The Ghost of Cock Lane: When Georgian London Fell for History's Most Famous Hoax
In the crisp autumn of 1762, London was gripped by supernatural fever. What began as mysterious knockings in a cramped house on Cock Lane would escalate into one of the most sensational paranormal cases in British history, captivating everyone from aristocrats to commoners and even attracting the attention of literary giant Dr. Samuel Johnson. 🔊Listen now: Episode 28 of London History podcast reveals the fascinating tale of Scratching Fanny; a ghost story that was actually an elaborate con game born of greed, revenge, and Georgian London’s appetite for the macabre.
A Tale of Two Lovers and Their Unscrupulous Landlord
The story begins with Fanny and William Kent, two Norfolk natives who had come to London seeking a fresh start together. There was just one scandalous detail: they weren’t married. Fanny was actually the sister-in-law of Kent—his deceased wife’s sister—making their relationship both unconventional and controversial for the times.
The couple found lodgings through Richard Parsons, the clerking assistant at St. Sepulchre Church, who offered them rooms in his house on Cock Lane. What they didn’t know was that Parsons was a known drunk with mounting financial troubles. What Parsons didn’t initially realize was the true nature of his tenants’ relationship.
The arrangement seemed beneficial enough: Parsons borrowed 12 guineas from the Kents with an agreement to repay a guinea per month. However, this financial entanglement would prove to be the seed of a much larger deception.
The First Manifestations
The supernatural events began innocuously enough. While Kent was away on business, Fanny decided to share a room with the Parsons’ 11-year-old daughter Elizabeth. That first night, Fanny was disturbed by mysterious loud noises. Mrs. Parsons suggested it was merely the neighboring shoemaker working late.
But the noises returned the following night, and this time Fanny woke the entire household to witness the phenomena. The disturbances escalated when neighbor James Frazen reported seeing a white ghostly figure climbing the stairs of the house. Word of the supernatural activity began to spread, and the Kents decided to move out—without receiving repayment of their loan.
Tragedy Strikes
The Kents relocated just a few doors down on Cock Lane, but their troubles were far from over. Fanny soon fell gravely ill, first with what appeared to be an eruptive fever that developed into smallpox. In 18th-century London, smallpox was a merciless killer, accounting for 6-10% of all burials in 1760. Fanny, like many adults who hadn’t encountered the disease in childhood, succumbed to the illness.
William Kent faced considerable challenges arranging Fanny’s funeral due to their unmarried status. However, he inherited £150 plus land that Fanny had received from her brother—a considerable sum that allowed him to retrain as a stockbroker and eventually remarry. Kent’s legal pursuit of the unpaid debt from Parsons was successful, but this victory may have inadvertently triggered what came next.
The Return of the Ghost
Watching Kent prosper while his own fortunes dwindled likely frustrated the debt-ridden Parsons. When the mysterious knockings returned to Cock Lane, Parsons seized the opportunity to turn supernatural phenomena into profit. He began conducting séances, asking questions of the spirit who responded through a series of knocks.
Through this crude communication system, Parsons claimed the ghost was none other than poor Fanny Kent. More sensationally, the spirit accused William Kent of murdering her by poisoning her with arsenic during her smallpox illness. According to the ghost, only when Kent was hanged for this crime could she rest in peace.
London's Supernatural Sensation
The story of Scratching Fanny spread like wildfire throughout London, extensively covered in the Public Ledger. Thousands of people from all levels of society flocked to Cock Lane hoping to experience the paranormal phenomena firsthand. The ghost became the talk of Georgian high society.
Even Horace Walpole, the famous writer and socialite, attended one of the séances, later writing to his friend Montague about the extraordinary experience:
“I went to hear it for it is not an apparition, but an audition. We set out from the opera, changed our clothes at Northumberland House. The Duke of York, Lady Northumberland, Lady Mary Cook, Lady Hartford, and I all in a Hackney coach drove to the spot… It rained in Torrance yet the lane was full of mob and the house is full. We could not get in. At last, they discovered it was the Duke of York and the company squeeze themselves into one another’s pockets to make room for us.”
