{"id":1535,"date":"2021-10-31T15:16:54","date_gmt":"2021-10-31T15:16:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/religion-law-and-the-constitution\/?p=1535"},"modified":"2025-11-06T10:55:54","modified_gmt":"2025-11-06T10:55:54","slug":"haunting-hoaxes-and-hierarchy-did-an-18th-century-ghost-threaten-the-established-church","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.manchester.ac.uk\/religion-law-and-the-constitution\/2021\/10\/31\/haunting-hoaxes-and-hierarchy-did-an-18th-century-ghost-threaten-the-established-church\/","title":{"rendered":"Haunting, Hoaxes and Hierarchy-Did an 18th century ghost threaten the Established Church?"},"content":{"rendered":"

[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ admin_label=”section” fullwidth=”on” next_background_color=”#000000″ global_module=”322″][et_pb_fullwidth_menu global_parent=”322″ _builder_version=”3.17.6″ menu_id=”8″ submenu_direction=”downwards” fullwidth_menu=”off” background_layout=”dark” module_class=”main-navigation” \/][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”on” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#1d1d1d”][et_pb_column type=”2_3″ specialty_columns=”2″][et_pb_row_inner locked=”off”][et_pb_column_inner type=”4_4″ saved_specialty_column_type=”2_3″][et_pb_post_title _builder_version=”3.17.6″ featured_placement=”above” locked=”on” parent_locked=”off” date_format=”j M Y” \/][et_pb_text _builder_version=”3.17.6″ background_layout=”light” parent_locked=”off”]<\/p>\n

\"Pumpkin\"<\/p>\n

The approach of Halloween and plethora of pumpkins made it seem an appropriate time to discuss the infamous Cock Lane ghost, and what the bizarre saga tells us about law, power and religion, both historically and in the contemporary world.<\/p>\n

The episode began with a tangled love story, starting in Norfolk rather than London.\u00a0\u00a0 William Kent and Elizabeth Lynes had married, despite some disparity in the social status.\u00a0\u00a0 Elizabeth was from gentry stock, whereas William\u2019s family had only recently come into money, making them less respectable in Georgian eyes.\u00a0 Nevertheless, when Elizabeth became pregnant, her relatives had little choice but to accept the situation and arrange a wedding.\u00a0\u00a0 The couple set up house together and Elizabeth\u2019s younger sister Frances, or Fanny, joined them to provide help and support as the pregnancy advanced.\u00a0\u00a0 Sadly, Elizabeth died very shortly after the birth of her son, and the baby only survived his mother by a few months.\u00a0\u00a0 William and Fanny comforted each other in their grief, and fell in love.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately for all concerned, the law of time did not permit a man to marry his deceased wife\u2019s sister.\u00a0\u00a0 The pair attempted to separate, but their mutual attraction proved so strong that they eventually plotted for Fanny to run away and meet William in his new London home.\u00a0\u00a0 Fanny\u2019s siblings were predictably enraged, and rather than hushing up the scandal, did everything they could to spread the news.\u00a0\u00a0 The scandal got the couple kicked out of their lodgings, and sent them on a panicked search for accommodation.\u00a0\u00a0 This meant that when they attended morning prayer at St Sepulchre\u2019s Church, and got chatting to the officiating clerk, they were pleased to discover that he was looking for new lodgers in his house in Cock Lane.\u00a0\u00a0 At first glance, it seemed like a happy coincidence for all concerned.<\/p>\n

What neither William nor Fanny could have known at that stage, was that the clerk, Richard Parsons, was an alcoholic with a chaotic life and a chequered reputation.\u00a0\u00a0 At first the families were on good terms, Fanny became especially attached to Richard\u2019s young daughter Betty, and even asked if she would come and spend the night in her room when William was away on business.\u00a0 During this time, unexplained banging and scratching noises started to bother the household, and despite investigation, no cause was found.\u00a0 Domestic harmony was further disturbed when William lent Richard money, and Richard defaulted on the repayments.\u00a0\u00a0 In the ensuing row, Richard made a clumsy attempt to blackmail William about his illicit relationship, which only escalated the situation.\u00a0\u00a0 Richard flung William and Fanny\u2019s belongings into the street, a decision which left them homeless and him without an income stream.\u00a0\u00a0 It also set off a chain of events which ultimately landed him in the dock facing serious criminal charges, and egg on the face of various high-profile members of London\u2019s intelligentsia, including Dr Johnson.<\/p>\n

