Shrigley Abduction - False Summons

False Summons

On 7 March 1827, Wakefield sent his servant Edward Thevenot with a carriage to Liverpool, 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 Mrs 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 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, 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. 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 to Gretna Green, a favored place of elopement for those who wanted to exploit the less strict marriage laws 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. Wakefield then claimed he had a meeting in Paris that he could not postpone, and had to go to 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.