September 5, 1862

I am so pleased that I have had some response to my letter to the Poynton-Worth postmaster. I asked him whom I might contact to find out more about the situation regarding the happenings so long ago. He has given me the name of Edward Unwin, who apparently was a publican in the area at the time of the abduction, and will have known various details. He also suggested that I might contact the family at Shrigley Hall directly, but I am unwilling to do that. After all, my book is intended to champion the man who did much damage to their family. I think it is best, at least for the time being, that I find out my information from other sources. Mr. Balshaw has suggested that I include a postal order for two shillings to make Mr. Unwin more likely to respond.

In the box with the letters, Pa also clipped articles from the Manchester Guardian as relating to the trial that August. I cannot decide if I should copy the clippings as they are into my book, or just do a summary of them. I will opt for the latter, and I will place it before Mr. Wakefield’s letter, so that the information he gives later has more interest.

From the Manchester Guardian, August 19, 1826

The newspaper article starts by talking about Mr. Justice Park fussing about where the various barristers were sitting. The junior counsel for the prosecution, Mr. Williams and Mr. Brougham came in late, and as all seats were taken at the table at the front, they were forced to go to back seats. The judge kept trying to get then to come forward, and they kept resisting, but eventually they did. Mr. Coleman wished to move that Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield’s case be considered, but again Mr. Justice Park kept fussing.

He said, “I can hear no motion until the prisoners have pleaded. I know nothing about them until then. Besides, there are two persons indicted who have not surrendered themselves. You know very well that I cannot hear any motion of a criminal nature without having the prisoners before me.

Mr. Coltman then requested that Edward Gibbon Wakefield should be called into the dock, which was immediately done.

Mr. Justice Park - Well where are the other defendants? I shall not allow any motion to be made, until they have surrendered.

Mr. Coltman. My lord, the motion with which I have at present to trouble your lordship, relates to Edward Gibbon Wakefield alone. That gentlman is now in custody on a charge of felony, for which no indictment has been found; and is therefore to move that he may be discharged out of custody for the felony, and give bail for the misdemeanor with which he is now charged. It is every day a practice that when no bill has been found for a felony -

Mr. Justice Park - All this is quite premature. There has been a bill of indictment found against the defendant and the proper course will be to read over to him what the grand jury have so found, and let him plead guilty or not guilty to it.

Mr. Coltman - but my lord, I have to submit that he is not at present bound to plead to this indictment at all.
Mr. Justice Park - Before I allow you to proceed any further, I will have the other defendant here. Where is William Wakefield?

Mr. Coltman - My lord, he is not in court, but hard by.

Mr. Justice Park  - Call him upon his recognizance.

Mr. Tindal -. Surely my lord, you will allow us to send into the grand jury room for him.

Mr. Justice Park - Well I don’t prevent you sending for him. I don’t hold your arms and legs. I never heard such a fuss made about a case before, and merely because it has been talked about. I hear a great deal of talk about names; but I do not know any names here.

The defendant was called three times; and after some delay, made his appearance.

Mr. Justice Park  - Let him be put in the dock. Now the course will be, to read over the indictment; and then when the defendants are asked what they have to say, if you have any objection to making their pleading now, I will hear it.

Mr. Tindal - Surely your lordship does not require that Mr. William Wakefield should go into the dock. The usual course in this court has been to allow defendant under recognizance to go at large until they are tried. I hope your lordship will not, in this case, depart from the usual practice.

Mr. Justice Park - Is that the practice?

Mr. Hopkins (the deputy clerk of the crown) My lord, the course in this court has certainly been, as a matter of favour and indulgence, to allow defendants, under recognizance to stand out of the dock.

Mr. Justice Park - Well, let him come out then: I never heard such a fuss about trifles before. What harm could it to do him to stand in the dock for a short time.

Mr. William Wakefield then got over the front of the dock and took a seat behind his counsel.

