Romantic Abduction Story.

Waipukurau Press, Volume I, 15 May 1906, Page 3

Romantic Abduction Story.

.— # — One of the most romantic stories ever associated with Manchester is that of the abduction of Miss Ellen

Turner' to Manchester by Edward Gibbon Wakefield on March 7th.

1826. In conjunction with his brother William, his sister Frances, and Edward Thevant, he got possession of the young lady, who was an heiress, from a school at Liverpool, decoying her by means of a forged letter, which summoned her to see her stepmother. Tins story was afterwards varied. She was brought to the Albion Hotel and ikom thence taken to Gretna Green, where a form of marriage was gone through. She was afterwards conveyed to London, and then to Calais, where she was rescued by her uncle. The Wakefields were tried at Lancaster Assizes in 1827,

and on May 14 of the same year Edward was sentenced to three imprisonment in Newgate, aiia William to three years’ imprisonment in Lancaster Uastle. The marriage was dissolved by Act of Parliament. In striking contrast with this disgraceful affair was Edward Gibbon Wakefields useful after-life. During his term of imprisonment hestudied colonial questions, and afterwards assisted in the colonisation of South Australia. He was private secretary to Lord Durham in Canada in 1838, and managing director of the New Zealand Association. He died at Wellington, New Zealand, on May 16, 1862.