{"id":1059,"date":"2019-10-14T15:08:15","date_gmt":"2019-10-14T15:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/?p=1059"},"modified":"2025-07-15T15:38:45","modified_gmt":"2025-07-15T14:38:45","slug":"conspiracy-to-marriage-anne-crellin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/14\/conspiracy-to-marriage-anne-crellin\/","title":{"rendered":"Conspiracy to marriage – the Anne Crellin case"},"content":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t a murder trial that gripped the nation in 1842,\u00a0but a conspiracy to defraud a vulnerable middle-aged woman by tricking her into marriage.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s definitely worthy of Crimes of the Centuries \u2013 and there are some Cumbrian Characters in the middle.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The conspirators<\/h2>\n

In April 1842, the nation was gripped by an unusual court case in Liverpool\u00a0 <\/span>\u2013 the court itself was packed with members of the public, eager to witness the proceedings.<\/p>\n

On trial initially were John Orr McGill (30), John Osborne Quick (30), Richard Jones (31) and Margaret Jones (28, of Victoria Terrace), James Wormand Rogerson (36), and Jane Clayton (29).<\/p>\n

They were charged with abducting a \u2018weak and easily led\u2019 woman called Ann(e) Crellin: drugging her, then dragging her to Scotland. Where she came to her senses to find herself in a bed with McGill and Mrs Clayton, and a wedding ring on her finger.<\/p>\n

The motive was simply money.<\/p>\n

Anne Crellin, who was aged about 53, was thought by the conspirators to be worth \u00a366,000, and if she married, control of her fortune would pass to her husband.<\/p>\n

The other fraudster<\/h2>\n

It had all started with Samuel Martin Copeland, of Lodge Lane (and later Vine Street), pretending to be a single man called Thomas Martin.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Copeland, who was just 24, had courted her, even following her to the Isle of Man when she went to stay there for a while. But she broke things off when he insisted she settle half her money on him.<\/p>\n

Poor Miss Crellin (who was actually worth more like \u00a35,000)\u00a0 <\/span>paid him \u00a3250 to buy off his threat of proceedings for breach of promise. Some of the later conspirators were in on this \u2013 Mrs Clayton, for sure.<\/p>\n

Only later was she to discover \u2013 from policeman George Duval \u2013 that he was already married. Sadly, Duval\u2019s motive in telling her this wasn\u2019t as pure as one might hope<\/p>\n

The next contender<\/h2>\n

George Duval introduced Anne Crellin to John Orr McGill, who also urged her to marry him. She refused, unless her property was settled on herself.<\/p>\n

This landed Duval in court. Along with a Dr James Dunlevy \u2013 for applying, with Rogerson, for the marriage licence. Which was at best a presumpuous act.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Rogerson, of Boundary Street, Liverpool, was married to McGill\u2019s sister.<\/p>\n

John Orr McGill was a cigar dealer, of 18 Dale Street, Liverpool. Richard Jones was a stone mason, his wife Margaret was a charwoman. \u2018Dr\u2019 John Osborne Quick was a druggist (chemist), of Scotland Road, who had not long married, and employed an apprentice.<\/p>\n

Jayne Clayton was \u2018a woman of bad character\u2019. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The abduction<\/h2>\n

Anne Crellin began an action to get her money back from Copeland. She was told if she went to the house of Mrs Clayton, a lodging house keeper, he\u2019d be there with \u00a3150. But when she got there, she was made to drink \u2018a liquid containing some dark stuff\u2019. And remembered no more till she awoke at Gretna Green, where Quick told her she was married to McGill and if she didn\u2019t behave, he would put her in the workhouse.<\/p>\n

Witnesses told the court that Quick had referred to their victim in various derogatory ways, including \u2018the old devil\u2019.<\/p>\n

So convinced were the gang of their scheme, they even published a formal announcement of the marriage in the press: On the 19th instant, at Gretna Green, John Macgill Esq., of Elmount, county Dublin, to Anne, only child of the late Richard Crellin Esq., of Liverpool.”\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And here\u2019s the Cumbrian bit!<\/h2>\n

