the management of the Begam's
affairs; but he lost her favour long before her death by his violent
temper and overbearing manners, and was obliged to resign the
management to his son, who, on the Begam's death, came in for the
bulk of her fortune, or about sixty lakhs of rupees. He has two
sisters who were brought up by the Begam, one married to Captain
Troup, an Englishman, and the other to Mr. Salaroli, an Italian, both
very worthy men. Their wives have been handsomely provided for by the
Begam, and by their brother, who trebled the fortunes left to them by
the Begam.[34] She built an excellent church at Sardhana, and
assigned the sum of 100,000 rupees as a fund to provide for its
service and repairs; 50,000 rupees as another [fund] for the poor of
the place; and 100,000 as a third, for a college in which Roman
Catholic priests might be educated for the benefit of India
generally. She sent to Rome 150,000 rupees to be employed as a
charity fund at the discretion of the Pope; and to the Archbishop of
Canterbury she sent 50,000 for the same purpose. She gave to the
Bishop of Calcutta 100,000 rupees to provide teachers for the poor of
the Protestant church in Calcutta. She sent to Calcutta for
distribution to the poor, and for the liberation of deserving
debtors, 50,000. To the Catholic missions at Calcutta, Bombay, and
Madras she gave 100,000; and to that of Agra 50,000. She built a
handsome chapel for the Roman Catholics at Meerut; and presented the
fund for its support with a donation of 12,000; and she built a
chapel for the Church Missionary at Meerut, the Reverend Mr.
Richards, at a cost of 10,000, to meet the wants of the native
Protestants.[35]

Among all who had opportunities of knowing her she bore the character
of a kind-hearted, benevolent, and good woman; and I have conversed
with men capable of judging, who had known her for more than fifty
years. She had uncommon sagacity and a masculine resolution; and the
Europeans and natives who were most intimate with her have told me
that though a woman and of small stature, her 'ru'b' (dignity, or
power of commanding personal respect) was greater than that of almost
any person they had ever seen.[36] From the time she put herself
under the protection of the British Government, in 1808, she by
degrees adopted the European modes of social intercourse, appearing
in public on an elephant, in a carriage, and occasionally on
horseback with her hat and veil, and dining