Derek Hindle

Sophia – Captain Kelly’s Daughter is a fascinating romantic novel based on the true life story of the famous explorer and adventurer’s eldest surviving daughter. It shows how her life was dramatically changed by the death of her mother Elizabeth Kelly in 1831, due to the demanding responsibilities that fell upon her, in caring for Captain Kelly’s younger children. Yet, despite her own feelings, she faithfully kept her word to her dying mother, to be a help to her father, even though she had to wait some considerable time before she could marry the man of her own choice. Hobart Town during its first fifty years of settlement is the background of most of the novel, yet it ends with her life and death in Freemantle, Western Australia, where Sophia and her children follow her husband Henry Ashton, who becomes the Assistant Commissary General in Charge at Freemantle Commissariat in 1861.