[Walter de Soysa, son of Charles Henry de Soysa, Sri Lankan tea planter and philanthropist.] Autograph Letter Signed from his wife Maria Albo de Soysa to ?Mr. Powell?, attacking his character and their divorce settlement. With Sinhalese document.

James Samuel Walter de Soysa (b.1880) was one of the children of the vastly wealthy Ceylonese tea planter and philanthropist Charles Henry de Soysa (1836-1890) of Moratuwa and Alfred House, Colombo. An Anglican, he was educated at Cambridge, and was a bencher of the Inner Temple. In 1904 he married Maria Micada Piedra Albo, of a distinguished Spanish family. They lived in London in Kensington, and in Ceylon, where he had his own plantations. The present documents relate to the couple?s separation and divorce proceedings, which were filed in London, which resulted in him keeping the Kensington property and paying his wife and then her sister alimony for life. In 1918 he remarried, and he and his second wife Francis Dora Sirimanna lived at ?Sunnyside? in Moratuwa, and then at properties at Angulana and Gurudeniya. Both items in good condition, lightly aged and worn, each with a few pinholes from previous attachment to one corner of the leaves. ONE: Letter, in English, from J. S. W. de Sousa?s wife to ?Mr. Powell?. Either a transcript or the Autograph Original signed ?Maria Albo de Soysa?. Fully filling 8pp, 8vo, with the conclusing written written lengthwise up a margin. On four loose bifoliums, previously pinned together. Headed: ?Address - / c/o Mrs. G?m? / Glencairn / Colpetty. / 23rd Nov: 1911 / Colombo / Ceylon?. At head of first page is a memorandum dated 18 April 1918, setting out the documents involved in the divorce settlement, with the autograph signature: ?Before me / J. W. Lawrence / A Commissioner for Oaths?, headed ?W. P. 4 / In the High Court of Justice / Chancery Division / Mr Justice Astbury?. Maria de Soysa?s letter begins in histrionic style: ?Dear Mr. Powell / As you are perhaps already aware by this time that Mr. Walter de Soysa after being once more influenced by his own people as soon as he reached Colombo he deserted me & is trying to make the Trust null & void after looking so genuine & in earnest about all what he did of his own wish & will in order to recompense for all the wrongs he has done to me. / Now stranded & deserted as I am in a foreign country away from my home & my own people my only chance of getting any justice in this world lies in trusting you, Mr. Lambert & Dr. G?m?.? After a degree of repetition she explains ?the exact position?: ?I am sent out of his house at the most unearthly hour of night bag & baggage & had to shelter with my friends as there was great danger of my being ill treated & even poisoned & murdered by his own people helping?. She explains how she has had recourse to law and ?a separation through the court for this desertion on his part?. She complains that she may ?lose everything after him & all will go either to his people or one of his mistresses which he picks up a new one every day & which habit is sure to go from bad to worse being left to himself?. She repeats her assertion of confidence in the advice she is being given, and states that de Soysa ?has already sent a notice to Dr. G?m? informing him of anulling of the Trust & has made another will & instead of having the deeds registered for the Trust & handed over to Messrs Julius & Creasy has them registered back in his name?. She asks Powell to ?kindly act in this matter as is needful instead of being out done & cheated by him & his fraudulent lawyers?. She spends the second half of the letter attempting to influence him, while stating that ?it is not for a moment when I write to you this that I have any object in influencing you on my behalf?. Implying that de Soysa may contract syphilis, she states that there is something ?wrong in putting the properties in Trust of a man who has every chance of being one of these days totally blind, & get struck with paralysis & squander all his fortune if left to himself in company of bad women & gambling thereby reducing himself to the condition of a beggar & then be a bruden to me in near future when he will be ?shuned? [sic] & out-cast by his own people as soon as he goes through his whole fortune which he is sure to do as you are already aware of his vicious habits?. Raising the suggestion that she may have contracted his syphilis, she continues with understandable histrionics: ?Stranded, forsaken & robbed, ruined, health with a most gloomy future facing me as to the exact state of my health & suffering therefore being taunted by the most horrible of diseases by the wicked conduct of this man whom I had the misfortune to marry with nothing to be blamed for any of my actions & after leading a straight life even under such trying circumstances?. With a hint of racism she suggests that Powell will do his ?utmost to save me from the great wrong that this foreigner is trying to do by depriving his rightful wife, of all those rights to which she has every claim?. She concludes with more complaints of ?all these wrongs that I have suffered at the hands of this heartless man?, and asking to be saved ?from utter ruin at this man?s hand?. TWO: Document in Sinhalese, presumably related to Item One. 6pp, 4to, on six leaves, with around twenty-two lines to a page apart from the last page of five lines. In ink, with a few emendations in pencil and ink.