Horatia Nelson, christened as Horatia Nelson Thompson (January 29, 1801, 23 Piccadilly

Piccadilly

Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...

, London

London

London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...

 – March 6, 1881, Beaufort Villa, Woodridings, Pinner

Pinner

- Climate :Pinner's geographical position on the far western side of North West London makes it the furthest London suburb from any UK coastline. Hence the lower prevalence of moderating maritime influences make Pinner noticeably warmer in the spring and the summer compared to the rest of the capital...

) was the illegitimate

Legitimacy (law)

At common law, legitimacy is the status of a child who is born to parents who are legally married to one another; and of a child who is born shortly after the parents' divorce. In canon and in civil law, the offspring of putative marriages have been considered legitimate children...

 daughter of Emma Hamilton

Emma, Lady Hamilton

Emma, Lady Hamilton is best remembered as the mistress of Lord Nelson and as the muse of George Romney. She was born Amy Lyon in Ness near Neston, Cheshire, England, the daughter of a blacksmith, Henry Lyon, who died when she was two months old...

 and Horatio Nelson.

Early life

Born in a house of Sir William Hamilton

William Hamilton (diplomat)

Sir William Hamilton KB, PC, FRS was a Scottish diplomat, antiquarian, archaeologist and vulcanologist. After a short period as a Member of Parliament, he served as British Ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples from 1764 to 1800...

 (Emma's husband) at 23 Piccadilly

Piccadilly

Piccadilly is a major street in central London, running from Hyde Park Corner in the west to Piccadilly Circus in the east. It is completely within the city of Westminster. The street is part of the A4 road, London's second most important western artery. St...

, as Nelson was at anchor in Torbay

Torbay

Torbay is an east-facing bay and natural harbour, at the western most end of Lyme Bay in the south-west of England, situated roughly midway between the cities of Exeter and Plymouth. Part of the ceremonial county of Devon, Torbay was made a unitary authority on 1 April 1998...

 preparing to sail to the Battle of Copenhagen (news reached him before he set sail), she was given to a wet nurse called Mrs. Gibson, who was informed that the child, about a week old, was born six weeks earlier, at a time when Emma was in Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

. Once Emma's husband had died on 6 April 1803, and before Nelson had to board the on 18 May that year, Horatia was christened aged two at St Marylebone Parish Church

St Marylebone Parish Church

-First church:The first church for the parish was built in the vicinity of the present Marble Arch c.1200, and dedicated to St John the Evangelist.-Second church:...

, with Emma and Horatio as the "godparents" and a cover-story naming her as the daughter of Vice-Admiral Charles Thompson of Portsmouth Dockyard

HMNB Portsmouth

Her Majesty's Naval Base Portsmouth is one of three operating bases in the United Kingdom for the British Royal Navy...

 (with his agreement). But later on, her natural parents adopted her as an orphan.

Nelson was delighted at Horatia's birth (the more so as his second child with Emma, another girl, died a few weeks after her birth in early 1803), and spent as often as he could during his brief times onshore from 1803 to 1805 enjoying domestic life with her and Emma at Merton Place, more frequently and easily once Sir William was dead.

As the Battle of Trafalgar approached, Nelson wrote a letter to Horatia with his parental blessing:

Victory, October 19th, 1805.

My dearest Angel, I was made happy by the pleasure of receiving your letter of September 19th, and I rejoice to hear that you are so very good a girl, and love my dear Lady Hamilton, who most dearly loves you. Give her a kiss for me. The Combined Fleets of the Enemy are now reported to be coming out of Cadiz; and therefore I answer your letter, my dearest Horatia, to mark to you that you are ever uppermost in my thoughts. I shall be sure of your prayers for my safety, conquest, and speedy return to dear Merton, and our dearest good Lady Hamilton. Be a good girl, mind what Miss Connor says to you. Receive, my dearest Horatia, the affectionate parental blessing of your Father,

NELSON AND BRONTE.

In his letter to Emma the same day, he wrote "I will take care that my name shall ever be most dear to you and Horatia, both of whom I love as much as my own life." One of Nelson's last wishes was that Horatia should take the name Nelson, leaving her £200 a year in his will and adding :

"I leave to the beneficence of my country my adopted (sic) daughter Horatia Nelson Thompson, and I desire she will use in future the name of Nelson only."

