Nelson & His World

Hello All, This may be of interest, but does anyone here know of any inventory of items that belonged to the Hamiltons, when they fled Naples, along with Nelson?

Stephen:

I haven't been able to locate a detailed inventory of the possessions of Sir William and Lady Hamilton when they left Naples, though Hilda Gamlin in her 'Emma, Lady Hamilton' published in 1891, notes that Emma supervised the evacuation of the property of the King and Queen to the tune of £2.5 million. As regards their own property, she notes:

The Hamiltons had forwarded to England, in the October of 1798, much of their most cared-for property, but dared not risk exciting suspicion of an intended flight, hence much was left behind and was destroyed by the furious mob that broke into the Embassy. Owing to an accident to the vessel [the Colossus, I think], they were sufferers to the extent of several thousand pounds. Nelson had managed to save some vases and pictures by placing them upon a transport.'

Many Thanks for that Anna, but any mention of bedding anywhere?

Stephen, some furniture and linen that was left behind at Naples and Palermo was later sent to Malta in 1803 according one of Mira’s posts in this thread.

Very Many thanks for that Tony, its starting to make things slightly clearer as at a reception at the Malta Maritime Muesum, on Tuesday I was informed by the new Curator, that in the storage area of the museum and not on display is a bed, reputed to have belonged to the Hamilton's and came from Palazzo Sessa, Naples and was used by both Nelson and Emma! Quite a discovery.
I understand that it was handed over to the Maltese authorities (much to the dismay of Greenwich) on the departure ofthe Royal Navy in March 1979, by the then and last British Commander of British Forces, Mediterranean.
I have been promised a sneak look at this item in the near future and will report further to this discovery.
Any additional information will be very welcome at this stage.

Stephen

Stephen - since the thread that Tony referred you to, a few additional bits and bobs have turned up to shed light on what went where from Sir William's household in Naples. The only inventory I can find here is one concerning his pictures, prepared for Sir William between October and November 1798 and printed in the appendix of Envoy Extraordinary by Brian Fothergill. No beds are included in this inventory, and there are a lot of gaps in the story still, but the snippets below may point out what could have happened. Beware though, there’s a lot of bed-hopping going on.

After the flight from Naples, it seems that Sir William’s possessions were stowed wherever space could be found, though in some cases - for highly valuable items - a supposedly secure berth such as the Colossus and Foudroyant was preferred. The Colossus carried vases and sank, the Samuel & Jane Transport contained books, pictures and clothes which got damp, the Serapis received baggage from the Foudroyant at Leghorn and preceded to England safely. The Alexander is said to have contained items (no evidence I've seen) and dropped into Malta in her perambulations around the Med. Nelson's own personal baggage consisting of 31 packages was cleared through the Custom House in London in October 1800. Eighteen baggage wagons set out from Leghorn to commence the land journey through Europe. The travellers had whatever they carried with them when they arrived at Yarmouth on board the King George packet on 6th November.

Around 10th November 1800, after Nelson and the Hamiltons had reached London - and both Sir William and Nelson had visited Foreign Secretary Lord Grenville - a campaign started up in earnest to expedite Sir William's pension and compensation claim for the losses he had sustained during the flight from Naples.

To that end a document entitled 'FACTS' was composed and duplicates made to hawk around influential circles in London in an effort to justify/push through the pension/compensation business. There is a copy of FACTS in Nelson's hand in the British Library, but I'm lucky to have one of the clerical copies which is enclosed in a 16 page marathon appeal on Sir William (and Emma's) behalf, detailing all sorts of services and expenses and written by Emma.



But winding the clock back to Naples at the turn of 1798-9, Nelson himself had written admiringly about Emma providing her own beds for the use of the Royal Family during the evacuation. Amongst all the millions in gold and jewels shipped out to Palermo, the Royal entourage had not thought to bring any.

By Easter 1799 the waters become muddier still. A letter sent on 5th April by Tom Troubridge, then on board the Culloden off Procida, to the occupying commander at Naples General MacDonald states:


Macdonald replied in kind:


Two months later, Sir William had yet another bad experience when he removed some salvaged items from the Samuel & Jane Transport, temporarily flying Nelson's flag at Palermo. He is a sick, exhausted and unhappy man when he writes a crotchety letter on the 22nd September - the first anniversary of Nelson's triumphant arrival in Naples - complaining to Charles Greville:



Homeward bound, the Serapis was despatched with the Hamiltons' possessions to arrive in England circa 29th September, 1800. Greville was commissioned to supervise the removal of the goods and thought it a trouble to have to do so. According to David Constantine in Fields of Fire, the Serapis had loaded the Hamiltons' baggage from the Foudroyant when the travelling party landed at Leghorn. Just an aside, but it's my thought that the 'Capital' vases sold at Christie's the following March were probably on board the Serapis.

