Horatio Nelson, Biography Page 1
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Horatio Nelson, biography Page 1 frigate Dolphin, emaciated and depressed, to learn Horatio Nelson (1758–1805), by Sir William that his professional prospects had strikingly Beechey, 1800 improved: his uncle had become controller of the Nelson, Horatio, Viscount Nelson (1758–1805), navy. Immediately he was appointed acting naval officer, third surviving son (out of a family lieutenant of the Worcester. In April 1777 he of eleven) of the Revd Edmund Nelson (1722– passed his examination for lieutenant at the Navy 1802), rector of Burnham, and his wife, Catherine Office—the controller, as usual, presiding at the (1725–1767), daughter of Maurice Suckling, examining board. Next day he received his prebendary of Westminster, was born at Burnham commission as second lieutenant of the frigate Thorpe, Norfolk, on 29 September 1758. His Lowestoffe (Captain William Locker), bound for father's family were Norfolk clergymen; his Jamaica. Locker was a pupil of Sir Edward Hawke mother was a great-niece of Sir Robert Walpole and an admirer of his bold and aggressive tactics. and a cousin of Horatio, second Lord Walpole, He and Nelson became warm friends, and in later who was the boy's godfather. She died when he life Nelson acknowledged Locker as his formative was nine, leaving his father to bring up eight professional influence. children on a small income. Horace, as he was The Lowestoffe's initial task in the West Indies called at home, went to the Royal Grammar was to enforce the blockade of the rebellious School at Norwich, then Sir John Paston's School American colonies, but in February 1778 war at North Walsham. broke out with France. A new commander-in- Early service, 1770–1792 chief, Sir Peter Parker, made the controller's In the autumn of 1770 the Falkland Islands crisis nephew an officer of his flagship with a view to led to naval mobilization, and Nelson's uncle, further advancement. His relief in the Lowestoffe Captain Maurice Suckling, was appointed to was Lieutenant Cuthbert Collingwood. In October command the 64-gun Raisonnable at Chatham. Nelson learned that his uncle had died, but by then The boy was keen to go to sea, and on 1 January Parker had seen enough of Nelson to judge his 1771 he joined the ship at Chatham. Presently the merit for himself. In December he became crisis was resolved and most of the navy paid off, commander of the brig Badger, patrolling the but Captain Suckling was appointed to the Mosquito Shore. In June 1779 he was promoted guardship Triumph, lying in the Thames. This was captain of the frigate Hinchinbrook. By the age of no place to learn seamanship, so Suckling sent his twenty-one he had risen as far, and as fast, as nephew on a voyage to the West Indies in a talent or influence could carry a sea officer, for merchantman commanded by one of his former promotion to flag rank was strictly by seniority, petty officers. He returned fourteen months later, from the top of the captains' list. on the way to being an experienced seaman, and In the absence of his new ship, Nelson took with a prejudice against the navy which took him command of part of the harbour defences of Port some time to overcome. In 1773 he managed to Royal against an expected French attack. On 1 get himself taken by Captain Skeffington September he took over the Hinchinbrook and Lutwidge of the Carcass, one of two ships sent to sailed for the Mosquito Shore again. Britain was test the possibility of an ice-free passage across the now at war with Spain, and Major-General John north pole. They barely escaped from the ice north Dalling, the governor of Jamaica, prepared a of Spitsbergen, and the young Nelson barely scheme to attack Central America by a force to escaped from a polar bear on an unauthorized ascend the Rio San Juan in boats from the expedition from his ship. Soon after their return to Mosquito Shore to Lake Nicaragua. Being now England in October 1773 Nelson joined the frigate familiar with that coast, Nelson was appointed to Seahorse going out to the East Indies. In her he escort the troops to their landing. The convoy served two years, visiting Madras, Calcutta, reached the bar of the San Juan on 24 March 1780. Ceylon, Bombay, and Basrah. In the autumn of Experience soon demonstrated the soldiers' 1775 he fell gravely ill and almost died. He inability to handle their boats, so Nelson with fifty returned to England in September 1776 aboard the sailors and marines volunteered to accompany Horatio Nelson, biography Page 2 them. The river was low in the dry season and the almost all of which came from American ports in passage difficult, but on 