THE GENEALOGY OF NELSON

VERY much has been written, especially of late, about Nelson's life, character, and achievements; but little has been written-possibly because little is generally known-about his origin and family. That his father was a Norfolk clergyman, that one of his maternal uncles was a post-captain and Controller of the Navy, and that the hero was related, on his mother's side, to the Walpoles-these are facts which find a place in every biography of the marvellous seaman and in every peerage. Neither biographies nor peerages, however, deal very deeply with Nelson's ancestry. The fashionable genealogist likes to cultivate the fiction that the forbears of nearly all peers were personages who, if only their wealth, merits, and standing had been duly recognised, would have been peers also; and many a family tree which has not naturally grown in such a manner as to consistently illustrate this agreeable theory has had its branches ruthlessly lopped, covered up, or distorted, with a view to suppressing such harmless truths as that peers and ploughboys are occasionally first cousins, and that King Cophetua's father-in-law was not demonstrably of royal descent.

The biographer usually accepts his family trees from the fashionable genealogist, who has modified much and omitted still more. This is a pity. If there be anything in the doctrines of evolution and heredity, the story of the origin of every really great man is much too important to be tampered with at the bidding of mere vanity. And the story of the origin of Nelson especially deserves to be preserved, so far as may be, intact, seeing that one of the most able of critics expressly regards Nelson's naval career as the history in little of the sea power of Great Britain, and seeing that the same writer, by implication, treats Nelson's self as the completest type of that Englishman who, though made up of littlenesses as well as greatnesses, and of weakness as well as strength, has played withal the biggest part in the modern world, and is likely to play at least an equally big part in it for many generations to come.

After reading Mahan's Life, one becomes anxious to know something more than Mahan tells us of the 'whence' and 'how' of this ripest incarnation of the English spirit. One becomes scientifically

inquisitive as to the strains which blended to make so splendid a hero. Was it mainly blue blood that told? Or was the man more particularly the product of that 'great middle body' in which Bacon reposed so much confidence? Had some of the qualities which shone in him, already betrayed themselves in others of his line? Did he obviously inherit his individuality from persons and from their surroundings? Or was he an inexplicable 'sport,' without traceable heredity--a 'freak' as startling and unaccountable as the five-legged calf or the Irish giant ?

These are hard questions, and few of them can be conclusively answered by the light of any information in my possession. Yet in the genealogical history of Nelson there are many points which, as possibly bearing upon his character and qualities, are exceedingly suggestive; and, since I happen to have come upon numerous facts which hitherto, I believe, have escaped publication, I purpose to endeavour to trace the history, so far as it seems likely to be of value towards the elucidation of a personality which, with all its faults, is still one of the most impressive the world has ever seen.

*

Ex parte paterna, Horatio Nelson was a son of 1* Edmund (II), who was a son of * Edmund (I), who was the son of * William Nelson, who was a son of a man alleged to have been a Norwich manufacturer. I will deal with each of these in order of time, and with their families.

The Norwich manufacturer, whose Christian name I cannot discover, was probably born early in the first half of the seventeenth century, and seems to have lived, possibly after his retirement from business, at Scarning, near Dunham, Norfolk. He had several sons, some of whom established themselves at Dereham, and some at Scarning or Matishall. They were all farmers or tradesmen in fairly prosperous circumstances. One of them, *William, was born at Scarning, and, dying in 1713, was buried either at Dunham, or at Sporle in the immediate neighbourhood.

This William Nelson, great-grandfather of the Admiral, cultivated a large farm at Dunham Parva, possessed some fortune, and may be best described as a yeoman. He married *Mary Sheen, also of Dunham Parva, one of whose sisters was the wife of Hammond of Wendling, and another married into the family of Pigg. *Sheens, Hammonds, and Piggs were all at that time of the yeoman or tradesman class. By his wife *William Nelson had three sons, and several daughters, one of whom married a Fisher. All these children were born at Dunham Parva. The sons were named Thomas, William, and *Edmund (I) respectively. Thomas farmed at Sporle, the rectorial tithes of which he held, as his father before him had held them,

