Late At Night

In the Hyde County Superior Court of Law for the Spring Term in 1848, Christopher C. F----- had a complaint. He stated that some time in or about the year 1822 in Craven County he was married to Sarah F------. He said “… that Said Marriage took place late at night when your petitioner was in a state of intoxication, and was greatly imposed upon, but when he became sober, and learnt what had taken place, he determined to endeavour to live with his wife, and hoped that he might be enabled to enjoy that happinefs and filicity (sic) which usually attends the married State, but in this most reasonable expectation, Your Patr. was greatly disappointed for in a very few months after his marraige (sic) he found that his wife was corrupt in her disposition and inconstant in her habits.”

Cartoon taken from July 1851 Harper's New Monthly Magazine. 

 

[Source: Hyde County Superior Court Records, North Carolina Division of Archives, Raleigh, NC. First published in the Hyde County Historical Society Journal, High Tides, Fall Issue, 1980, page 9.]