(16 July 1873 - 15 March 1882)
her death 1 child
F1. Beatrix Ada (1874)
On 16 July 1873 Sophy married James Key Caird (1837-1916), a Dundee jute manufacturer who had courted her for several years. Caird was disliked by her family, who thought him two-faced and were still mindful of Effie's disastrous marriage to Ruskin. However, attempts to dissuade Sophy from going ahead with the wedding were muted by fears of triggering a further collapse of her health.
The Cairds' only child, Beatrix Ada, was born in 1874. The father was notably absent during Sophy’s confinement, thereby intensifying bad feeling with her family. In 1875 he forbade Sophy from staying with Effie on her way to France and, generally, at a time when his business was expanding, he seems to have been both inconsiderate and uncaring towards her.
During her final years, Sophy spent much of her time alone with Beatrix, mostly living between Dundee and Paris.
By then Sophy had become increasingly emaciated (the effects largely hidden from others by the weight of late Victorian clothing) and in 1882 returned to the care of Tuke. She died on 15 March 1882, aged 38. Tuke gave the cause of death as exhaustion and "atrophy of nervous system, 17 years".
Sophy's daughter, Beatrix Caird, who Millais painted in 1879, died in 1888. James Caird subsequently used his wealth to support Ernest Shackleton's Trans-Antarctic expedition of 1914-17 and was a significant benefactor to the city of Dundee. He became a baronet in 1913.