The Cock Lane Ghost: A Haunting Hoax in 18th Century London

There wasn’t a soul in London, much less the neighborhood of Smithfield market, who hadn’t heard of the Cock Lane ghost. In 1762, the narrow London street was crowded with throngs of onlookers and busy-bodies who wanted to know if the rumors were true. A young girl at 20 Cock Lane , Elizabeth Parsons, was said to be possessed by a restless spirit. The girl suffered from fits and several witnesses had seen an apparition in the building. But the Cock Lane ghost’s biggest claim to fame was its alleged knocking and scratching at all hours of the night and day. Many witnesses, including men of high esteem, had witnessed the frightful sounds. They quickly devised a code to communicate with the ghost who claimed to have been murdered by her lover two years earlier.

This had Londoners up in arms. Everyone took a side. Methodists and Anglicans viciously argued over the possibility of contact with the dead. London newspapers wrote daily updates about the séances, investigations and hearings that sought to uncover the truth behind Scratching Fanny, as the ghost was named, and her suspicious death. Londoners used the mysterious happenings at Cock Lane as a vehicle to debate religious difference, pre-marital sex, fraud, murder, and the vulnerability of some of London’s greatest minds in the face of superstition.

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Transcript of The Cock Lane Ghost: A Haunting Hoax in 18th Century London

Written and researched by Marissa Rhodes MLS, PhD Candidate

Produced and recorded by Marissa Rodes, MLS, PhD Candidate and Elizabeth Garner Masarik, MA, PhD Candidate

Marissa: There wasn’t a soul in London, much less the neighborhood of Smithfield market, who hadn’t heard of the Cock Lane ghost. In 1762, the narrow London street was crowded with throngs of onlookers and busy-bodies who wanted to know if the rumors were true. A young girl at 20 Cock Lane , Elizabeth Parsons, was said to be possessed by a restless spirit. The girl suffered from fits and several witnesses had seen an apparition in the building. But the Cock Lane ghost’s biggest claim to fame was its alleged knocking and scratching at all hours of the night and day. Many witnesses, including men of high esteem, had witnessed the frightful sounds. They quickly devised a code to communicate with the ghost who claimed to have been murdered by her lover two years earlier.

Sara: This had Londoners up in arms. Everyone took a side. Methodists and Anglicans viciously argued over the possibility of contact with the dead. London newspapers wrote daily updates about the séances, investigations and hearings that sought to uncover the truth behind Scratching Fanny, as the ghost was named, and her suspicious death. Londoners used the mysterious happenings at Cock Lane as a vehicle to debate religious difference, pre-marital sex, fraud, murder, and the vulnerability of some of London’s greatest minds in the face of superstition.
I’m Sarah
I’m Marissa
and we are your historians for this episode of Dig.

Marissa: This story begins with a money-lender from Norfolk named William Kent. Kent married a woman named Elizabeth Lynes in 1756 and they lived happily together in a town called Stoke Ferry some 80 miles from London. Elizabeth quickly became pregnant and her sister, Frances (known as Fanny) Lynes came to live with the happy couple to help her sister around the house during her pregnancy. Elizabeth died during childbirth, probably of childbed fever, an infection of the uterus. This was not uncommon. Nine in every 1,000 births in England ended in maternal death at this time. Elizabeth and Kent’s child, a boy, survived only a few weeks during which time, Fanny stayed on to care for him.

Sara: It was an emotional time for everyone. Kent and Fanny grew attached to each other and quickly became lovers. But they were devastated to learn that canon law prevented them from legally marrying. Because Kent had married Fanny’s sister and the union between them had produced a living child, it was illegal for Kent to marry Fanny. In January 1759, Kent decided to move to London, leaving Fanny behind with her family. The two wrote love letters back and forth. Kent later told authorities that he “constantly received letters from the young lady filled with repeated entreaties to spend the rest of their lives together and notwithstanding this caution of his in going to London, her affections was not to be stifled or eradicated from her breast.”

