Mary Moutray born Mary Pemble (bap. 1752 – 1844) was a naval wife of

John Moutray John Moutray of Roscobie (c.1722 – 22 November 1785) was an officer of the Royal Navy. He reached the rank of post-captain and served as the Royal Commissioner for English Harbour in Antigua. Biography Moutray was born in about 1722. He was ma ...

who was the Royal Commissioner in

Antigua Antigua ( ; ), also known as Waladli or Wadadli by the local population, is an island in the Lesser Antilles. It is one of the Leeward Islands in the Caribbean region and the most populous island of the country of Antigua and Barbuda. Antigua ...

Horatio Nelson Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte ( – 21 October 1805) was a Royal Navy officer whose leadership, grasp of strategy and unconventional tactics brought about a number of decisive British naval victories during the French ...

was besotted with her and

Cuthbert Collingwood Vice Admiral Cuthbert Collingwood, 1st Baron Collingwood (26 September 1748 – 7 March 1810) was an admiral of the Royal Navy. Collingwood was born in Newcastle upon Tyne and later lived in Morpeth, Northumberland. He entered the Royal Navy at ...

was another friend and admirer.

Life

Moutray was baptised in

Yorktown, Virginia Yorktown is a town in York County, Virginia, United States. It is the county seat of York County, one of the eight original shires formed in Colony of Virginia, colonial Virginia in 1682. Yorktown's population was 195 as of the 2010 census, while ...

in 1752. Her parents were Catherine Selby and Lieutenant John Pemble of HMS ''Tryton''. She married on 2 September 1771 to a naval officer,

Berwick upon Tweed Berwick-upon-Tweed (), sometimes known as Berwick-on-Tweed or simply Berwick, is a town and civil parish in Northumberland, England, south of the Anglo-Scottish border, and the northernmost town in England. The 2011 United Kingdom census recor ...

. Her husband was thirty years older than her. She and John had twins in 1773 that they called Catherine and John. In the 1780s they were in Antigua where her husband was the Royal Commissioner. one of the captains there was Horatio Nelson who hated this particular posting. The only thing in his mind that made it bearable was the presence of Mary Moutray. Mary and her husband were only there for a few months in 1784 but she made a lasting impression on Nelson. He first met her in June 1784 and the friendship developed despite Nelson reporting her husband for a breach of procedure. Nelson said that he cried when he first thought of Antigua without her. He said that her company was where he had "spent more happy hours than anywhere else". When Nelson did start to court a wife he would tell, Frances Nisbet, about Mrs Moutray. Mary wrote about Nelson noting that he took to wearing a wig because he had lost hair dues to a fever.

kept a sketch of him in that wig. After John Moutray died Mary petitioned for a pension and although she gained Royal support the request was denied by Lord Howe on the grounds that it might create a precedent for other claims. Some commentators have supposed that if John Moutray had died in Antigua then Nelson would have married Mary. Nelson took an interest in Mary's son John. He was with Nelson at the

Siege of Calvi The siege of Calvi was a combined British and Corsican military operation during the Invasion of Corsica in the early stages of the French Revolutionary Wars. The Corsican people had risen up against the French garrison of the island in 1793, ...

. When John died during the siege Nelson paid for his memorial. When Nelson died in 1805 then Cuthbert Collingwood wrote to her. He too had been captivated by her when he was in Antigua and he had written poetry about her. John and Mary's daughter Katherine (aka Kate) married the Thomas de Lacy who was a long-serving archdeacon of Meath in 1806. Mary died in Meath in 1844.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Boxall, Nellie 1750s births 1844 deaths People from Yorktown, Virginia