Though Horatia soon learnt of her real father and agreed to his wish, she never accepted that Emma was her mother. This was due in part to their spending ten months in a prison cell, the result of Emma's financial difficulties soon after Horatio's death and partly due to Emma's insistence after Nelson's death that she was not her mother but her guardian. Before debt set in, Emma introduced Horatia to high society. Emma died in January 1815 and Horatia, who was still living with her, made the funeral arrangements with the British Consul and then returned to England disguised as a boy so as to escape arrest for the debts Emma had run up in France. On arrival in Dover, she was met by one of Nelson's brothers-in-law (Nelson's sisters doted on her) and from then until she married, Horatia stayed with Nelson's sister, Mrs Catherine Matcham in Sussex. Biographers describing her in her youth saw her as being tall, intelligent, able to speak her mind and surprisingly well read. She was good at languages (Emma had
taught her Italian, French and German), music and needlework, with a lively temperament and an animal-lover.

Marriage and children

On 19 February 1822, she married Rev. Philip Ward (1795–1861) at Burnham Westgate

Burnham Market

Burnham Market is a village with and civil parish near the north coast of Norfolk, England. Burnham Market is one of the Burnhams, a group of adjacent villages in North Norfolk...

 Church, where he was then curate

Curate

A curate is a person who is invested with the care or cure of souls of a parish. In this sense "curate" correctly means a parish priest but in English-speaking countries a curate is an assistant to the parish priest...

 near her father’s home village in north Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

. Horatia's grandfather had also been a clergyman. A third-generation Anglican clergyman, Philip was a poet and scholar, and the couple was described as handsome and intelligent at their wedding. Horatia's biographer described the marriage as "the one certain good that befell" Horatia. Their ten children—seven boys and three girls, with the former educated by their father at home before going to university or the professions—were:

• Horatio or Horace Nelson Ward (8 December 1822 – 1888), born in Norfolk, christened in Norfolk on Horatia's 22nd birthday in January 1823, later gained a Cambridge
  University of Cambridge
  The University of Cambridge is a public research university located in Cambridge, United Kingdom. It is the second-oldest university in both the United Kingdom and the English-speaking world , and the seventh-oldest globally...
  
   degree and from 1847 to 1853 came back to Tenterden
  Tenterden
  Tenterden is a Cinque Port town in the Ashford District of Kent, England. It stands on the edge of the Weald, overlooking the valley of the River Rother....
  
   as his father’s curate.
• Eleanor Philippa Ward (born April 1824 in Norfolk)
• Marmaduke Philip Smyth Ward (born 27 May 1825 in Norfolk), later became a Royal Navy surgeon, passing up an offer to play professional cricket in Borbanu, India.
• John James Stephen Ward (13 February 1827 – 1829 in Norfolk)
• Nelson Ward (born 8 May 1828 in Norfolk), articled for five years to a Tenterden solicitor, later becoming Registrar in the Court of Chancery
  Court of Chancery
  The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
  
   and living in West Lodge, Pinner in Middlesex.
• William George Ward (born 8 April 1830 in Norfolk), later a Major in the Indian Army
• Edmund Nelson Ward (10 July 1832 – 1833), died aged 6 months
• Horatia Ward, born 24 November 1833 in Tenterden, recovered from cholera
  Cholera
  Cholera is an infection of the small intestine that is caused by the bacterium Vibrio cholerae. The main symptoms are profuse watery diarrhea and vomiting. Transmission occurs primarily by drinking or eating water or food that has been contaminated by the diarrhea of an infected person or the feces...
  
   aged 13, married a solicitor from Lincoln’s Inn, William Johnson (a friend, colleague and fellow cricket-lover of Nelson Ward's), at Tenterden in 1858. Their descendents were still in Tenterden beyond the 1970s.
• Philip Ward (May 1834 – 12 September 1865), born in Tenterden, served in India as a lieutenant in the 25th Bengal Native Infantry
• Caroline Mary Ward, born January 1836 in Tenterden
• The ancestry line can be traced to Millie Anne Fenning, wife to the first cousin of American journalist and author Hunter S. Thompson (1937–2005)

