Taylor, Geoffrey P.

Edward Gibbon Wakefield was born in London on 20 March 1796, eldest son of Edward Wakefield (1774-1854), philanthropist and statistician, and grandson of merchant Edward Wakefield (1750-1826) and author and philanthropist Priscilla Wakefield (1751-1832). He was the brother of William Hayward Wakefield (1803-1848), and nephew of Daniel Wakefield (1776-1846). Edward Gibbon Wakefield was educated at Westminster School and at Edinburgh's Royal High School. By 1814, he was serving with the British embassy in Turin, and in 1820 with the embassy in Paris. In 1826 however, he was convicted - with his brother William - of tricking a wealthy heiress into marrying him, and both he and his brother were sent to prison for three years.

While he was in prison Wakefield studied colonial affairs and prepared material for publication into a work entitled Facts relating to the punishment of death in the metropolis (1831). He put forward a theory of systematic colonisation and enunciated his views in A letter from Sydney (1820), in England and America (1833), and in A view of the art of colonisation (1849). He saw a relationship between the social conditions in Britain and the notion of colonial settlement, viewing the latter as a chance for Britons to take their skills overseas under a familiar constitutional tradition and in a recognisable social framework. Land would be sold in small lots at moderate prices, with the funds gathered then being used to support further colonisation, and some self-government would be allowed. In 1834, the South Australian Association was formed with a view to founding a colony on Wakefield's principles.

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