Be this as it may, however, it
is certain that the Archdeacon for some time found his account in
maintaining friendly relations with his nephew, and that during that
period he undoubtedly did a good deal for his advancement. Sterne was
ordained deacon by the Bishop of Lincoln in March, 1736, only three
months after taking his B.A. degree, and took priest's orders in
August, 1738, whereupon his uncle immediately obtained for him the
living of Sutton-on-the-Forest, into which he was inducted a few days
afterwards. Other preferments followed, to be noted hereafter; and
it must be admitted that until the quarrel occurred about the "party
paragraphs" the Archdeacon did his duty by his nephew after the
peculiar fashion of that time. When that quarrel came, however, it
seems to have snapped more ties than one, for in the Memoir Sterne
speaks of his youngest sister Catherine as "still living, but most
unhappily estranged from me by my uncle's wickedness and her own
folly." Of his elder sister Mary, who was born at Lille a year before
himself, he records that "she married one Weemans in Dublin, who used
her most unmercifully, spent his substance, became a bankrupt, and
left my poor sister to shift for herself, which she was able to do but
for a few months, for she went to a friend's house in the country and
died of a broken heart.
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