Contemporary press reports of elopements
1805
Miss Franks
Miss F—, a Jewess of great expectation, eloped from her relations near Barnes Green, on Thursday last, with Capt. W. of the Navy.
Bury and Norwich Post, Wednesday 17 April 1805
The young Jewess that lately eloped from Barnes Green has no fortune independent of her father, who is inflexible. This young lady is related to the Miss F. who married the eldest son of the late Sir GREY COOPER; and it is said her father had destined her to marry a relation she disliked, a young Jew, possessing a considerable property and large expectancies.
Morning Post, Saturday 20 April 1805
The young and beautiful Jewess, who eloped with Captain W. of the navy was made a happy bride, as soon as she and her gallant enamorato had crossed the Tweed: her opulent father promises to forgive her, provided that she will return, and receive the absolution of the Synagogue.
Aberdeen Journal, Wednesday 1 May 1805
Nick of time
HUE AND CRY. –“None but the brave deserves the fair”– A curious adventure occurred in the Barton Hoy last Tuesday morning. –A gentleman, 18 years of age, resident not 100 miles from Eckington, near Sleaford, in Lincolnshire, eloped with a young lady of the same place, aged 16 years, (Oh! tempora; Oh! mores!) The fugitives arrived safe on board the hoy, and were congratulating themselves exceedingly and rather loudly on having eluded the vigilance of Argus and Duenna, —when lo! at the moment the hoy was putting off, a chaise drove up to the door of the inn; one of the passengers, a young man, rushed out of the vehicle, and in a small boat made after the hoy; on coming up with which, he exclaimed with great exultation and clapping of hands, (to the no small diversion of the passengers,): They are here, they are here!”– This was addressed to his fellow-traveller, who proved to be the father of the young lady, and who joining the other, instantly boarded the hoy and separated the lovers. The lady shewed much spirit and attachment to her swain, and remonstrated very warmly, but the latter suffered the prize to be borne off by (it is conjectured) his rival, without uttering a word. The whole party came over in the hoy to Hull, and at the recommendation of one of the passengers, participated in a conciliatory dinner at the inn; after which they returned by way of York. Jerry Sneak driving their rear guard.
Leeds Intelligencer, Monday 22 July 1805
Child abduction
Another elopement took place on Friday last, from a villa near Croydon, which has given serious alarm to the relatives of the female, who are respectable characters in life, or good fortune. An elopement took place on Friday se’evnight from a villa near Croydon. The seducer was a visitant in the family, of 30 years of age. The deluded female is a child in frocks, 14 years of age, and of remarkably childish appearance. All the trace that has yet been made of the transit is, that on Sunday morning last persons answering the description took a hackney-coach from the Stones End in the Borough, and putting in their baggage a few light boxes and bundles, drove to Gracechurch-street, where they alighted and put the baggage in the bar, as if waiting to go by a stage-coach. They soon shifted from thence in another hackney-coach, and drove off; where to has baffled all endeavours to trace them, although the parents, who are inconsolable for her loss, have offered a very handsome reward for intelligence of them.
Morning Post, Friday 11 October 1805
Women’s wiles
On Sunday morning the son of a wholesale linen draper, near Watling Street, eloped with the daughter of a wealthy merchant, near East Square, in the Kent Road; on their way to Guildford they were overtaken by the lady’s father, and some of his friends, who had set off in pursuit of the fugitives. The rencounter had likely to have proved a very serious one, as the enraged parent attacked the young gentleman with such determined violence, as not only to drag him from the post chaise, but to inflict upon him a severe drubbing with a cudgel. [The young man was preparing to die…] when the young lady called her father aside, reminding him that she had left home for more than twelve hours; that a night had passed in the interval since she had determined to become a wife; and that it would neither contribute to her happiness nor her honour to prevent the match, since things had gone so far. The parent took the hint, and was, after a moment’s recollection, as desirous to see the nuptial ceremony performed as he was before resolute to prevent it. The parties all returned to town, and yesterday the happy pair was joined in holy wedlock, when the Lady confessed that the hint she had thrown out was nothing more than an innocent stratagem to gain her parent’s consent, and that her own honour and his reputation were unsullied.
