Guide to the Unprotected in Every-day Matters Relating to Property and Income

Emma Galton
Macmillan, 1863.

Francis Galton's sister Emma Sophia Galton published this short practical book under the name "A Banker's Daughter", though the preface is initialed "E. S. G.".  The book sold respectably and more editions were called for.

A complete transcription of the second edition of the book (1864) has been made available by the Victorian Women Writer's Project.

"Many young people, and especially widows and single ladies, when they first possess money of their own, are in want of advice when they have commonplace business matters to transact. It is not always easy for them to find a friend who will listen patiently to their difficulties, and express no surprise at their ignorance, which has made me see how much a little Manual of this kind has been wanted. Numerous excellent works are published (see p. 121 for a list of them), but the mistake their Authors generally make is in supposing the Reader to know something of business. I write for those who know nothing. My aim throughout is to avoid all technicalities; to give plain and practical directions, not only as to what ought to be done, but how to do it."

"Ladies rarely have any business to attend to before they attain the age of twenty-one. They are usually older when, through their father's or their husband's death, they find themselves possessed of money of their own, and are then first called upon to act. They naturally feel shy and awkward, at that time of life, in asking such a simple question as, How am I to draw a Cheque? How should I write to my Banker to send me some money? I want to sell out of the Stocks, what must I do? How am I to get a Power of Attorney? When once known, a person soon finds that all these things are very simple, and as soon forgets how difficult and strange they once appeared to her. I trust this little book will prove useful to many of those who have yet to learn."

E.S.G.

Emma Sophia Galton.