Catherine Suckling (9 May 1725 – 26 December 1767) was the mother of
Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount 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 ...
. Catherine had eleven children of which Nelson was the third surviving son.
Family and marriage
Catherine was born on 9 May 1725 in
Barsham, the oldest child and only daughter of the Reverend
Maurice Shelton Suckling, the rector of Barsham and
Woodton, and a
prebendary
A prebendary is a member of the Catholic Church, Catholic or Anglicanism , Anglican clergy, a form of canon (priest) , canon with a role in the administration of a cathedral or collegiate church. When attending services, prebendaries sit in part ...
of
Westminster
Westminster is the main settlement of the City of Westminster in Central London, Central London, England. It extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street and has many famous landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Buckingham Palace, ...
and his wife, Ann Mary
Turner
Turner may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Turner (surname), a common surname, including a list of people and fictional characters with the name
* Turner (given name), a list of people with the given name
*One who uses a lathe for tur ...
(1693–1768), daughter of
Sir Charles Turner and Mary Ann
Walpole (1673–1701).
Her father died when Catherine was five, and her mother took the family to live at
Beccles
Beccles ( ) is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the East Suffolk District, East Suffolk district, in the county of Suffolk, England.OS Explorer Map OL40: The Broads: (1:25 000) : . The town is located along the A145 r ...
. There Catherine met the former curate of Beccles, the
Reverend Edmund Nelson. They were married on 11 May 1749.
The marriage was a good one for Edmund, for Catherine was related through her father to the poet
Sir John Suckling, and through her mother to the powerful Walpole family, by now elevated to the peerage as the
Earls of Orford
Earl of Orford is a title that has been created three times.
The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1697 when the naval commander Admiral of the Fleet Edward Russell was made Earl of Orford, in the County of Suffolk. He was crea ...
.
She was a grandniece of Sir
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (; 26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whigs (British political party), Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the ''de facto'' first Prim ...
, and the Walpoles' influence had helped her brothers
Maurice and William embark on successful careers.
Children
The couple moved to
Swaffham
Swaffham () is a market town and civil parishes in England, civil parish in the Breckland District and England, English county of Norfolk. It is situated east of King's Lynn and west of Norwich.
The civil parish has an area of and in the U ...
after their marriage where Catherine bore Edmund three children. Two died in infancy; a third, Maurice, survived.
They then moved to Sporle, where on 12 June 1755 Catherine gave birth to the couple's first daughter, Susanna. Also in 1755
Horace Walpole
Horatio Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford (; 24 September 1717 – 2 March 1797), better known as Horace Walpole, was an English Whig politician, writer, historian and antiquarian.
He had Strawberry Hill House built in Twickenham, southwest London ...
offered Edmund the position of rector at
Burnham Thorpe. Edmund accepted and the two settled at the rectory.
William
William is a masculine given name of Germanic languages, Germanic origin. It became popular in England after the Norman Conquest, Norman conquest in 1066,All Things William"Meaning & Origin of the Name"/ref> and remained so throughout the Middle ...
was born on 20 April 1757, and on 29 September 1758, Catherine gave birth to Horatio, naming him after their benefactor and the young Horatio's godparent, Horace Walpole.
Horatio was a sickly child, and Edmund feared he would not live long enough to be baptised at the public ceremony arranged for 15 November. Horatio was baptised at a private ceremony on 8 October.
The last of the Nelson children followed, Ann on 20 September 1760, Edmund on 4 June 1762, Suckling on 5 January 1764, and Catherine on 19 March 1767. Another boy, George, was born in 1765 but died three months later.
Death and legacy
Catherine died on 26 December 1767 at the age of 42, leaving Edmund with eight children. A grief-stricken Edmund buried her four days later in the church at Burnham Thorpe.
He never remarried. Catherine's mother, Ann, died shortly afterwards. Maurice Suckling, Edmund's brother-in-law, visited the rectory to attend the funerals, and found Edmund heart-broken, and fearing for the future for his children. He had begun to call in favours with relatives to ensure that educations and positions could be found for them, and Suckling promised to do what he could for one of the boys, using the patronage available to him as a naval captain.
This saw the start of Horatio's successful career in the
Royal Navy
The Royal Navy (RN) is the naval warfare force of the United Kingdom. It is a component of His Majesty's Naval Service, and its officers hold their commissions from the King of the United Kingdom, King. Although warships were used by Kingdom ...
.
Horatio was nine when his mother died, but remembered her with fondness. He recalled a line from ''
Henry V Henry V may refer to:
People
* Henry V, Duke of Bavaria (died 1026)
* Henry V, Holy Roman Emperor (1081/86–1125)
* Henry V, Duke of Carinthia (died 1161)
* Henry V, Count Palatine of the Rhine (–1227)
* Henry V, Count of Luxembourg (1216–1281 ...
'' when he did so and said that it could be seen in the tears in his eyes.
He would also recall her hatred for the French.
Notes
References
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Suckling, Catherine
1725 births
1767 deaths
Horatio Nelson
People from Beccles
18th-century English people
People from Swaffham