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Auction: 25066 - Historical Documents, Autographs and Ephemera
Lot: 143

French Revolutionary and Napoleonic Wars
Admiral Horatio Lord Nelson, Lady Emma Hamilton
1802 (27 April) autograph letter signed from Merton with integral address panel [addressed in Lady Hamilton's hand] to Alexander Davidson in St. James Square, London.

Letter reads "My Dear Davison, My Poor Dear Father is no more, God bless you." Signed "Nelson & Bronte".

At foot, a further note is subscribed in the hand of Lady Emma Hamilton reading "Lord Nelson wishes your friend the Chancellor to give Commyn of his Fathers Livings could you not speak to him about his death he has wrote to his Lordship he begs me to write you this in haste ever yours [unsigned]. Very fine and a rare combination.

provenance:

The John Goddard Collection, November 2015
Sotheby's, The Alexander Davison Collection, October 2002

Notes: Nelson's father, Rev. Edmund Nelson, the Rector of Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk died at Bath on 26 April 1802, which also happened to be the date of Lady Hamilton's birthday. Nelson's father had been upset by the breakdown of his son's marriage but had, nevertheless, visited them in their newly purchased home in Merton the year before.
It is notable that Nelson himself did not attend his father's funeral, instead choosing to send Davison (the addressee of this letter) in his place. This rather perfunctory note announcing the death is somewhat revealing of their relationship.
Alexander Davison (1750-1829) had been a close colleague and friend of Nelson's having leant him £6,000 towards the purchase of his Merton home with Lady Hamilton and had arranged for the striking of medals for participants in the victory at the Nile and the crew of the Victory at his own expense.

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Estimate
£4,000 to £6,000

Starting price
£3200