Marissa: Five months later, Fanny came to London to live with Kent. The two decided to feign marriage, figuring it would be easy enough. And it was. They quickly found lodgings to rent in Cock Lane from the clerk at their new church, St. Sepulchre’s. Kent, Fanny and their maid Esther “Carrots” Carlisle moved into the tiny efficiency. Their new landlord, Richard Parsons, was known to be an alcoholic but his neighbors in West Smithfield regarded him with respect. He borrowed money from Kent shortly after they met. Parsons agreed to pay him back at the rate of one guinea per month but before his first payment was due, he discovered that the Kents were not legally married. Parsons lorded this over Mr. Kent and drank away his guinea per month instead of paying it back on time. In the meantime, Fanny, known to the neighborhood now as Mrs. Kent, became pregnant.

English Credulity or the Invisible Ghost, from The Complete Contemporary History of Cock Lane Ghost | Public Domain/ Wikimedia Commons

Sarah: For several nights, the pregnant Fanny Parsons shared her bed with Parson’s ten year old daughter Elizabeth. Kent was probably away for the night. Fanny normally shared her bed with Carrots but for whatever reason, she chose Elizabeth as a bed buddy on these nights. Fanny and Elizabeth were allegedly disturbed by knocking and scratching for several nights in a row. Mrs. Parsons suspected it was the cobbler next door. But when the noised happened on a Sunday, they knew it couldn’t be him because NO ONE worked on a Sunday.

Marissa: With Fanny about to give birth, the Kents moved to new lodgings that would be more appropriate for a growing family. And Kent pursued Parsons in court, suing for the three guineas that were owed to him. At the time, most people thought it was mean-spirited of Kent to sue over what amounted to very little money for him. And he would come to regret it. Things went badly for Kent from this point forward. Fanny and their unborn child died in the 9th month of the pregnancy. Her physician had diagnosed her with smallpox and that was determined to be her cause of death. Several people, including her apothecary and her maid Carrots attended her prior to her death.

Sarah: While Fanny lay dying, an apparition appeared in 20 Cock Lane. A local publican, James Franzen, as well as the entire Parsons family, witnessed a ghost passing through the rooms of the house. Parsons went back to Franzen’s pub and is recorded as saying, “Give me the largest glass of brandy you have!” Over copious amounts of brandy, Parsons and Franzen postulated that the ghost must by Elizabeth Lynes, haunting Cock Lane because she was angry that her widower was shacking up with her sister. To everyone’s shock and horror, Fanny herself died shortly after, on the night of February 2, 1760.

Marissa: Kent continued to make enemies after Fanny’s death. Her will left her estate to him. Her brother died shortly after she did and he left a portion of his estate to her. This portion, along with the proceeds from the sale of a family home, were forwarded to Kent even though her family did not believe he deserved it, especially after he deflowered their sister. Kent quickly remarried in 1761 but his money troubles with Fanny’s family continued. There was a mistake with the settling of the estate and it was found that Fanny’s family owed their realtor a significant sum that was to be split between Fanny’s heirs. They all paid up, but Kent refused. He, again, found himself in court over money.

Sarah: The knockings and scratchings at 20 Cock- Lane subsided until January of 1762, shortly after Kent’s suit against Parsons was settled in Kent’s favor. There were many witnesses to the strange sounds in Kent’s and Fanny’s old room. And Elizabeth Parsons began having convulsions, surely symptoms of demonic possession. The physicians attending her heard the strange noises as well. Parsons had the wainscoting removed from his walls, because that’s where the sounds appeared to be emanating from. But it did not stop the knocking and scratching. Desperate for help, Parsons contacted John Moore, a respected scholar and preacher who was known for his “Methodistical” sympathies. Moore and his colleagues began conducting regular seances at the Parsons home, over the resting body of Elizabeth Parsons as she lay in bed.

