Description:Sophia Blayney Hickey wrote to the Duke of Sutherland in February 1833. She had been ‘plunged’ into ‘distress’ by the failure of her business in India. She appeals to the Duke that her income ‘all coming from Calcutta’ had ‘ceased’. She was now left desperate unable to support herself and her five grandchildren.
The Duke had assisted Sophia before by ‘putting forward’ her son enabling him to take religious orders. Thanks to the Duke’s support, Sophia’s son now had a curacy, although she informs the Duke that he had not ‘yet been paid’. Without a sufficient income Sophia was ‘left without means of living’ until her children in India could make arrangements to help her.
A second letter from Sophia enclosed within the first thanks the Duke for a donation of five pounds which she writes ‘will be of the most essential service’.