To avoid confusion, I shall through this paper affix this sign (*) to the names of all persons, Nelsons or others, who were Horatio Nelson's direct ancestors.

under a lease from Eton College. He married twice,2 first a Prettyman of Sporle, and next an Overman of Burnham Depedale; and had by the latter two daughters and five sons. The daughters did not marry. Of the sons-to whom the Admiral was first cousin once removed-one, John, died an infant; another, Thomas, was an attorney, and died unmarried in 1749; a third, Bartholomew, was an unsuccessful tradesman or small merchant, first at Stoke and then at Lynn, and had a son, Bartholomew, who seems to have been drowned,3 Commander of H.M.S. Pheasant, in 1761; a fourth, Edmund, who, taking orders and making a good marriage, was presented by his wife to the rectory of Cougham. The remaining son; William, was educated at Eton, but, to quote the family register, 'proving irregular, was sent to sea under Admiral Geary, and died.' William, second son of "William Nelson, became, in succession to his father, tenant of the farm at Dunham Parva, and did well with it. He purchased, in addition to other land, Curds or Crudes Hall at Farnsham, whither he retired. In his old age he built a small house at Dunham, and there he died. He married twice. By his first wife, a Lathbury of Suffolk, he had, in addition to three daughters, a son, William, who took orders and became rector of Hillington, near Castle Riseing, and Helgay in the Fens on the borders of Cambridgeshire. He also inherited the Crudes Hall property. *William Nelson died at

Hilborough in his eighty-fourth year.

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*William Nelson's youngest son, *Edmund (I), grandfather of the Admiral, was born in 1693 or 1694, and after a preliminary education at Eton, was admitted a pensioner of Emanuel College, Cambridge, about the year 1713. Having obtained his bachelor's degree and taken holy orders, he married Mary, daughter of John and *Thomazin Bland. He seems to have been at that time rector of East Bradenham, Norfolk, and to have been soon afterwards presented by the Provost and Fellows of Eton to the vicarage of Sporle, which he held together with his other cure, residing, however, at East Bradenham. *John Bland, father-in-law of this *Edmund Nelson (I), was of Lancashire origin, and began his career with very little, but, having taken up his abode at Cambridge, he established there a flourishing baker's business, and gradually acquired so much fortune that he was able to purchase a considerable amount of landed property. One of his sons, John, became domestic chaplain to the Duke

2 Thomas's third wife was Dinah Willis, of Burnham Overy. He died at a great age, and is buried at Sporle. She died about the year 1754.

There is some doubt of this, as I cannot make certain of the Christian name of the Pheasant's commander.

The Provost of Eton informs me that this William was elected to college on the 1st of August, 1737, being then fourteen years of age, but that the register is silent concerning his subsequent career.

• She died about the year 1744, and was buried in St. Andrew's, Cambridge.

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of Ancaster, and lies buried at Grimthorpe. One of his daughters, Martha, married one Chapman, an apothecary, first of Mildenhall and subsequently of London. Among John Bland's numerous investments were the next presentation to, and perpetual advowson of, the living of Hilborough, Norfolk. When the living fell vacant, *Bland presented to it his son-in-law, *Edmund (I), who thereupon resigned East Bradenham, and removed to Hilborough, where he died in 1747. *Edmund (I) and Mary Nelson had eight children, four only of whom lived to the age of discretion. These were *Edmund (II), father of the Admiral, Alice, Thomazin, and John. Of Edmund (II) anon. I will first say a few words of the Admiral's aunts and uncle.

