[1] https://www.officialdata.org/1860-GBP-in-2017?amount=225
While she rented in a poor area, would 17 pounds have been on the high end or low end for the kind of living quarters it got her? What were the price levels in general for food, clothes and so on? You'd have to look at rent levels in that area at the time to make an accurate assertion.
> Even with all this misfortune, all of them seem to have done well later.
They clearly did. One unanswered question is what the intentions were behind her petition to take her children on the Bengal Military Orphan Society. Was there a real hard pressure to take such a drastic measure? Or was this a desperate plea in hopes of drawing attention and financial help from elsewhere e.g. erstwhile social circles she frequented?
Ultimately, the article does mention that the petition was denied, yet doesn't answer how she made ends meet in the following three years before the family moved again.
Two things to keep in mind though. First, despite the Federal minimum, many states and localities have much higher minimums, for the reason that the Federal minimum is insufficient to live off of in many places. For example, San Francisco, has a minimum of $16.99/hr. or about £29,265 p.a., very close to Mrs. Laing's pension.
Second, whether it's the Federal or San Francisco minimum, it's at best barely sufficient even for a single person. Mrs. Laing had a family of eight people. The US national poverty threshold for a family of 8 is $40K (£33,249) [0], so her by those standards her family would indeed be very poor.
[0] https://aspe.hhs.gov/topics/poverty-economic-mobility/povert...
(Foreigner here, I don't have the minimum wage in the US super clear)