Beloved Emma The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton

CHAPTER ONE From Hawarden to Sir Harry Emma Hamilton began life as Emy Lyon on 26 April. That, at least, is the date she always celebrated as her birthday. As no record of her birth survives, the year of her birth is not known for sure, but her parents, Henry and Mary Lyon, were married on 11 June 1764. Emy was baptized on 12 May 1765. It seems reasonable to assume she was born in the year of her baptism. She was born in Ness, near Denhall, on the windy Wirral Peninsula in Cheshire, overlooking the Dee estuary. The parish of Neston wa described in 1809 as one of the most miserable townships on the Peninsula, a collection of hovels inhabited only by colliers. The pit at Denhall had been opened in 1750, and Henry Lyon was identified on Emy's baptismal certificate as smith 'of Ness'. Probably he worked in connection with the pit. A tall building, known as Swan Cottage, still stands on a bank at Denhall. From the uppermost rooms, there is a fine view across the wide estuary to the northern coast of Wales. No hovel, by reason of its commanding height it was later used as a shipping beacon. However, it is reputed to have been the smith's house at this date. At the back of the house is a plaque inscribed 'I.L. S.L. 1724', so there may have been Lyons living here before Henry. In this house we may see Emma Hamilton's birthplace. Of Henry Lyon little is known. As he signed his marriage certificate with a cross, the illiterate's mark, we may safely dismiss more romantic tales which sprang up in the Victorian times. Emm Hamilton's great-grandson believed Henry was the estranged son of a nobleman, beating out his anger against his sire on the anvil. Henry died from unknown causes and was buried on 21 June, being named then as smith 'of Denhall', barely two months after his daughter's birth. We need linger no further in squalid Denhall. Tradition has it that his widow immediately took her infant across the estuary to Hawarden in Wales, where her parents lived. Mary Lyon's parents, Mr and Mrs Kidd, lived in a small 'cruck' cottage, distinguished from the other thatched and whitewashed dwellings in the village by a set of red sandstone steps. Mary had at least one brother, William, and three sisters, who were to become the Mrs Moore, Connor and Reynolds. Possibly, when Mary brought her baby, there were one or two of these still living at home. The Steps, as the house was known, lay at the end of an old lane which ran down under the park wall of Broad Lane Hall, on the opposite side of the road to the Glynne Arms. Sir John Glynne was owner of the estate, which, in later years, as Hawarden Castle, was to be Prime Minister Gladstone's country home. Many of the villagers worked for Sir John in some capacity or other. There was a variety of industry practised in Hawarden-cheese-making, arable farming, coal mining. Mrs Kidd had a carrier's business and took produce from the Hall, together with sacks of coal from the works, to sell in Chester market. Sarah Kidd was a formidable lady. In the 1890s a story was still remembered in which robbers were said to have attempted to steal the proceeds of her sales at Chester. They lay in wait on the road leading back from Chester along the southern side of the Dee estuary. Mrs Kidd, stout in defence of the contents of her loose pocket, belaboured them with her whip with such ferocity that they fled. The Kidd men played second fiddle to the women of the family. Emma's grandfather was allotted in his wife's enterprise only the part of taking her proceeds up to the Hall. Otherwise he guarded sheep on Saltney marshes, a sodden stretch of land to the east of the village. It is said he used to dig a deep hole and stand in it, firing an ancient shotgun at marauding dogs who ventured near his flocks. Of Emma as a child we know little. In the 1890s the local historian Hilda Gamlin could discover onlFraser, Flora is the author of 'Beloved Emma The Life of Emma, Lady Hamilton' with ISBN 9781400075140 and ISBN 1400075149.