10 April they reached the American ships. The intention of the British fort of San Juan, the only substantial defence of government was that British, Irish, or Canadian the river. Nelson was for an immediate assault, but producers and shippers should benefit at the the soldiers insisted on a regular siege, which took expense of the Americans—and of the West India eighteen days. By the time the Spaniards planters, who faced a tripling of their costs, if not surrendered the rains had begun and most of the actual famine. In practice it was impossible to British were dead or dying of tropical fevers. divert the flow of trade overnight, and since no Nelson was among the sick, and was dispatched transitional arrangements had been provided for, downriver by canoe. He arrived at Jamaica near means had to be found to circumvent the acts and death, and in September, still very ill, he was sent allow American ships to bring in their to England under the care of his friend Captain indispensable cargoes. Nelson arrived to find that William Cornwallis of the Lion. two young frigate captains, the brothers Cuthbert After convalescing at Bath, Nelson visited his and Wilfred Collingwood, had already begun to family at Burnham, and in the autumn took disrupt these arrangements by applying their command of the frigate Albemarle, escorting standing orders to the letter, and he convoys in the North Sea. In April he took a enthusiastically joined them. This led to convoy across the Atlantic to the St Lawrence, immediate clashes with the naval commander-in- then cruised off Boston, where he had a narrow chief, Sir Richard Hughes, and the governor of escape from a squadron of four French ships of the Antigua, General Sir Thomas Shirley, in which line. In September 1782 he was at Quebec, where Nelson told them their duty in confident, not to say he fell in love with the daughter of an army officer arrogant, language. ‘Old respectable officers of and with difficulty tore himself away. At New high rank, long service and of a certain life’, York in November he met the king's son, Shirley replied, with some restraint, ‘are very Midshipman Prince William Henry, with whom he jealous of being dictated to in their duty by young was to remain friendly all his life. From there the Gentlemen whose service and experience do not Albemarle went to the West Indies, where in entitle them to it’ (Nelson's Letters from the March Nelson with three other small ships made Leeward Islands, 37–8). Nelson's intemperate zeal an unsuccessful attack on the French garrison of made him very unpopular in the islands and Turk's Island. Soon after came news of peace generated lawsuits which made it impossible for negotiations, and in June 1783 the Albemarle him to go ashore for some time. returned to England to pay off. Nelson was nevertheless able to land at Nevis, There was little employment for a sea officer in where in the spring of 1785 he met the young peacetime, so Nelson decided to use his time to widow Frances Herbert (Fanny) Nisbet née learn French. In October he and a brother officer (Woolward; 1761–1831) , [see Nelson, Frances left for St Omer, where, however, he spent his Herbert], daughter of a local judge and niece of the time mainly with a Miss Elizabeth Andrews, leading planter of the island, for whom she kept daughter of a visiting English clergyman. He house. Indeed he first met her small son Josiah, hoped to marry her, but she was unwilling and he with whom he was discovered playing under a had no money. In January 1784 he returned to table. She was charming and gentle, he was lonely England, still single and monoglot. Two months and susceptible. Soon they were engaged. In later he was appointed to command the frigate November 1786 the arrival of Prince William Boreas, going out to the Leeward Islands. The Henry, now a frigate captain too, ended Nelson's terms of the recent peace treaty with the United social isolation, as the prince insisted on taking States did not modify the Navigation Acts, which Nelson (temporarily the senior officer on the thus forbade American ships from trading to the station) on his tour of the islands. He gave away remaining British colonies. The sugar islands, the bride when Nelson married Frances Nisbet at however, grew very little but cash crops, and Nevis on 11 March 1787. In June the Boreas sailed depended on imported food and raw materials, for home, soon followed by Mrs Nelson in a Horatio Nelson, biography Page 3 merchant ship. Nelson and his wife spent the next Corsica or blockading the coast of Provence, five years in England on half-pay, much of the refitting as necessary at Leghorn, where Nelson time with his father in Norfolk.