Burnham-Thorpe, on Michaelmas-day 1758: a place which will be ever
renowned for having given him birth; and a day of annual festivity,
which every Briton has now an additional motive to commemorate.

He was their fifth son, and their sixth child: his eldest sister, Mrs.
Bolton, the amiable lady of Thomas Bolton, Esq. by whom she has a son
and four daughters, being about three years older than her renowned
brother.

There had been a former son christened Horatio, who only survived about
twelve months; and another, named Edmund, after the father, who also
died in early infancy: both of whom are entombed in Hilborough church.

The name of Horatio, or Horace, which is thus once more destined to live
for ever honoured, was doubtless adopted, and persisted in by Mr. and
Mrs. Nelson, as a compliment to the memory of their noble relative, the
first Lord Walpole; brother of the highly celebrated Sir Robert Walpole,
afterwards first Earl of Orford. It was then little imagined, even by
the boundless partiality of parental affection, looking forward to
sanguine hopes of a powerful family patronage, that this infant could
ever possibly live to eclipse all the glory of his most brilliant
ancestors!

The name of Maurice, after Dr. Maurice Suckling the grandfather, and his
son Captain Maurice Suckling, had been previously given to another son,
born May 24, 1753: who held a situation in the Navy Office, and died so
recently as the year 1801, three days after receiving news of the battle
of Copenhagen; leaving a widow, but no issue.

Had this last gentleman survived his illustrious brother, he would, of