A Private Letter

The same day that Richard Hinton received Sophia's first letter, he wrote an emotionally charged note to Realf's sister.

Sarah evidently had recently related more information about “Lizzy,” the mother of Richard’s children. And it appears that Sarah also sent Hinton some letters she had received from her brother revealing a long kept secret, one that Richard shared with her a few years before his death.

Private

Washington, D.C.

March 12, 1879

My Dear Mrs. Whapham—

I return you the letters you enclosed in your last. Don’t tell me any more of Richard’s amours, unless it be to guard against any attacks. I have now fully determined to avoid putting marital troubles in the biography. My reason is that I have this day had a letter from Richard’s wife — the one he married in June 1865 — containing proofs, etc.

She is a lady, and I promised not to intimate her presence hereabouts or name.

It’s all very, very sad. Had I known what I now know, I should not have undertaken the work. But I shall finish, and think I’ll be able to avoid trouble.

Don’t tell Miss Whapham, or anyone but your husband.

Yours truly,

R. J. H.

“Don’t tell Miss Whapham.” Who, a reader might ask, was Miss Whapham?

She was Elizabeth Ann Whapham, Sarah’s husband, John Whapham's, sister. The family called her Lizzy. So did Richard Realf.

It can be supposed that Sarah’s last letter to Hinton finally revealed her family relationship to "Lizzy," and that she had sent on a letter from Realf to Sarah confessing that he had a wife before he married Kate — one that Richard thought was dead.