Shrigley abduction
The
Shrigley abduction was an 1826 British case of a
forced marriage by
Edward Gibbon Wakefield to the 15-year-old heiress Ellen Turner of
Pott Shrigley. The couple were married in
Gretna Green,
Scotland, and travelled to
Calais,
France, before Turner's father was able to notify the authorities and intervene. The marriage was
annulled by Parliament, and Turner was legally married two years later, at the age of 17, to a wealthy neighbour of her class. Both Edward Gibbon Wakefield and his brother William, who had aided him, were convicted at trial and sentenced to three years in prison.
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