Difference between revisions 123501098 and 123501099 on dewiki

{{Use British English|date=April 2011}}{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2011}}
[[File:Cock lane ghost.png|250px|thumb|alt=A monochrome illustration of a narrow street, viewed from a corner, or intersection. A large three-storey building is visible on the right of the image. The ground floor has three windows, the first and second floors have two windows each. The roof appears to contain a row of windows, for a loft space. The word "KING" is written between the first and second floors, and a sign, "(contracted; show full) for his family.  He listened to the couple's plight and was sympathetic, offering them the use of lodgings in his home at what (in 1965) was 20&nbsp;Cock Lane, to the north of St Sepulchre's.  Located along a narrow, winding thoroughfare similar to most of central London's streets, the three-storey house was in a respectable but declining area, and comprised a single room on each floor, connected by a winding staircase.<ref>{{Harvnb|Grant|1965|pp=4–6}}</ref> Shortly after Mr
. and Mrs. Kent (as they called themselves) moved in, Kent loaned Parsons 12&nbsp;[[guinea (British coin)|guineas]], to be repaid at a rate of a guinea per month.<ref>{{Harvnb|Grant|1965|p=10}}</ref>  

It was while Kent was away at a wedding in the country that the first reports of strange noises began.  Parsons had a wife and two daughters; the elder, Elizabeth, was described as a "little artful girl about eleven years of age".<ref name="ElizabethODNB">{{Citation | last1 = Seccombe | first1 = Thomas | last2 = Shore | first2 = Rev Heather | title = Parsons, Elizabeth (1749–1807) | format = {{ODNBsub}} | work = Oxford Dictionary of National Biography | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 2004 | url = http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/21456 | accessdate = 21 December 2009 | doi = 10.1093/ref:odnb/21456}}</ref>  Kent asked Elizabeth to stay with Fanny, who was then several months into a pregnancy, and to share her bed while he was away.  The two reported hearing scratching and rapping noises.  These were attributed by Mrs. Parsons to a neighbouring [[Shoemaking|cobbler]], although when the noises re-occurred on a Sunday, Fanny asked if the cobbler was working that day; Mrs. Parsons told her he was not.  James Franzen, landlord of the nearby Wheat Sheaf [[public house]], was another witness.  After visiting the house he reported seeing a ghostly white figure ascend the stairs, and terrified, left to go home.  Parsons visited him there that same night, and claimed also to have seen a ghost.<ref>{{Harvnb|Chambers|2006|pp=39–40}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Grant|1965|pp=14–15}}</ref>

(contracted; show full)burial he was, however, forced to give a name, and he gave her his own.  Fanny's family was notified and her sister Ann Lynes, who lived nearby at [[Pall Mall, London|Pall Mall]], attended the funeral at St John's.  When Ann learned of the terms of Fanny's will, which left her brothers and sisters half a crown each and Kent the rest, she tried but failed to block it in [[Doctors' Commons]].  The bulk of Kent's inheritance was Fanny's £150 share of her dead brother Thomas'
s estate.  This also included some land owned by Thomas, sold by the executor of his estate, John Lynes, and Kent received Fanny's share of that too (almost £95).  Her family resented this.  Legal problems with Lynes's sale meant that each of Thomas's beneficiaries had to pay £45 in compensation to the purchaser, but Kent refused, claiming that he had already spent the money in settling Fanny's debts.  In response to this, in October 1761 John Lynes began proceedings against Kent in the [[Court of Chancery]].{{#tag:ref|The result of these proceedings is not mentioned.|group="nb"}}  Meanwhile Kent became a [[stockbroker]], and in 1761 married again.<ref>{{Harvnb|Grant|1965|pp=16–19}}</ref>

==Haunting==
(contracted; show full)is, the séance was ended.  Frazer and Franzen remained alone in the room, the latter reportedly too terrified to move.  Frazer asked if he would like to pray and was angered when he apparently could not.  The séance resumed and Franzen later returned to his home, where he and his wife were reportedly tormented by the ghost's knocking in their bedchamber.<ref>{{Harvnb|Grant|1965|pp=34–36}}</ref>