Oxford Journal, Saturday 12 October 1805
The Hull elopement and a case of mistaken identity
Another instance of infantine elopement occurred in Thursday se’ennight. Miss E. just turned of fourteen, whose parents are very wealthy, decamped from a boarding-school near Hull, with an officer of the Lincolnshire Militia, aged 40. She slept in a room with five other young ladies, who, on their rising, missed her, and the greatest part of her clothes. On enquiry, it appeared that she had fled from a one-pair of stairs window into the arms of her gay Lothario, who conveyed her with all possible speed in a gig to Hull in hopes of getting a passage in a vessel that was about to sail for London, but which vessel had sailed just before their arrival. They then procured an open boat, and followed, but on their coming up with it, the Captain, suspecting all was not right, refused to take them on board. They were then compelled to cross the Humber, and arrived at Barton about one o’clock, having been on the water from between four and five in the morning. They took the mail from thence, and arrived in London on Saturday morning. The lady’s father and uncle arrived the same evening. They traced them to an Inn in Grace Church Street; but were not able to obtain any further information of them. The acquaintance between the parties was not suspected; but a literary correspondence has since been discovered.
–On Friday a young lady about fiteen years of age, and a gentleman about thirty, went to the Roebuck Inn, at Turnham Green, where they ordered supper. From the description of a runaway pair, whom the landlord had seen advertised, he had a suspicion his customers were the persons. On Saturday morning he communicated to them his suspicions and insisted upon their going with him to Bow Street, where they underwent a private examination, when the lady proved to be the one who had lately eloped from her friends at Croydon. The magistrate in conseqence ordered her to be detained till he had communicated the information to her friends. The gentleman not being the party who eloped with her was discharged.
Oxford Journal, Saturday 19 October 1805
Speedy completion
An elopement a few days since took place in the City. The parties were Mr B.W. and Miss W., first cousins. They were soon to have been married, with the consent of all her friends; but the gentleman preferred the more speedy method of obtaining her fortune of £10,000 by prevailing upon her, while on a visit to his brother’s house, to elope with him to Gretna Green.
The Ipswich Journal, Saturday 26 October 1805
1806
The daughter of a wealthy Jew merchant in the City, some evenings since, eloped from the house of a gentleman in the neighbourhood of Bloomsbury Square, where she had been invited to a large party. A young gentleman, who was likewise there, is also missing.
Morning Post, Monday 6 January 1806
Ages old
Two young ladies of fortune eloped from the neighbourhood of Walworth, last week, with two old gentlemen at least treble their age. Such appears to be the rage of the present day!
Morning Post, Monday 13 January 1806
Animal passions
Saturday last, a young lady of Leicester, of much respectability and fortune, eloped with an attorney of considerable eminence in the same town. During the absence of the family to a dinner party, she contrived to remove all her cloaths, but being observed, information was given to her parents the same evening. Her father sat up all night in his boots, determined to disappoint any bold intruder; but in the morning, about nine o’clock, being rather overcome with sleep, the lady took advntage of the moment and leaped the garden wall and ran through the beast market, to the great astonishment of all the two and four-legged animals, without either cap or hat, to the house of her gallant, from whence they proceeded to church, got married, and immediately set off for the metropolis.
Morning Post, 7 February 1806
Horse-dealing
The Gentleman in Harley-street, who has recovered his runaway daughter from his Coachman, with whom she recently eloped, asked her what she had to say for her conduct? She answered, that she had long thought from his affection to his horses, and the manner of managing his reins, that JOHN would make a loving husband, and therefore she was determined to accompany him through every stage of his life: to which her father replied, “Well, girl! then so it must be, but I fear you’ll soon find, that you have got on the wrong box!”
