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n Running parallel to, and lying between, High Holbornnand Red Lion Square in London is Eagle Street. In 1815, Eagle Street wasnnarrow, dark, dirty lane of cheap flophouses and cheaper shops. There was anbird-stuffer’s establishment, a marine chandler’s place, rag and bottle shops,nvendors of tripe and cats’ meat, broadsheet sellers offering farthing prints,nshoddy sellers and tawdry merchants. At the end of July, in amongst this gloomynaggregation of penny-pinching poverty and grim grime, in the back room ofnnumber 14 Eagle Street, the parents of Elizabeth Fenning placed the executednbody of their daughter, who had been hanged at Newgate Prison.
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| Eagle Street underlined in red |
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nHer father,nWilliam, had been promised that the body would be returned to him after thenexecution but he was shocked when he was told that he would have to paynfourteen shillings and sixpence for the executioner’s fees before the bodynwould be released. He pawned the family furniture and clothes and borrowed thenrest of the money to raise the amount he needed and when sympathisers and thencurious descended on Eagle Street and began to leave unsolicited donations withnthe bereaved old soldier, the police intervened and stopped people fromnknocking on the house door.
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nOn July 31st, the funeral processionnleft Eagle Street, surrounded by an enormous police presence, as eight mournersnled by Elizabeth’s parents and six maiden pallbearers clad in white walkednslowly to St George the Martyr’s burial ground. The streets were lined withnpeople and 10,000 people attended the committal, and all without incident. The Observernnewspaper raised a subscription from its readers for the benefit of thenbereaved family. It was widely believed that Elizabeth Fenning was innocent andnhad been wrongly hanged.
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| Elizabeth Fenning |
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nWilliam Fenning had served abroad with the Suffolknregiment and his wife bore ten children, all of whom bar one had died innchildhood. After completing his military service of almost twenty years,nWilliam moved to London and began a potato dealing business with his brother innRed Lion Square. His only remaining daughter, Elizabeth, entered domesticnservice when she was fourteen years old, and in late January 1815, at the agenof twenty-one she obtained the position of cook to Mr Robert Gregson Turner andnhis wife, Charlotte, at 68, Chancery Lane.
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| Chancery Lane underlined in blue |
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nThe house belonged to OrlibarnTurner, a law-stationer and father of Robert, who lived at Lambeth and who camento dinner on March 21st. They dined on beefsteak pie, potatoes andnyeast dumplings, and soon after eating all three Turners became violently ill,nvomiting and suffering chest and stomach pains. Fenning had made yeastndumplings on the day before, which had been white, fluffy and delicious but thendumplings she made on the next day were heavy and dark coloured.
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nOne of twonteenaged apprentices who lived in the household, Roger Gadsden, went into thenkitchen and ate a piece of a dumpling about the size of a walnut together withnsome gravy that he mopped up with bread, and soon after he fell ill too.nElizabeth Fenning also ate some of the meal, and when Doctor John Marshall, whonhad been sent for, arrived at the house, he found her collapsed and vomiting onnthe staircase. The other apprentice, Thomas King, and Sarah Peer, anmaidservant, had dined earlier and did not become sick; they had eaten some ofnthe pie but not the dumplings.
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nOrlibar Turner and Dr Marshall suspected poison,nand an examination of a serving dish revealed some white residue in the bottomnwhich, when tested, was shown to be arsenic. Turner kept a quantity of arsenicnin a drawer in the house, which was used to kill mice that damaged thenparchments and legal papers he kept in store, and it was found to be missing.nMarshall tested the remains of the dumplings and they were laced with arsenicnand so Fenning, who had made them, was arrested and charged with attemptednmurder.
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nAt the trial, Mrs Turner gave evidence that she had admonished Fenningnfor going ‘partly undressed’ into the apprentices’ bedroom andnafterwards the girl had been sullen and disrespectful. It was stated that thenarsenic powder, kept in a paper and marked ARSENICK DEADLY POISON in largenletters, had been seen on March 7th but had then gone missing, itnwas kept in a drawer that was left unlocked during the day, and that Fenningnwould take paper from this drawer with which to light the fires.
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| Trial of Elizabeth Fenning – Old Bailey Proceedings |
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nWhen called tonthe stand, Fenning gave a different version of events; she had gone into thenapprentices’ room to get a candle and Gadsden had taken a ‘liberty’ withnher, which accounted for the state of undress that her mistress had seen. Shendid not take paper from the drawer herself but always asked Thomas King fornpaper with which to light the fires but the recorder of the court would notnallow King to give evidence to support her claim. The recorder also disallowedncharacter statements from some witnesses and refused to allow her father tonspeak in court. There were a number of other anomalies and inconsistenciesnduring and after the trial, which make this a particularly interesting case andnI’ll look at these in more detail tomorrow.
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