Background
Ellen Turner was the daughter and only child of William Turner, a wealthy resident of Pott Shrigley, Cheshire, England, who owned calico printing and spinning mills. At the time of the abduction, Turner was a High Sheriff of Cheshire. He lived in Shrigley Hall, near Macclesfield. Fifteen years old heiress, Ellen Turner attracted the interest of Edward Gibbon Wakefield 1826. He conspired with his brother William Wakefield to marry her for her inheritance.
Edward Gibbon Wakefield was 30 years old; he had been a King's Messenger (diplomatic courier) as a teenager, and later became a diplomat. At the age of 20, he had eloped to Scotland with a 17-year-old heiress, Eliza Pattle. Her mother 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 and forgery. He appeared to have based his plan to marry Ellen Turner on the expectation that her parents would respond as the Mrs Pattle had.
Read more about this topic: Shrigley Abduction
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