Shrigley Abduction
Encyclopedia
The Shrigley abduction was an 1827 British case of a forced marriage by Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield was a British politician, the driving force behind much of the early colonisation of South Australia, and later New Zealand....

 to the 15-year-old heiress Ellen Turner of Pott Shrigley
Pott Shrigley
Pott Shrigley is a small village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census, the civil parish and village has a population of 220. The nearest town is Bollington to the southwest.The village has a Church...

. The couple were married in Gretna Green
Gretna Green
Gretna Green is a village in the south of Scotland famous for runaway weddings. It is in Dumfries and Galloway, near the mouth of the River Esk and was historically the first village in Scotland, following the old coaching route from London to Edinburgh. Gretna Green has a railway station serving...

, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 and traveled to Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

 before Turner's father was able to notify the police and intervene. The marriage was annulled by Parliament, and Turner married two years later at age 17 to a wealthy neighbour of her class. Both Edward Wakefield and his brother William, who had aided him, were convicted at trial and sentenced to three years in prison.

Background

Ellen Turner was the daughter and only child of William Turner
William Turner (MP for Blackburn)
William Turner was an English Liberal Party politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1832 to 1841.Turner was the youngest of four sons of a family that arrived in Blackburn at the beginning of the nineteenth century and opened a calico printing works at Mill Hill. Turner married his cousin...

, a wealthy resident of Pott Shrigley
Pott Shrigley
Pott Shrigley is a small village and civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire East and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. According to the 2001 census, the civil parish and village has a population of 220. The nearest town is Bollington to the southwest.The village has a Church...

, Cheshire
Cheshire
Cheshire is a ceremonial county in North West England. Cheshire's county town is the city of Chester, although its largest town is Warrington. Other major towns include Widnes, Congleton, Crewe, Ellesmere Port, Runcorn, Macclesfield, Winsford, Northwich, and Wilmslow...

, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...

, who owned calico
Calico (fabric)
Calico is a plain-woven textile made from unbleached, and often not fully processed, cotton. It may contain unseparated husk parts, for example. The fabric is less coarse and thick than canvas or denim, but owing to its unfinished and undyed appearance, it is still very cheap. Originally from the...

 printing and spinning mills. At the time of the abduction, Turner was a High Sheriff of Cheshire
High Sheriff of Cheshire
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...

. He lived in Shrigley Hall
Shrigley Hall
Shrigley Hall is a former country house standing to the northwest of the village of Pott Shrigley, Cheshire, England. It has since been used as a school, when a chapel was added, and later as a hotel and country club.-History:...

, near Macclesfield
Macclesfield
Macclesfield is a market town within the unitary authority of Cheshire East, the county palatine of Chester, also known as the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. The population of the Macclesfield urban sub-area at the time of the 2001 census was 50,688...

. Fifteen years old and an heiress, Ellen Turner attracted the interest of Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield
Edward Gibbon Wakefield was a British politician, the driving force behind much of the early colonisation of South Australia, and later New Zealand....

 in February 1827. He conspired with his brother William Wakefield
William Wakefield
William Hayward Wakefield was an English colonel, the leader of the first colonizing expedition to New Zealand and one of the founders of Wellington. In 1826, he married Emily Sidney, a daughter of Sir John Sidney.-Early life:...

 to marry her for her inheritance.

Edward Wakefield was 31 years old; he had been a King's Messenger (diplomatic courier) as a teenager, and later became a diplomat
Diplomat
A diplomat is a person appointed by a state to conduct diplomacy with another state or international organization. The main functions of diplomats revolve around the representation and protection of the interests and nationals of the sending state, as well as the promotion of information and...

