Catherine Suckling

Catherine Suckling (9 May 1725 – 26 December 1767) was the mother of Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson. 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 Suckling, the rector of Barsham and Woodton, and a prebendary of Westminster and his wife, Ann Mary Turner (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. There Catherine met the former curate of Beccles, the Reverend Edmund Nelson. They were married on 11 May 1749.

Children The couple moved to Swaffham after their marriage where Catherine bore Edmund three children. Two died in infancy; a third, Maurice, survived. William 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. 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. He would also recall her hatred for the French.