English: Ledger stones of Rev Edmund Nelson (1722-1802) and of his wife Catherine Suckling (1725-1767), Burnham Thorpe Church, Norfolk. Parents of Admiral Horatio Nelson. On 11 May 1749 at Beccles^[1] in Suffolk, Rev. Edmund Nelson married Catherine Suckling (1725-1767), a daughter of Rev. Maurice Shelton Suckling (d.1730), Rector of Barsham in Suffolk and a Prebendary of Westminster Abbey, a son of Robert Suckling (d.1708) of Wootton in Norfolk and of Barsham, Sheriff of Norfolk in 1701,^[2] nephew^[3] of the poet Sir John Suckling (d.1641), MP, of Barsham, of an ancient gentry family established at Wootton in 1348.^[4] Sir John Suckling sold the manor of Barsham to his uncle, Charles Suckling of Wootton (grandfather of Robert Suckling (d.1708)), probably for the purpose of raising his regiment of horse for the King's service.^[5]

Catherine's mother was (Mary) Anne Turner (1691-1768), a daughter of Sir Charles Turner, 1st Baronet^[6] by his wife Mary Walpole (1673-1701) a sister of Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, the Prime Minister.

Catherine's ledger stone survives in Burnham Thorpe Church, inscribed in Latin as follows^[7] under an escutcheon of the arms of Nelson impaling Suckling:

Conservendae memoriae causa Catherinae Nelson Mauritii Suckling DD filiae nep(o)tis Caroli Turner Baronetti et primae eius uxoris Mariae filiae Roberti Walpole de Houghton Armig(eri), uxoris Edmundi Nelson huius ecclesiae rectoris. 11 liberos sibi peperit supersunt. Conjugali et materna affectione Christiana caritate & vera am(ore) fuit praedita. Obiit Decemb(ris) 26 Ann(o) Salutis 1767 suae aetatis 42. Let these alone, let no man move these bones ("By cause of conserving the memory of Catherine Nelson, a daughter of Maurice Suckling, Doctor of Divinity, a grand-daughter of Charles Turner, Baronet, and of his first wife Mary, a daughter of Robert Walpole of Houghton, Esquire, wife of Edmund Nelson rector of this church. She bore to him 11 children (who) are surviving. She was endowed with conjugal and maternal affection, with Christian charity and with real love. She died on 26 of December in the Year of Salvation 1767, of her age 42")