Emma Hart

It isn’t great to be the second son of an earl.  The first born gets it all; the estate, the title, and the income. After that, a small annuity was all Charles Greville received. After his father, the 2nd Earl of Warwick died, that annuity only got smaller. So when faced with rising debts and a lifestyle beyond his means, a man of the upper crust as Lord Greville definitely was did what men and women did in that position; marry into fortune. It is not easy to shop for a wife with a mistress in tow, and so it was that Emma Hart was shipped off to Charles’ uncle William, his mother’s brother ,who held the position of Ambassador in Naples.  For Charles, his uncle paid the nephew’s debts, saving the family from some amount of disgrace. For Emma, it was a chance to further her schooling in the classics. For Sir William, it was the chance to grace his parlor with a beauty comparable to some of the Greek statues he collected. As time went by and Charles did not find a wife or fetch Emma back, a fondness grew whereupon Emma and Sir William were married subsequent to Sir William’s wife’s death. Thus Emma Hart became Lady Emma Hamilton, but that is still not the entire story of Emma.

Charles Francis Greville

So who was The Right Honorable Charles Francis Greville? He was the second son of the Earl of Warwick,  once occupied a seat in Parliament, was brother to the King's equerry, was a member of several scientific societies, and owner of one of the most extensive mineral collections in the world which would become the basis of the collection in the British Museum. Lord Greville did have that vanilla orchid bloom in his greenhouse, but he is probably better known for having Emma Hart in his bed. He took her in pregnant by another man, moved her to his previous dwelling on Paddington while he lived part time elsewhere, changed her name, and began to instruct her in everything it would take to introduce her to finer society. She was a beauty and painted by George Romney in several different costumes. Romney also did this portrait of Greville. Here it is. Check his features out because I am going to have some questions about him. Yeah, and so what became of this Emma Hart? Why don't I know who you are talking about, yet?