12. The Abduction of a Rich Heiress
Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s rich heiress wife died soon after childbirth in 1820. Although he was now financially comfortable, Wakefield wanted more money to launch a political career. In his quest for more wealth, the widower went back to what had worked for him before: find a rich heiress, and marry her. That quest eventually led him in 1827 to Ellen Turner, the only child of a wealthy textile manufacturer. However, Ellen was only fifteen, and there was zero chance that her father would consent to the marriage. Undaunted, Wakefield hatched a plot with his brother to elope with Ellen, in the expectation that her rich parents would eventually relent and respond as his first wife’s wealthy parents had.
Accordingly, Wakefield sent a carriage to Ellen’s boarding school in Liverpool, with a message to the headmistress that stated that the girl’s mother was on death’s door, and wanted to see her daughter immediately before she expired. Ellen was taken from her school to a hotel in Manchester, where Wakefield did not spin any tales of love or try to seduce her. Instead, he told her that her father’s business empire had collapsed and that Mr. Turner was now a fugitive, on the run from his creditors.