The trial went on for days, hearing witnesses from all stages of the journey. All of whom had thought poor Miss Crellin was either drunk, ill, or crazy.<\/p>\n

The witnesses included James Bain,<\/b> coachman for the North Briton, who took Quick, McGill, Jones, Mrs Clayton and Ann Crellin to Kendal<\/b>, where they dined at the King\u2019s Arms.<\/p>\n

From Kendal, they travelled by coach to Shap<\/b>. From where coachman John Wilson<\/b> took them to Carlisle.\u00a0<\/span><\/b><\/p>\n

James Hodgson<\/b>, waiter at The Bush Inn, Carlisle<\/b>, also gave evidence. As did T Brownrigg, <\/b>post-boy at The Bush<\/b>, who drove them to Scotland.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Elizabeth Armstrong<\/b>, chambermaid at the Crown and Mitre, Carlisle<\/b>, described how the party had spent a night there. This was on the way back from Gretna, and her evidence, and that of waiter John Macfarline<\/b> make it clear poor Ann Crellin was being kept out of it with either brandy or worse.<\/p>\n

John Hawkes,<\/b> at the King\u2019s Arms, Kendal,<\/b> gave a similar account. Though folk who knew her described Miss Crellin as a sober lady of good behaviour and character.<\/p>\n

Scheming to the end<\/h2>\n

Back in Liverpool. Anne Crellin was taken to Rogerson\u2019s house, where she was kept under watch. After two nights there, she made her escape and went to an attorney.<\/p>\n

Even while he was on remand in custody, McGill was trying to get his hands on Anne Crellin\u2019s money \u2013 claiming in June 1942 that \u00a31,600 in a Liverpool bank should be paid to him, not her, as he was her husband. (The bank refused).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, his counsel tried (in vain) to argue Anne Crellin couldn\u2019t be a witness against him because she was his wife!<\/p>\n

John Linton, the Gretna blacksmith who conducted the marriage, claimed Ann Crellin had been sober and willing \u2013 but then he\u2019d hardly have admitted he married a woman who was too drunk or drugged to know what was going on!<\/p>\n

The defence produced witnesses to blacken Anne Crellin\u2019s character, and the jury were not entirely sympathetic on that score. Her morals may or may not have met the standards of the time, she may not have been educated or bright. Or she may just have been a lonely woman who was taken in by false \u2018friends\u2019.<\/p>\n

The verdicts<\/h2>\n

The judge had no hesitation in calling the conspirators cruel and callous in their scheme.<\/p>\n

McGill, Jones, Clayton and Quick were convicted of abduction. McGill was jailed for 18 months, Quick for 18, Jones and Clayton for 12 \u2013 all with hard labour.<\/p>\n

Copeland, meanwhile, was convicted of obtaining money by false pretences, and was also jailed for 12 months with hard labour. In court, he had admitted to using various aliases over the years (alongside his wife Maryann), and to pretending to be a doctor.<\/p>\n

Margaret Jones, George Duval, Rogerson and Dunlevy were acquitted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It wasn\u2019t a murder trial that gripped the nation in 1842,\u00a0but a conspiracy to defraud a vulnerable middle-aged woman by tricking her into marriage. It\u2019s definitely worthy of Crimes of the Centuries \u2013 and there are some Cumbrian Characters in the middle.\u00a0 The conspirators In April 1842, the nation was gripped by an unusual court […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1060,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[58],"tags":[245,62],"class_list":["post-1059","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-fraud","tag-gretna"],"yoast_head":"\nConspiracy to marriage - the Anne Crellin case - Cumbrian Characters<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Abducted, dragged to Gretna and married against her will: the story of Anne Crellin was a real-life Victorian melodrama that gripped the nation.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/crimesofthecenturies.com\/index.php\/2019\/10\/14\/conspiracy-to-marriage-anne-crellin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Conspiracy to marriage - 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