Their marriage had all the appearances of an arrangement made in heaven. He was the son of the second Episcopal Bishop of Connecticut, graduate of Yale, wealthy, an ordained and scholarly minister. She was a beautiful and spirited oldest daughter of Elisha Hart, a prominent Saybrook merchant.
And, on a warm summer day in July 1810, the Rev. Samuel F. Jarvis (1786-1851) married Miss Sarah McCurdy Hart (1787-1863) at St. Michael’s Church in Bloomingdale, New York, his first parish.
But, as sometimes happens, this was a mismatch that was made far from heaven.
How very unsurprising — the Episcopal church in CT seems to have been terminally repulsive for quite a long time.
My favorite line — in the midst of this tale of drunkenness, adultery, and physical abuse of wife and children by the clergy son of the second Episcopal bishop of CT — is this one: “All hope for saving their marriage ended when Sarah decided to become a Roman Catholic.”
; > )
I think that hope was lost a good while earlier.
And this tale, in which divorce was refused even though one party was guilty of alcoholism and abuse, is supposed to make us think that the current divorce structure of “kick ’em out when you feel like it” is [i]perfect[/i]?
I love the term “spirited,” applied in equal measure to women and horses back in the day. 😛