Recently unearthed letter from Admiral Horatio Nelson to his mistress Lady Emma Hamilton in 1801 reveals how he encouraged her to give their baby daughter the newly developed smallpox vaccine
- In the letter from Admiral Horatio Nelson, mistresses are encouraged to have their daughter vaccinated
- Letter of 1801 supports the Jenner’s smallpox cure when many were skeptical
- Edward Jenner found people are immune to smallpox when they catch cowpox
A letter from Admiral Horatio Nelson to his mistress Lady Emma Hamilton, who was recently exhumed, revealed how he encouraged her to give their baby daughter the newly developed smallpox vaccine.
The 1801 letter, discovered in the archives of the National Maritime Museum, does not mention a dangerous mission to France that Nelson had to make, but rather focuses on the health of his daughter, Horatia.
It was written just three years after Edward Jenner discovered that milkmaids who developed cowpox by working near the animals were protected from smallpox, the human form of the disease.
In a letter to Lady Hamilton, Admiral Nelson wrote: ‘The child has only been feverish for two days; and only a slight inflammation of the arm occurs instead of being crusty everywhere. ‘
A letter from 1801 shows that Admiral Horatio Nelson requested his then mistress to have their daughter vaccinated against smallpox, at a time when people were skeptical about innocence
At the time, many were skeptical about the use of vaccines – after one attempt to innocent children by deliberately infecting them with smallpox, led to the death of King George III’s son Octavius at the age of four.
Rob Blythe, senior curator at the National Maritime Museum, shared the letter with The Guardian and revealed a passage in which he confesses his love for his lover, Lady Hamilton.
Although both were married, neither of them had a legal child.
People were skeptical about vaccinations in the 19th century after King George III’s son died in an early, later abandoned treatment for smallpox. Vaccinations help fight Covid-19 today. In the photo: A woman in Thamesmead receives her jab today
After his death in 1805, Nelson’s father took Horatia and raised her among his family.
He said: ‘Nelson is a man who understands well what risks mean. He has to deal with the risk every day at sea, whether it is life or death or injury due to shots, cannon cows, splinters … I think he can probably do a risk assessment on the vaccination better as a navy man do than other people at the time. ‘
Mr Blythe expects Nelson may have heard of Jenner’s vaccine while at the captain’s table.
Nelson urges his mistress, Lady Hamilton, to accuse their daughter, Horatia, of the smallpox virus
He told The Guardian: ‘The ship’s doctor would undoubtedly be kept relatively abreast of the latest medical developments, and when the conversation turned to another story of the Battle of the Nile, the ship’s doctor would possibly said: ‘Have you heard of vaccination? ‘just trying to move everyone to another topic’.
The letter was one of more than 2,000 that the National Maritime Museum obtained in 1946.
A transcript of the correspondence of the heroic admiral was published in 1814, but this letter had hitherto passed unnoticed.