Mr. Coltman -  Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield is not bound to plead at the present assizes. By common law, no man was bound to plead when first arraigned on an indictment other than for treason or felony, unless he had previously committed some default, or some process had been issued under the indictment. Under the law there can be no doubt, that if any person should be indicted for any misdemeanor at any sessions or assizes, he should be bound to plead and take his trial, provided he had been committed to prison, or held to bail for such offence, for twenty days at least before the commencement of such sessions of assizes. But it would surely never be contended that the prisoner in this case was committed for the same offence for which a bill was now found against him. The commitment for an offence amounting to felony is the very essence of which was “the employment of force,” whilst the indicated of a misdemeanor is that” force was not at all an ingredient.” I trust that your lordship will not abridge the right possessed by the prisoner on have at least twenty days notice of the charge which he is called to meet. He was committed for and had prepared to meet a charge of felony, and has brought a great number of witnesses, whose evidence I consider necessary to rebut the charge of felony. Instead of this Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield is indicted for a different office, requiring a different shaping of his defence, and a different class of witnesses to support him. I therefore humbly summit that he should not be bound to plead to the indictment.

Mr. Tindal  - The usual thing would be for the prisoner not to go to trial now, but he should be entitled to put in bail for his attendance at the next assizes. There is another consideration which shows how important it is to the prisoner that he should not now be called upon to plead. The indictment which has been found was one which had not been heard of in this country for upwards of a century; it was as your lordship has heard, of great length and very special in its form. The prisoner has heard it now for the first time and it is necessary that he should be well advised before he pleads to it, as it might be necessary to demur to it altogether, to plead to part, or to put in the general issue, as his legal adviser might deem advisable.

Mr. Justice Park  - I have not yet heard a word about William Wakefield.

Mr. Coltman - I thought your lordship wished us to confine ourselves at present to the case of the gentleman who is in custody.

Mr. Justice Park - No indeed. I have no such wish. If you have anything to say with respect to him, you must say it now, for I will give my decision on the whole case at once. But he must first plead.

William Wakefield was then arraigned, and like his brother, left his answer to his counsel. Some discussion then took place for either of both of the indictments; on which Mr. Justice Park read the commitment of the magistrates, to answer for a charge of misdemeanor and that he should attend at the ensuing assizes in Lancaster and answer all manner of charges which the King might have against him.

Mr. Justice Park - . It appears perfectly clear from this that whatever becomes of Edward, William must be tried at these assizes. I may not observe, that I am inclined to think that Edward is not bound to go to trial and that he is entitled to over to the next assizes if he claims to do so.

Mr. Williams - As they are both found on the same offence, and would be supported by the same evidence, so that both defendants should have sufficient notice of the charge intended to be made against them.
 
Mr. Justice Park - I suppose you are prepared to try William.

Mr. Coltman - Why my lord, I have an observation to submit with respect to him

Mr. Justice Park  -But you have already submitted your observations. I am quite satisfied that he is bound to plead and try at these assizes. If you have any motion to make with respect to him, it must be about affidavit stating some special cause.
 
Mr. Coltman - Very well, my lord, probably we shall be prepared with an affidavit whereon to found a motion for postponing his trial also.

Mr. Justice Park - A strong one will required. I can tell you that.

Mr. Tindal - Mr. William Wakefield is not bound to plead to the indictment for the conspiracy, which was a very different offence to the one for which he was originally committed by the magistrates and though he was bound to answer any charge preferred against him, that must be held to mean any charge of the same kind as the one for which he was committed. For instance, it would be very hard for him to be required to answer a charge of libel, of which he has had not notice.
Mr. Justice Park - I have very little difficulty in saying that Edward Gibbon Wakefield is not bound to try, if he chose to traverse til the next assizes, but it was a very different consideration whether he was bound to plead. I am of the opinion that he is bound. But I shall postpone any judgment until tomorrow morning and should take an opportunity in the interim of consulting my brother Hillock who had attended quarter sessions for some time and has an advantage which I have not enjoyed.

The next day he stated that with regard to William Wakefield, that the gentleman was bound to appear, plead and try in both indictments which had been found against him.   William Wakefield then pleaded not guilty to the indictment for the misdemeanor, and after some little argument, was permitted to go at large upon his recognizance.
He was then called together with Frances Wakefield, his step-mother, to plead to in the indictment for conspiracy. They both pleaded not guilty; and bail was put in for the appearance of the latter at the next assizes.

