Case file · Haunting
The Cock Lane ghost
In 1762 Londoners flocked to a lodging in Cock Lane near Smithfield to hear knocking said to be the ghost of a dead woman accusing her partner of murder.
1762 CE · 51.52, -0.10 · status: hoax
The account
The knocks centred on the parish clerk Richard Parsons's daughter Elizabeth, and were aimed at William Kent, who had lived there with Fanny Lynes. It became a public sensation.
The sceptical view
A commission that included Samuel Johnson concluded the haunting was a fraud.
Connections in the atlas
- Cock Lane
- The Drummer of Tedworth
- Poltergeist
- The Fox sisters