(d. 1803), nurseryman and gardener.
1786 - 1803 Naples
Graefer was a protégé of Sir Joseph Banks, who sent him out to Naples to create a garden in the English taste for the Queen of Naples. He arrived at Naples on 18 April 1786, and within a week Sir William Hamilton had taken him to Caserta to choose a site.1 Graefer was accompanied by his wife Caroline (from Chester),2 and in January 1787 there were at least two children.3 By 1789, despite the jealousies of Italian gardeners and the difficulties of getting paid by Queen Maria Carolina, Graefer's fifty-acre garden was nearing completion: with 'pleasant lawns, interspersed with clumps of myrtle and other shrubs'.4
The King had a house built for Graefer within the garden wall, and in 1792 was godfather to one of the Graefer's children. In June 1793 Emma Hamilton described Graefer as being 'as happy as a Prince'; the King and Queen went to his garden every day and it was 'Sir William's favourite child'.5 In October 1790 Graefer had accompanied Richard Colt Hoare on an excursion to Caiazzo and Piedimonte.6 In September 1801 Graefer was acting, without much success, as Nelson's agent for his estate at Bronte in Sicily.7 Mrs Graefer remained at Bronte after her husband's death, with two daughters, Emma and Caroline, apparently in somewhat straitened circumstances.8
1. Add.33978, f.57 (Graefer, 23 Apr. 1786). 2. See F. Fraser, Beloved Emma, 104, 108, 141, 238, 291, 352. 3. Morrison, 1:125 (no.159). 4. J.E. Smith, Sketch of a Tour on the Continent, 2:127 - 8. 5. Morrison, 1:177 (no.221). 6. R.C. Hoare, Recollections Abroad 1790 - 1, 29. 7. Morrison, 2:166 - 7 (no.623). 8. Ibid., 329 (no.979).