Eliza Fenning

Administering poison

From Capital Punishment UK ref

Elizabeth Fenning (always known as Eliza) was an attractive 20 year old girl who worked as the cook in the household of Robert and Charlotte Turner in London's Chancery Lane. Robert Turner was a law stationer and employed a housemaid, Sarah Peer, and two male apprentices, all of whom “lived in.”

On the 21st of March 1815, Eliza prepared rump steak, potatoes and dumplings for lunch. Robert Turner's father, Haldebart, had come to dine with his son and daughter in law that day and soon after eating the dumplings, the whole family were suffering severe stomach pains and vomiting. Eliza and Roger Gadsden, one of the apprentices, were in similar condition in the kitchen having eaten some of the dumplings. They were all attended by the doctor and made full recoveries.

Mr. Turner senior suspected that they had been poisoned as a packet of arsenic kept in his desk drawer had recently gone missing. Arsenic and other poisons were freely available in those days and were often bought for killing vermin. He asked the doctor to examine the contents of the pan in which Eliza had cooked the dumplings. As he thought, it contained arsenic, and Eliza was arrested on the 23rd of March and charged with attempted murder. She was taken before a magistrate and committed for trial at the Old Bailey at the April Sessions, being remanded in custody to Newgate prison next door in the meantime.

Trial.

She was tried before the Recorder of London on the 5th of April 1815.

Mrs. Charlotte Turner told the court that she suspected that Eliza had been seeking vengeance on the family after she had discovered her in the room of two of the apprentices one night in a partly dressed state and threatened to dismiss her. Charlotte told the court that Eliza had remained sullen and disrespectful towards her after this. She also said that Eliza had asked to be allowed to make some yeast dumplings for the family on several occasions. On Monday, the 20th of March, she came into the dining room and said the brewer had brought some yeast so on the Tuesday morning, Charlotte agreed to the dumplings being made and directed that they were to be mixed with milk and water. Charlotte testified that Eliza was alone in the kitchen while the dumplings were being prepared. About three o'clock, the family sat down to lunch and the dumplings were brought to the table. Charlotte remarked to Sarah Peer that “they were black and heavy, instead of white and light.” She told the court that after only eating less than a quarter of the dumpling “she felt an extreme burning pain in her stomach, which increased every minute.” It became so bad she was obliged to leave the table and go upstairs. Other members of the family recounted similar stories in evidence.

The Turners kept a packet of arsenic in an unlocked drawer in the office, to control the mice that infested it, which the court was told was clearly labelled as poison. It was determined by the judge that Eliza could read and write and would, therefore, have been able to know what was written on the packet. William Thisselton, who had arrested Eliza, told the court that he had asked her whether she suspected there was anything in the flour. She said she had made a beef steak pie that day with the same flour that she had made the dumplings, and she said she thought it was in the yeast, she saw a red sediment at the bottom of the yeast after she had used it.

The next person to give evidence was Mr. John Marshall, the surgeon who attended the family on the evening of the 21st of March. He testified that he arrived at their house at about 8.45 p.m. and found Mr. and Mrs. Turner very ill, with symptoms such as would be produced by arsenic. He also said that he found Eliza ill and showing the same symptoms. The following morning Mr. Haldebart Turner showed Mr. Marshall the dish the dumplings had been made in which the surgeon washed out with a tea kettle of warm water. He let it stand and then subside and then decanted off the liquid in which he found half a tea spoon of white powder which he determined was arsenic. This was the extent of the prosecution case against Eliza.

It should be remembered that there was no defence team in those days and Eliza was not represented by counsel. She simply made a statement to the court herself. She told the judge, “My lord, I am truly innocent of all the charge, as God is my witness; I am innocent, indeed I am; I liked my place, I was very comfortable; as to my master saying I did not assist him, I was too ill. I had no concern with the drawer at all; when I wanted a piece of paper I always asked for it.” She called 4 witnesses who swore to her previous good character.

