THE COCK-LANE GHOST.
There is something so absurd and ridiculous in the terrors spread by Miss Parsons, that I think it hardly fair to class her operations with really serious offences against the laws of morality; but, recollecting that her knockings indicated a charge
of poisoning, my scruples are removed, and I proceed to sketch the principal outlines of an incident that agitated the public mind till 1762, when all who had "three ideas in continuity" were convinced that the spirit possessed no supernatural powers.
For two years previous to the above date, knockings and scratchings had frequently been heard during the night in the first floor of a person named Parsons, who held the office of Clerk to St. Sepulchre's-church, and resided in Cock-lane, near West Smithfield. This man, alarmed at the circumstance, made several experiments to discover the cause, and at last had the amazing good fortune to trace the sounds to a bedstead, on which two of his children reposed after the fatigues of the day; the eldest of whom, though a most surprising girl of her age, had numbered but twelve winters. Justly supposing the children might suffer some dreadful injury from the knocker, this affectionate parent removed them a story higher; but, horror upon horror, the tremendous noise followed the innocents, and even disturbed their rest for whole nights. But this was not all: a publican, resident in the neighbourhood, was frightened into serious illness by the form of a fleeting female ghost, which saluted his vision one fatal evening when in Parsons's house; nay, that worthy Clerk saw it himself about an hour afterwards.
Facts of this description cannot be concealed: reports of the noises and of the appearance of the phantom spread from the lane into a vast circle of space; numbers visited the unfortunate house, and others sat the night through with the tortured infant, appalled by sounds terrific; at length a Clergyman determined to adjure the Spirit, and thus obtain direct replies to the following questions: "Whether any person in that house had been injured?" The answer, expressed by the number of knocks (as the ghost was denied the power of speech, and of shewing herself within reach), was in the affirmative. "Was she a woman?"—"Yes; the Spirit then explained, that she had been kept by Mr. ——, who poisoned her when ill of the Small-pox, and that her body was deposited in the vault of St. John's-church, Clerkenwell." During this examination, the girl exhibited a considerable deal of art, but betrayed herself decidedly in several instances. The result was, that the Spirit ardently desired the murderer might be punished for her alledged death. A wise-acre, who narrated the above particulars in a newspaper of the time, observes, with wonderful sagacity, "What is remarkable is, that the Spirit is never heard till the children are in bed. This knocking was heard by the supposed woman when alive, who declared it foretold her death." Another account of the affair asserts that the person accused had married
two sisters, and that Fanny, the daughter of Parsons, had slept with the lady that appeared by knocking and scratching during her husband's absence at a wedding; but the knocking the deceased heard, was declared by the girl to be caused by the Spirit of the previously deceased sister; if so, the girl's infernal acts may have caused the death of the woman, as it is well known the agitation of a mind under the terrors of supposed supernatural visitation must have a fatal tendency in such a disorder as the small-pox.
As an astonishing proof of the folly of certain persons on this occasion, I shall quote the following paragraphs from the London Chronicle, vol. XI. p. 74, which conclude a string of questions and answers, put to, and received from the horrid girl, who, young as she was, richly deserved hanging, with her prompters. "What must occasion credulity is, the afflicting an innocent child, whom this Spirit acknowledges to be so, and that it is not the part of a good Spirit so to do, while, she knocks that she is, and permitted by God, not by Satan, to appear. What is more astonishing, that she will not cease troubling the child after satisfaction had. There is such a mixture of truth and contradictions, that a person cannot help doubting of the veracity of this knocker. It is, we humbly presume, fit to be enquired into, for the satisfaction of the publick,
and to bring to exemplary punishment the impostor or impostors, if any, to relieve a distressed family, to preserve the reputation of the innocent, or to vindicate the cause of the injured. The publick are desired to rest satisfied, as the fraud, if any, will be discovered soon; of which they may rest assured.
"The gentleman intended to be accused in this affair, of perpetrating upon two wives the most atrocious of all crimes, was married about six months since, to a very agreeable young lady, with a fortune of 3000l. The unhappy situation in which they must both be, from so horrid an aspersion upon the former, may be more easily conceived than expressed."
This shameful affair terminated in the manner described in the ensuing words, extracted from one of the newspapers published in February 1762. "February 1. On this night many gentlemen, eminent for their rank and character, were, by the invitation of the Rev. Mr. Aldrich, of Clerkenwell, assembled at his house, for the examination of the noises supposed to be made by a departed Spirit, for the detection of some enormous crime. About ten at night, the gentlemen met in the chamber, in which the girl supposed to be disturbed by a Spirit had, with proper caution, been put to bed by several ladies. They sat rather more than an hour, and hearing nothing went down stairs; when they interrogated