Marissa: This was not exactly new for Methodists. In 18th-century England, Methodists were known for their emphatic spiritualism. They desperately sought visible signs of grace, sometimes understanding hallucinations and hysteria as evidence of the divine. Theologian John Wesley, who co-founded Methodism with preacher George Whitefield, had a ghost story of his own. While Wesley was away at university, in the 17-teens, his childhood home was purportedly haunted by a poltergeist. Wesley’s father named him “Old Jeffrey.” Old Jeffrey groaned, knocked, scratched, and clanged around the Wesley home for years. One time, Wesley’s father called the ghost “a deaf and dumb devil,” and the Old Jeffrey responded by pushing him to the floor.

Sarah: Wesley, and other important Methodist leaders, were criticized for their “superstitious” beliefs in hauntings. Poet Robert Southey said Wesley “accredited and repeated stories of apparitions, and witchcraft, and possession…” Southey was horrified by Wesley’s “voracious credulity, so silly as well as monstrous, that they might have nauseated the courses appetite for wonder.”

Marissa: There was a lot of anxiety in London about Methodism at this time. Methodists were technically still Anglicans for most of the century. They did not begin their graduate separation from the national church until the 1780s, and they did so by establishing Methodist ministries in the former American colonies. Their nascent separatism was perceived by Anglicans as a challenge to the Church of England, to the nation itself. This made many of the English uneasy. “Methodistical” quickly became a by-word for people who were superstitious, irrational, unpatriotic, and religiously unorthodox or over-enthusiastic.

Sarah: At the same time, Methodism was incredibly popular. 18-century theology and popular culture had thus far been dominated by strict rationalism. There had been so much emphasis on scientific reason that many English men and women felt spiritually and emotionally unfulfilled. When asked how she could believe in events such as hauntings and possession, John Wesley’s sister Emily responded, “I was so far from being superstitious that I was too much inclined to infidelity, so that I heartily rejoice at having such an opportunity of convincing myself, past doubt or scruple, of the existence of some things besides those we see.” Methodism was attractive to Anglicans who, like Emily, felt starved for spiritual excitement.

Marissa: The Cock Lane ghost played on this desire for spiritual excitement. John Moore, several other clergy who sympathized with the Methodist cause, members of the general public, and even Horace Walpole, the Earl of Dartmouth and the Duke of York (SUPER fancy men) jumped at the chance to attend seances in the Parsons home. A local paper, The Public Ledger, covered the ceremonies in detail, publishing serial updates on the Cock Lane ghost. The ghost quickly earned the unfortunate nickname “Scratching Fanny.”

Sarah: The seances were facilitated by John Moore and an elderly servant of the Parsons’s named Mary Frazer. It was assumed the ghost had an affinity for Elizabeth Parsons, now about 12 years old. The knockings and scratchings seemed to follow her wherever she went. So before the seances were conducted, she was undressed and tucked into bed, sometimes with her younger sister, sometimes alone. This was all in the view of an audience. She was occasionally inspected for signs of fraud. After Elizabeth was in bed, Mary Frazer would prance around the room calling the ghost to her.

Marissa: Moore devised a system to communicate with the ghost. He asked the ghost questions and instructed the spirit to give one knock for yes, two knocks for no. William Kent, now happily remarried, read in the Public Ledger that the ghost was purported to be a young woman named Fanny Lynes who had been poisoned by her lover who put red arsenic in her “purl.” (Purl is an alcoholic drink made by infusing wormwood or other bitter herbs in ale or beer.) Kent realized that he WAS this lover and that the Cock Lane ghost was purportedly his dead ex and that, most importantly, she was accusing him of murder. He approached John Moor immediately and insisted on speaking with the ghost.

