Emma Carew Hart

After being fostered out to Mr and Mrs Blackburn at a very young age, Emma was keen to see her mother when she heard of her visit to England (from Naples) in 1791; however she was bitterly disappointed when only her grandmother turned up, her mother too afraid to damage her standing in society and prospective marriage to Sir William Hamilton.

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After her mother's marriage in Sept 1791, Greville transferred the cost of Emma's upkeep to Sir William, and suggested that he might move her to an establishment befitting the stepdaughter of an envoy. She was already learning French, music and dancing, and had a maid. However, Sir William preferred to forget about her and she remained at the Blackburns'.

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Visited her mother at Merton and came to be accepted and liked by Nelson. Later visited her after Nelson's death, when Emma was deeply in debt, for a short summer visit in late June 1806, at which point Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh sent £500 for the benefit of mother and daughter.

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Note: Several sources say that Emma's life beyond a letter penned in January 1810, when her mother was deep in debt and unable to keep her, is a mystery. At that point, Emma realised that she had no choice but to go into service as a governess or companion, and sailed away somewhere (Naples?).

However, the author of this article on the website Global Maritime History, Jacqui Livesey, shows that new research points to her living in Florence on a small pension around 1839, based on the reports of an American correspondent reporting on the fashionable people and places of Tuscany at that time. Finding the Lost Daughter of Lady Hamilton

"On her introduction to the Merton mileux, the incriminating name of Hart was exchanged for Hartley/Hartly, and it is as Emma Hartley that the girl re-entered the life of her transmogrified mother. The hope of settling her in Naples was raised again a year later, when Nelson sent a barrage of instructions to his former secretary and confidential friend John Tyson, ‘… go to Mr. Noble and receive from him Miss Hartleys Passage money as she cannot go to Naples till Mrs. Braddocks* arrival, and also get from him a letter… to send up Miss Hartleys cloaths… send the letter to Padstow this day that no time may be lost…’[16] From the detail contained in this unpublished letter, it seems that Nelson – in the manner of Greville and Sir William before him – had taken on the responsibility for Miss Hartley’s welfare." ... "Following the death of her mother and the loss of her last link to England, Emma Carew disappears for many years. New research, however, points to her living in Florence on a small pension. An American correspondent reporting on the fashionable people and places of Tuscany in 1839, came upon a lady whose main claim to attention was rooted in her past. "

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See also Emma Hamilton's profile and Wikipedia entry. Emma never told her daughter who her father was, perhaps to save her from pain.

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