Nelson & His World

Here's an excerpt from a letter which is intriguing me at the moment.



According to Sir N Harris Nicolas, this is a portion of a letter written to him by William Haslewood, Nelson's solicitor, in April 1846.

I would be interested to know if Fanny's ultimatum to Nelson: '... I am sick of hearing of dear Lady Hamilton, and am resolved that you shall give up either her or me...' was generally known or reported by anyone prior to Haslewood's relating it to Nicolas in 1846?

Was William Haslewood the first (or the only) contemporary of Lord and Lady Nelson to tell this story?

In his letter, Haslewood does of course claim that he talked over these particular details with Nelson's family, especially Mr & Mrs Matcham - who were dead by the time he wrote to Nicolas in 1846, and thus unable to confirm or deny it.

I am not aware of any other contemporary mention of Fanny's ultimatum that Haslewood narrated in his letter. However, Dudley Pope mentions the account in 'The Great Gamble', his book on the Battle of Copenhagen, and observes that Haslewood is wrong in one minor point at least. The Nelsons lodgings at the time were in Dover Street, not Arlington Street. Haslewood also added, after 'Lady Nelson.....drove from the house,' that 'They never lived together again,' and added, 'I believe that Lord Nelson took formal leave of her ladyship before joining the Fleet.'

The only other contemporary account I can find about their leavetaking was Christopher Hibbert's mention of the account of Sir Andrew Hamond, Comptroller of the Navy, who said that, 'Nelson, calling at the house in Dover Street,' [so Fanny had returned to Dover Street. Nelson, meanwhile, was with the Hamiltons at 23 Piccadilly] 'went upstairs, where he found his wife in bed. She held out her hand to him and said, 'There is not a man in the world who has more honour than you. Now tell me, upon your honour, whether you have ever heard from anyone anything that renders my own honour disputable.' No, Nelson said, there never had been. He then left the house and did not see her again'. However, it is possible to assume that neither of them, at the time, realised that it would be the last time they would meet. Hibbert does not give a reference for Sir Andrew's account, nor does he reveal who told him of these events, but it could, surely, only have been Nelson or Fanny.

Not long afterwards, Nelson was writing to Fanny to let her know he had arrived safely in Southampton in a brief but civil letter ending, 'Believe me, your affectionate Nelson', suggesting that their parting was not as bitter as Haslewood implied. This was followed by his peevish rants to Fanny about badly-packed and missing items in his baggage, so she was clearly performing her wifely duties, however inadequately.