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ing Pendant. In June 1 was removed from the Agamemnon to the Captain; and on the 11th of August had a Captain appointed under me. Between April and October 1796, I was employed in the blockade of Leghorn, taking Porto Ferrajo, the Island of Caprea, and finally in the evacuation of Bastia: when having seen the troops in safety to Porto Ferrajo, I joined the Admiral in St. Fiorenzo Bay, and proceeded with him to Gibraltar; whence in December I was sent in La Minerve frigate, Captain George Cockburn, to Porto Ferrajo, to bring down our Naval stores, &c. On the passage we captured a Spanish Frigate, La Sabina, of 40 guns, 28 eighteen pounders on her main deck, as will appear by my Letter.

For an account of what passed from our sailing from Porto Ferrajo on the 29th of January 1797, to the finish of the Action, on the 14th of February, I refer to the account published by Colonel Drink water. The King for my conduct gave me a gold Medal, and the city of London a gold Box.

In April 1797, I hoisted my Flag as Rear-Admiral of the Blue, and was sent to bring down the garrison of Porto Ferrajo: which service performed, I shifted my Flag from the Captain to the Theseus on May the 27th, and was employed in the command of the inner Squadron at the blockade of Cadiz. It was during this period that perhaps my personal courage was more conspicuous than at any other part of my life. In an attack of the Spanish gun-boats, I was boarded in my barge with its common crew of ten men, Cockswain, Captain Fremantle, and myself, by the Commander of the gunboats; the Spanish barge rowed twenty-six oars, besides Officers, thirty men in the whole. This was a service hand to hand with swords, in which my Cockswain, John Sykes, now no more, twice saved my life. Eighteen of the Spaniards being killed and several wounded, we succeeded in taking their Commander.

On the 15th of July 1797, I sailed for Teneriffe: for the event, I refer to my Letter on that Expedition. Having then lost my right arm, for this loss and my former services his Majesty was pleased to settle on me a pension of £1,000 a year. By some unlucky mismanagement of my arm, I was obliged to go to England; and it was the 13th of December 1797, before the surgeons pronounced me fit for service.

On the 19th of December, the Vanguard was commissioned for my Flag-ship. On the first of April 1798, I sailed with a convoy from Spithead: at the back of [the Isle of] Wight, the wind coming to the westward, I was forced to return to St. Helen's, and finally sailed on the 9th of April, carrying a convoy to Oporto and Lisbon. I joined Earl St. Vincent off Cadiz, on April 29th; on the 30th I was ordered into the Mediterranean. I refer to the printed Narrative of my proceedings to the close of the Battle of the Nile.

On the 22nd of September 1798, I arrived at Naples, and was received as a deliverer by the King, Queen, and the whole Kingdom. October 12th the blockade of Malta took place, which has continued without intermission to this day. On the 21st of December 1798, his Sicilian Majesty and family embarked in the Vanguard, and were carried to Palermo in Sicily. In March 1799, I arranged a plan for taking the Islands in the Bay of Naples, and for supporting the Royalists who were making head in the Kingdom. This plan succeeded in every part. In May I shifted my Flag, being promoted to be Rear-Admiral of the Red, to the Foudroyant, and was obliged to be on my guard against the French Fleet. In June and July 1799 I went to Naples, and, as his Sicilian Majesty is pleased to say, reconquered his Kingdom, and placed him on his Throne. On the 9th of August I brought his Sicilian Majesty back to Palermo, having been upwards of four weeks on board the Foudroyant.

6 i. e. The 15th of October 1799, when this SKETCH was written.

On the 13th his Sicilian Majesty presented me with a Sword magnificently enriched with diamonds, the Title of Duke of Bronté, and annexed to it the feud of Bronté, supposed to be worth £3,000 per annum. On the arrival of the Russian Squadron at Naples, I directed Commodore Troubridge to go with the Squadron, and blockade closely Civita Vecchia, and to offer the French most favourable conditions, if they would evacuate Rome and Civita Vecchia; which terms the French General Grenier complied with, and they were signed on board the Culloden; when a prophecy, made to me on my arrival at Naples, was fulfilled, viz. that I should take Rome with my Ships.

Thus may be exemplified by my Life, that perseverance in any profession will most probably meet its reward. Without having any inheritance, or having been fortunate in prizemoney, I have received all the Honours of my Profession, been created a Peer of Great Britain, and I may say to the Reader, Go Thou, and do likewise.'

October 15th, 1799, Port Mahon.

NELSON.

