This is the story of the notorious abduction in 1826 of Ellen Turner, a wealthy fifteen-year-old heiress, by Edward Gibbon Wakefield, a thirty-year-old British diplomat.
The Shrigley Abduction is a compelling narrative, a story of deception and the lure of 'high society', with a strong Byronic character at its heart. Wakefield was sentenced to three years in Newgate, an experience which profoundly affected him. Upon his release he founded the New Zealand Company and became principally responsible for the colonisation of that country, where he is now a prominent figure. Ellen, on the other hand, died in childbirth at the age of nineteen. Audrey Jones and Abby Ashby have researched all the extant records and have recreated the scandal and outrage surrounding this audacious and cruel act for the first time.
“[A] tale of anguish, deceit and violation of the domestic hearth” – THE TIMES