Bury and Norwich Post, Wednesday 23 July 1806
Second time lucky
POLICE.
GRETNA GREEN MARRIAGES AND CRIM CON.
BOW-STREET. – On Wednesday afternoon, Miller, the Officer, arrived in London, in a post-chaise, with a most beautiful youg woman, of the age of twenty-two years, in his custody, from Basingstoke, charged with the crime of bigamy. The charge against her will try the validity of Gretna Green marriages; likewise, an action of Crim. Con. brought by the Prisoner’s first husband against the second.
The circumstances are as follow:- In the month of November, 1801, the Prisoner, who was then in her seventeenth year, run away with Mr. John Whitford, a respectable farmer of Hampshire, to Gretna Green, Mr. Manning, a respectable attorney, who is concerned for the prosecution, and has been indefatigable in his exertions, produced Mr. David Sang [sic], of Gretna Green, in the county of Dumfries, a tobacconist, one of the solemnisers of marriage ceremonies at Gretna Green, who stated, that on the 26th day of November, 1801, he was applied to by John Whitford, who stated himself to reside at Basingstoke, in the county of Hants. to marry him to Eleanor Howard, of the same place, spinster, which he agreed to, and Mr. Whitford paid him five guineas, after which they proceeded to Gretna Green Hall Inn, at Gretna Green, where the marriage ceremony was solemnised in the presence of James Ferguson, the landlord’s son, who subscribed his name as a witness. After the solemnisation, the bride requested a certificate of the marriage, which he granted, and for which she presented him with two shillings to buy a pair of gloves. The witness had no doubt but that the prisoner and Mr. John Whitford, present, were the parties whom he married.
The Rev. William Gawler, of the parish of St Mary, Lambeth, stated that one the 19th day of May last he married, by banns, the Prisoner, who describes herself as Eleanor Howard, spinster, to Robert Jaques James, Esq. describing himself as a widower, of St Mary, Lambeth parish.
The Parish Clerk of Lambeth attended by was not positive as to the person of the Prisoner, she being veiled at the time of her marriage.
Giles Herring, of Chester-street, Kennington, however, one of the subscribing witnesses had no doubt of the person of the Prisoner, and that she is the person married to Mr. James, on the above day.
It likewise came out, that soon after the Prisoner’s marriage with Mr. Whitford her affection appeared to be on the decline, supposed to be on account of his not being successful in business. Some time since Mr. James, the Prisoner’s second husband, a wealthy old gentleman, about sixty years of age, prevailed upon the prisoner and her husband to take him as a lodger at their house, for the benefit of his health. In the beginning of the month of May last, the prisoner became possessed in her own right of £1000 and eloped with Mr. James, and was married to him as above stated, conceiving, as it is supposed the marriage at Gretna Green, with Mr. Whitford, was not binding in law.
On the other hand, we understand, Mr. Whitford has brought an action for crim. conn against Mr. James, the second husband.
The prisoner was committed for trial, and yesterday conveyed in a post-chaise, by Miller, to Guildford, to take her trial at the ensuing Assizes for the county of Surrey.
Morning Chronicle, Friday 8 August 1806
SURRY ASSIZES
CHARGE OF BIGAMY. – GUILDFORD, AUG. 9
Eleanor Whitford, a beautiful young woman, was tried for marrying Robert Jaques James, Esq., as gentleman residing in St. George’s-fields, aged 60, her first husband, JOHN WHITFORD, being still living.
Mr. CURWOOD opened the case as Counsel for the prosecution, and stated that this Lady had left her father’s house in November 1801, with Mr. Whitford, then a shopkeeper at Basingstoke, and went to Gretna Green, where they were married, in the way in which marriages are usually performed there. They came to reside in Lambeth in the beginning of this year; the husband having obtained a situation in a warehouse in London.