. At the age of 20, he had eloped to Scotland with a 17-year-old heiress, Eliza Pattle. Her parents accepted the marriage and settled £70,000 on the young couple. Eliza died four years later in 1820 after giving birth to her third child. Wakefield had political ambitions and wanted more money. He tried to break his father-in-law's will and was suspected of perjury
Perjury
Perjury, also known as forswearing, is the willful act of swearing a false oath or affirmation to tell the truth, whether spoken or in writing, concerning matters material to a judicial proceeding. That is, the witness falsely promises to tell the truth about matters which affect the outcome of the...

 and forgery
Forgery
Forgery is the process of making, adapting, or imitating objects, statistics, or documents with the intent to deceive. Copies, studio replicas, and reproductions are not considered forgeries, though they may later become forgeries through knowing and willful misrepresentations. Forging money or...

. He appeared to have based his plan to marry Ellen Turner on the expectation that her parents would respond as the Pattles had.

False summons

On 7 March 1827, Wakefield sent his servant Edward Thevenot with a carriage to Liverpool
Liverpool
Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough of Merseyside, England, along the eastern side of the Mersey Estuary. It was founded as a borough in 1207 and was granted city status in 1880...

, where Ellen was a pupil at a boarding school. Thevenot presented a message to the Misses Daulby, the mistresses of the school. (The Misses Daulby were the daughters of Daniel Daulby, a well-known Liverpool collector and author of The Collected Works of Rembrandt (1796).) The message stated that William Turner had become paralyzed and wished to see his daughter immediately. The Misses Daulby were initially suspicious of the fact that Ellen did not recognize Thevenot but eventually let him take her away.

Thevenot took Ellen Turner to Manchester
Manchester
Manchester is a city and metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. According to the Office for National Statistics, the 2010 mid-year population estimate for Manchester was 498,800. Manchester lies within one of the UK's largest metropolitan areas, the metropolitan county of Greater...

 and the Hotel Albion to meet Wakefield. Wakefield told her that her father's business had collapsed, and that Wakefield had agreed to take her to Carlisle, where Turner had supposedly fled to escape his creditors.

The party proceeded to Kendal
Kendal
Kendal, anciently known as Kirkby in Kendal or Kirkby Kendal, is a market town and civil parish within the South Lakeland District of Cumbria, England...

, where the next day Wakefield told Ellen that her father was a fugitive. He claimed that two banks had agreed that some of her father's estate would be transferred to her or, to be exact, her husband. He said that his banker uncle had proposed that Wakefield marry Ellen, and that if she would agree to marry him, her father would be saved. Ellen allowed them to take her to Carlisle
City of Carlisle
The City of Carlisle is a local government district of Cumbria, England, with the status of a city and non-metropolitan district. It is named after its largest settlement, Carlisle, but covers a far larger area which includes the towns of Brampton and Longtown, as well as outlying villages...

. There they met Edward's brother William Wakefield, who claimed to have spoken to Turner and gotten his agreement to the marriage.

Ellen finally consented and the Wakefields took her over the border of Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...

 to Gretna Green
Gretna Green
Gretna Green is a village in the south of Scotland famous for runaway weddings. It is in Dumfries and Galloway, near the mouth of the River Esk and was historically the first village in Scotland, following the old coaching route from London to Edinburgh. Gretna Green has a railway station serving...

, a favored place of elopement for those who wanted to exploit the less strict marriage law
Marriage law
Marriage law refers to the legal requirements which determine the validity of a marriage, which vary considerably between countries.- Rights and obligations :...

s of Scotland. There Ellen and Edward were married by blacksmith David Laing.

They returned to Carlisle, where Ellen said she wanted to see her father. Wakefield agreed to take her to Shrigley, but instead took her to Leeds
Leeds
Leeds is a city and metropolitan borough in West Yorkshire, England. In 2001 Leeds' main urban subdivision had a population of 443,247, while the entire city has a population of 798,800 , making it the 30th-most populous city in the European Union.Leeds is the cultural, financial and commercial...

