CURATE INVITES DIVORCE.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LVII, Issue 17459, 1 May 1920, Page 2 (Supplement)

CURATE INVITES DIVORCE.

1 EXTRAORDINARY LETTER. " .' "A MENTAL TORMENT." ;- A cleric ia.ioty crdVwho was deprived of his curacy after an inquiry by the bishop was the writer of * remarkable letter read in the Divorce Court 'when Mrs. Margaret Mary Buchanan, of Ealing, was granted a- decree nisi against her husband, Edgar Simmons Buchanan, formerly a curate at Bridport, Dorsetshire. Mrs. Buchanan, who alleged misconduct and desertion by her husband, said when she w« married she lived with her husband at Ealing. There was trouble over women, but she forgave him. He was deprived of his curacy, though not his holy orders, after an inquiry by the bishop. "When war : .>roke . out he went to America, and liter, Mrs. Buchanan heard that he had obtained a divorce there and married a woman named Jane Sinclair. From America she received a letter, in which her husband wrote :— "Our marriage has been a mental torment to me from the first. How I have borne the treatment God alono knows. The break between us is irrevocable. "I will never live with you again; Our marriage has been* on my part one long hypocrisy, and it is time it came to an end, for all hypocrisy is hateful to God and man." I At this point the following letter, addressed to the court, was read by Mr. j justice Horridge :— I "Your Worship,—l enclose beneath the petition of my sc-called wife, and wish to answer it by a letter to you, as I am unable to appear in person in my native land to answer it face to face with my , enemy. .a., "In Count 3 I am said to have deserted rev wife. "Rather have I been expelled by her cruelty and the attacks of her relations. "Since 1903, when my second child was born, I have had no happiness with my so-called wife. • "In March, 1912. while preaching at St. Paul's Onslow-square, where I was a curate* my wife, with two of her male relatives, entered my study, unlocked my desk, and stole private letters and papers. "Shame on the English Law!" •They accused me of being a hypocrite fend leading a double life, and committing adultery with a young school teacher. "That was the culmination of much insult too meekly borne. ' "These was no truth in the accusation. I hare been pure all my life. "On the advice of my sister, I left my wife in 1912, and went to New Zealand. "I forgave her, but she went on defaming me, sealing my letters, and carrying them to the Bishop of London and others, accusing me of committing misconduct and (jot my name in bad-odour with all the rigidly religious. ; "1 went to America and wrote to a London firm of lawyer* to find out how I could get a divorce and end my fifteen years of suffering. * "He said unless I could prove adultery there no redress by English law. Shame on the English law! ""I applied to an American lawyer, and told him aU my case, and after three vears of collecting sworn testimony I received a decree of divorce in the Michigan Divorce Court.

"My Standing." '"Five -weeks later, in New .York, I married Miss —, a noble woman. -'"She was aware of all I had suffered, and undertook to face the old maids of my "Jean — became Jean Buchanan, and I dwell only witi? Jean Buchanan. "They speak of it as misconduct, pretending not to know of the existence of a second marriage. 'I am one of England s greatest scholars trained by one of England s greatest men. Bishop Wordsworth, my foster-father. ."The enclosed paper will show my stand : in the world of theological learning. _, , ... - "What vou decree will go down to history with" my name, and may God give von guidance, grant a divorce, and the jie. but let me keen my children." Evidence of Mr. Buchanan's misconduct at Higbgate was given.