They lived very happily until they put up a bill for lodgings, which they let to Mr. James, and on the 20th May she and Mr. James, while Whitford was gone to the warehouse, went to Lambeth Church, were married, and eloped. On the next morning, she wrote a note to Mr. Whitford, stating that she could not live happily with him and that the marriage with him was illegal. She next met him by appointment at a friend’s house, and told him her sentiments. After Mr. C. had finished his statement, he called David Lang, the well known blacksmith or rivetter at Gretna Green. This man having taken the Scotch oath, stated, that he was [llegible] Gretna, and had been long in the habit of marrying persons who came to him. On the 26th of November, 1801, he married the Lady at the bar and Mr. Whitford, according to his practice. He was asked many questions by the Lord Chief Baron. He said, he had no written form of marriage ceremony, nor kept any books. There were no subscribing witnesses to the marriage in question. The only names written on the paper were David Lang, John Whitford and Elizabeth Howard.
Serjeant Onslow, for the defendant, contended that this was not such evidence of a marriage as the Court could receive.
The Lord Chief Baron held, that this was not proved to have been a legal one; and therefore it was a criminal case, no evidence could be received of a second marriage. The Lady was therefore acquitted.
This verdict puts an end to the action for seduction brought by Mr. Whitford against Mr. James.
Morning Post, Monday 11 August 1806
To the death
A DUEL, which it is feared will prove fatal in its consequences, was fought on Wednesday last, at Waltham-Grove, Bucks., between Mr. B-z-r, an Irish Gentleman of Fortune, and Mr. N–, an Officer in the Marines. The quarrel which led to the combat arose out an affair of gallantry, Mr B. having been found in the possession of a lady, the niece of the Officer, who eloped from her friends in the vicinity of Newberry [sic], in August last. The parties exchanged three fires, and Mr. N. received a wound in the left breast, which it is feared will prove mortal. Mr. CARMAN, a Surgeon, dressed the wound, at the house of a Mr. CHURCHILL, near to where the duel was fought, but he did not succeed in extricating the ball.
Morning Post, Saturday 29 November 1806
1807
Missed the boat
Elopement. — On Wednesday morning, Mr. Gill, druggist, of Sherborne, set off from town, in a post chaise and four, for Weymouth, accompanied by Miss Wadham, an heiress, aged seventeen years.
They were followed by the young lady’s guardian, in another chaise and four; but, from the precautions taken by the lovers, much time had elapsed before the pursuit commenced, and the guardian in consequence arrived at Weymouth just an hour after the Guernsey packet, with the fugitives on board, had sailed with a fair wind, which has doubtless here this wafted them to the haven of Matrimony.
Hereford Journal, Wednesday 28 January 1807
Rope trick
An elopement early on SUnday morning last was prevented, by the vigilance of a widowed Countess, who secured a daughter of 15, just as she was descending a rope ladder into the arms of an Officer of the Guards.
Bury and Norwich Post – Wednesday 29 April 1807
All’s well
ELOPEMENT. — A Young lady, the daughter of a wealthy citizen, who was on a visit at Knightsbridge, was missing on Monday morning at the breakfast hour, and it was soon ascertained that she had clandestinely fled. On enquiry being set on foot, information was received that Miss, who was in her teens had gone off in a post-chaise from Brompton-row, with Mr. D–l, a young country ‘squire. The fugitives were pursued to Hounslow, and traced from thence , where they were detained an hour for want of a chaise, to Windsor. Here a young gentleman, who was in pursuit of the amorous couple, accompanied by a man servant, surprised them whilst making another start, and the young lady was torn from the arms of her lover, and brought back to London. She was met at Knightsbridge by her papa, from Watling-street, who after being satisfied that the frolic had no serious consequence, forgave her, and restored her again to her home.