. Wakefield then claimed he had a meeting in Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

 that he could not postpone, and had to go to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 by way of London. He sent his brother off, ostensibly to invite Turner to meet them in London. Wakefield and Ellen continued to London. In London, Wakefield, accompanied by Ellen, pretended to inquire after his brother and Turner. At Blake's Hotel, a valet told them that Turner and Wakefield had gone to France. Edward Wakefield and Ellen had to follow them, and he took her to Calais
Calais
Calais is a town in Northern France in the department of Pas-de-Calais, of which it is a sub-prefecture. Although Calais is by far the largest city in Pas-de-Calais, the department's capital is its third-largest city of Arras....

.

Suspicions arise

After a few days, Miss Daulby became concerned. Turner and his wife received a letter from Wakefield, stating that he had married Ellen.

Wakefield may have expected that the Turners to accept the marriage rather than face a public scandal. Instead, Turner went to London and asked for help from the police. Learning that his daughter had been taken to the Continent, Turner sent his brother to Calais, accompanied by a police officer and a solicitor. There they soon found the couple staying near the docks.

Wakefield claimed that since they were legally married, Ellen could not be taken from him by force. After interviewing the girl, the French authorities let her leave the country with her uncle. Wakefield wrote a statement attesting that Ellen was still a virgin, and he left for Paris.

Arrest and trial

British police issued warrants for the Wakefields' arrest; William was arrested in Dover a couple of days later. He was taken to Cheshire, where magistrates debated his offence. They committed to Lancaster Castle
Lancaster Castle
Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle located in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of the River Lune. In 1164, the Honour of Lancaster, including the...

 to await trial. The Court of King's Bench later released him on £2,000 bail and two sureties of £1,000 each.

Edward Thevenot and the Wakefields' stepmother Frances were indicted as accomplices. Both brothers and their stepmother appeared in court and pled "not guilty". Thevenot, who was still in France, was indicted for felony in absentia
In absentia
In absentia is Latin for "in the absence". In legal use, it usually means a trial at which the defendant is not physically present. The phrase is not ordinarily a mere observation, but suggests recognition of violation to a defendant's right to be present in court proceedings in a criminal trial.In...

.

The trial of William Wakefield began on 21 March 1827 with great publicity, but without Edward Wakefield, who was arrested later. On 23 March 1827 all three defendants were put on trial in Lancaster. The jury found all guilty the same day. They were committed to Lancaster Castle the following day.

On 14 May the Wakefields were taken to the Court of King's Bench in Westminster Hall in London. William testified that he had acted as guided by his brother. Edward Wakefield swore that the legal expenses had exceeded £3,000. The court sentenced the brothers to three years in prison, Edward in Newgate
Newgate
Newgate at the west end of Newgate Street was one of the historic seven gates of London Wall round the City of London and one of the six which date back to Roman times. From it a Roman road led west to Silchester...

 and William in Lancaster Castle. Frances Wakefield was released. Since the marriage had not been consummated, Parliament annulled it the next day.

Aftermath

After his release, Edward Wakefield became active in prison reform. He became involved in colonial affairs, and had roles in the development of South Australia
South Australia
South Australia is a state of Australia in the southern central part of the country. It covers some of the most arid parts of the continent; with a total land area of , it is the fourth largest of Australia's six states and two territories.South Australia shares borders with all of the mainland...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...

. William Wakefield became an early leader in the colonization of New Zealand, see New Zealand Company
New Zealand Company
The New Zealand Company originated in London in 1837 as the New Zealand Association with the aim of promoting the "systematic" colonisation of New Zealand. The association, and later the company, intended to follow the colonising principles of Edward Gibbon Wakefield, who envisaged the creation of...

.

William Turner was elected MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...

 for Blackburn
Blackburn (UK Parliament constituency)
Blackburn is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The town currently elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election. It has elected Labour MPs since its re-creation in 1955.-Boundaries:The constituency...

 as a Whig in 1832, serving until 1841. At the age of 17, Ellen Turner married Thomas Legh, a wealthy neighbour. She died in childbirth at the age of 19 and was survived by a son.
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