| Sophia Bulkeley | |
| Birthname: | Sophia Stuart |
| Birth Place: | Blantyre, Lanarkshire, Scotland |
| Death Place: | France |
| Occupation: | Maid of honour, courtier |
| Party: | Jacobite |
| Parents: | Walter Stuart Sophia Stuart |
| Spouse: | Henry Bulkeley |
| Relatives: | Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond (sister) |
Sophia Bulkeley (née Stewart; fl. 1660 – 1718) was a Scottish Jacobite courtier in France.
She was a younger daughter of Walter Stewart (or Stuart), the third son of Walter Stewart, 1st Lord Blantyre, M.P. for Monmouth, her elder sister being the court beauty Frances Stewart, Duchess of Richmond.[1] The Stuarts were royalists, and were in exile in France under the Commonwealth.
Sophia returned to England after the Restoration of 1660, and in 1671 became a maid of honour to Queen Catherine of Braganza. About three years later she married Hon. Henry Bulkeley, which placed Sophia in the inner court circles, and, in due course in 1685, she became Dame du Palais to Queen Mary of Modena.[1]
About 1680 it was rumoured that Sidney Godolphin was enamoured of her.[2] In October 1688 she was a witness with Queen Mary at the birth of her son, the young James, Prince of Wales.[1] The Glorious Revolution saw her move with the Queen and Stuart court to France in December 1688.
Sophia remained a Jacobite loyalist, though she had personal reasons to return on occasion to England, something she managed in 1702. She tried to return again to England in 1713, on financial affairs, but was refused papers.[3] She made a final attempt in 1718, which once more failed.
Around 1673, she married Hon. Henry Bulkeley, the fourth son of Thomas Bulkeley, 1st Viscount Bulkeley of Baron Hill, near Beaumaris, and brother of the royalist general Richard Bulkeley. Henry was master of the household successively to Charles II and James II. Henry and Sophia Bulkeley had six children, including:[1]