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n On April 5th 1815 the jury at the OldnBailey found Elizabeth Fenning guilty of breaking the peace and wounding andnshe was sentenced to death by hanging. When the verdict was read out, she gavenout a scream and fainted, and was carried insensible from the courtroom. Thentrial, such as it was, was flawed throughout; Mr Gurney, prosecuting, wasnallowed to use leading questions at will, in effect putting words into thenmouths of the witnesses. There were many inconsistencies in the testimonies ofnthese witnesses that were left unexamined; not least how long the dumplingndough was left unattended in the kitchen, when anyone could have introduced thenarsenic into it.
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| Elizabeth Fenning |
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nMrs Turner took an extraordinary interest in the dough beforenthe dumplings were made, examining it on numerous occasions and commenting onnits heaviness and blackness. If she was so concerned about it, why did shenallow sub-standard dumplings to be served at her table? And if they were sonblack and heavy, why did the Turners eat them? And why did the heavily-pregnantnMrs Turner go upstairs to her room, alone and unaided, and remain therenretching and vomiting for half an hour before her husband went to attend tonher?
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nIf the arsenic had been mixed into the dough, it would surely have beenndistributed evenly throughout the dumplings, yet Mrs Turner gave evidence thatnshe only ate one quarter of a dumpling before she became ill and her husbandnate one and a half dumplings (six times more) and did not become ill untilnthirty minutes later. Mrs Turner and Sarah Peer, the maidservant, gavenevidence, on oath, that no coals had been delivered to the house on the day ofnthe poisonings, yet the order book of Mr Wood, the coal merchant, showednclearly that he had delivered twelve sacks to the Turner household on March 25thnand these twelve sacks were also metered and recorded by Westminster LandnCoal-Meter’s Office on that same date; why did the women lie about this? Andnwhy are the questions put to Mrs Turner and Sarah Peel regarding the coalndelivery omitted from the Session’s Paper Report of the trial?
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| Extract from Mr Wood’s Coal Delivery Day Book |
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nWhen Mr OrlibarnTurner is sworn in, the first question put to him is, “You are the father ofnMr Robert Gregson?” to which, oddly, he replies, “I believe I am.”nWhy? Why not, “Yes, I am,”? Is it levity? In a trial for attemptednmurder at the Old Bailey? Is his paternity a sore point? There is somethingnstrange going on here. And this answer is changed to a blank “Yes” innthe Session’s Paper Report; again, why? Why was one apprentice, Roger Gadsden,ncalled to give evidence when the other apprentice, Thomas King, was not alsoncalled? Importantly, if Elizabeth Fenning had poisoned the dumplings, why didnshe also eat them? It beggars belief to say that she did so to draw attentionnaway from her action – who would risk arsenic poisoning to provide themselfnwith an alibi?
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| Session’s Report Paper – Old Bailey Proceedings |
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nAnother strange thing is the Session’s Report Paper’s differencento the shorthand account taken at the trial; in the list of jurors, there is andifference in the names of eight of them and one, Edward Beesley, anbottle-dealer from Charles Street, is recorded as being deaf and had to haventhe evidence he could not hear related to him by the other jurymen. A deaf man,nin a jury at a trial for attempted murder? Why? The case immediately drew thenattention of people who questioned the differences between the shorthandnaccount taken at the time of the trial and the ‘official’ version printed innthe Session’s Report Paper. Why were there so many omissions?
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| Circumstantial Evidence in the Extraordinary Case of Elizabeth Fenning – 1815 |
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nQuestions werenasked about the effects of arsenic on yeast and how if arsenic was added to it,nthe dough would not lose its ability to rise nor would it turn black. ThenRecorder’s remarks to the jury were called into question; he had particularlynbrought to their attention Dr Marshall’s evidence that he had experimented onnthe residue left in serving dish and found it to be arsenic when it turnednknife blades black. Experts, in controlled conditions, made chemicalnexperiments and this was proved to be impossible – arsenic did not cause knivesnto turn black under any circumstances.
