm also amused that a woman who herself 'lived in sin' with a married man felt able to criticise Lady H!

Isn't that a bit of an over-simplification, Anna? This is not a subject I know much about, but didn't the Prince of Wales marry Maria Fitzherbert before they lived together? As I understand it, the marriage contravened the the law on royal marriages, and was therefore illegal in English law, but was considered valid by the Roman Catholic Church, of which she was a member. After the prince married Princess Caroline, didn't Maria Fitzherbert seek a ruling from the pope on the validity of her own marriage to the prince before she would live with him again? She seems to have gone to a lot of trouble to ensure that she didn't 'live in sin' in the eyes of her church. Or is all that just a gloss put on things that has subsequently been discredited?

'Living in sin' was the wrong euphemism! Mrs Fitzherbert may well have kept a separate establishment - she certainly had one pretty near the Royal pavilion in Brighton - but I'm pretty sure she continued her liaison with the Prince of Wales even after his marriage to Caroline of Brunswick. She may well have cleared her situation with the Pope but, as she well knew, the Prince of Wales was married to Caroline according to the law of the land and the rites of the Church of England, and her own marriage to the Prince was also in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act, which puts her relationship with the heir to the throne on pretty dodgy ground, I think - though one could argue the 39 Articles ('The Bishop of Rome hath no jusrisdiction in this realm of England')versus Catholic conscience till the cows come home!

Now it's ages since I read anything about Mrs Fitzherbert and don't have a source to hand other than the dusty attic of my brain, so correct me if anything above is wrong and accept apologies in advance.

Lady Elizabeth Foster was a vivid diarist of the Nelsonian period. She was the daughter of the eccentric Earl of Bristol, a friend and admirer of both Nelson and Emma when they were in Italy. Lady Elizabeth, having escaped a sadistic husband, lived in a ménage a trois with the Duke and Duchess of Devonshire. Her son by the Duke, known as Clifford, served with Nelson and she was always grateful to Nelson for his kindness to him.

These entries from Lady Elizabeth’s diary paint a vivid picture of the news of Trafalgar and Nelson’s death as it was received by her – not only an admirer of Nelson but also an anxious mother with a son serving in Nelson’s fleet – and also by others such as Marsden, who had received the Trafalgar dispatch at the Admiralty.

November 6th 1805

This day will ever be memorable for the greatest victory, and the greatest loss this country ever knew. Nelson, dear, dear Nelson, is no more. Great, gallant and generous Nelson – no, no words, no expressions can give any idea of the effect of this beloved hero’s death.’

She was reading Herodotus with Caroline [her daughter by the Duke] in the gallery at Chiswick when the Duchess came to her, looking so pale that she thought she was ill, and asked, ‘Will you come with me to London?’ ‘Certainly, Bess answered, ‘but what has happened?’ ‘A great victory, but – ‘ ‘From Cadiz?’ ‘Yes – it is great news, but poor Nelson..’ Her voice faltered. ‘Oh, good God!’ cried Bess. ‘Yes,’ said the Duchess, ‘he is killed, I am afraid.’

‘I flew upstairs. My heart bled for Nelson, but sickened at the thought of the ‘Tigre’ [her son, Clifford’s ship] having been in action.

We soon set out. Hartington [the Duke’s heir] went with us. There was a look of gloom in the streets. At the Admiralty, there was a crowd but exaltation was lost in sorrow. We got out and in extreme agitation asked where we might enquire. A man came up with the utmost civility and said he would show us; then, looking at the Duchess, he said to the Duchess, ‘Your Grace, Mr Spenser [her nephew] was not in the action.’ Those few words took a load off our minds. We went to Marsden’s room. He soon came in, looking quite wretched. The ‘Tigre’ he said was sent with Admiral Louis on other service. ‘The victory is great, but – ‘ ‘Then Nelson is killed?’ we said. ‘He is indeed, ma’am,...' ‘Did he say anything?’ ‘Yes, he lived two hours, sent his congratulations to Admiral Collingwood on the victory, and died.’ Mr Marsden seemed quite overcome, for Nelson was his friend.

As we came down, a rush of people came into the Hall, but no sound of joy or triumph was heard. When F.F. [Elizabeth’s son, Frederick Foster] took the news to the d. [Duke] he hardly believed him, and when the Duchess and I came back he could talk of nothing else – first anxiously about the ‘Tigre’ - the papers came after, and the Duchess read them to us at dinner. …. a Public Mourning is recommended and in a way to allow of all people wearing it – by a black scarf or rosette, so that all may with ease procure it to themselves.’


From’ Dearest Bess: the Life and Times of Lady Elizabeth Foster, afterwards Duchess of Devonshire, from her unpublished journals and correspondence’, by Dorothy Margaret Stuart. (Methuen, 1955) I’m grateful to Mira for recommending this book. It is a wonderful insight into the age through the eyes of an intelligent, well-informed and well-connected woman.

The latest edition of the Nelson Dispatch arrived yesterday ( a very good one, too) and in it is a piece on a Trafalgar veteran, Marine David Newton, who lived to a great age.

Newton was supported in his frail old age by the local vicar, the Rev. Henry Jeston, who called him 'my hero' and sought to solicit funds to support him via a letter to The Times. Here is an extract showing how Newton himself heard of Nelson's death:


'Asking him one day how soon they knew of Nelson's death, 'Ah, Sir,' was the reply, 'we were lying pretty close to the Victory, [he was in HMS Revenge] and about 4 or 5 o'clock I think, in the evening, we saw the Admiral's flag half-mast high, and we knew only too well what had happened; besides, soon after the action we had a batch of French prisoners sent on board of us, and as they passed along the deck, they mocked and jeered, and pointing with their thumbs over their shoulder to the Admiral's flag, exclaimed, 'Ah, where is your Nelson? Where is your Nelson?'

Nelson died at 4.30 in the afternoon, so the Admiral's flag must have been lowered almost immediately.