Page 15 - The Hart Of Rums

Steady As She Goes
Hart of Courage
Hardship and deep sadness were to fall upon Lemon Hart’s life
in 1803. It was the start of the Napoleonic Wars and the prevalent mood throughout England was one of fear and uncertainty over the possibility of attack by the French. Thinking back to the Battle of the Nile (1798), Lemon Hart remembered that the first thing Admiral Nelson’s fleet attacked was Napoleon’s wine brig. The thought of
a retaliatory attack upon his rum stocks warehoused in Penzance seemed to him a likely possibility. Clearly the sensible step for a major supplier to the Royal Navy would be to move his inventory to a safer location. And so, Lemon Hart made the difficult decision to remove his rum stocks from sleepy Penzance to the heavily fortified West India Dock, on the Thames at London.
Lemon Hart adored his life in Penzance, living in a large home
with a beautiful garden on Chapel Street along with his own father, beloved wife, Letitia (now pregnant with their sixth child), four daughters, and son, David. The business was well established and thriving, and his personal life a charm when absolute tragedy struck. Letitia was at home alone one evening when her clothes caught fire from a candle in their bedroom on the second floor. Severely and extensively burnt, Letitia succumbed to her injuries within a week following the accident.
The week after this devastating loss, Lemon Hart would then deal with the sudden passing of his father who died of a stroke doctors attributed to the stress and shock of Letitia’s accident. At the age of 35, Lemon Hart was a single father, left alone to pick up the pieces of his shattered life.
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