Struggles

The living at Stanhoe

Stanhoe

Stanhoe is a village and civil parish in the English county of Norfolk, 6.4 miles from the North Sea. It covers an area of and had a population of 196 in 97 households as of the 2001 census. For the purposes of local government, it falls within the district of King's Lynn and West Norfolk.Its...

 in Norfolk was next granted to Philip, and it brought a better income in tithe

Tithe

A tithe is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash, cheques, or stocks, whereas historically tithes were required and paid in kind, such as agricultural products...

s and glebe

Glebe

Glebe Glebe Glebe (also known as Church furlong or parson's closes is an area of land within a manor and parish used to support a parish priest.-Medieval origins:...

 lands, and then fairly shortly afterwards the family moved to another living at Bircham Newton

Bircham Newton

Bircham Newton is the smallest of the three villages that make up the civil parish of Bircham, in the west of the English county of Norfolk. The village is located about 1 km north of the larger village of Great Bircham, 20 km north-east of the town of King's Lynn, and 60 km...

. She was involved in protracted negotiations to buy Nelson’s uniform coat and waistcoat (eventually bought by The Prince Consort for Greenwich Hospital in 1845, later passing from there to the National Maritime Museum). This growing public interest in Nelson (Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column

Nelson's Column is a monument in Trafalgar Square in central London built to commemorate Admiral Horatio Nelson, who died at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. The monument was constructed between 1840 and 1843 to a design by William Railton at a cost of £47,000. It is a column of the Corinthian...

 and Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square

Trafalgar Square is a public space and tourist attraction in central London, England, United Kingdom. At its centre is Nelson's Column, which is guarded by four lion statues at its base. There are a number of statues and sculptures in the square, with one plinth displaying changing pieces of...

 were erected in 1843, for example) brought her recompense for the perceived national neglect of her immediately after Nelson's death. An appeal committee of Lord Nelson's friends and naval colleagues, met frequently in London by Horatia herself, brought about a deputation to the Prime Minister

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell

John Russell, 1st Earl Russell, KG, GCMG, PC , known as Lord John Russell before 1861, was an English Whig and Liberal politician who served twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in the mid-19th century....

 and a national appeal (launched in 1850 and closed four years later; it raised only £1457). At Horatia's insistence, the money thus raised was divided between her three sons in military service (Marmaduke, Philip and William), and so that same year (1854) Queen Victoria stepped in and allocated public funds for a £100 annual pension for each Nelson-Ward daughter.

Two of their nine children are buried with her (Edmund and her eldest daughter), though the couple do have living descendants, including Anna Horatia Tribe, the Ward family and the Nelson-Ward family branch. Philip died from a liver problem soon after returning to England from India (he is commemorated by a plaque near the altar in St Mildred's, on the south wall), and her eldest daughter Eleanor Philippa (whilst still unmarried) was knocked down by a horse bolting from an innyard - the Queen's Head in Pinner

Pinner

- Climate :Pinner's geographical position on the far western side of North West London makes it the furthest London suburb from any UK coastline. Hence the lower prevalence of moderating maritime influences make Pinner noticeably warmer in the spring and the summer compared to the rest of the capital...

 High Street, carried into a draper's shop near to where the accident occurred, and died there. Horatia was also predeceased by her husband who died suddenly on 16 January 1859 and was buried at the east of St Mildred's Tenterden with his children, Caroline Mary and Edmund Nelson (a memorial stained glass window was also put up to him in the church).

Later life and death

After her husband's death, she had to leave Tenterden, and lived for 22 years until her death at Elmdene, Pinner and later at Beaufort Villas, Woodridings, both near to her son Nelson. On her death, Horatia was buried in Pinner Parish old cemetery, in Paines Lane in Pinner. Her epitaph, after mentioning her husband and children, runs:

"...Here rests Horatia Nelson Ward, who died March 6th. 1881, aged 80, the beloved daughter of Vice Admiral Lord Nelson and widow of the above-named Revd. Philip Ward."

Ancestry