Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘from your affectionate Mother’, to Sophia, her daughter, hoping the weather allows Sophia and Sarah to visit the Dockyard, now under Admiral Parker, “who knew your dearest Father and will no doubt recollect his plans for the arrangement [for stacking] of the Timber”, recalling times with her husband, the uncertainty of life at 80, etc. 4 pp. sm. 8vo, in good condition, folds. 26 July 1853. Sophia Kingdom (1775-1855) met Marc Isambard Brunel (1769–1849) at Rouen in the early 1790s. In 1793, Marc Brunel had to flee the French Revolution, going to the United States, but Sophia remained in Rouen. During the Reign of Terror, she was arrested as an English spy, and daily expected to be executed. She was only saved by the fall of Robespierre in June 1794. She married Marc Isambard Brunel in 1799. Their children were Sophia (the subject of this letter, who married Benjamin Hawes), Emma, and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the famous engineer.