Despite wealthy connections on both sides of their families, Philip Ward and Horatia Nelson had difficult lives from a financial point of view. Raising such a large family and bearing the cost of the tithing litigation had left them short of money.Around this time an appeal committee of Lord Nelson’s friends and naval colleagues held… Read More Horatia Nelson Ward (part 80)
In the 1840s there was a growing interest in the great national hero who had died almost forty years earlier.Therefore public opinion around Nelson’s last wishes changed, with the awareness that the codicil to his will, the one in which he left Horatia “to the beneficence of my country”, had been totally ignored.In 1845 Sir… Read More Horatia Nelson Ward (part 79)
Shortly before Nelson’s statue was raised onto the platform at top of the column, there was a special celebration up there.It was 23 October 1843, the landmark was nearing completion, and to toast their success fourteen of the stonemasons who had worked on the column climbed the scaffolding up to the platform, where the statue… Read More Horatia Nelson: Nelson’s Column (part 78)
During the legal negotiations for the long disputes over tithes, Horatia’s role was really important: it was she who underwent the drudgery of most of the stagecoach journeys from Tenterden to London, over ninety kilometres away.Horatia was always held in high regard both in Tenterden and in London and she was well received by society,… Read More Horatia Nelson: Nelson’s Column (part 77)
Horatia Nelson and Philip Ward‘s married life was simple but stable and happy, and the couple were well-matched. As we have already seen, in 1830, twenty-nine years old Horatia Nelson Ward, who already had several children and was aware of the absolute need for a higher income, agreed to leave Norfolk for Kent, and the… Read More Horatia Nelson Ward (part 76)
At first the Wards lived in Burnham, Nelson’s hometown, but after the birth of their first child, named Horatio Nelson after his grandfather, the Rev Ward obtained slightly better positions in other Norfolk churches. In 1830 Philip was finally appointed Vicar of St Mildred’s Church in Tenterden.At this time Horatia was twenty-nine years old, she… Read More Horatia Nelson Ward: Family (part 75)
Horatia’s uncle Thomas Bolton lived in a house which stood just opposite the church and when she attained her seventeenth year she became engaged to the “stipendiary curate”, licensed by the Bishop to assist the incumbent at a fixed stipend, called the Rev. Robert Ferrier Blake. By now she had realized that it was hopeless… Read More Horatia Nelson in England (part 73)
I have read that in the Church of England, in the 18th and 19th century, it was not easy to secure a place as a clergyman, which was not based solely on merit or faith.With enough money and connections a man could be ordained as a minister of the Church and settled into a desirable… Read More The Nelson Family: Clergymen (part 72)
Horatia remained with the Matchams for two years, caring for their youngest children.She later moved to Burnham Market, a village near the north coast of Norfolk, England, to live with her widowed uncle Thomas Bolton and three of his daughters, as their housekeeper. Norfolk County had always been linked to the Nelson family.Her grandfather, the… Read More Horatia Nelson in England (part 71)
The situation of Horatia for the last few years had been terrible: she had had to overcome cruel trials, months spent in gaol, days in an open boat tossed by rough seas, forced to flee from England to France.“ I also leave to the beneficence of my Country my adopted daughter Horatia Nelson Thompson.” had… Read More Horatia Nelson: Back to England (part 70)
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