A CURATE'S HEART

 

Herne Bay was the nearest seaside resort to London, offering the usual promenade and a pier, but the lay of the land - rather flat as it was and is - offered slight shelter from the bracing northeast winds. Thus, Victorian Herne Bay never was quite the place to go; nonetheless, many people found it to be "a quiet, respectable, easy-going watering place." Hardly the scene for a disgraceful divorce scandal involving the local curate. 

The Rev. William Lyster Cartwright had been a curate in North Kent for some time, serving in Whitstable and Seasalter and, in 1870, he came to Christ Church, Herne Bay. About a quarter-mile inland from the bay, Christ Church was a large, if squat, building of red brick built in the 1830's. It needed the room as the congregation was quite numerous during "the season."

Gervas Herbert Chaldecott and his wife, Emily, were among the holiday makers in Herne Bay in 1870. They were introduced to the Rev. Mr. Cartwright and soon became excellent friends. Neither Mr. Chaldecott nor Rev. Cartwright enjoyed very good health. Chaldecott was in something like a chronic state of weakness and required the daily attendance of a servant. Mr. Cartwright's malady was a palpitating heart that a local physician warned might give out at any moment. Dr. Gull, the leading London specialist was recommended. Cartwright wasn't strong enough to travel alone. Chaldecott would insist, of course, that his wife accompany their good friend to London. Indeed, the two journeyed to London where they remained for more than a month. Mr. Chaldecott stayed in Herne Bay.

That visit was the central basis for Chaldecott's divorce petition claiming his wife had committed adultery with the young clergyman at both a London Hotel and on several occasions at the Chaldecott home on Carlton Road in Maida Vale. Emily Chaldecott counterclaimed her husband's own adultery with a young woman named Mahala Clark, who was her husband's devoted servant. As for her own conduct, Mrs. Chaldecott said her husband's "willfull neglect and connivance" would excuse her adultery, if any. 

The trial in London Divorce Court offered a field day for those who enjoyed reading such things. The Rev. Cartwright admitted that he and Emily stayed one night at the Marble Arch Hotel. He said they  reached London too late to go on to Maida Vale (another five miles?) Under questioning, Cartwright said, "It never occurred to me to go to another hotel." Further, "It never occurred to me not to get a room directly adjacent to hers." He also admitted spending three nights in the Chaldecott home but only because his heart had gone dicky again; as soon as he was able, he swore that he left Emily's house.

Mr. Chaldecott did not play the part of aggrieved husband very well. His business was stock jobbing but his affairs were in disarray. He preferred not to discuss his health issues but it was suggested that he endured several bouts of delirium tremens. Mahala Clark, the nurse, gave much evidence of the improper familiarities she observed between Mrs. Chaldecott and the curate. But Miss Clark admitted she commonly slept in the same room with Mr. Chaldecott who, of course, often needed her in the night. She also admitted giving birth to a child but she insisted she had been seduced by a man she only recalled as "tall and fair."

Having heard all this over two days, the jury was ready with a verdict but Sir James Hannen, the judge, insisted the highly paid advocates for each of the parties be allowed to have their last say. Having listened carefully, the jury acted within minutes, finding that Mrs. Chaldecott had committed adultery with Rev. Cartwright, but as Mr. Chaldecott had committed adultery with Mahala Clark, he could not get a divorce. This left the Rev. Mr. Cartwright in a rather awkward position. He filed an immediate request that Mrs. Chaldecott, who had not been called as a witness, be summoned as she was willing to deny under oath there had been any adultery with the curate of Herne Bay. Hannen dismissed the request; he had heard all the evidence and he agreed with the jury's finding. 

The Rev. Mr. Cartwright found church employment difficult to secure in the wake of the divorce trial. He served as a chaplain at Aldershot, the great military base in Hampshire. His next church work was at Freshwater on the Isle of Wight. After four years as Vicar of Brockenhurst in the New Forest, he died in 1888 at just 52. He never married. 

How the Vicar Came and Went, a collection of stories of Victorian clergymen in spots of bother is now on sale.