The Shrigley Abduction

  An Unwanted Christmas Present Just before Christmas 1826, a spendidly bound copy of the annual, Ackermann's Forget Me Not* arrived at Shrigley Hall near Macclesfield, home of William Turner, High Sheriff of Cheshire, as a gift for his fiteen-year-old daughter and heiress, Ellen. To the fury of Ellen's family, a close examination of the unexpected gift revealed that it had been sent by non other than the thirty-year-old Lothario, Edward Gibbon Wakefield who was on bail awaiting trial for the audacious abduction of Ellen in March of that year, after which he had carried her off to Gretna Green where he had tricked her into marriage. So as not to encourage any hope that Wakefield might have that Mr Turner would allow the runaway marriage of Wakefield and Ellen  to stand, Mr Grimsditch, the family solicitor, advised that it would be wise to treat the gift as if it had never arrived.                         *Forget Me Not, which was frequently spendidly bound, contained, engr

We're delighted to announce that 'The Shrigley Abduction' by Abby Ashby & Audrey Jones is available to buy once again: this time as an e-book & audiobook! You can buy & download a copy of the Kindle edition immediately - simply click here .... ...and it's also available as an audiobook - click here . Thankyou to the team at Endeavour Media for making this happen!

Fortunately, the recent fire on moorland on the Lyme Park Estates didn't affect Lyme Hall, the mansion house which became the home of Ellen Turner following her marriage to Thomas Legh of Lyme, in 1828.

Ellen Turner was abducted from her boarding school, a Ladies' Seminary in Liverpool, run by the Daulby sisters - almost 50 miles from her home in Pott Shrigley near Macclesfield in Cheshire.                                               That Ellen was a pupil at such renowned school, was evidence not only of her privileged posiion in society but the enlightened and progressive view of education held by her parents, William and Jane Turner.  Girls in her position were usually educated at home by a governess but as her ambitious father's heir, Ellen was being prepared for a marriage equal to her father's expectations.  She received a broad education being tutored in history, reading,writing, languages as well as drawing and music and was, it appears, a model student. By receiving such an privileged education, Ellen was set apart from working class girls, who might be lucky enough receive some form of  basic education from  a Dame or Sunday school.  But compulsory educati

17 April On this day, 193 years ago, Edward Gibbon Wakefield the 'ruthless ravisher' handed himself in to a magistrate in Macclesfield, Cheshire, close to the home of Ellen Turner the 15-year-old school girl and heiress, who just a month earlier he had abducted from her school, before carrying her off to Gretna Green where he had tricked her into marriage.  Wakefield, had then taken his young bride across the Channel to Calais where the authorities eventually caught up with the runaways.  Two of Ellen's uncles, a Bow Street runner and her father's redoutable attorney, Mr Grimsditch arrived with a warrant, signed by Canning, the British Foreign Secretary, for the arrest of Wakefield.  However, whilst Ellen was taken home to Cheshire to be restored to her family, Wakefield chose to remain in France well aware that the British warrant was unenforeceable in France. However, Ellen was a prize too valuable to relinquish so easily.  With an arrogance based on past succes