Needless anxiety, one would think, on the part of the good Highland
lady, for the temptation to leave religion out of any of his activities
can scarcely have assailed David. We read that when Elsie's grandfather
had returned from the East to England he used to give missionary
addresses, not, one would think, a common form of activity in a retired
servant of the East India Company. One hears this note of genuine
religion in the lives of those forebears of Elsie's.
[Illustration: Lady D'Oyly Mrs. Lowis Mrs. Thompson (Elsie's
Grandmother)
THE MISSES FENDALL
FROM A DRAWING IN THE POSSESSION OF BRIGADIER-GENERAL C. FENDALL, C.B.,
C.M.G., D.S.O., ETC.]
"The extraordinary thing in all the letters, whether they were
written by an Inglis, a Deas, or a Money, is the pervading note of
strong religious faith. They not only refer to religion, but often, in
truly Scottish fashion, they enter on long theological dissertations."
David married Martha Money. Close to Martha on the stage stands her
brother, William Taylor Money, Elsie's great-uncle. We greet him gladly,
for he was a man of character. He was a friend of Wilberforce, and a
Member of Parliament when the Anti-Slavery Bill was passed. Afterwards
"he owned a merchant vessel, and gained great honour by his capture of
several of the Dutch fleet, who mistook him for a British man-of-war,
the smart appearance of his vessel with its manned guns deceiving them."
There is a picture in Trinity House of his vessel bringing in the Dutch
ships. Later, he was Consul-General at Venice and the north of Italy,
where he died, in 1834, in his gondola! He had strong religious
convictions, and would never infringe the sacredness of the Sabbath-day
by any "secular work." In a short biography of him, written in 1835, the
weight of his religious beliefs, which made themselves felt both in
Parliament and when Consul, is dwelt on at length. A son of David and
Martha Inglis, John Forbes David Inglis, was Elsie's father. John went
to India in 1840, following his father's footsteps in the service of the
East India Company. Thirty-six years of his life were spent there, with
only one short furlough home. He rose to distinction in the service, and
gained the love and trust of the Indian peoples. After he retired in
1876 one of his Indian friends addressed a letter to him, "John Inglis,
England, Tasmania, or wherever else he may be, this shall be delivered
to him," and through the ingenuity of the British Post Office it was
delivered in Tasmania.
Elsie's mother, Harriet Thompson, went out to India when she was
seventeen to her father, George Powney Thompson. She married when she
was eighteen.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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