It may be convenient to state here the following particulars of Lord Nelson's Family in illustration of this "Sketch of his Life," and of many of his Letters. The family of NELSON were settled for several generations in Norfolk, and became connected with the noble house of Walpole in the following manner:-) -Robert Walpole of Houghton, in Norfolk, Esquire, had three sons and many daughters; viz.-1. Sir Robert Walpole, K.G., created Earl of Orford; 2. Horatio, created Lord Walpole of Wolterton, (ancestor of the present Earl of Orford,) from whom, or from his son, Horatio, 2nd Lord Walpole of Wolterton, Horatio Nelson appears to have derived his baptismal name; 3. Galfridus, a Captain in the Navy, who distinguished himself and lost his arm in action, in command of the Lion. Of the daughters, Mary Walpole married Sir Charles Turner, of Warham, in Norfolk, Bart., and their daughter Ann became the wife of Dr. Maurice Suckling, Prebendary of Westminster, by whom she had two sons,

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viz. Captain Maurice Suckling, R.N., (who died in July 1778); and William Suckling, Esq. of the Custom-House, who died in November 1798; and a daughter Katherine, who married, 11th May 1749, the Rev. Edmund Nelson, rector of Burnham Thorpe in Norfolk, (son of the Rev. Edmund Nelson, born 19th March 1722-3, Rector of Hilborough, in that county, who died in 1747). Mrs. Nelson died 28th December 1767, having had eight sons and three daughters, viz.-—

1. Edmund, 2. Horatio, who both died infants.

3. Maurice, born 24th May 1753, a Clerk in the Navy Office, who died without issue, 24th April 1801.

4. Rev. William Nelson, D.D., born 20th April 1757, afterwards Earl Nelson, who married on the 9th November 1786, Sarah, daughter of the Rev. Henry Yonge; and had issue, Horatio Viscount Trafalgar, born 26th October 1788, and died 14 January 1808, unmarried; and Charlotte Mary, wife of Samuel, the present Lord Bridport.

5. Vice-Admiral SIR HORATIO VISCOUNT NELSON AND DUKE OF BRONTE, K.B., born 29th September 1758, married 12th March 1787, Frances Herbert Woollward, only child of William Woollward, Esq., Senior Judge of the Island of Nevis, (widow of Josiah Nisbet, M.D.,) by whom, who died 4th May 1831, æt. 68, he had no issue.

6. The Rev. Suckling Nelson, died April 1799, unmarried.

7. Edmund, died unmarried, 11 December 1790.

8. George, died an infant.

9. Susannah, born 12th June 1755, married Thomas Bolton, Esq., and died 16th July 1813, leaving, besides other children, a son Thomas, who became the second Earl Nelson.

10. Ann, born 20th September 1760, died, unmarried, 15th November 1784. 11. Catherine, born 19th March 1767, and married 26th February 1787, George Matcham, Esq., by whom she has issue.

On the death of William Earl Nelson, without issue male, on the 28th of February 1835, the BARONY of NELSON, of Hilborough, the VISCOUNTCY of MERTON and TRAFALGAR, and the EARLDOM of NELSON, descended, pursuant to special limitations, to the son of his eldest sister, Mrs. Bolton, viz. Thomas, 2nd Earl Nelson, who dying on the 1st November in the same year, was succeeded by his eldest son, HORATIO, the third and present EARL NELSON.

Mrs. Nelson, the Hero's mother, died on the 26th December 1767, when he was only nine years old. The inscriptions over her Remains and those of her husband

at Burnham Thorpe, have been obligingly sent to the Editor by the Very Reverend and Honourable Dr. Pellew, Dean of Norwich :

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Mauritii Suckling, D. D. filiæ,
Nepotis Caroli Turner, Baronetti,

Et primæ ejus uxoris,
Mariæ, filiæ Roberti Walpole
De Houghton Armigeri,
Uxoris Edmundi Nelson,

Hujus Ecclesiæ Rectoris,

xi liberos sibi peperit, viii supersunt.

Conjugali et maternâ affectione Christianâ charitate et verâ amicitiâ

Fuit prædita.

Obiit Decemb. 26,

Anno Salutis 1767.

Suæ Ætatis 42.

Let these alone-let no man touch these bones."

On a marble slab against the North wall of the Chancel :

"To the Memory of

THE REV. EDMUND NELSON, M.A.,

Rector of this Parish 46 years.

Father of Horatio first Viscount Nelson of the Nile, Duke of Bronte, &c. &c., Who died April 26th 1802, aged 79 years.

This Monument, the last mark of filial duty and affection,

Was erected by his surviving Children."

Among the Nelson Papers are the following Memoranda, apparently in the writing of Lord Nelson's father:

"Edmund Nelson, born at East Bradenham, March 19, 1722-3.

Catherine Suckling, born at Barsham, May 9th, 1725.

Edmund Nelson and Catherine Suckling were married at Beccles, 11 May 1749.

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