Cock Lane Ghost
The story of the Cock Lane ghost attracted mass public attention in eighteenth-century England before being exposed as a hoax.
Cock Lane is a short alleyway adjacent to London's Smithfield market and only a few minutes' walk from St Paul's Cathedral. In the eighteenth century this district housed London's working poor. It was this environment that, in January 1762, gave rise to an extraordinary scandal that fascinated the London public.
Events
At the centre of the story was William Kent, a young man from Norfolk who became involved with two daughters from the same family. The first, Elizabeth Lynes, he married, but she died in childbirth; a few months later, William eloped to London with his dead wife's sister, Fanny Lynes. Here Kent and his new wife lodged in Cock Lane at the house of a clerk named William Parsons. Kent loaned money to Parsons which the latter refused to repay, leading Kent to sue him. While Kent was away on a business trip, Fanny claimed she heard mysterious scratching in the bedroom she shared with Parsons' daughter, Betty.[1] She believed it was the ghost of her sister warning her of her impending death. The Kents moved to new lodgings where, shortly after, Fanny died of smallpox.
The mysterious scratchings in Betty Parsons' bedroom increased after Fanny Kent's death. William Parsons began communicating with the "ghost" using yes/no questions and a system of knocking for the answer and thus supposedly determined that they were in contact with the ghost of Fanny Kent, who claimed that she had died not of smallpox, but of arsenic poisoning in a premeditated murder by her husband, William. The house in Cock Lane became a popular attraction, with Parsons charging sightseers an entrance fee to "talk" with the ghost.[2]
Investigation and exposure
Eventually William Kent's cause was adopted by a group of prominent people which included Samuel Johnson. They suspected that Parsons was using his daughter Betty to create a hoax ghost. The fraud was uncovered when Betty was caught hiding a wooden clapper under her clothes. William Parsons was convicted of conspiracy, sent to the pillory and imprisoned for two years.[3]
Legend
The Cock Lane ghost was frequently mentioned in contemporary literature. The satirist Charles Churchill mocked Dr. Johnson for his willingness to take part in the investigation in his poem The Ghost. The story of the Cock Lane ghost became a national legend that was told to frighten children as well as being a cautionary tale. Charles Dickens alludes to it several times as does Herman Melville and several other Victorian authors.
William Hogarth represents it in his two engravings, The Times and Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism.
References
- ↑ Paul Chambers (2006) The Cock Lane Ghost: 28
- ↑ Lore of the Land pp.463-464
- ↑ Lore of the Land p.464
Bibliography
- Jennifer Westwood and Jacqueline Simpson The Lore of the Land: A Guide to England's Legends from Spring-Heeled Jack to the Witches of Warboys (Penguin, 2005)
- Paul Chambers: The Cock Lane Ghost: Murder, Sex and Haunting in Dr Johnson's London. Sutton, Stroud 2006, ISBN 0-7509-3869-2.
- Douglas Grant: The Cock Lane Ghost. Macmillan, London 1965.
- Andrew Lang: Cock Lane and Common-sense. Longmans, Green, London 1894.