Dame Emma Hamilton

Dame Emma Hamilton (born Amy Lyon; 26 April 1765 – 15 January 1815), known upon moving to London as Emma Hart, and upon marriage as Lady Hamilton, was an English maid, model, dancer and actress. She began her career in London's demi-monde, becoming the mistress of a series of wealthy men, culminating in the naval hero Lord Nelson, and was the favourite model and muse of the portraitist George Romney.

In 1791, at the age of 26, she married Sir William Hamilton, British ambassador to the Kingdom of Naples, where she was a success at court, befriending the queen who was a sister of Marie Antoinette, and meeting Nelson.

Early life

She was born Amy Lyon[1] in Ness near Neston, Cheshire, England,[2] the daughter of Henry Lyon, a blacksmith[1] who died when she was two months old. She was baptised on 12 May 1765. She was raised by her mother, Mary Kidd (later Cadogan), and grandmother, Sarah Kidd, at Hawarden, and received no formal education.[3][4] She later went by the name of Emma Hart.[1]

With her grandmother struggling to make ends meet at the age of 60, and after Mary went to London in 1777, Emma began work, aged 12, as a maid at the Hawarden[3] home of Honoratus Leigh Thomas, a surgeon working in Chester.

Only a few months later she was unemployed again and moved to London in the autumn of 1777. She started to work for the Budd family in Chatham Place, Blackfriars, London, and began acting at the Drury Lane theatre in Covent Garden. She worked as a maid for actresses, including Mary Robinson.[4] Emma next worked as a model and dancer at the "Goddess of Health" for James Graham,[1] a Scottish "quack" doctor.

Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emma,_Lady_Hamilton