Background
Catherine was born on 9 May 1725 in Barsham, the oldest child and only daughter of the Reverend Doctor Maurice Suckling, the rector of Barsham and Woodton, and a prebendary of Westminster. Her father died when Catherine was five, and her mother Ann took the family to live at Beccles. 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.
Career
Catherine had 11 children of which Nelson was the third surviving son. 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. 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.
Horatio was nine when his mother died, but remembered her with fondness.
He recalled a line from Henry V 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.