Biography of Ann Nelson

Ann Nelson, sister of naval hero Horatio Nelson, was born in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk, on 20 September 1760, the daughter of the local pastor, the Reverend Edmund Nelson, and his wife Catherine (nee Suckling). Ann was baptised seven days after her birth, her sponsors being Mrs. Taylor (the wife of a Dr. Taylor), Mrs. Ann Suckling, her maternal grandmother, for whom the child was apparently named, and an uncle, the Reverend Robert Rolfe.

The Nelson family were physically fragile. Edmund Nelson had inherited a weak and sickly constitution, three of his eleven children died in infancy, and another three (including Ann) died in their twenties or thirties.

Ann Nelson had four older surviving siblings – Maurice, Susannah, William and Horatio – and ultimately three younger ones, Edmund, Suckling and Catherine. Her mother, Catherine Nelson, died in December 1767, and her grandmother Ann Suckling followed within days, passing away on 5 January 1768, leaving her grandchild and namesake an “old purse containing some gold medals.” Thus, throughout her childhood, Ann looked up to her older sister, Susannah (‘Sukey’), as the senior female influence upon her life.

Ann was known to her family as ‘Nan’, ‘Nanny’ and ‘Nancy’ and as an adult was remembered as a quiet and neat-looking person, but we know very little about her. She had some schooling, probably in a school that Richard Bunting had founded in Burnham Thorpe in 1704, when it was situated in “the south end of the malting house.” After 1738 the school was based in the house of whoever performed the duties of schoolmaster. The Reverend Edmund Nelson was a trustee of this local establishment.

Although a man of limited means, who owned neither land nor a significant property, Edmund Nelson was concerned to put his offspring in worthwhile positions upon their completion of basic schooling, and his eldest daughter, Susannah, was placed with a milliner in Bath for a period of three years. On 5 April 1775 the fourteen-year-old Ann did even better, for she was apprenticed to Alice Lilly, a milliner, Free Woman of London and a member of the prestigious Goldsmith’s Company. Lilly had a good reputation, and accordingly asked a high premium of £105, in return for which Ann was enrolled with the Goldsmith’s Company, registered with the Chamberlain’s Court, and committed to an apprenticeship of seven years. Upon completion, she would, upon establishing herself in business, become both a member of the Goldsmith’s Company and a Free Woman of the City of London.

Coming from a tiny and quiet farming community in Norfolk, Ann must have found London an astonishing new world. She was boarded and based in the Capital Lace Warehouse at 9 Ludgate Street on Ludgate Hill, with Sophia Vassmer, who was already two years into her apprenticeship. In February 1777 Alice Lilly sold her business to Mary Jackson, who undertook to complete the training of the apprentices. But Ann’s fortunes changed the following year. She became the beneficiary of two legacies, one from her uncle, Captain Maurice Suckling, R.N., who died of a mysterious illness on 14 July 1778. By his will Ann received £1000. The other legacy seems to have been comparable, because by the time Ann reached her majority in 1781 she had £2000 invested in 3% consols, a sum roughly equivalent to half a million pounds of today’s money.

With such resources Ann had little need of her apprenticeship, and in 1779 Edmund paid another considerable premium to have her released from it. He believed that his daughter was a Free Woman of London, although this was not the case, since she had not completed her apprenticeship. Edmund had, however, several reasons to wish his daughter back home. Now a widower in his later fifties, and of fragile health, he found the company of his older daughters a great support. Susannah, however, married Thomas Bolton, a merchant of nearby Wells, in August 1780, and Edmund may have felt a particular need for the support of Ann, especially as his youngest daughter, Catherine [Kate], was still at home and turning into a lively teenager. Accordingly, for the remainder of her short life Ann was with her father, either in Burnham Thorpe, or in the spa city of Bath, where the parson increasingly spent much of his time in efforts to sustain his questionable health.

One cold evening In October 1783, when Ann and her father were lodging in New King Street in Bath, she left a warm ballroom where she had been dancing and caught a severe chill. Apparently, it quickly turned into pneumonia, and on 2 November, “being weak in body but of sound mind, memory and understanding,” she made her will in the presence of Morgan Nichols, a surgeon, William Edwards, an attorney, and possibly also her father. Ann named her father and older brother Horatio as her executors. Her investments were to be maintained, but the annual income therefrom was to be paid to her father for the term of his life. After her father’s death, Horatio was to sell enough of the capital sum to award £500 to Catherine (Ann’s youngest sibling) upon her attaining her majority; £200 each to Horatio and Susannah (the last award being exclusive of her husband, Thomas Bolton); and £100 each to Edmund and Suckling, Ann’s two younger brothers. The residue was to remain invested to generate income for Catherine until she attained her majority. Some possessions were mentioned as bequests, including a locket with a design inlaid with mother of pearl, to be left to her father.

Ann died on 15 November 1783 and was buried in an impressive tomb in the Church of St. Swithun’s in the nearby village of Bathford with her father and his remaining daughter Catherine present. Ann’s death hit her father particularly hard. Captain Horatio Nelson, who was then in France, wrote a friend on 26 November that “I have been very near coming to England occasioned by the melancholy account … of my dear sister’s death. My father, whose grief upon the occasion was intolerable, is, I hope, better.” Nelson also wrote his brother William on 4 December that “I have not heard from our father since our melancholy loss. My fears from that account are great. Mr. Suckling wrote me the account of that shocking event the 20th of last month. My surprise and grief upon the occasion are, you will suppose, more to be felt than described. What is to become of poor Kate? Although I am very fond of Mrs. [Susannah] Bolton, yet I should not like to see Kate fixed in a Wells society. For God’s sake write what you have heard of our father.” Several years afterwards Edmund Nelson wrote that the death of Ann was “truly lamented by me, her father.”

An interesting feature of Ann’s story is the obvious respect and regard that she had for Horatio Nelson. While neither of her oldest brothers (Maurice and William) were mentioned in Ann’s will, she left Horatio – the third surviving son - a legacy and named him as an executor. She obviously trusted him, above all others, to handle her affairs faithfully. It may be that Ann regarded her oldest brothers as secure and not in need. Maurice had a clerical position in the Navy Office in London, whilst William, a graduate of Cambridge, had been ordained a deacon and priest in preparation for a career in the clergy. But William devoted his life largely to self-advancement, and Ann’s failure to include him may reflect a shrewd assessment of his nature.

Relatively little is known of Ann Nelson, but she has, nevertheless, featured in legend. A claim that whilst in London she might have been seduced by a middle-aged man and given birth to the illegitimate son who became William Robinson (1777-1848), a well-known local historian, was first published in 1904. The story of Ann Nelson’s connection to the Robinsons, however, has no historical foundation.

Dr John Sugden, author of Nelson: A Dream of Glory and Nelson: The Sword of Albion.