==Investigation==
On 20&nbsp;January another séance was held, this time at the home of a Mr
. Bruin, on the corner of nearby Hosier Lane.  Among those attending was a man "extremely desirous of detecting the fraud, and discovering the truth of this mysterious affair", who later sent his account of the night to the ''London Chronicle''.  He arrived with a small party which included Reverend James Penn of [[St Anne and St Agnes|St Ann's]] in [[Aldersgate]].  Inside the house, a member of the group positioned himself against the bed, but was asked by one of the ghost(contracted; show full)
Initially only the ''Public Ledger'' reported on the case, but once it became known that noblemen had taken an interest and visited the ghost at Mr
. Bray's house on 14&nbsp;January, the story began to appear in other newspapers.  The ''[[St. James's Chronicle]]'' and the ''[[London Chronicle]]'' printed reports from 16–19 January (the latter the more skceptical of the two), and ''Lloyd's Evening Post'' from 18–20 January.  The story spread across London and by the middle of January the crowds gathered outside the property were such that Cock Lane was rendered impassable.  Parsons charged visitors an entrance fee to "talk" with the ghost, which, it was reported, did not disappoint.<ref name="Benedictp172"/><ref>{{Harvnb|MacKay|1852|p=232}}</ref><ref>{{Harvnb|Westwood|Simpson|2005|pp=463–46(contracted; show full)

Elizabeth was taken on 26&nbsp;January to the house of Jane Armstrong, sleeping there in a hammock.  The continued noises strengthened the resolve of the ghost's supporters, while the press'
s ceaseless reporting of the case continued.  [[Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford]], announced that with the [[Prince Edward, Duke of York and Albany|Duke of York]], [[Elizabeth Percy, Duchess of Northumberland|Lady Northumberland]], [[Lady Mary Coke]] and [[Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford|Lord Hertford]], he was to visit Cock Lane on 30&nbsp;January.  After struggling through the throngs of interested visitors though, he was ultimately disappointed; the ''[[Public Advertiser]]'' observed that "the noise is now generally deferred till seven in the morning, it being necessary to vary the time, that the imposition may be the better carried on".<ref>{{Harvnb|Grant|1965|pp=55–56}}</ref>

==Exposure==
With [[Lord Dartmouth]] Aldrich began to draw together the people who would be involved in his investigation.  They chose the matron of a local [[Lying-in Hospital|lying-in hospital]] as principal [[lady-in-waiting]], the critic and controversialist Bishop [[John Douglas (Anglican bishop)|John Douglas]], and Dr George Macaulay.  A Captain Wilkinson was also included on the committee; he had attended one séance armed with a pistol and stick; the former to shoot the source of the knocking, and the latter to make his escape (the ghost had remained silent on that occasion).  James Penn and John Moore were also on the committee, but its most prominent member was Dr. [[Samuel Johnson]],<ref>{{Harvnb|Grant|1965|pp=56–57}}</ref> who documented the séance, held on 1&nbsp;February 1762:

[[File:Samuel Johnson by Joshua Reynolds.jpg|right|thumb|upright|alt=A half-length portrait of an elderly, and overweight, gentleman.  He wears a brown waistcoat and blazer, with gold buttons, a white collar, and a grey wig.  His left hand hovers close to his abdomen.  The background is a dark, solid blue/black.|A committee whose members included Dr [[Samuel Johnson]] concl(contracted; show full)

On or about 25&nbsp;February, a pamphlet sympathetic to Kent's case was published, called ''The Mystery Revealed'', and most likely written by [[Oliver Goldsmith]].<ref>{{Harvnb|Goldsmith|Cunningham|1854|p=364}}</ref>  Meanwhile, Kent was still trying to clear his name, and on 25&nbsp;February he went to the vault of St
. John's, accompanied by Aldrich, the undertaker, the clerk and the parish [[Sexton (office)|sexton]].  The group was there to prove beyond any doubt that a recent newspaper report, which claimed that the supposed removal of Fanny's body from the vault accounted for the ghost's failure to knock on her coffin, was false.  The undertaker removed the lid to expose Fanny's corpse, "and a very awful shocking sight it was".<ref>{{Harvnb|Grant|1965|pp=76–77}}</ref>  For Moo(contracted; show full)[[Category:18th century in London]]
[[Category:18th-century hoaxes]]

{{Link FA|fr}}

[[fr:Fantôme de Cock Lane]]
[[ja:コック・レーンの幽霊]]
[[ru:Коклэйнский призрак]]