Just over a week later, on the 10th October, Nelson's own baggage totalling 31 packages cleared through the Customs House in London. There is an inventory for this at the British Library; the packages contained a quantity of bed wearing apparel (plain), but no bed.

At the end of 1800, it transpired that Sir William - despite his claims and the denials of General MacDonald - still had considerable possessions salted away in Naples at the Palazzo Sessa. According to David Constantine, matters became difficult because Emma had sub-let the former embassy to a Marshal Rosenheim, who remained there until May1801. Nevertheless Sir William instructed that all the furnishings, except a harpsichord and 4 lava and marble tables, were to be sold. Very little was sold and Sam Ragland, Sir William's man of business on the spot, packed them up and put them in storage. The tables and two Raphael drawings were eventually shipped to England and the rest remained in situ.

Sir William had also left a mess behind him at Palermo, where Abraham Gibbs was acting for him. Gibbs had tried to sell one of Sir William's carriages and some silver and lace. Constantine in his book 'Fields of Fire' might hit the nail on the head for you Stephen, when he writes that Gibbs had been instructed by Mrs. Cadogan to sell 'solely the old things,' but in January 1803 he was still writing to ask what to do about sixteen cases packed by Mrs. Cadogan that had been sent to Malta and were now back in Naples. By April 1803 Sir William was dead, but the journey of the packing cases had not ended. Unfortunately, no inventory for the cases that eventually travelled twice to Malta is mentioned, however the letters passing then between Sir William, Ragland and Gibbs are retained at the British Library (Add. MS41200) and may contain more information than published in Fields of Fire. In June 1801, rumours were about that SW was to become Governor of Malta, hinted at in a letter from Captain Thomas Louis. Could this explain why the cases did a circuit of Malta before ending up back in Naples?

One of the many complaints highlighted by Emma in her FACTS letter of November 1800, was that Sir William, ill-treated, disgraced and at the age of sixty nine was being forced to traipse around London trying to sell diamonds at half-price to put bread on the table. The sale of Emma's jewels (supposedly worth £30,000) netted enough to purchase the lease for 23 Piccadilly and furnishings to replace what had been lost. Having been tenants of William Beckford since their arrival back in England, and with the new house being decorated and kitted out, the Hamiltons - taking Nelson with them - spent Christmas at Fonthill. During that time, beds were delivered to 23 Piccadilly, one for Emma and one for Mrs. Cadogan are listed in Louis Dutens itinerary. Emma's bed needed a wash and there were not enough beds to go round for the servants despite Nelson's estimation that from a total of £3,588 'laid out for Sir William' at 23 Piccadilly, £900 was spent on furniture alone.

Fast forward to summer 1803, and Nelson, back at sea, wrote to Emma (Letters of Lord Nelson to Lady Hamilton, 1814) about Mrs. Cadogan's packing cases. They were back at Malta:


Emma finally received her cases in the New Year of 1804 and on 5th January tells Sarah Nelson (Gerin, Nelson's Friendships, p71):


Sir William's old agent and friend Edmund Noble, then based in Malta, had supervised the final return of Emma's packing cases, clearly highlighting that some of the Hamiltons’ possessions passed through or ended up in Malta (at least twice.)

Whether the bed you're going to see comes from this seemingly never-ending roundabout of Hamilton beds, it would be interesting to know if there is a history or legend connected to it?

One final bed story: The NMM catalogue states that 'In August 1801, Beckford sold most of the contents of Fonthill Splendens to finance his work on Fonthill Abbey. In the sale catalogue the beds from the six principal bedrooms were sold, including one of mahogany with a japanned cornice and gilt decorations and a set of bed hangings that matches those found in the 1835 sale catalogue of Trafalgar House... According to family history, the bed was made for Horatio Nelson when he stayed with William Beckford at his country estate at Fonthill in December 1800. The bed has a specific naval theme as it features six large gilt anchors and the cornice has a blue japanned ground decorated with gold penwork laurel wreaths and oak leaves.'

Gosh Mira,

Many thanks for this I will have to study this in depth and get back to you later.

Regards,
Stephen

Phew - that was a great post, Mira!

I've just been looking again at Hilda Gamlin's account of the flight from Naples and she quotes a letter Nelson wrote to Earl St Vincent on 28 December 1798, in which he says:

'They' [the royal party] necessarily came on board without a bed, nor could the least preparation have been made for their reception. Lady Hamilton provided her own beds, linen &c, and became their slave....' (Nicolas, Vol. III, p.213)

This was written soon after the flight and directly contradicts Nelson's statement in the 'Facts' document. He was desperate to enlist help for the Hamiltons who were in a bad state financially when he prepared it, so maybe he told a few white lies, exaggerating their misfortunes even further, out of concern for them.