Nat Gould

Elizabeth Hickson 1810-1863

Elizabeth Hickson was born in 1810, the daughter of John Hickson and his wife née Mary Anne Moore 1782-1857.

Her father John Hickson died in 1811, and her mother was married to George Wayte on 27 May 1824 at Barrow-on-Trent. When the Census was taken in 1841 they were living at Barrow-on-Trent, but by 1851 they had moved to Repton. Her mother Mary Anne Wayte died on 11 May 1857 at Repton, and was buried there on 16 May 1857.

Elizabeth Hickson was however largely brought up by her great-uncle John Wilson 1755-1835 at Stenson in Derbyshire, who doted on her. He was a unmarried and childless, and had virtually adopted her.

John Wilson died on 2 October 1835 aged 80 years (1). His Will has two very curious features: first he went to extraordinary lengths to safeguard the inheritance of his great niece Elizabeth, the principal heir to his great fortune (2); and secondly he never once mentions her surname,identifying her only as "my great niece Elizabeth daughter of my said niece Mary Anne Wayte”.

However John Wilson had good reason for composing his Will in the strange way that he did. Elizabeth Hickson had been persuaded into a runaway marriage with a village lad named Thomas Buxton, egged on by another local man Webster desperate for money, who was to receive £500 payment by the bridegroom for arranging the wedding (3).

The case was a national sensation in 1829, and was copiously reported in the press (4). Although there were irregularities about the banns, the marriage was entirely legal although not consummated. The girl was speedily traced and brought home by her great-uncle Ambrose Moore. Litigation followed. The bridegroom and his main associates were tried for conspiracy to procure a marriage, found guilty and served three years imprisonment in the notoriously harsh Lancaster Castle jail.

A private Act of Parliament was sought to annul the marriage by the Hickson Marriage Annulment Bill (5), but this was ultimately rejected by Parliament.

After being released from prison Thomas Buxton "appears to have quietly accepted the situation, and settled down in peace with another help-mate. Elizabeth remained content in her single blessedness until she reached the age of thirty-two, when another wooer, one John Shaw, a student of law, paid his addresses to her in a more conventional fashion. His proposals were favorably received; but it was doubted (not altogether without reason) whether under the circumstances, the parties could safely marry; and a divorce was finally decided upon. Buxton was found, and (his hope of profit from his marriage having grown cold) was induced by a payment of £40 for expenses and a contingent fee of £250 to go to Scotland and remain there until a divorce could be secured. Buxton accordingly went to Scotland, was followed by Elizabeth Hickson, and they were finally divorced in 1846. Shaw, meanwhile, fixed himself permanently in Scotland and became a member of the Scotch bar. He and Elizabeth were married in June 1846, and lived happily together until his death in 1852; the widow lived nine years longer. Three children of the marriage survived ; but upon their claiming their mother's property, her relatives attacked the validity of the marriage and the legitimacy of the children; the matter went through all the courts, and the Lords ... held the children bastards (6)."

The course of events had been as follows:

1829 Conviction of Thomas Buxton and his fellow conspirators, and imprisonment for three years.
1830 Unsuccessful attempt to obtain a private Act of Parliament to annul the marriage.
1838 Deed of legal separation of Elizabeth Hickson and Thomas Buxton.
1845 Divorce granted in Edinburgh by the Scots Court of Session.
1865 Decision in Vice Chancellor's Court that this divorce was invalid.
1868 Appeal to Judicial Committee of the House of Lords rejected.

This outcome aroused much concern and press comment at the time (7).

(1) Derby Mercury 7 October 1835.
(2) Eleven out of thirteen pages of the probate copy of the Will are devoted to this intention.
(3) Elizabeth Hickson was enamoured of Thomas Buxton, and willingly agreed to the marriage. Buxton was a wishy-washy character, and at one point nearly ruined the plot when he went off for a night of debauchery. Webster made him write a letter of apology to Elizabeth. Thomas Buxton was always a dissolute youth, and his debauchery that so nearly wrecked the plot went on from Milton village Wakes Fair to a week-long drunken spree in Willington (both villages adjoin Repton and are not far from Derby).
(4) The fullest account discovered is that published in the Manchester Courier and Lancashire General Advertiser on 28 March 1829. A more concise account appeared in the Derby Daily Telegraph on 22 and 23 March 1909.
(5) Full transcripts of the interrogations in the House of Lords when the Hickson Marriage Annulment Bill was passing through Parliament in May and June 1830 are to be found on the Journal of the House of Lords volume 62 pages 320-326, 580-597 and 669-695) available online at http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16340 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16359 and http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=16363
The close questioning of witnesses is gripping reading, and throws even more light on the elopement. On 3 June 1830 Their Lordships were dealing with the defence that the Buxton and Wilson families were socially equal and that the pair were thus matched. This was vigorously denied, ultimately successfully. Also from the Lords' questioning it appears that Elizabeth Hickson was not naturally slow-witted but merely naive because of her sheltered upbringing by her doting great-uncle John Wilson 1755-1835.
(6) The Green Bag: An Entertaining Magazine for Lawyers edited by T.T. Baldwin volume 14 (Boston, 1902).
(7) For example in the Derby Mercury 13 December 1865, and Sheffield and Rotherham Independent 11 May 1868.