 The Reverend Edmund Nelson was Rector of Hillborough and of Burnham Thorpe in that county and married Catherine Suckling, whose maternal grandmother Mary was the sister of Robert Walpole and of Horatio Walpole, 1st Baron Walpole of Wolterton.Their fifth but third-surviving son was the renowned naval commander Horatio Nelson.William married first Sarah Yonge on 9 November 1786.