IN regard to his wife,* she was no ordinary woman. Every day she worked just like her husband, and did everything in an ordinary and modest way, and with a pleasant face; and she spoke respectfully to the poor just the same as to the rich; and she always liked to study the Malay language, inquiring diligently what the Malays said for this and that; and she wrote down whatever she saw.
When her husband was going to do anything or buy something, he spoke first to his wife about everthing, and if she approved, it was done. From her behaviour and her diligence it seemed to me just as if it were she that was responsible for the work of her husband, and as if she were her husband’s helper. God has joined them together, and they are suitable for one another, like a king and his counsellor, like a ring and its setting, and like sugar and milk. This ought to be an example for the people of all subsequent ages to follow.
abridged
This was Olivia, his first wife, Olivia Mariamne Devenish, widow of a surgeon from Madras. She was ten years older than Stamford. She died, to Stamford’s lasting grief, in 1814. Three years later he married Sophia Hull, while he was back in England following a stint as Lieutenant-Governor of Java.