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The Shrigley Abduction: A Tale of Anguish, Deceit and Violation of the Domestic Hearth
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.
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.
290 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 25, 1996
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
September 14, 2019
Is this about a kidnapping or a biography?
This book is less about the abduction of Emily Turner than it is a biography of Edwin Goodwin. There was some information about the abduction and trial, but the book was primarily about home Edwin went from a quasi-respectable man in France to a low life kidnapper back to a dignitary who had quite an impact in England. I was very disappointed in the book. It was not at what I had anticipated from the description and at best very confusing.
This book is less about the abduction of Emily Turner than it is a biography of Edwin Goodwin. There was some information about the abduction and trial, but the book was primarily about home Edwin went from a quasi-respectable man in France to a low life kidnapper back to a dignitary who had quite an impact in England. I was very disappointed in the book. It was not at what I had anticipated from the description and at best very confusing.
August 11, 2023
I don't often review books I didn't like, but I really feel like this one needed it. I am seriously flummoxed by this book.
I'm giving it 2-stars because I did enjoy the first half of the book. The story is really interesting, and the writing has a lot to recommend it. Very lyrical and reads almost like a fiction book. Quite engaging. However, what I dislike about this far outweighs the good. I forced myself to get through this, which kills me because it started off so strong.
First of all, the title and blurb are deceiving. This isn't about the Shrigley Abduction. This isn't a true crime book. This is a biography about the criminal. It goes into great detail about his grandparents, his parents, and his life, extending far beyond the kidnapping. There are chapters about his family and childhood, leading up to the crime. Then we get chapters afterward about all the incredible things he did after his jail time. While some of that does serve to give context to the crime and some of the post-crime info is interesting, the fact is that we're sold a book about a crime, we kind of expect to get a book that is mostly about the crime.
With that, the book is exceptionally bloated. It didn't need to be that long at all. The reality is that there isn't a ton to the story; the crime and trial span a small amount of time. In order to fill all those pages, we get a long of meandering prose. There's tons of details, most of which are unimportant. Like it talks about how he emigrated to New Zealand, and we get to find out about the kind of bunk he stayed in and how his animals fared on the journey.
While some of that is interesting, it really felt like they were trying to stretch the story as far as it could go. And it is a little hard to follow at times because they dive down every rabbit hole they can. Names are thrown out right and left, and we're given snippets of their stories, despite not really mattering to the plot. There were times when we're knee-deep in some tangent, and I'm not sure what is happening because it's the friend of a friend, who stayed with Edward once, and he served as some assistant to some politician, whose wife's name was Lucinda.
But that could be forgiven because the writing of it all was very engaging and entertaining. The main issue I have with it is the heavy-handed portrayal of the characters. I get that with history there might need to be supposition and filling in the holes a bit, but honestly, I felt like the point of the book was to show what a great guy Edward was and the crime wasn't that bad.
I don't want to go into all the knit-picky details, but for a book that is about a woman who was kidnapped and manipulated, I'm just shocked at how blasé the female authors were. It felt as though they were justifying his actions because he did good things later on in life (despite never admitting he did anything wrong to Ellen). They make it sound like because he didn't hit her or physically abuse her that it wasn't that big a deal. At times, it even felt like they didn't view Ellen as a victim at all.
They were more condemning of her father, talking about him as though he only cared about his daughter because he wanted to marry her off to further his ambition, but that's precisely why Edward kidnapped her. And frankly, there was very little evidence to support that poor portrayal of her father (at least not that they provided).
I get that people are complex, and I do like the fact that they showed some of the great things Edward did later as he is a complex person. Most people aren't all good or all bad. However, it felt like the authors were enamored with the later Edward, and so they portray his younger years (which were awful) as not so bad. He was only a troubled young man, swept up in a hairbrained scheme.
I don't know. This was just disappointing and rather than an unbiased presentation of the facts, it felt like a very skewed interpretation of it.
I'm giving it 2-stars because I did enjoy the first half of the book. The story is really interesting, and the writing has a lot to recommend it. Very lyrical and reads almost like a fiction book. Quite engaging. However, what I dislike about this far outweighs the good. I forced myself to get through this, which kills me because it started off so strong.
First of all, the title and blurb are deceiving. This isn't about the Shrigley Abduction. This isn't a true crime book. This is a biography about the criminal. It goes into great detail about his grandparents, his parents, and his life, extending far beyond the kidnapping. There are chapters about his family and childhood, leading up to the crime. Then we get chapters afterward about all the incredible things he did after his jail time. While some of that does serve to give context to the crime and some of the post-crime info is interesting, the fact is that we're sold a book about a crime, we kind of expect to get a book that is mostly about the crime.