Sarah: So a few days later, Kent attended a seance at 20 Cock Lane. Mary Frazer and John Moore did their usual routine to summon the restless spirit. Once they had it attention, they asked it, “Are you the wife of Mr. Kent?”– Two knocks. “Did you die naturally?”– Two knocks. “By poison?”– One knock. “Did any person other than Mr. Kent administer it?”– Two knocks. And the charade continued. The spirit indicated that her made Carrots had witnessed her poisoning. At a subsequent seance, Carrots denied knowing anything about a poisoning. After some time, Kent asked the ghost if he would be hanged for this crime– the answer was a single knock.

Marissa: At this point, Kent was panicking. A media frenzy ensued between January 18-20. Most London papers picked up the story, publishing updates in every issue. Crowds flocked to Cock-lane hoping to witness the knocks of Scratching Fanny. Detectives, at the behest of Methodists desperate to vindicate their faith, began investigating Kent in the allegedly mysterious death of Fanny. Skeptics were equally interested in investigating the nature of this so-called spirit. Newspapers contacted the Parsons and Fanny’s family who, after protracted legal battles with Kent, were all too happy to throw him under the bus. (Maybe this is a good lesson? Don’t be a dick to people about money because they’ll take any chance they can get to get back at you for it?)

Sarah: An informal commission was formed to inquire into Fanny’s death. The most distinguished member of the commission was Dr. Samuel Johnson, a famed writer, devout Anglican and Tory who is now known as England’s most famous “man of letters.” Dr. Johnson was determined to uncover what he suspected was fraud on the Parsons’ part. Johnson was not the only suspicious party. Several other skeptics joined him in another seance in Cock Lane on January 20.

Marissa: The commission gathered in Fanny’s old room, around the resting figure of Elizabeth Parsons, now 12 years old. The knocking and scratching commenced. One member of the party, hoping to catch Elizabeth Parsons in the act, insisted on sitting on part of the bed. Scratching Fanny sympathizers like Mary Frazer argued with the man, insisting he sit with the rest of the audience. He refused. And the ghost also refused to knock and scratch. The angry believers left the room in anger, abandoning Elizabeth Parsons to the unfriendly commission. Much time passed and the ghost made no sounds, but Elizabeth began convulsing. The most dedicated of the crew stayed with the child through the entire night, hearing no sounds until 7:30 am, when they heard faint scratching.

Sarah: The commission was not convinced and they devised a plan to expose Elizabeth Parsons as a fraud. On January 22, after much resistance from Mr. Parsons, Elizabeth was taken to the house of a neutral party and placed in a bed in an otherwise empty room, surrounded by strangers. No one that she knew personally was allowed to enter. The ghost failed to make an appearance. And the commission drank heartily out of boredom. At 6 AM, the party heard a faint scratching but then Elizabeth Parsons sat up in bed and burst into tears. When the men asked her what was wrong, she answered that she wanted to know what “would become of her Daddy, who must needs be ruined and undone, if their matter should be supposed to be an imposture.”

Marissa: So at this point, everything started to unravel for the Parsons. The commission asked the Lord Mayor to force Parsons to comply with their investigation. While Parsons played for time, the ghost’s sympathizers created elaborate scenes for onlookers designed to bolster support for their cause. One night, they made Elizabeth sleep in a hammock all night in front of a crowd, as the knockings and scratching continued unabated. This stunt convinced many that the sounds were supernatural, and not fraudulent.

Cock Lane Ghost, English Credulity or the Invisible Ghost, from The Complete Contemporary History of Cock Lane Ghost

English Credulity or the Invisible Ghost, from The Complete Contemporary History of Cock Lane Ghost| Public Domain / Wikimedia Commons

Sarah: This swell of approval did not last long. On February 1, the commission organized yet another seance designed to expose the Parsons once and for all. They were able to get the ghost to agree to meet the group down at the tomb where Fanny’s body was interred. The ghost was supposed to knock on Fanny’s tomb as a sign that it really was her spirit. The group was disappointed at the tomb when nothing happened. This, more than anything else, convinced the commission once and for all that Elizabeth Parsons was committing a fraud on the London public.

