[2] He was born at Broughton Lodge near Cartmel, on 18 May 1828, one of six children of John Wakefield and Fanny McArthur of Glasgow.

[6] Wakefield was a director of the South Durham and Lancashire Union Railway, a cross-Pennine venture to connect Furness to the north-east in which Kendal men were well represented.

[14] He also supported the building of St Thomas' Church, Crosscrake, which used the same architects, Paley and Austin, as Sedgwick House.

[15] With Sir Francis Powell he succeeding in turning round Sedbergh School, when it was close to collapse.

[3] Their children, four sons and three daughters, included Mary Augusta Wakefield (1853–1910), organiser of music festivals.