Page:Notes and Queries - Series 12 - Volume 3.djvu/457

 12 S. III. OCT., 1917 ]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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family living of the Nelsons, held between 1736 and 1756 by the grandfather and father of Horatio Nelson, and afterwards by his .uncle, the Rev. Robert Rolfe. The 'last- named was incumbent when the Rev. Wm. Yonge became Vicar of Swaffham in 1779, and, from all accounts, very friendly rela- tions between the two families were at once established. Meanwhile William Nelson (on whom an earldom was conferred after his brother's death at Trafalgar), after taking orders at Christ's College, Cambridge, and serving as his father's curate, applied to Horatio in 1781 to go with him as chaplain of the* Albemarle, when the latter wrote : " The more I see of chaplains of men-of-war, the more I dread seeing my brother in such a, situation."

But William, undeterred, mooted the subject again when his brother was ap- pointed to the Boreas. Horatio replied in March, 1784 :

" I do not see how you can possibly remove from Burnham. . . .my father at Bath.... and your own- good sense must point this out as an improper moment. But should I remain in England till June, when most probably our father will be settled for the summer at Burnham, then, I think, there can be no possible objection to your taking the trip for a few months, and return lo keep our father and sister company at that lonesome place."

The elder brother's determination, however, prevailed, for on April 24 Horatio said : " Come when you please ; I shall be ready. Bring your canonicals, but not any Burnham servants."

Despite Horatio's strictures on naval chaplaincies, the cruise in the Boreas seems to have been a success, and although William duly went home for the winter in a merchant ship, he evidently intended to return to the West Indies, and his name appeared upon the Boreas' s books until she was paid off. The illness of Mr. Rolfe, however, and his death in May, put an end to the project, and the living of Hilborough was filled by W'illiam Nelson, who then became a very irequent visitor 'at the Yonges'. " Pray Temember me to your next-door neighbours," "wrote Horatio ; "I am sure you are very -attentive to them." The result of these " attentions " was William's marriage at Swaffham on Nov. 9 to the Vicar's sister Sarah (born 1749, died 1828) ; and on receipt of the news Capt. Nelson wrote :

" I received your letter a few days ago. . . .So, "then, you are at last become an husband ! It is, I have no doubt, the happiest (or otherwise) state. I do most sincerely partake of your happiness in being united to an amiable woman."

The family letters all show that Mrs. William Nelson deserved the title of " amiable," and that she soon earned the affection of her husband's sisters, and the esteem of his father. " The little woman," as they called her to each other, would " draw herself up " and look dignified when they ridiculed her rather pompous husband. " William and his notable wife," wrote old Mr. Xelson, " are busy with their harvest ; and perfectly happy, with two fine children." These were "Charlotte, born Sept. 20, 1787, and Horatio, born Oct. 26, 1788. It should be remembered that the initials of this child were the same as those of his uncle and godfather, Capt. Horatio Nelson, so that nothing was more natural, when in due time " young Horace " went to school with William Johnson Yonge, his senior by three years, than that the trunk, with H. N. upon its lid, should be given to him, and thus, possibly, drift into his cousin's possession.

On the paying-off of the Boreas in the autumn of 1787, Capt. Nelson, now himself " an husband," took his bride to reside with his father at Burnham Thorpe, and prac- tically there remained until the outbreak of war in 1793 again sent him to sea in the February of that year. He was appointed to the Agamemnon, and took with him, besides a number of Norfolk men among the crew, Maurice William Suckling, who had served in the Boreas, and for midshipmen William Bolton and William Hoste. Upon her husband's departure Mrs. Horatio Nelson proceeded to Hilborough to stay with the rector and to look out for lodgings at Swaffham, " where she means to reside," wrote her father-in-law. She took the parting very much to heart, and the choice of a residence would be guided by the fact that so many of her husband's relations and friends lived in and? around the town notably his aunt, Mrs. Rolfe, with her daughter Ellen ; and his cousin the Rev. Robert Rolfe, who was not far off at Saham, with his " richly dowered wife the widow Mott." Then there were the Yonges, the Days, Framinghams, Hamonds, and " Mr. Johnson," and frequently the Rev. Denys Yonge (who married a great friend of the Nelsons Charlotte, daughter of a Norfolk cleric, the Rev. C. Langford).

" I should like all your Hilborough and Swaffham news," wrote Capt. Xelson, "because it is more difficult to get. I hope, if you see Hoste's father, that you will say what a good young man he is. .,. .1 love him dearly. '

During her husband's prolongedfabsences at sea Mrs. Horatio Nelson passed the greater