Edward Gibbon Wakefield
| Edward Gibbon Wakefield | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Member of New Zealand Parliament for Hutt | |
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In office 1853–1855 |
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| Succeeded by | Dillon Bell |
| Member of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada for Beauharnois | |
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In office 1842–1843 |
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| Preceded by | John William Dunscomb |
| Succeeded by | Eden Colvile |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
20 March 1796 London, Great Britain |
| Died | 16 May 1862 (aged 66) Wellington, New Zealand |
Edward Gibbon Wakefield (20 March 1796 – 16 May 1862) was a British politician. He is considered a key figure in the early colonisation of South Australia and New Zealand.
Wakefield, who in 1816 married Eliza Pattle (1799–1820), was the eldest son of Edward Wakefield (1774–1854) and Susanna Crash (1767–1816).
He was imprisoned for three years in 1827 for kidnapping a fifteen-year-old girl.
Born in London, Great Britain, in 1796, Wakefield was educated in London and Edinburgh. He was the brother of William Hayward Wakefield, Arthur Wakefield and Felix Wakefield.
He served as a King's Messenger, carrying diplomatic mail all about Europe during the later stages of the Napoleonic Wars, both before and after the decisive Battle of Waterloo. In 1816, he ran off with a Miss Eliza Pattle and they were subsequently married in Edinburgh. It appears to have been a "love match," but no doubt the fact that she was a wealthy heiress did "sweeten the pot," with Edward receiving a marriage settlement of £70,000, (US$6,790,000 in 2017) with the prospect of more when Eliza turned twenty-nine.
The now married couple, accompanied by the bride's mother and various servants, moved to Genoa where Wakefield was again employed in a diplomatic capacity. Here, his first child, Nina, was born in 1817. The household returned to London in 1820 and a second child, Jerningham Wakefield, was born. Four days later Eliza died, and the two children were brought up by their aunt, Wakefield's older sister, Catherine.
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