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The Cock Lane Ghost: Murder, Sex and Haunting in Dr Johnson’s London - Paul Chambers

In 1762 London was convulsed by a scandal with all the elements that would have any modern tabloid editor rubbing their hands in glee. Forbidden love, an illegitimate child on the way, a supposedly ill-gotten inheritance, a couple flaunting the conventions of polite society and, most significantly, a cracking good ghost which seemed intent on punishing those who had dared to turn their backs on the marital requirements of the age. Better yet, it had social and political implications that compelled the involvement of the very highest echelons of the literary and political establishment. At this period the established Anglican Church was under threat from a powerful foe - nonconformism. And nonconformism, specifically Methodism, was characterised by a powerful belief and interest in the supernatural. The opposing sides in the battle to prove the Cock Lane ghost real, or otherwise, lined up according to their political and religious affiliation and battle lines were drawn. Would they result in an innocent man losing his life on the gallows?

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This might all seem like so much tabloid fodder. But the immense significance attained by the Cock Lane ghost saga can be appreciated from its surviving cultural references. The opening words of Charles Dickens’ A Tale of Two Cities reveal him as something of a sceptic, as well as illustrating just how deep into the popular consciousness the Cock Lane ghost had penetrated:

It was the year of Our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five. Spiritual revelations were conceded to England at that favoured period, as at this. Mrs. Southcott had recently attained her five-and-twentieth blessed birthday, of whom a prophetic private in the Life Guards had heralded the sublime appearance by announcing that arrangements were made for the swallowing up of London and Westminster. Even the Cock-lane ghost had been laid only a round dozen of years, after rapping out its messages, as the spirits of this very year last past(supernaturally deficient in originality) rapped out theirs. Mere messages in the earthly order of events had lately come to the English Crown and People, from a congress of British subjects in America: which, strange to relate, have proved more important to the human race than any communications yet received through any of the chickens of the Cock-lane brood.

The incident is also powerfully echoed in William Hogarth’s etching Credulity, Superstition and Fanaticism, a satire on Methodism and its obsession with the supernatural created in the same year as the Cock Lane ghost saga. Clearly this was an affair that attracted the attention of some of the most perceptive writers and artists of the day - but it also became a byword for the gullibility of the London mob and a judgment on those of a higher social order who attempted to exploit this gullibility or use the ghost for their own purposes - including a literary figure of the stature of Dr Samuel Johnson.

Paul Chambers’ book does a very creditable job of untangling all the various strands of the saga, starting with the early lives of its major protagonists, William Kent, Fanny Lynes and the Parsons family of Cock Lane. He establishes what he understands as the facts of the case early on in the narrative in order to make it easier to follow the paths of later half-truths, outright lies and misrepresentations. And he does an excellent job of presenting the whole thing in a readable and accessible fashion. An enjoyable account of a historical incident of some importance which has not necessarily previously received the scholarly attention it deserves.

Some links:

• Wikipedia: The Cock Lane ghost
• Memoirs of Extraordinary Popular Delusions and the Madness of Crowds: Charles Mackay (The Cock Lane story is told from paragraph 12.17 onwards)
• Fortean Times: Scratching Fanny by Sarah Bakewell
• Author’s website and book introduction
• London walks: The Cock Lane ghost
• Fullbooks: Cock Lane and Common-sense by Andrew Lang
• Encyclopaedia.com: We See a Ghost - Hogarth’s satire on Methodists and connoisseurs

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 11th, 2007 at 10:02 pm and is filed under 2007 reading challenge. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.