Several more seances were performed, all at different locations. Elizabeth Parsons was moved constantly to new rooms and amongst new faces, so that she may not conspire with sympathizers to create the sounds. Finally toward the end of February, the commission realized that lately the scratching and knocking sounds had changed. In earlier days, they had sounded like they were coming from the walls. But by this point, they knew the sound was coming from the bed. Elizabeth’s body was searched thoroughly and this time, the commission found a hidden piece of wood that she had been using to produce whatever knocking and scratching sounds she could.

Marissa: Even John Moore, the “Methodistical” clergyman who had been the ghost’s greatest benefactor, receded into humiliations. He published a retraction in the local papers. The ordeal was finally over but the story of the Cock Lane ghost inspired countless pamphlets, plays and essays in the following centuries. The satirists Charles Churchill and William Hogarth addressed the hoax in essays and sketches. Samuel Foote wrote a fictionalized drama about the Cock Lane ghost called The Orators.

Sarah: One of the best parts of this play is when a court clerk reads the (fictional) indictment against Scratching Fanny: “Fanny Phantom, you are indicted, That on or before the first day of January 1762, you, the said Fanny, did, in a certain house, in a certain street, call’d Cock Lane, in the county of Middlesex, maliciously, treacherously, wickedly, and willfully, by certain thumpings, knockings, scratchings, and flutterings against doors, walls, wainscots, bedsteads, and bedposts, disturb, annoy, assault, and terrify divers innocent, inoffensive, harmless, quiet, simple people residing in, at, near, or about the said Cock Lane, and elsewhere, in the said county of Middlesex, to the great prejudice of said people in said county. How say you, guilty, or—” and then her lawyer interrupts, arguing that his client is unable to plead because she is entitled to do so to a jury of her peers, and this jury was not her peers, because they weren’t also ghosts. It’s just ridiculous and funny. I love it.

Marissa: British humor! It’s the best. So what was it about the Cock Lane ghost that captivated their imaginations? Well there are a few things. The first is pre-marital sex. Everyone and their mother had opinions on the propriety of pre-marital sex. His extramarital relations were used against Kent in court, for example, to try to impeach his character. Fanny herself was indicted in the court of public opinion for her sexual activity outside of marriage.

One letter to the St. John’s Chronicle reads: “I cannot Help declaring that I think all Gosts, and particularly your Cock Lane ghost, are not only a very useless Set of Beings, but they do not enjoy a greater Share of Understanding when out of the Flesh, than they did when in the Flesh. I can easily conceive, that this good Woman, who, I find you, ether married her Sister’s Husband or lived with your Mr. Kent in her Virgin-state, might in her lifetime be foolish enough to spend an hour or two of her nights in this amusement of scratching and knocking, but I am much surprised to find… she cannot employ that time better among her sister Ghosts, cousin-fairies and great-grandmother Hobgoblins”…. sick burn

Even the ghost’s sympathizers argued that Fanny was being punished for living in sin and that her sinful relationships with Kent made her vulnerable to his vicious murder plot. Fanny became a cautionary tale warning against pre-marital sex.

Sarah: Eighteenth-century Brits were super into cautionary tales. Stories, poems and songs were used to control the sexuality of young women especially. Mary Adams, one of the first women to be executed at Tyburn in 1702, became a cautionary tale for young female servants after her story was published in the Newgate Calendar in the 1770s. Adams purportedly served a household in Reading whereby she became pregnant by the Master’s son. Her Master reluctantly paid for her lying-in. She afterward went to London where she went into the service of a mercer in Cheapside. She began an affair with him as well, became pregnant again and left service for her lying-in, which was financed by the baby’s father.

