Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson
Witness at the treason trial of Edward Despard

In January 1803, Nelson appeared as a character witness in the treason trial of a former comrade in arms, Colonel Edward Despard. Despard, who had been moving in radical circles in London—a member both of the London Corresponding Society and the United Irishmen —was the alleged ringleader of a conspiracy to assassinate King George III and seize the Tower of London; the so-called Despard Plot. In court, Nelson recollected his service with Despard in the Caribbean, during the American War:

Under cross-examination, however, Nelson had to concede to having "lost sight of Despard for the last twenty years".

Nelson directed a further plea for clemency to Prime Minister Henry Addington, who was later to tell Nelson that "he and his family had sat up after supper, weeping over the letter". Following Despard's execution in February, Lady Fanny Nelson is reported to have taken the Colonel's Jamaican wife, Catherine Despard, under her "protection".
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