Frances Herbert (Woolward) Nelson (1761 - 1831)

Born May 1761 in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Ancestors

Wife of Josiah Nisbet — married 28 Jun 1779 (to 5 Oct 1781) in Saint Kitts and Nevis

Wife of Horatio Nelson KB — married 11 Mar 1787 (to 21 Oct 1805) in Montpelier, Nevis, West Indies

Descendants

Died 4 May 1831 at about age 70 in London, England, United Kingdom

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Terry Conroy [send private message]

Biography

Frances Herbert Woolward was born in 1761 on the island of Nevis in the West Indies, daughter of William Woolward and his wife, Mary Herbert. She was baptised in May. Her father died on 18 February 1779 when Fanny was 18. Frances placed a memorial tablet to her parents in the church. ^[1] She married, on 28 June 1779, Josiah Nisbet MD and bore him a son, another Josiah. The doctor died on 5 October 1781 during a visit to England leaving her little in the way of financial support. She returned to Nevis to her widowed uncle, John Richardson Herbert, President of the Council of Nevis and became his hostess at Montpelier.

Horatio Nelson

In 1785 the island was visited by the British frigate, Boreas, whose Captain, Horatio Nelson, began a courtship of her that lasted for two years and was conducted mainly by letter. Frances and Horatio were married at Montpelier on 11 March 1787. ^[2] The best man was Prince William Henry, a son of George III. She returned to England with her husband who was to be without a commission for five years and they lived at the Rectory at Burnham Thorpe with her father-in-law, the Reverend Edmund Nelson. Frances hated the cold and the damp and did not always attend to her domestic tasks.

Horatio returned to sea in 1793, taking Fanny’s son, Josiah, with him. Fanny remained at Burnham Thorpe and her marriage became a typical Navy marriage mostly explored by post which was probably how she learned that he had lost the use of his right eye in 1794 (‘I got a little hurt this morning’ ). ^[3] She nursed him back to health after he lost his right arm during the attack on Tenerife in July 1797 and was proud of his achievements at the Battle of The Nile in August 1798, writing him long letters full of family news. His letters to her grew increasingly terse. Fanny busied herself setting up a home for him at Roundwood, a house near Ipswich in Suffolk.

Eventually she heard the gossip about her husband’s relationship with Emma, Lady Hamilton. So besotted was her husband that he gave no thought to Fanny’s welfare and she began to make scenes in public when he was in England. Soon Horatio left Fanny to live with the Hamiltons. He made her an allowance of £1800 and refused to read her letters. Rejected by her husband she became the target for denigration by Emma Hamilton and most of the Nelson family. Her only support at this time was her father-in-law who died on 26 April 1802.

However, when her husband was killed at Trafalgar on 21 October 1805, it was Fanny who was treated with respect and granted a pension of £2000. Without Nelson Emma was rejected by society. Fanny moved to London and numbered among her acquaintances, Prince William, the Duke of Wellington and the poet, Lord Byron. In 1807 she moved to Exmouth to be near her son Josiah and his family. Josiah died suddenly in Paris on 14 July 1830 and Fanny’s health deteriorated. She died in London on 4 May 1831 and was buried beside Josiah in the churchyard of St Margaret and St Andrew at Littleham, Exmouth.

Sources

1. ↑ Memorial Inscriptions, Nevis "William Woolward of this Island Esq Died the 18th of February 1779 aged 53 years. He married Mary the daughter of Thomas Herbert Esq to whose joint memory this tablet is erected by their only daughter Frances Herbert who was first married to Josiah Nisbett MD"
2. ↑ Trafalgar Ancestors: Horatio Nelson
3. ↑ link does not work nelson-museum.co.uk/injuries-illnesses

• Nelson: A Personal History; Christopher Hibbert ISBN 0-670-84342-3

• About Nelson website [1]

• J. K. Laughton, ‘Nelson , Frances Herbert , Viscountess Nelson (1761–1831)’, rev. Tom Pocock, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 24 Sept 2015

• Wikipedia: Frances Nelson

• The Nisbets of Carfin by John A. Inglis (1961) (has errors).