DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.70302#0085
[ 67 ]
Full and authentic Detail of the Circumstances which occa-
sioned the notorious Imposture, known by the name of the
Cock Lane Ghost, with an Account of its Detection,
and the Punishment of the Persons concerned in it.
.Among the numerous impositions on the credulity of
the public, none was ever carried on with more bare-
faced impudence, and none ever attracted such universal
notice as the Ghost of Cock Lane. The learned and the
unlearned, the high and the low, the rich and the poor,
the noble and the beggar, were alike interested by it ;
and for months this was almost the only topic of conversa-
tion, not merely in the metropolis, but throughout the
whole kingdom. In the space of forty years, however, a
new generation has sprung up, and many of our readers
may probably be strangers to all the circumstances of this
extraordinary affair, excepting its name. As we do not
recollect to have seen a full, detailed, and authentic account
of the transaction, we have been at considerable trouble
and expence to prove all the documents relative to it.
From these is compiled the following account, which we
are confident will afford no small degree of amusement and
gratification.
In the year 1756, Mr. Kempe, a man of respectability
in the public business in the county of Norfolk, was
married to a young gentlewoman of that neighbourhood,
with whom he lived happily for eleven months. She
dying in child-bed, her sister, who had lived at Mr.
Kempe’s as a companion to his wife, continued to assist
him in his business, and they contracted such an inti-
macy, that when he cpiitted that line, with the intention
of settling in London, she insisted on following him
even on foot, if he would not procure her a more credit-
able conveyance. She accordingly, followed him to
town (as will presently be related), and as they were ex-
it 2 eluded
Full and authentic Detail of the Circumstances which occa-
sioned the notorious Imposture, known by the name of the
Cock Lane Ghost, with an Account of its Detection,
and the Punishment of the Persons concerned in it.
.Among the numerous impositions on the credulity of
the public, none was ever carried on with more bare-
faced impudence, and none ever attracted such universal
notice as the Ghost of Cock Lane. The learned and the
unlearned, the high and the low, the rich and the poor,
the noble and the beggar, were alike interested by it ;
and for months this was almost the only topic of conversa-
tion, not merely in the metropolis, but throughout the
whole kingdom. In the space of forty years, however, a
new generation has sprung up, and many of our readers
may probably be strangers to all the circumstances of this
extraordinary affair, excepting its name. As we do not
recollect to have seen a full, detailed, and authentic account
of the transaction, we have been at considerable trouble
and expence to prove all the documents relative to it.
From these is compiled the following account, which we
are confident will afford no small degree of amusement and
gratification.
In the year 1756, Mr. Kempe, a man of respectability
in the public business in the county of Norfolk, was
married to a young gentlewoman of that neighbourhood,
with whom he lived happily for eleven months. She
dying in child-bed, her sister, who had lived at Mr.
Kempe’s as a companion to his wife, continued to assist
him in his business, and they contracted such an inti-
macy, that when he cpiitted that line, with the intention
of settling in London, she insisted on following him
even on foot, if he would not procure her a more credit-
able conveyance. She accordingly, followed him to
town (as will presently be related), and as they were ex-
it 2 eluded