Oddity of the Week: The Ghostbusters of Cock Lane
Created | Updated Oct 26, 2014
Who you gonna call?
The Ghostsbusters of Cock Lane
The 18th-century illustration above is anonymous, although some people think it's by Oliver Goldsmith, whose The Mystery Revealed exposed a really famous hoax: the Cock Lane 'ghost'. You think the paranormal is a modern concern? Think again. The Cock Lane haunting led to séances attended by royal dukes, clergymen, and even Samuel Johnson, who was skeptical, but open-minded. (He thought there might be such things as ghosts, but this might not be one.)
The 1762 incident involved a landlord, his tenant – who was in the predatory lending business and, frankly, living in sin – and the landlord's imaginative and limber teenaged daughter. Frankly, there's more carry-on in the Cock Lane mystery than a whole supernatural soap opera. Personally, we want to see the movie. We recommend Molly Ringwald to play Esther 'Carrots' Carlisle. How's that for a name?
The basic plot was that the landlord put his daughter up to faking spirits so that his tenants would move out. The reason? He didn't want to pay the tenant the money he'd borrowed. Later, the crooked landlord tried to use the 'ghost' to accuse his former tenant of murder. Believe it or not, 18th-century Londoners seem to have been as credulous about disembodied witnesses as, say, modern US TV audiences…who knew?
The whole case stirred up a hornet's nest, belief-wise, between Anglicans and Methodists. Apparently, Methodists were more inclined to believe in ghosts than Anglicans. Another surprise. In the end, they all landed in court, where a number of people were jailed and fined, and the crooked landlord was pilloried – three times.
We're sort of disappointed that Elizabeth Parsons' head didn't turn all the way around, and that no pea soup was involved. But you can't have everything. This is our ghost story for the year, and we're sticking by it. If you want more information on the Cock Lane Ghost, read the link.
And remember: when there's something weird in your neighbourhood, call a good old-fashioned ghostbuster. Hope the team show up with EVP meters, rather than Methodist preachers and Johnson's dictionary. And don't lend money to your landlord.
