MERTON PLACE
MERTON PLACE
In 1801, Horatio Nelson arranged for the purchase of a house in England. Having asked his friends Sir William and Lady Emma Hamilton to find a suitable property, Emma Hamilton arranged for the purchase of Merton Place, in Merton, Surrey, for £9,000: friends of Nelson lent the money to make the purchase. The house had been built at the end of the sixteenth century, on the old Merton Priory estate, and the purchase included 70 acres of grounds. In a letter to one of the friends who had helped him buy Merton Place, he said:
"So far from making any money, I am spending what little I have. I am after buying a little farm in Merton - the price £9,000. If I cannot, after all my labour for my country, get such a place as this, I am resolved to give it all up and retire for life."
Merton today would probably strike most people as a surprising choice of area for one of England's foremost national figures and heroes to buy a property. Its significance as an area of note is limited to very few brushes with history. Although Royal Councils had met at Merton Priory in the thirteeth century, and Henry VI was crowned there in 1437, it was not in any way a centre of influence - particularly after Merton Priory (Merton Abbey) was destroyed in the Dissolution of the Monasteries in the sixteenth century.
However, Merton lies on the old Roman Road of Stane Street ( - Merton Place would literally have been on the route of the road), which ran between London and Chichester - ie the most direct route between London and that part of the south coast. In Nelson's time, and today, the "Portsmouth Road" (the connection between London and the Navy headquarters at Portsmouth) ran very close to Merton. The combination of an apparently idyllic rural setting and the relative ease of access to Portsmouth must have been very attractive to Nelson.
Still under construction...
Sent to his daughter at Merton Park from HMS Victory
In 1801, a daughter was born to Emma Hamilton, still married to Sir William Hamilton. The child's father was Nelson. The girl was passed off as the adopted child of one of Nelson's seamen, a Mr Thompson, and lived with a foster mother until Sir William's death a few years later.
[Autograph in the possession of Mrs. Horatia Nelson Ward.]
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
Last updated on 18 May 2001 at 17:10