The following collection of letters from John Lingard (1) to Mary Frances Sanders (later Mrs Thomas Lomax) has remained
in the possession of her descendants, the Trappes-Lomax family; it has not been used by any previous writer on Lingard. A fuller account of Miss Sanders follows; here it suffices to say that she became a Catholic in 1834, and was in consequence banished from her home and family; she took refuge with a Catholic lady in Lancashire, where she met Lingard. The correspondence (2) began in January 1835; Lingard was then aged 63 and a historian of international reputation; she was a young woman of 20. Despite the difference in ages, their acquaintance soon developed into a close and intimate friendship which continued until Lingard's death.