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Hamilton, Emma, Lady, née Amy Lyon c.1761-1815
English woman, mistress of Lord Nelson

Born in Great Neston, Cheshire, into a poor family, her girlhood was passed at Hawarden. Known for her great beauty, she had had two children by a navy captain and a baronet when in 1782 she became the mistress of the Hon Charles Greville (1749-1809), and subsequently of his uncle, Sir William Hamilton (1786). After five years in Naples, she married Hamilton (1791). Lord Nelson first met her in 1793; they became lovers, and she gave birth to a daughter, Horatia (1801-81), later acknowledged by Nelson as his child. After Nelson's death she squandered her inheritance from her husband, was arrested for debt (1813) and died exiled and impoverished.