Early Life
Born in London, Great Britain, in 1796, Wakefield was educated in London and Edinburgh. He was the brother of William Hayward Wakefield, of Arthur Wakefield and Felix Wakefield.
He served as a King's Messenger, carrying diplomatic mail all about Europe during the later stages of the Napoleonic Wars, both before and after the decisive Battle of Waterloo. In the year 1816 he ran off with a Miss Eliza Pattle and they were subsequently married in Edinburgh. It appears to have been a "love match", but no doubt the fact that she was a wealthy heiress did "sweeten the pot", with Edward receiving a marriage settlement of 70,000 pounds, with the prospect of more when Eliza turned twenty-nine.
The now married couple, accompanied by the bride's mother and various servants, moved to Genoa where Mr. Wakefield was again employed in a diplomatic capacity. Here his first child, Nina, was born in 1817. The household returned to London in 1820 and a second child, Edward Jerningham Wakefield, was born. Four days later Eliza died and the two children were thereafter brought up by their aunt, Mr. Wakefield's older sister, Catherine.
Although wealthy by contemporary standards, Mr. Wakefield was not satisfied. He wished to acquire an estate and enter Parliament, for this Mr. Wakefield needed more capital. He almost managed to wed yet another wealthy heiress in 1826 when he abducted 15-year-old Ellen Turner after luring her from school with a false message about her father's health. Wakefield was brought to trial for the case known as the Shrigley abduction in 1827 and, along with his brother William, sentenced to three years in Newgate prison. He then attempted to overturn his father-in-law's will and get his hands on the remainder of his dead wife's money. This did not work either and, in fact, the entire affair did a lot to tarnish his reputation - there were strong suspicions that in order to strengthen his case he had resorted first, to forgery and then, perjury, although no charges were ever then brought to a trial.
Read more about this topic: Edward Gibbon Wakefield
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