Shortly after moving out, Fanny died of small-pox, only weeks before her first child would have been born.\u00a0 \u00a0To lose another partner and child must have been a devasting blow for William, but he did not find much sympathy amongst the Cock Lane locals.\u00a0 Strange noises were again heard in the Parsons\u2019 house, and the family readily connected what they deemed to be supernatural activity with the immorality of their former tenants.\u00a0\u00a0 At first the spirit was said to be Elizabeth Lynes, but after Fanny\u2019s death, the noises were attributed to her distressed ghost.\u00a0\u00a0 The disturbance seemed to focus around eleven year old Betty, with whom Fanny had been especially friendly.\u00a0 On only one occasion was the ghost actually seen by anyone, and this occurred when a figure in a white sheet passed by James Franzen, a friend of Richard\u2019s who was visiting the Parsons\u2019 home.\u00a0\u00a0 It is worth noting that Franzen had just been told by Richard about the haunting, had been drinking at the time and was actively prevented by Betty from following the ghostly figure upstairs to investigate.<\/p>\n

Richard consulted John Moore, assistant preacher at St Sepulchre\u2019s church and asked for advice.\u00a0\u00a0 Moore took Richard\u2019s story seriously, and when visiting the home experienced the ghost for himself.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Listening to the banging, Moore devised a system of yes and no taps for communication, and used this to question the spirit.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 The story emerged that that it was indeed Fanny, and that she had no died of illness, but been poisoned by her murderous husband.\u00a0 From this point onwards, rumour and local curiosity rapidly snowballed into a sensation which engulfed the metropolis.\u00a0\u00a0 Accounts were published in the press, and visiting Cock Lane to hear the ghost soon became a fashionable evening activity, so much so that even royalty dropped in.\u00a0 Night after night, Betty and her sister were put to bed, and hoards of strangers crowded into their room to wait for the show to begin.<\/p>\n

Some people, including Dr Johnson, were convinced by the experience.\u00a0 Others were a lot more sceptical, and pointed out the obvious potential for fraud in a darkened room.\u00a0\u00a0 In the end, Richard Parsons\u2019 exploitative focus on Betty was to prove his undoing.\u00a0\u00a0 Since the ghost was allegedly tied to her, rather than the Cock Lane house, there were inevitably demands for her to be taken elsewhere.\u00a0 \u00a0Richard could only resist so long, and when Betty was in the care of neutral observers, she was caught making the noises.<\/p>\n

Uproar and indignation ensued.\u00a0\u00a0 The sceptical voices like Horace Walpole gloated and preened themselves for the rationality and sophistication, whilst those who had believed in the spirit fumed at the scam.\u00a0\u00a0 (London was still smarting from the Elizabeth Canning saga, when a woman had successfully convinced a lot of people, including some doctors, that she was giving birth to rabbits.\u00a0\u00a0 These kind of incidents were an affront to elite self-perception that Georgian Britain was an enlightened society).\u00a0\u00a0 William Kent was of course especially unhappy, not only had he has all of his dirty laundry aired in public in terms of two extra-marital pregnancies and an illicit cohabitation, he had been at serious risk of a trial for a capital crime.\u00a0 Lots of people wanted payback.<\/p>\n

