On the next day, a motion was made in the House of Lords by Lord Redesdale, for leave to bring in a bill to annul the marriage between Miss Turner and Mr. Wakefield, when, after some discussion, the bill was granted in the usual way, Mr. Wakefield, upon his petition, was subsequently brought from Newgate to oppose the second reading of the bill; but the opposition was fruitless, and it eventually passed both houses of parliament. Messrs. Wakefield afterwards completed the term of their imprisonment; at the conclusion of which they were liberated from the jails in which they were respectively confined.
We are unable to present the reader with any distinct or positive history of the Messrs. Wakefield. At the time of the commission of the offence for the participation in which they suffered so severe a punishment, Mr. E. G. Wakefield was a barrister, and although he was not known as possessing any practice in the profession of the law, he was understood to be in the receipt of an income of about 1000l. a year. He was at this time a widower with two children, having eloped with his first wife from a school. His children were in Paris; but upon his committal to Lancaster Castle, they followed him to that place with their governess. Mr. Wakefield was at that time about thirty years of age, and in a letter which was addressed by a person named Collier on his behalf to the newspapers, he denied the allegation that he was unacquainted with Miss Turner before the elopement, declaring that he had previously met her at a public ball. In the course of the time occupied by the public in the discussion of the case, he put forth a statement of facts, denying that any force or fraud had been used towards Miss Turner; and subsequently, while in Newgate, he published a pamphlet, the object of which was to show that Miss Turner was really his wife, that she was a consenting party to the marriage, and that no ground therefore existed for the divorce. Mr. Wakefield has since become well known in the mercantile world from his connexion with several public companies.
Mr. W. Wakefield at the time of this offence was much younger than his brother, and appears to have acted almost entirely under the directions of the latter. He was married only a few days before his apprehension to a lady entitled to move in the most respectable ranks of society. He has since, we believe, served with honour and credit to himself in the army of one of our European allies, in which he obtained the rank of colonel, and at this time he holds an important trust in a colony newly formed at New Zealand.
The following case, which is mentioned in the Continuation of Rapin, will no doubt prove interesting as illustrative of the circumstances which we have just detailed:—“During this session of parliament (1690, 3rd William and Mary) happened an incident which made a great noise. Captain James Campbell, brother to the Earl of Argyle, on the 14th of November, forcibly seized on Miss Mary Wharton, daughter and heiress of Sir George Wharton, a fortune, as it was said, of 50,000l., and about thirteen years of age. She was carried away from her relations in Great Queen-street, and married against her will. The next day his majesty issued his royal proclamation for apprehending Mr. Campbell and the abettors of this unwarrantable action, and Sir John Johnston being apprehended, was tried, condemned, and executed at Tyburn, notwithstanding great application was made to the king and the relations of the bride to save his life; which was thought the harder, as it appeared upon his trial that Miss Wharton had given evident proofs that the violence Captain Campbell used was not so much against her will as her lawyers endeavoured to make it. Not long before, there was a bill brought into the House of Commons to prevent clandestine marriages, which it was thought this incident would have accelerated, but it dropped. However, another bill was brought into the House of Commons the 4th December, to render void the marriage between Miss Wharton and Mr. Campbell, which, notwithstanding the Earl of Argyle petitioned against it on behalf of his brother, passed both houses by the 13th of December.”
It may be well to state that considerable doubt was at first entertained as to the nature of the offence committed by the defendants in this case. By an act of 3 Henry 7, c. 2, it was made a capital felony to carry off and marry women, being of substance or heirs apparent, forcibly. There was another statute, 4 & 5 Philip and Mary, which referred to the abduction and marriage of such women without force; but there were subsequent statutes by which those provisions which rendered the offence capital were repealed. The proceedings against the defendants therefore assumed the more lenient form which we have described.
It is only necessary for us further to state, that Miss Turner was subsequently married to Mr. Legh, a gentleman of wealth and consideration in the north of England, but that she unfortunately died in giving birth to her first child.
JOSHUA SLADE.
EXECUTED FOR THE MURDER OF THE REV. J. WATERHOUSE.
THE circumstances attending this atrocious case will be best described and understood by the repetition of the confession of the murderer, while lying in the jail at Huntingdon after his conviction of the offence for which he was executed.
It would appear that the unfortunate gentleman who was the victim of his crime was a person of most eccentric habits. He was possessed of a rectory, at Stukeley, near Huntingdon, of the value of about 400l. a year; and attached to the land which he held was an elegant rectory-house. His habits of parsimony had induced him to give up the occupation of the greater portion of this dwelling as a residence; and he had stored many of the best rooms, furnished as they were, with grain, the produce of his farm. A like feeling had excited in his mind an indisposition to pay taxes for more windows than were absolutely necessary to give light to the apartment which he used; and out of about forty windows in his house, two only were suffered to remain. He lived constantly in the kitchen, without any regular female domestic, and performed the office of cook for himself and his workmen. Every Saturday the reverend gentleman walked to Huntingdon market, a distance of between three and four miles, frequently driving his pigs before him; and after having transacted his farming business, he used to carry home his tea and sugar, and other necessaries for the week, in a basket. His known parsimony appears to have induced the criminal to commit the foul crime of which he was guilty.