Daniel Wakefield (abt. 1776 - 1846)

Born about 23 Oct 1776 in Tottenham, Middlesex, England

Ancestors

Husband of Isobel (Jackson) Wakefield — married 29 May 1805 (to 20 Aug 1813) in St James, Middlesex, England, United Kingdom

Husband of Elizabeth (Kilgour) Wakefield — married 11 Nov 1813 in England

Descendants

Died 19 Jul 1846 at about age 69 in London, England

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Biography

Daniel Wakefield was a writer on political economics. He died without issue, though twice married, on 19 July 1846. His remains are interred in Lincoln's Inn Chapel.

Daniel Wakefield was also a lawyer.

He lived at Hare Hatch, Berkshire, England

His commitment to Quakerism, despite the influence of his mother, was not strong and he abandoned it for the Church of England at a relatively young age, partly in the hope of qualifying for employment with the government. In 1798 he did gain a part-time post in the naval pay office; but the wage was poor and he despaired of further advancement. Other attention-seeking schemes included pamphlets on political economy, urging poorly conceived reforms of the public finance system. Expensive schemes for the reclamation of Irish bogs similarly proved unrewarding. In 1799 he published the most important of his works, An Essay of Political Economy, an inquiry into the various French schools of writing on value.

On 9 February 1802 Wakefield became a student of Lincoln's Inn. His commitment to the legal profession must, however, be doubted as various distractions, riotous living, and, according to his mother, unsuitable company prevented much headway. An ill-advised marriage on 3 June 1805 to Isabella Mackie, an adventuress and swindler, followed. It dragged him into a morass of debt and fraud that almost ended in bankruptcy and emigration. Remarkably, his legal career was not destroyed and he was called to the bar on 2 May 1807. A sullied reputation and an inadequate knowledge of the law, however, meant that clients were not plentiful and his financial dependence upon his parents and brother continued. Attempts to annul the marriage failed; then, in August 1813, Isabella committed suicide by taking poison.

On 11 November that year Wakefield married Elizabeth Kilgour. Neither marriage produced children. Poverty had made him a diligent student and the past six years had not been wasted. With his newly acquired respectability and demonstrable skill, his practice flourished. He became known as one of the ablest equity draftsmen of his day and was often consulted in major cases. He was elected bencher of Lincoln's Inn on 15 January 1835, having become king's counsel during the previous Michaelmas vacation. His most famous brief was, perhaps, Attwood v. Small. The dispute concerned the sale of an ironworks whose price was over £1 million. It was appealed to the House of Lords in 1838 and his successful argument won him a considerable reputation, a silk gown from the lord chancellor, and £5000 from the grateful John Attwood.

Towards the end of his career, Wakefield became known for his philanthropy. At times, he refused payment for briefs and returned fees to clients in distress. His eminence was recognized by his involvement in the administration of the inn and in the planning and construction of the new hall. His country residence was at Hare Hatch, near Twyford, Berkshire, where he was magistrate and deputy lieutenant. Wakefield died suddenly on 19 July 1846, in London, while taking a shower. He was buried on 23 July 1846 in the crypt of Lincoln's Inn chapel.

No issue to first marriage

Dan, Priscilla’s youngest child, married a woman called Isabella Mackay. In 1807 Dan took a case to court in an attempt to nullify the marriage arguing that at the time she used a false name of Isabella Jackson. The case was not sustained. The judgment however provides information about Dan and Isabella and their relationship. Isabella’s mother was Ann Mackay (Ann Jackson before her marriage) and the father was unknown. As a child she lived in a Roman Catholic boarding school in Hammersmith and in 1794, when she was eight, a man was convicted of sexually assaulting her. Daniel and Isabella intermittently lived together from 1800 when she was about fifteen. They both used a number of assumed names and in 1804 they were married in a Roman Catholic ceremony. The evidence was given to the court that a Mr Baster formed a relationship with Isabella and tried to persuade her to leave Daniel and marry him. It appears that she had greatly embellished the circumstances of her background. On 29th of May 1805 Dan and Isabella were married in the Church of St James, Clerkenwell with Isabella using the name of Jackson. A name that the court concluded had not been false.

Sources

• "England Births and Christenings, 1538-1975," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NVLQ-M7H : 30 December 2014, Daniel Wakefield, 23 Oct 1776); citing , index based upon data collected by the Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 817,385.
• Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 58: Wakefield, Daniel by James McMullen Rigg
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Wakefield