Leeds Mercury, Saturday 26 September 1807
1808
Holiday romance
COURT OF CHANCERY
Friday, Nov. 18
Sir A. Pigott said, he held in his hand a petition from the trustees of a ward of Court, who had eloped with a Captain Impey to Gretna-Green. These petitioners were a Mr. Patch, of Exeter, and Mrs. Cassel, the mother of the ward. The petition set forth the amount of the fortune to which Miss Cassel was entitled on her coming of age, and hwich amounted to between 14 and £15,000. It also stated, that her trustees had placed her in a respectable boarding-school at Exeter, where she remained till last October, when she went to see a school-fellow of hers, a Miss Impey at Teignmouth, where she was to stay a week. While in the house of Mrs. Impey, the mother of her female friend, she was induced to set out on a matrimonial expedition to Gretna Green with Captain Impey, who was the brother to Mrs. Impey. The petition did not state that Mrs. Impey was implicated in the transaction, though it added, that Miss Impey had personally communicated the first information of the matter to Mrs. Cassel, and also that the matrimonial expedition had been talked of in the presence of Mrs. Impey. The acquaintance between the two parties was very short, not longer than the visit to Teignmouth and their relative ages were 18 and 34. The petitioners wished to leave it altogether to the discretion of his Lordship, what course should be taken.
Sir S. Romilly appeared for Captain Impey, and observed that his client was ready to go before a Master, and make such settlement upon the young lady as the Court might think proper. He was given to understand, that his client’s circumstances and rank in life were such as probably would not have been rejected, had the overtures been regularly made.
Lord Chancellor – “All that I can do in this case is to order that this gentleman be committed to the Fleet Prison, and let the Master inquire what marriage has been celebrated, and report forthwith. Perhaps also in the further process, an affidavit from Mrs. Impey would not be improper.”
Kentish Gazette, Tuesday 22 November 1808
1809
Murder-suicide
MELANCHOLY OCCURRENCE. — A most dreadful transaction has involved the family of Sir STEWKLEY SHUCKBURGH, Bart. of Upper Shuckburgh, in the county of Warwick, and the family of Lieutenant SHARPE, of the Bedford Militia, in the deepest distress. Lieut. SHARPE, having paid his addressed to Miss SHUCKBURGH, which were disapproved by the family, formed (if he should be disappointed in obtaining the object of his affections) hte horrid determination of putting a period to his own, and her existence, which he carried into effect on Sunday morning last, in the plantations of Shuckburgh Park. They were overheard in earnest discourse by the butler, as if Lieutenant SHARPE was persuading her to elope with him; and, as Miss SHUCKBURGH uttered the words, No, No! he immediately heard the report of a pistol, which, in a few seconds, was succeeded by another, and they were instantly lifeless corpses!!
After a most deliberate investigation of all the circumstances of this most affecting and awful event, before JOHN TOMES, Esq., and a respectable Jury, and the Rev. Mr. BROMFIELD, a Magistrate of the county, a verdict of Lunacy was given respecting Lieutenant SHARPE, and that Miss SHUCKBURGH died by his hand. Lieutenant SHARPE had been occasionally for some weeks preceding in a state of mental derangement, and in confinement.
Morning Post, Thursday 30 March 1809
A curious scene presented itself, on Wednesday afternoon at Knightsbridge, in consequence of a post-chaise having been stopped by two gentlemen, and in which were a young lady and a gentleman. From the conversation and warmth of th eparties, the populace soon understood that the young lady had eloped from her house in Sloane Street and the desire to get a sight of her was such, that the way was impeded for upwards of an hour, and the young lady was at length taken away in a gentleman’s chariot by her friends; her name is undestood to be Pencote, the only daughter of a lady of immense property. The gallant was an officer belonging to one of the regiments of Dragoon Guards. Miss Pencote had gone to the house of a friend in Charlotte Street, Rathbone Place, with the consent of her parents, at nine o’clock in the morning, and it was in conseuqence of the receipt of a note previous to her arrival in Charlotte Street that the affair was discovered.
Hampshire Chronicle, Monday 19 June 1809