With that, the book is exceptionally bloated. It didn't need to be that long at all. The reality is that there isn't a ton to the story; the crime and trial span a small amount of time. In order to fill all those pages, we get a long of meandering prose. There's tons of details, most of which are unimportant. Like it talks about how he emigrated to New Zealand, and we get to find out about the kind of bunk he stayed in and how his animals fared on the journey.
While some of that is interesting, it really felt like they were trying to stretch the story as far as it could go. And it is a little hard to follow at times because they dive down every rabbit hole they can. Names are thrown out right and left, and we're given snippets of their stories, despite not really mattering to the plot. There were times when we're knee-deep in some tangent, and I'm not sure what is happening because it's the friend of a friend, who stayed with Edward once, and he served as some assistant to some politician, whose wife's name was Lucinda.
But that could be forgiven because the writing of it all was very engaging and entertaining. The main issue I have with it is the heavy-handed portrayal of the characters. I get that with history there might need to be supposition and filling in the holes a bit, but honestly, I felt like the point of the book was to show what a great guy Edward was and the crime wasn't that bad.
I don't want to go into all the knit-picky details, but for a book that is about a woman who was kidnapped and manipulated, I'm just shocked at how blasé the female authors were. It felt as though they were justifying his actions because he did good things later on in life (despite never admitting he did anything wrong to Ellen). They make it sound like because he didn't hit her or physically abuse her that it wasn't that big a deal. At times, it even felt like they didn't view Ellen as a victim at all.
They were more condemning of her father, talking about him as though he only cared about his daughter because he wanted to marry her off to further his ambition, but that's precisely why Edward kidnapped her. And frankly, there was very little evidence to support that poor portrayal of her father (at least not that they provided).
I get that people are complex, and I do like the fact that they showed some of the great things Edward did later as he is a complex person. Most people aren't all good or all bad. However, it felt like the authors were enamored with the later Edward, and so they portray his younger years (which were awful) as not so bad. He was only a troubled young man, swept up in a hairbrained scheme.
I don't know. This was just disappointing and rather than an unbiased presentation of the facts, it felt like a very skewed interpretation of it.
May 11, 2019
A tempest in a teacup
This vintage story concerns the abduction of 15-year-old Ellen Turner by Edward Gibbon Wakefield in 1826.
Wakefield, by means of deception, removed Miss Turner from her school and traveled around the countryside with her, stopping at Gretna Green where they were married. At no time did Wakefield employ force to prevent Miss Turner from leaving. Witnesses agreed that at no time did Miss Turner exhibit any sign of distress but was always cheerful and appeared to hold affection toward Wakefield.
Miss Turner's father, however, was outraged and pressed criminal charges against Wakefield and his "accomplices." The subsequent trial seemed to focus on whether or not the marriage was legal. If it was, Miss Turner could not testify against her husband. Miss Turner was permitted to testify. Since the marriage was later annulled, it would thus seem that it was a marriage in fact and therefore legal.
The whole thing would be an interesting topic of gossip and perhaps a puzzle of interest to legal minds, but I did not think it was worthy of a 290-page book.
This vintage story concerns the abduction of 15-year-old Ellen Turner by Edward Gibbon Wakefield in 1826.
Wakefield, by means of deception, removed Miss Turner from her school and traveled around the countryside with her, stopping at Gretna Green where they were married. At no time did Wakefield employ force to prevent Miss Turner from leaving. Witnesses agreed that at no time did Miss Turner exhibit any sign of distress but was always cheerful and appeared to hold affection toward Wakefield.
Miss Turner's father, however, was outraged and pressed criminal charges against Wakefield and his "accomplices." The subsequent trial seemed to focus on whether or not the marriage was legal. If it was, Miss Turner could not testify against her husband. Miss Turner was permitted to testify. Since the marriage was later annulled, it would thus seem that it was a marriage in fact and therefore legal.
The whole thing would be an interesting topic of gossip and perhaps a puzzle of interest to legal minds, but I did not think it was worthy of a 290-page book.
February 5, 2020
I’m not really sure why this book was even written. It’s true crime, but it’s the most boring true crime I have ever read. Basically, guy easily kidnaps girl from school with fake story. Guy fools girl into marrying him. Girl’s family gets made. Court case declares marriage annulled and another court case convicts guy of kidnapping. And that’s pretty much it. Barely any of the book is on the crime. Most of it is the minutiae of the people involved. So many people who really didn’t have to be mentioned or discussed. It just was not an enjoyable book, but rather was quite tedious for the most part. I don’t really recommend it unless you have some urgent need to learn about this particular criminal case.
