Emma, Lady Hamilton | Autograph letter signed, to the Duke of Hamilton, on her late husband's pension, 1804

Property from the Jean Hart Kislak Collection

Emma, Lady Hamilton

Autograph letter signed, to Archibald, 9th Duke of Hamilton ("My Dear Lord"),

complaining of her ongoing struggle with the British government to receive acknowledgement of her services to the nation whilst in Naples with her husband the diplomat Sir William Hamilton ("...owing to the King's illness and now Mr A[ddington] being out I am again thrown into despair...") and consequent financial troubles ("...I have turned a way my servants all but 2 & am getting rid of my horse..."), asking him to intervene with the government on her behalf, 3 pages, 4to, integral autograph address panel, postal markings, Clarges Street, 2 June [1804], splitting at folds, small sear tear, some creasing

Lady Hamilton, then wife of the British Ambassador, had been a close confidante of Queen Maria Carolina of Naples in the 1790s and as such had played an important role in ensuring that the Neapolitan court had remained reliably pro-British. After the death of Sir William Hamilton she engaged in a long and unsuccessful struggle for a pension in recognition of her own diplomatic role (see also lot 165). She here appeals to the Duke of Hamilton for support on the basis of family bonds: Sir William Hamilton, Emma's husband, had been a junior relation of the Dukes of Hamilton.

PROVENANCE

Bonhams and Butterfield, 19 October 2009, lot 249