informations are right, she was married to Dr. Swift in the year 1716, by Dr.
Ashe, then Bishop of Clogher." Ten years earlier, in 1742, in a letter to
Deane Swift which I have not seen quoted before, Orrery spoke of the advantage
of a wife to a man in his declining years; "nor had the Dean felt a blow, or
wanted a companion, had he been married, or, in other words, had Stella
lived." What this means is not at all clear. In 1754, Dr. Delany, an old
friend of Swift's, wrote, in comment upon Orrery's Remarks, "Your account of
his marriage is, I am satisfied, true." In 1789, George Monck Berkeley, in
his Literary Relics, said that Swift and Stella were married by Dr. Ashe, "who
himself related the circumstances to Bishop Berkeley, by whose relict the
story was communicated to me." Dr. Ashe cannot have told Bishop Berkeley by
word of mouth, because Ashe died in 1717, the year after the supposed
marriage, and Berkeley was then still abroad. But Berkeley was at the time
tutor to Ashe's son, and may therefore have been informed by letter, though it
is difficult to believe that Ashe would write about such a secret so soon
after the event. Thomas Sheridan, on information received from his father,
Dr. Sheridan, Swift's friend, accepted the story of the marriage in his book
(1784), adding particulars which are of very doubtful authenticity; and
Johnson, in his Lives of the Poets, says that Dr. Madden told him that Stella
had related her "melancholy story" to Dr. Sheridan before her death. On the
other hand, Dr. Lyon, Swift's attendant in his later years, disbelieved the
story of the marriage, which was, he said, "founded only on hearsay"; and Mrs.
Dingley "laughed at it as an idle tale," founded on suspicion.

Sir Henry Craik is satisfied with the evidence for the marriage. Mr. Leslie
Stephen is of opinion that it is inconclusive, and Forster could find no
evidence that is at all reasonably sufficient; while Mr. Stanley Lane-Poole,
Mr. Churton Collins, and others are strongly of opinion that no such marriage
ever took place. A full discussion of the evidence would involve the
consideration of the reliability of the witnesses, and the probability of