The commercial impact was immediate and lucrative. Parsons charged visitors a fee to experience the ghost, while local taverns and alehouses made fortunes from the constant stream of curiosity seekers. Meanwhile, Kent’s reputation was in tatters as he was branded a wife murderer throughout London.
The Investigation Begins
As the hysteria reached fever pitch, respected clergymen Reverend Mr. Moore and James Penn decided to investigate whether the haunting was genuine or fraudulent. They publicly announced their intention to “detect an imposture, if any of the most unhappy tendency, both to the public and individuals”.
The ghost claimed it would follow young Elizabeth Parsons everywhere, so the investigators moved her to different locations to test this claim. On January 31st, 1763, the learned gentlemen conducted a controlled observation, watching 11-year-old Elizabeth prepare for bed while they waited for supernatural manifestations.
The ghost had also made a bold promise: it would accompany the investigators to the vault under St. John Clerkenwell church, where Fanny’s body lay, and knock upon her coffin. At 1:00 AM, the group of distinguished men made their way to the crypt, discovering 315 coffins on the vault floor, 154 of which had no nameplates—including Fanny’s.
Notably, despite inheriting £150 and land from Fanny, Kent had not bothered to pay for a nameplate for her coffin, raising questions about the depth of his affection for her.
The Truth Revealed
The ghost failed to fulfill its promise at the crypt, and suspicions began to mount. The investigators moved Elizabeth between different houses, but the supernatural phenomena continued to follow her. Even when her bed was suspended as a hammock a yard and a half from the ground with her hands and feet fastened, the mysterious sounds persisted.
The breakthrough came when servants observed Elizabeth concealing a small wooden board underneath her clothing. Confronted with this evidence, the entire elaborate hoax unraveled. Elizabeth had been creating the “supernatural” knocking sounds using the hidden board, likely under the direction of her father.
Justice and Consequences
William Kent brought charges against Richard Parsons, his wife, daughter, and several co-conspirators. On July 10th, 1762, they were tried at Guildhall by a special jury and convicted of conspiracy. The sentences were severe:
- Richard Parsons: Three sessions in the pillory at the end of Cock Lane over one month, followed by two years in King’s Bench prison in Southwark
- Mrs. Parsons: One year imprisonment
- Mary Frazen: Six months hard labor in Bridewell prison
Interestingly, when Parsons was finally pilloried, public sentiment had shifted. Instead of pelting him with rotten fruit and stones as was customary, the crowd took pity on him and made a collection of money instead.
The clergymen and tradesmen who had been involved paid Kent £588 in compensation and were dismissed with reprimands. Young Elizabeth Parsons, believed to be under her father’s influence, was not found guilty.
The Lasting Legacy
The Ghost of Cock Lane scandal became a cultural phenomenon that outlived its participants. The case was immortalized in satirical poems like “Cock Lane and Common Sense” and theatrical productions including “The Drummer” and “The Haunted House.” Even renowned artist William Hogarth included a pilloried ghost of Fanny alongside radical politician John Wilkes in his work “The Times, Plate 2”.
Dr. Samuel Johnson, who had attended some of the investigations, became one of the most notable skeptics of the case. Charles Churchill ridiculed the learned men who had been taken in by the hoax in his satirical work “The Ghost”.
Elizabeth Parsons lived a full life despite her childhood notoriety, marrying twice before dying in 1806—the same year that marked the symbolic end of the Ghost of Cock Lane’s cultural relevance.
A Georgian Lesson in Greed and Gullibility
The story of Scratching Fanny reveals much about Georgian London: a city of three-quarters of a million people where 54% were women, many young migrants from the countryside seeking work in domestic service. It was a place where anyone could reinvent themselves, but also where desperation could drive elaborate schemes of deception.
The original houses on Cock Lane were demolished in 1979 and rebuilt in a style hinting at their Georgian origins, but the curious tale of greed, envy, and supernatural trickery remains forever embedded in London’s historical folklore.
What began as mysterious knockings in a cramped London house became one of history’s most famous ghost hoaxes—a reminder that sometimes the most compelling supernatural stories are actually very human tales of desperation, revenge, and the eternal appeal of a good ghost story.
🎧Listen to the full story on the London History Podcast, Episode 28: The Ghost of Cock Lane Special