June 11, 2019
A remarkable story and a well-written on, right out of a period romance: a 15-year-old heiress and her much older abductor, a merry chase about the countriside in a barouche, a Gretna Green marriage, as well as the rest of the drama, complete with a court hearing and a reformed criminal. The outcome of the plot is somewhat anticlimactic: the heroine marries the man of her father's choosing, then dies in childbirth, while the hero spends 3 years in prison and immigrates to New Zealand. Still, this story seems to have come straight out of Jane Austen's Pride & Prejudice. A highly recommended read for anyone who likes such gossipy tidbits about days long gone.
January 23, 2020
This book doesn't seem to know if it's an academic text or a biography, it certainly doesn't concern itself sufficiently with the abductee but rather is a sort of biography of the abductor even going as far as giving information about his family history, whereas the 'abduction' itself is written about in the most boring fashion imaginable. I read the much better Wedlock a couple of years back, and wish the authors had taken this more literary approach.
April 14, 2019
The authors are to be commended on the thoroughly researched history based on an interesting incident. I admit my mind wandered more than usual as I read this book. I might have done better if I had not listened to my kindle...if I actually looked at names of people and places, maybe my attention would have been better. When I was tuned in I enjoyed the book, so I went with four stars.
November 22, 2020
I didn't finish this book, which is abnormal for me. The writing is an attempt at nineteenth century prose, but reads as overblown and trite simultaneously. The enormity of the block quotes is unnecessary and only exist to make the book longer.
The story, with a decent narrator, would be compelling and interesting. This version, however, is the opposite.
The story, with a decent narrator, would be compelling and interesting. This version, however, is the opposite.
March 6, 2019
Fascinating book!
This book was very interesting. It detailed the abduction of a fifteen year old girl by a thirty year old man and the consequences of that crime. I highly recommend it to other readers interested in true crime as well as English history.
This book was very interesting. It detailed the abduction of a fifteen year old girl by a thirty year old man and the consequences of that crime. I highly recommend it to other readers interested in true crime as well as English history.
June 30, 2019
An historic account
Not my usual read but this book excels as a good account of Love and love lost.With a story line that gives lots of information on the conditions and politics of not only the UK but of Australia and New Zealand life.
Not my usual read but this book excels as a good account of Love and love lost.With a story line that gives lots of information on the conditions and politics of not only the UK but of Australia and New Zealand life.
November 27, 2020
A haphazard tale with a misleading synopsis. It felt like a overlong and turgid research paper as opposed to a well told historical event.
August 2, 2021
Gosford Park, if it was beaten with the boring stick
May 13, 2022
Too many quotes and not enough story
October 30, 2023
Very slow, repetitive. Just wanted it to get on with the tale of the abduction. I couldn't get past the character building.
November 15, 2019
Non sono riuscita a reggere oltre pagina 45. Noiosissimo e prolisso, incentrato maggiormente sul colpevole piuttosto che sulla vittima.
July 7, 2011
I sought out this book because I've been trying to discover What Jane Austen Knew that led her to e elopement-as-social-disaster in more than one of her novels. (I've also read her journals and letters without assuaging my curiosity on this point.)
Well! "The Shrigley Abduction" didn't answer my quest, since its events occurred after Austen's death-- but it's quite a lively read! The utter gall of a fortunehunter who lures a young girl away from her finishing school, lies to her like mad, abducts her to the infamous Gretna Green and marries her. And then there's a pursuit by her desperate family. And a trial. All reflected in rabid interest from the press and the public.
I galloped through this book with tremendous eagerness to know-- will the fortunehunter succeed? Will he be captured? Will there be a trial, and what the verdict? How many lives will be set astray by all this frenetic activity??
Thoroughly researched, with much firsthand documentation, and well written.
Well! "The Shrigley Abduction" didn't answer my quest, since its events occurred after Austen's death-- but it's quite a lively read! The utter gall of a fortunehunter who lures a young girl away from her finishing school, lies to her like mad, abducts her to the infamous Gretna Green and marries her. And then there's a pursuit by her desperate family. And a trial. All reflected in rabid interest from the press and the public.
I galloped through this book with tremendous eagerness to know-- will the fortunehunter succeed? Will he be captured? Will there be a trial, and what the verdict? How many lives will be set astray by all this frenetic activity??
Thoroughly researched, with much firsthand documentation, and well written.
July 3, 2012
Edward Gibbon Wakefield...the sober, crusty, antihero of NZ colonization, I never knew the guy was so intersting!
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews