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n News of the Cock Lane Ghost spread throughoutnLondon, and sightseers, sympathetic, sceptical and curious, flocked to thenhouse eager to hear the spectre vulgarly dubbed ‘Scratching Fanny’. Thousandsnappeared, savvy entrepreneurs made money by selling their places close to thendoor, and Parsons himself cashed in on the appeal of his haunted house byncharging an admission fee.
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| Horace Walpole |
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nHorace Walpole, in a letter dated February 2ndn1762, wrote about his visit to Cock Lane with the Duke of York, Lady Northumberland,nLady Mary Coke and Lord Hertford, telling how fifty people were crammed into antiny room lit by a single tallow candle, and how
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n“… the Methodists havenpromised them contributions; provisions are sent in like forage, and all thentaverns and ale-houses in the neighbour-hood make fortunes.”n
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nWilliam Kentnfound himself in a particular quandary – he could hardly bring charges againstna ghost, yet his name was on the lips of the whole of London. He sought outnEsther Carlisle, his late wife’s maid, called ‘Carrots’ on account of her rednhair, who confirmed that Fanny had not mentioned anything regarding a suspicionnthat she had been poisoned and, indeed, for the last twelve hours of her lifenshe had said nothing to her at all. The doctor and the apothecary who hadnattended Fanny swore affidavits that she had died of smallpox, and yet everynnight the unquiet spirit repeated its accusations against Kent. On February 1stn1762, the incumbent of St John’s Clerkenwell, Rev Stephen Aldrich convened ancommittee of investigators, on the orders of Samuel Fludyer, Lord Mayor ofnLondon, which included, amongst others, Dr Samuel Johnson.
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| Dr Samuel Johnson |
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nWith Parsons’npermission, Elizabeth was taken to Aldrich’s house and at ten o’clock,nladies-in-waiting from a nearby maternity hospital put the child to bed, and annhour later the company assembled at the bedside. The ghost of Scratching Fannynwas present, said the child, as she could feel her like a mouse upon her back,nand through knocks and raps, it was ascertained that the spirit would attendnthe vault beneath St John’s, where it would knock upon the coffin lid, provingnthe veracity of its claims. The company went straight to the church and WilliamnKent and a witness went down into the vault but nothing was heard from thenspirit, and in Dr Johnson’s words,
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n“It is therefore the opinion of the wholenassembly, that the child has some art of making or counterfeiting particularnnoises, and that there is no agency of any higher cause.”n
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| The House in Cock Lane |
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nThe Parsons letnit be known shortly afterwards that the promised revelation had failed becausenMr Kent had removed Fanny’s coffin from the church vault and Kent had littlenrecourse but to return to the crypt with credible witnesses, point out thenparticular casket, which was then opened and the contents examined to confirmnthat they were the remains of his deceased partner. Elizabeth Parsons was againnexamined and tested, and was told in no uncertain terms that unless ScratchingnFanny appeared to order, she and her father would be committed to NewgatenPrison.
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| The True Portrait of the Ghost |
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nAs the child was being prepared for bed, the maids attending hernnoticed her take a piece of wood, on which the kettle normally stood, from thenchimney and hide it in her nightdress. Late in February 1762, a pamphletnappeared, The Mystery Revealed, which supported Kent’s case and,nalthough published anonymously, was written by the poet Oliver Goldsmith (henwas paid three guineas).
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| Oliver Goldsmith – The Mystery Revealed – 1762 |
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nUnderstandably fed up with the whole charade, Kentnindicted Parsons, his wife, his daughter, their servant, the Rev Moore and antradesman from Cock Lane on charges of conspiracy, and on July 10thn1762, they were brought before the Court of the King’s Bench, with LordnChief-Justice William Murray, 1st Earl of Mansfield presiding. Thentrial took twelve hours, Murray spent ninety minutes summing up and the jurynspent fifteen further minutes in consideration before returning a verdict ofnguilty on all concerned. There was a considerable delay in sentencing, as thenparties found it difficult to agree on the level of compensation, but by the followingnFebruary, the clergyman John Moore and the tradesman Richard James agreed tonpay the sum of between five and six hundred pounds each.
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| Modern Cock Lane |
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nThe Parsons’ servant,nMary Frazer, was sentenced to six months imprisonment with hard labour in thenBridewell, Mrs Parsons was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment with hardnlabour and Richard Parsons was given two years in gaol, and was made to standnthree times in the pillory, once at the end of Cock Lane. Such was the publicnsympathy that, rather being pelted with rotten vegetables and stones, ancollection was taken up for him, as he stood displayed in disgrace. A printer,nwho had been engaged by the Parsons to produce a book about their haunting, wasnfined fifty pounds and discharged. The child, Elizabeth, was said to havengrown, married twice and to have lived until 1807.
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| English Credulity, or the Invisible Ghost |
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nIt appears that the motivenbehind the whole imposture was revenge – Parsons seeking retribution for Kent’snsuing him for the unpaid debt and the Lynes had assisted him covertly, innrevenge for being, as they say it, of being cheated out of their inheritance.nQuite how the deception was carried out remains a mystery, with Mrs Parsonsnlooking favourite as the source of the knocking and her daughter responsiblenfor the scratchings. Once the thing was started, it attracted imitators and, asnthese things do, the whole affair snowballed. Human pride ensured that thoseninitially taken in found it impossible to admit their credulity, and thosenspinning the lies were increasingly tied up by them, tempted by the money andnthe fame to create evermore improbable claims and wonders.