The Newgate Calendar tells us that the Recorder summed up to the jury as follows, "Gentlemen, you have now heard the evidence given on this trial, and the case lies in a very narrow compass. There are but two questions for your consideration, and these are, whether poison was administered, in all, to four persons, and by what hand such poison was given. That these persons were poisoned appears certain from the evidence of Mrs Charlotte Turner, Haldebart Turner, Roger Gadsden, the apprentice, and Robert Turner; for each of these persons ate of the dumplings, and were all more or less affected - that is, they were every one poisoned. That the poison was in the dough of which these dumplings were composed has been fully proved, I think, by the testimony of the surgeon who examined the remains of the dough left in the dish in which the dumplings had been mixed and divided; and he deposes that the powder which had subsided at the bottom of the dish was arsenic. That the arsenic was not in the flour I think appears plain, from the circumstance that the crust of a pie had been made that very morning with some of the same flour of which the dumplings were made and the persons who dined off the pie felt no inconvenience whatever; that it was not in the yeast nor in the milk has been also proved; neither could it be in the sauce, for two of the persons who were ill never touched a particle of the sauce, and yet were violently affected with retching and sickness. From all these circumstances it must follow that the poisonous ingredient was in the dough alone; for, besides that the persons who partook of the dumplings at dinner were all more or less affected by what they had eaten, it was observed by one of the witnesses that the dough retained the same shape it had when first put into the dish to rise, and that it appeared dark, and was heavy, and in fact never did rise. The other question for your consideration is, by what hand the poison was administered; and although we have nothing before us but circumstantial evidence, yet it often happens that circumstances are more conclusive than the most positive testimony. The prisoner, when taxed with poisoning the dumplings, threw the blame first on the milk, next on the yeast, and then on the sauce ; but it has been proved, most satisfactorily, that none of these contained it, and that it was in the dumplings alone, which no person but the prisoner had made. Gentlemen, if poison had been given even to a dog, one would suppose that common humanity would have prompted us to assist it in its agonies : here is the case of a master and a mistress being both poisoned, and no assistance was offered. Gentlemen, I have now stated all the facts as they have arisen, and I leave the case in your hands, being fully persuaded that, whatever your verdict may be, you will conscientiously discharge your duty both to your God and to your country." After a few minutes deliberation the jury returned a verdict of guilty.

After her conviction, Eliza was returned to Newgate where she wrote to her fiancée. "They have, which is the most cruellest thing in this world, brought me in guilty". She went on, "I may be confined most likely six months at least". However, on the following day (the last day of the Sessions) the Recorder sentenced her to be hanged by the neck until she was dead. Journalists in court recorded, "She was carried from the dock convulsed with agony and uttering frightful screams." Eliza was taken back to Newgate and put in the condemned cell. At this time many crimes, including attempted murder, still carried the death penalty. However, Eliza could have had her sentence commuted to transportation to the colonies. Attempted murder remained a capital offence up to 1861.

There was considerable public disquiet over the verdict and sentence and various appeals were made for clemency to the Prince Regent, the Home Secretary and the Lord Chancellor, but all were rejected and the morning of Wednesday, the 26th of July 1815, was set for her execution. In 1815, William Hone had started the “Traveller” newspaper, in which he campaigned to save Eliza.

Execution.

During the early hours of the Wednesday morning, the large portable gallows was brought out of Newgate and made ready outside the Debtor's Door. It was normal for prisoners to be hanged in groups for unconnected crimes although this was to be the only triple hanging of 1815, a year in which 12 people were executed at Newgate. (Click here for a typical execution scene at Newgate at that time). Long before 8 o'clock, hoards of people were thronging the streets and jostling for the best positions from which to witness the executions.

Eliza was led from the condemned cell into the Press Yard around 8.00 a.m. where her hands were pinioned. She was dressed in a white muslin gown with a high waist, tied with a fashionable ribbon, a white muslin cap, and wearing a pair of high laced lilac boots. This was her wedding outfit and she was to have been married on this day, instead she was to be hanged. From the Press Yard, it was a short walk to the steps of the scaffold. The Reverent Horace Cotton, the Ordinary of Newgate, accompanied her and asked her if she had anything to communicate to him in her final moments. She told him : "Before the just and Almighty God, and by the faith of the Holy Sacrament I have taken, I am innocent of the offence with which I am charged." She proceeded up the steps of the gallows and the large crowd who had come to see her die fell silent. She stood calmly while the Reverent Cotton intoned prayers for her. John Langley, the hangman, drew the traditional white cotton nightcap over her head. Owing to the size of her muslin cap, he was unable to get it on. He then tried to bind a muslin handkerchief over her face but it proved too small. Then he pulled out his own dirty pocket handkerchief to tie over her face. This disgusted her, "Pray do not let him put it on, Mr. Cotton!" she implored. "Pray make him take it off. Pray do, Mr. Cotton!" "My dear, it must be on. He must put it on," Cotton told her. So she now stood silently, with her arms bound, while the dirty handkerchief was tied over her face. Then Langley placed the rope around her neck. She continued to wait stoically, pinioned and noosed, praying with the Ordinary while the other two criminals who were to hang with her, 51 year old Abraham Adams, convicted of sodomy and 24 year old William Oldfield, who was "guilty of an odious crime" – the rape of a nine year old girl, were prepared. Oldfield had apparently asked permission to hang beside her. As the noose was placed around his neck, Oldfield continued to rave and chant prayers. Just before the drop fell, she told Dr. Cotton once again that she was innocent.

At around 8.30 a.m., when the preparations were complete, Langley withdrew the pin releasing the trap and giving the prisoners a drop of about 12-18 inches. It was reported that Eliza died easily, "almost without writhing". