Andrew Behan has researched Sotheran: Rosetta Sarah Ann Hunot was born on 3 January 1834 in the Pentonville district of London, the youngest of the three children of Samuel Man Hunot and Ann Hunot née Turner. Her father was a Watchmaker. Both her brother and sister died before she was born. She was baptised on 30 March 1834 at the Pentonville Chapel in the parish of St James, Clerkenwell. The 1841 census shows her living with her parents in Rathbone Place, St Pancras, London and the 1851 census shows them at 28 Rathbone Place, St Pancras, this time with a domestic servant.
On 4 June 1860 she married Henry Sotheran in the Parish Church, Melcombe Regis, Weymouth, Dorset. Her address was given as Melcombe Regis and his as Lewisham, Kent. In 1853 he had purchased the stock and business of E. C. Stibbs of 331 Strand and joined with George Willis to become Willis & Sotheran Booksellers, the largest retail bookseller in London. The company still trades as Sotheran's Rare Books and Prints at 2-5 Sackville Street, Mayfair, less than 100 yards away from where the fountain erected to his wife's memory is located outside St James's Church, Piccadilly.
The 1861 census confirms that they were living at Beulah Hill, Norwood, Croydon, Surrey with a cook and a domestic servant. They had five children, Henry Cecil Sotheran (1861-1928); Herbert Alfred Sotheran who was born on 1 October 1862 and who died the following day; Beatrice Maria Rosa Sotheran (1865-1939); Rosetta Florence Annie Sotheran (1865-1918) and Alice Augusta Gertrude Sotheran (1867-1949).
The 1871 census records that their address was Heathside, Beulah Hill. Her husband was shown as a bookseller employing 22 men and 7 boys and there was also resident at the property a nurse, a cook and a housemaid. The 1881 census shows the family still at Heathside, Beulah Hill, with a cook and a housemaid. The census returns for 1891 show the family members at various addresses. Rosetta and her daughter Rosetta Florence Annie Sotheran were boarding at 'Edgbaston', St Michaels Road, Bournemouth, Hampshire, whilst her husband was at 36 Piccadilly, London with a housekeeper, 3 general servants, a nurse and a messenger. Two of their children, Henry Cecil and Beatrice Maria Rosa Sotheran remained at 96 Beulah Hill, Norwood, whilst their other daughter was boarding at 131 Portsdown Road, Paddington.
She died, aged 58 years on 5 July 1892 at 96 Beulah Hill, Norwood, and was buried on 9 July 1892 at Norwood Cemetery, Norwood Road, Lambeth. When administration of her estate was granted to to husband on 17 November 1892 her effects totalled just £8. When her husband died, aged 85 years, on 30 July 1905 his effects totalled £101,674-6s-6d.