In an attempt to change her destiny, she used the last of her ex-Master’s support to buy respectable garments and attract a suitor. Her new husband discovered her past transgressions and absconded, joining the royal navy. Her life devolved into one of sex work and petty crime. In 1702, she made the mistake of stealing a bank note, was discovered and tried at the Old Bailey and executed at Tyburn on June 16, 1702. Though this story is highly embellished and therefore subject to scrutiny, it was circulated extensively in the 1770s and 1780s, presumably to scare young servants into refraining from sex. Fanny’s story was shared much in the same way, so people could tsk tsk at hers and Kent’s indiscretion.

Marissa: Londoners were super paranoid about women feigning marriage. Bawdy songs and pamphlets warning of women concealing pregnancy and feigning marriage to preserve their reputations. I have a few stories from my own work that suggest this was incredibly common. I’ll share a couple short ones. Mary Fenton, wet-nurse to a Colonel Knox at 25 York Place, represented herself as a married woman to Mrs. Knox during her interview, saying her husband had gone abroad. Fenton was recommended to the Knox family by a local physician who may or may not have been complicit in her deception. Once her tenure as wet-nurse was finished, Mrs. Knox, happy with her behavior, recommended her to another service position. Fenton’s deception went undetected until Foundling Hospital investigators approached the Knoxes for corroboration of her story.

Mary Clark signed such an affidavit stated that she was married so that she could be admitted into the British Lying-In Hospital in 1774. In truth, she was an unmarried mother. She spontaneously admitted her crime shortly before dying in childbirth. On May 17, 1774, Mary Anslay petitioned the Foundling Hospital, “having been Delivered of a female Child being Deluded by a man Who Promised Marriage but is gone and left me and my poor infant in a miserable and almost Starving Condition having Parted with Every thing but what is on my back.” The hospital clerk investigated her story and found that she and her baby’s father had been living as husband and wife. Their landlord Mr. Clarke had no idea they were not married until after the baby’s father absconded. So in a way, Londoners were correct, women WERE pretending to be married when they weren’t, passing off their children as legitimate, when they weren’t. Fannys Lynes impersonated this fear for people.

Complete Contemporary History of Cock Lane Ghost | Wellcome Library, London. CC BY 4.0

Sarah: There is also the element of fraud. Much like people were suspicious that women were feigning marriage, 18th c. Londoners were obsessed with the idea of fraud in all areas of life. There was incredible anxiety about the possibility that people were misusing credit, forging legal or financial instruments, or feigning orthodoxy, when, in reality, they were Methodists at heart.

Reverend William Dodd, a chaplain, was in attendance at one of the seances in Cock Lane, is a great example of why Londoners were so on edge about fraud. Dodd was known as the “macaroni parson,” meaning he was a dandy. He spent gobs of money on clothings, jewelry, and other extravagances. He accumulated significant debt. in 1777 (so this is 15 years after the Cock Lane ghost incident), Dodd forged a bond for £4200 to clear his debts. After initially accepting the note, the banker discovered his fraud. After Dodd’s arrest, 23,000 people signed a petition for leniency. But Reverend Dodd was hanged at Tyburn in June of that year anyway.

Marissa: Forgery was a capital crime in the 18th century. Dodd’s story shows how intent the state was on executing forgers. This is because Britain was experiencing phenomenal economic growth at this time. Remember the Industrial Revolution started there at this time. The stability of the British economy at this time depended in large part on personal credit. So this is before credit card companies and all that jazz. People purchased goods based on their personal credit, their reputations. So if someone’s reputation was impeached, they were unable to make purchased. It’s as if their social standing and credit score were both determined by how much people trusted you personally, your behavior, your face, your family. So counterfeiting, forgery, deceit, these things were incredibly troubling to the British public.

Sarah: So that helps to explain why Johnson and the commission, and the newspaper media, were so intent on exposing the Cock Lane ghost as a fraud. But I think the other piece of the puzzle is purely religious, or spiritual. This event happened at a time when Anglicans and Methodists were actively debating the existence of the supernatural and the appropriateness of spiritual enthusiasm. Scratching Fanny played on the hearts of people who needed there to be something more than this life. But it also amplified the conflict within the Church of England over Methodist practice.