Alice Nelson married the Rev. Robert Rolfe, son of the Rev. Walter Rolfe by a Miss Shuldham, who was collaterally but distantly related to Molyneux Shuldham (Admiral Lord Shuldham). Robert Rolfe was presented by his mother-in-law, Mary Nelson, to the rectory of Hilborough, upon the resignation of it by her son * Edmund (II); and by his wife had several children, two at least of whose descendants are now in the navy. Thomazin, the Admiral's other aunt, married one John Goulty, who, although towards the end of his life in fairly comfortable circumstances, was by trade a shoemaker. She also had issue. John Nelson, the Admiral's uncle, like the William of an earlier generation, proved 'irregular,' and after some misconduct enlisted as a soldier. Having embarked for foreign service about the year 1760, he was never again heard of by his family. Years ago I met an old frontier hunter and scout whose home was on the then dangerous and uncivilised border of Nebraska and Wyoming. His name was Nelson-John, if I be not mistakenand he told me in the course of conversation that his father had been a first cousin to Lord Nelson. I did not at the time realise that this might indeed be true, and I paid little attention to the old man. I am sorry now that I did not make further inquiries, for it may well be that the trapper's father was a son of the Admiral's irregular uncle John. Assuming that John to have been about thirty when he disappeared (he was the youngest of his family), and assuming my informant to have been about sixty-five when I saw him in 1882, there is nothing wildly improbable in the theory. I mention it only, however, for what it may be worth. It would probably be impossible now to obtain conclusive evidence, even if the old hunter be still living, for he was an ignorant though brave and in many respects worthy fellow.

* Edmund Nelson (II), father of Lord Nelson, was the third child and second son of his father, *Edmund (I), and was born at East Bradenham on the 19th of March, 1722. He describes him

**John Bland, before his death, made over the advowson of Hilborough to his daughter, *Mary Nelson, to whom he bequeathed by will a good legacy.

self as having been always of a weak and sickly constitution. After having been partially educated at a school in Norfolk, he was entered in 1743 at Caius College, Cambridge. Dr. Gooch was then master, and *Edmund Nelson's tutor was one Dr. Eglington. Taking his bachelor's degree in due course, *Edmund was ordained and became curate to the Rev. Thomas Page, Rector of Beccles in Suffolk, close to the Norfolk border. There he remained until October 1747, when, his father dying, he succeeded to the livings of Hilborough and Sporle. *Edmund (I) had died in debt. *Edmund (II) therefore devoted all the income from Hilborough to getting rid of the liabilities, and then to the maintenance of his mother and her family; and contented himself with the meagre income, about 80l. a year, from Sporle. So long, however, as he remained single, he lived with his mother at Hilborough. On the 11th of May, 1749, being then twenty-seven, he married *Catherine, daughter of the Rev. *Maurice Suckling, then dead, who had been Prebendary of Westminster and Rector of Barsham and Wooten, Suffolk. The young couple lived for a time at Swaffham, but at Michaelmas, 1753, moved to a hired house at Sporle: and in November, 1755, upon the death of the Rev. Thomas Smithson, *Edmund Nelson (II) was presented by his wife's relative Horatio Walpole, afterwards Lord Walpole of Wolterton, to the rectories of Burnham Thorpe and Burnham St. Albert, Norfolk.

So much for Nelson's paternal ancestry. It was an ancestry of yeomen, tradesmen, and country parsons, a respectable ancestry, yet only what may be called a lower middle class one. Nor can it be said that any member of it had earned the slightest degree of public distinction, or had, even temporarily, raised the family far above its original station. Some years ago, a discussion upon this subject arose in the newspapers, and a relative of the present Earl Nelson was so rash as to assert in the course of it not only that the Nelsons had been Norfolk gentry for several generations, but also that they had borne arms. These foolish and baseless pretensions were, at the time, conclusively disproved, I believe, by Professor J. K. Laughton, R.N.

The great Admiral's maternal ancestry ranked somewhat higher in the social scale, consisting as it did of squires and 'squarsons,' descended from that *Sir John Suckling who was once Controller of the Household of Charles the First. Catherine Suckling, wife of *Edmund Nelson, and mother of Horatio Nelson, was, as has been said, a daughter of the Rev. *Maurice Suckling, D.D., Prebendary of Westminster, and Rector of Barsham and Wooten; and Dr. *Maurice Suckling was a son of *Robert Suckling, who had estates at Wooten, near Bungay, and who seems to have been of some small consequence in his county. 7 *Catherine Nelson died on the 26th of December, 1767, aged forty-two, and lies buried at Burnham Thorpe.