Richard Parsons was tried for conspiracy, along with his wife (another Elizabeth) and Mary Fraser, a local woman who had taken part in the charade.\u00a0 They were joined by the Rev\u2019d Mr John Moore and fellow clergyman and Methodist Richard James, who were also held publicly accountable for their involvement.\u00a0\u00a0 There was a social and political dimension to charging the clergy involved, Methodism at this time was seen as an uncomfortable threat by many orthodox Church of England voices.\u00a0\u00a0 There was unease about a movement which galvanised and addressed the socially deprived, and which explicitly critiqued the hypocrisy and indifference of many clergy within the Established Church.\u00a0 One form of push-back was to dismiss Methodist sympathisers as irrational or credulous, believing in absurd claims of signs and wonders.\u00a0\u00a0 There was a strong element of class prejudice in this line of argument, the poor were ridiculed and upbraided for believing in ghosts and superstition, but gentlemen were expected to have more knowledge and rational understanding.\u00a0 Not only was it disruptive for Church of England clergy to be helping to whip up rumours of the supernatural, in the eyes of many, it was effectively a betrayal of their class and the norms of behaviour expected of them.<\/p>\n

Consequently, the response of the authorities and legal system in putting both Parsons and the clergy involved on trial, was a public, ritual reassertion of elite expectations.\u00a0\u00a0 The law was being used to enforce and assert societal values.\u00a0\u00a0 It was an affront for the lower classes to deceive, embarrass and even corrupt those above them in the social hierarchy, and it was a transgression of boundaries for gentleman clergy to affirm the superstitious claims of the poor.\u00a0\u00a0 The fact that so many from the upper echelons of society had flirted with the possible reality of the ghost, demonstrated that the frontiers between the culture and values of different classes were more permeable than was comfortable.\u00a0 The trial was an opportunity for the authorities to redraw those lines.<\/p>\n

In light of all of this, it is not surprising that all defendants were found guilty.\u00a0 The clergy were able to buy their way out of further prison time or physical punishment, but their co-defendants were not so lucky.\u00a0 The women were incarcerated and Richard was sentenced to the pillory in addition to prison.\u00a0\u00a0 Interestingly however, the crowds had more pity on Richard than the sentencing judge.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 When chained up in public, he was not pelted with refuse and excrement, but was given donations of money from sympathisers.<\/p>\n

The whole incident illustrates how complicated justice can be, and how the law can never be a neutral instrument.\u00a0\u00a0 The clergymen who faced trial were almost certainly sincere believers in the ghost, and were made an example of largely due to wider anxieties around the social and political implications of the Methodist movement.\u00a0 In contrast, Richard Parsons, his wife and family friend Mary Fraser were almost certainly involved in a deliberate fraud.\u00a0\u00a0 On the one hand, spreading vindictive rumours about William and Fanny are difficult to overlook; even in an era when sin was expected to lead to a dismal end, baselessly accusing a grieving husband of murder was extremely cruel.\u00a0\u00a0 On the other, it appears very possible that they never intended the haunting to take on the life that it did. It is likely that there really were unexplained sounds, caused by rodents or the creaking of a ramshackle house.\u00a0\u00a0 It is easy to imagine how a mixture of boredom, genuine beliefs in spirits and a simmering resentment towards William Kent, could coalesces bit by bit into a juicy tale for gossip.\u00a0\u00a0 No doubt they initially enjoyed the attention and money it brought, and then panicked when the situation got bigger than their wildest dreams or worst nightmares.\u00a0 The Cock Lane haunting only became the phenomenon that it did because hoards of privileged people kept fuelling the fire, mainly with the motive of seeking entertainment.<\/p>\n

The truth is that a lot of people were enjoying the excitement and the theatre of the ghost story whilst it lasted, but the law came down heavily on the marginalised when the bubble burst.\u00a0 \u00a0It is worth considering how often our contemporary modern political and legal system might operate in a similar way.<\/p>\n

Check out our related podcast<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Related Articles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Scratching Fanny: The Ghost of Cock Lane<\/a> Burials and Beyond <\/em>(28\/3\/20)<\/p>\n

The Curious Case of the Cock Lane Ghost<\/a>, Daily Mail <\/em>(2\/1\/2012)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

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