The sureties were, her husband, Mr. Edward Wakefield, in £2000, and Dr. Davies, of Macclesfield (her father) and Daniel Wakefield, Esq. the chancery barrister (Uncle to both Wakefields, in £1000 each.

Mr. Coleman then said they would not trouble his lordship to decide whether Mr. Edward Gibbon Wakefield was bound to plead at this assizes. He was ready to plead at once.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield was then arraigned on both indictments and pleaded not guilty to each.

Mr. Coleman - What bail does your lordship require for him?

Mr. Justice Park  - As he is the principal in this charge, I shall require heavier bail; himself in £2,500 and two sureties in £1,250 each.

Mr Williams said that of course, there was on the part of the prosecutors, a different feeling towards this defendant, and that which they entertained towards the others. They felt great anxiety to protect the young lady from further violence, and he submitted that one condition of the recognizance out to be, to keep the peace towards Mr. Turner and his family.

Mr. Justice Park  - That is perfectly reasonable and if anything is done by any of the defendants, contrary to that part of the recognizance, their punishment  in case of conviction, will be enormously enhanced.

Mr. Coltman said he would consent to the condition required.

Mr. Edward Wakefield was discharged out of custody. He appeared throughout the discussion exceedingly anxious and uneasy. William Wakefield on the contrary, exhibited the greatest composure.

So that is the view of the trial that turned out not to be a trial at all. Here is Mr. Edward Wakefield’s next letter to my father, to give his point of view.

Here is Edward's letter.

“September 10, 1926
5 The Lawns, Chelsea, London

My dear friend Daniel,

When last I wrote to you, I told you our trial was soon to happen. But what did happen was what my solicitors and I had been planning on - a deferment to the next assizes to give us more time to prepare the case - and bail so that I am no longer at the moment under lock and key.

I don’t know whether you will have found out details of that trial, but let me tell you a bit what it was like. The court is gloomy, it is a hall of agony as from its centre many a poor soul has seemed to cast off peripheries of misery which have impregnated the atmosphere both within and without. To the judge’s left is the Grand Jury bench, elevated above the well of the court and we prisoners were in the dungeons below confined in darkness until brought to be tried through a trap door in the dock. I was not called until five in the afternoon, and Mr. Justice Park was obviously weary and a little out of humour. I had been kept in the sweating room while waiting to be called and when I was, descended the steps that led to a long subterranean passage. Mounting the steps, I found myself in an oblong box surrounded by iron spikes in a large crowded chamber lit by numerous lamps and chandeliers. All eyes were upon me, and I felt more than a bit alarmed. I admit to being somewhat melancholy.

It soon became clear that I would not be tried at this assizes, but would be allowed out on bail to prepare for the trial at the next assizes, next spring.

But it was not at all clear whether William would be tried now or not. But on 16th August, he claimed that an article in the Macclesfield Courier was prejudicial to his prosecution - and as its proprietor is the solicitor for the prosecution, this was not hard to believe - and one of our chief witnesses, having believed as it stated into he article that the trial would not take place until the spring assizes, went abroad.

At what was supposed to be the recommencement of the proceedings on August 21st, it became clear that William was not going to be tried during these assizes, because he had fled. When Justice Parker called for him to attend, and he did not, he was told that William was intentionally not coming. A warrant was given for his arrest - but as it was felt that he could not disclose in his trial what my defence was going to be, so that was that.
 
I didn’t see Ellen, as I had hoped I would. She was seen by the court on Saturday 12th August to be sworn in, and then gave her evidence in front of the Grand Jury. After giving her evidence for an hour, she left, but three ladies, identically dressed in black as she was, left at the same time as she did, so none from the press could say which of the four was she.

So again, I will leave off telling you the details of my story, as I have been told that I must not tell anyone anything specific until the actual new trial comes, which is now set for March, 1827.

Best wishes from your friend,

Edward Gibbon”