The Cock Lane Ghost Story of 1762...

... saw the murder victim, Fanny Lyons, posthumously report her own murder – it was alleged that she was lured to London by William Kent, pregnant with his child; and poisoned. Her ghost gave evidence through a series of knocks; one for yes, two for no, and loud scratching noises in response to impertinent questions, earning her the nick-name, Scratching Fanny. 

News got out via the Public Ledger and soon crowds of spectators queued along Cock Lane for an interview with Fanny, at which 12-year-old, Elizabeth, (daughter of Kent's landlord) was always present – as were the carefully concealed wooden blocks used to make the noises. 

It was only 26 years after the Witch Craft Act was repealed in the UK, maybe a bit of mischief or maybe Elizabeth and her family’s only means of reporting the Fanny’s murder was to play the patriarchy at their own game. If so many women had been put to death for the crime of Witchcraft, performing magic and colluding with supernatural forces, then surely the patriarchal law must believe in them. Simultaneously, ‘the claim to magical power undermined the power of the authorities and the state, giving confidence to the poor in their ability to manipulate the natural and social environment and possibly subvert the constituted order.’*

It was unsurprising then that what went on trial alongside the accused, and what in effect overshadowed his crime, was belief in ‘rural faith’ versus urban rationality. I'm not sure what happened to William Kent, I've come accross conflicting sources, but what is better documented is the convictions of the ghost fraudsters, Richard Parsons and Mary Frazer, when the wooden block used to make the knocking sounds was found in Elizabeth Parson’s bed. 

In February 1762 the Cock Lane Ghost story was exposed as a fraud; however, in place of disenchantment, what came out of it was suspension of disbelief, ‘poetic faith’* and sensational horror. The rise of supernatural fiction emerged like Hope from Pandora’s box, set to re-enchant society with women at the helm.

* Big thank you, E. J. Clery, for 'The Rise of Supernatural Fiction 1762 - 1800'