Cock Lane ghost

The Cock Lane ghost was the great supernatural scandal of Georgian London. In 1762, a lodging house off Smithfield market became the centre of a haunting: scratching and knocking sounds that seemed to emanate from within the walls, reportedly making accusations against a William Kent — a lodger who had recently left — of poisoning his common-law wife, Fanny. The sounds could apparently answer yes-or-no questions by knocking.

The case drew enormous public attention. Crowds packed the narrow street; society figures and clergymen held vigils; Dr Johnson attended and took the matter seriously enough to write a report when the ghost failed to perform on command. The 'ghost' was ultimately identified as the twelve-year-old daughter of the house's owner, Richard Parsons, who was found to have hidden a piece of wood in her stays and was making the scratching sounds herself.

Parsons was convicted of conspiracy and sentenced to stand in the pillory. The affair became a byword for credulity and fraud, satirised by Hogarth in his print Credulity, Superstition, and Fanaticism. It remains one of the best-documented cases in the history of poltergeist claims: a complete record from first report to exposure, with named witnesses on every side, including several who never quite lost their unease about what they had heard.