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| Report in the case of Elizabeth Fenning |
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nA petition was sent to the Prince Regentnand another to the Lord High Chancellor, assuring them of Fenning’s innocencenand begging for mercy and a royal pardon. Fenning herself wrote to LordnSidmouth, Secretary of State for the Home Department, asking him to intervenenon her behalf. Most telling of all was the evidence that emerged from MrnGibson, of the house of Corbyn and Co, Chemists and Druggists of No 300nHolborn, who gave a written statement that in September or October of 1814, RobertnTurner had called at his house,
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n“… in a wild and deranged state, I invitednhim into a back room, or counting house, where I detained him, whilst Mr.nCrockford, another gentleman in Messrs. Corbyn’s house, went to his father’s.nIn this interval, Mr. Turner, junior, used the most violent and incoherentnexpressions such as, ‘My dear Gibson, do, for God’s sake, get me secured ornconfined, for, if I am at liberty, I shall do some mischief, I shall destroynmyself and my wife: I must and shall do it, unless all means, of destructionnare removed out of my way; therefore do, my good friend, have me put under somenrestraint: something from above tells me I must do it and unless I am preventednI certainly shall do it.’”n
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nIt was all to no avail for twelve hours later ElizabethnFenning was executed.
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| Newgate Prison |
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nOn Wednesday July 26th 1815, she was broughtnto the scaffold before the Debtors’ Door of Newgate prison. She was dressed inna white muslin gown, an embroidered cap and pale lilac laced boots and mountednthe steps with a firm, calm step. Throughout the trial and up to the moment ofnher death, she had maintained that she was innocent, and now she said,
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n“Beforenthe just and Almighty God, and by the faith of the Holy Sacrament I have taken,nI am innocent of’ the offence with which I am charged.”n
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nThe hangman took ancotton cap from his pocket and tried to put it over Fenning’s head but it wasntoo small, so he tried another two, which were also too small, so he took anwhite muslin handkerchief and fastened it over her face. Considering his to beninsufficient, he took out a pocket-handkerchief, evidently used, and tried tontie it about her eyes. She objected strongly, asking the Ordinary, Rev MrnCotton, to act,
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n“Mr Cotton, do not let him put it on, – pray let him take itnoff, – pray do, Mr Cotton,”n
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nbutnCotton told her that she must be blindfolded. The rope was placed around hernneck, her elbows were tied by her sides and her hands bound in front of her andnshe was lead up to the scaffold. The hangman threw the rope over the beam andntied it firmly with several knots. Fenning was not very tall and Rev Cotton hadnto stoop to hear her speak – the crowd assembled in the rain expected that shenwas making a last-minute confession to him but actually she was asking him tonindicate when the drop was about to happen.
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| Broadsheet of the Execution of Elizabeth Fenning, Abraham Adams and William Oldfield – 1815 |
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nTwo other prisoners were executednat the same time, Abraham Adams, guilty of sodomy, and William Oldfield, guiltynof raping a nine-year-old girl, and these were brought out next and the ropesnput about their necks too. The executioner pulled his lever, the platformnopened, Fenning dropped and died without a struggle. Cotton, when asked laternwhy he had not given a signal to Fenning, replied that he had not done sonbecause
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n“… it saved a great deal of pain to the convict.”n
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nTurner’s housenhad to be protected from the fury of the crowds who were convinced that Fenningnhad been wrongly hanged.
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nIn a curious turn of events, a report was published innThe Times, on or about Christmas Day 1833, that Turner’s brother, in andeath bed confession, had admitted to the poisoning of the family (this wasnalso printed in John Timbs Curiosities of London (1855) although anletter to Notes and Queries (July 24th 1909) states thatnTurner’s nephew, annoyed at his uncle and aunt’s refusal to give him money, hadnadministered the arsenic and had confessed on his death bed in Chelmsford.nAnother letter to Notes and Queries (August 14th 1909)nclaimed that a death-bed confession had not been made by any relative of thenTurners and that Elizabeth Fenning’s execution had been used for politicalnpurposes by opponents of the Government, as a woman had been hanged for a crimenless than murder.)
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nTo my mind, there was doubt in the case and ElizabethnFenning should have been allowed the benefit of it (personally, I think ThomasnKing, the apprentice, was responsible).
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