Kedden 7.11.1800 at theatre (& Sarah Elwes) / 15.1.1801 tea at Kedden's (& Sarah Elwes) / 10.2.1802 call with Sarah Elwes on Kedden
Probably the Rev William Kedden son of Ralph of Fareham, Hants (will PCC 1777 Gosport) Magdalen Hall Oxford BA 1801. He was a friend of the Rev Lockhart Gordon (not to be confused with Pryse Lockhart Gordon, see my entry for Gordon) who was involved in a scandalous court case in 1804 concerning the abduction by Lockhart Gordon and his brother Lauden of a Mrs Lee, who however compromised the case against them by admitting she later agreed to have sex with Lauden. Kedden's newspaper obituary blamed his death on the shock caused by finding his association with Gordon had led to his dismissal from a curacy at Holborn (Ipswich Journal 11.2.1804). He was buried 4.2.1804 at St Giles in the Fields and Lord Portsmouth attended the funeral. Mrs Lee was Rachael Fanny Antonina Dashwood who married Matthew Allen Lee about 1794 and separated from him with a settlement of £1000 a year for life in 1795. See Morning Post 28.1.1804, Jacksons Oxford Journal 18.2.1804 Morning Chronicle 7.3.1804.
Hello Ed, love your pages -
The comments below I have pasted from where they were originally posted to this more relevant place and i accidentally deleted by first reply and zelinor's 2nd comment while pasting them
Hello Ed, love your pages - fantastic resource. Am interested in your sources for William Kedden, Lockhart Gordon (1775-1837) and Mrs Lee (1774-1829) - particularly the source that suggested that Mrs Lee said in court that she enjoyed being abducted from her house in Bolton Row, Piccadilly by the two Gordon brothers on 15.01.1804. Ta, Z
thanks zelinor. the reference in Jackson's Oxford Journal is only useful for stating the relationship of the Gordon brothers to the Earls of Aboyne and Moray so you probably know all that already. The Morning Chronicle of 7.3.1804 reporting on the case at Oxford Assizes said < Mr Abbott proceeded in his cross-examination, and drew from the mouth of the witness an admission that put an end at once to the indictment. She admitted, that when in the chaise on the road to Uxbridge, she had said to Lauden Gordon, that she found it useless to make further resistance, and tearing from her breast a gold locket and a camphire bag, she exclaimed "the charm that has preserved my virtue hitherto is dissolved, adding, as she threw it away, now welcome pleasure." It also appeared that when she went to bed at Tetsworth, she desired the chamber-maid to tell her husband that he might come to bed in ten minutes.>
Was that a false report of the trial? Is there a record of the trial elsewhere that contradicts it? It seems the technicality they got off on was that the force was no longer being used in the county of Oxford where the sex took place. Why would she admit such a thing unless out of a strict regard for the truth, perhaps the chambermaid's testimony would have swung it even if she hadn't made that admission? Or perhaps there was more shame in being seen as a rape victim than as a weak seduceable woman? Anyway I'll rephrase my comment about her enjoyment, which was based entirely on the report above. I'll be most interested to hear of a full account of these events if you intend to publish one.
Godwin seems to have met Kedden through Sarah Elwes, see Mark Philp's article on her in Bodleian Record 24/1 April 2012
Hello Ed, The Gordons were a massive family - the Gordon Project Online is a good starting point for research. It's not too much of an exaggeration to say that if you are British or descended from native British people, you almost certainly have Gordon blood in you somewhere. I do intend to publish, and I shall certainly give you a heads up when I do. Mrs Lee was a fascinating woman. Regarding the Gordons, all I can say now is that Mrs Lee didn't want two men she had known as boys to die, (abduction and rape was a felony carrying a capital sentence in 1804) but neither did she desire any sexual connection with either of the brothers or to be used as their bank. She showed throughout a lack of vindictiveness that I for one find hard to understand - she was a better person than I would have been in her circumstances. I know I haven't answered some of your very pertinent questions, but for now I prefer to keep my powder dry. Thank you for the pointers, I shall follow them up. All the best, Z.