Marriage
Sometime early in his tenure in Scotland, certainly between 1805–1807, William Halifax met and courted Susan Grant, a grandniece of General James Grant, a soldier that Halifax admired greatly. They became engaged in 1807 and traveled from Scotland to Suffolk where she caught fever and died. Little is known about Susan Grant. Based on the painting that survives of her, she appears to have been a retiring brunette who was slightly overweight. She is buried in the Halifax family plot and her tomb lists her as a Halifax who had been a member of the family for a short time. There are no records of an official marriage between William and Susan. However the grave certainly seems to confirm family legends that William married Susan on the last day of her life.
The death of Susan Grant Halifax changed William dramatically. Before her death, William came off as a pleasant young officer who was something of a dreamer. After her death, based on contemporary descriptions, Halifax became something of a stern soldier, dedicated to King, Country and Duty. The death of his father in 1806 may have also affected his personality as he seemed to take on many of his father’s characteristics. In 1807, Halifax purchased a First Lieutenancy, probably after the death of Susan Grant Halifax. In 1810, he purchased a Captaincy.
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Famous quotes containing the word marriage:
“But most thro’ midnight streets I hear
How the youthful Harlots curse
Blasts the new-born Infants tear
And blights with plagues the Marriage hearse”
—William Blake (1757–1827)
“With my desire to write he seemed in full sympathy, and in urging our early marriage he argued that my first necessity was leisure in which to develop and to master my craft. It appeared to me that with such a man as teacher and guide I could not fail, and it was in a queer mixture of young love and vaulting ambition that I became a wife.”
—Rheta Childe Dorr (1866–1948)
“A marriage based on full confidence, based on complete and unqualified frankness on both sides; they are not keeping anything back; there’s no deception underneath it all. If I might so put it, it’s an agreement for the mutual forgiveness of sin.”
—Henrik Ibsen (1828–1906)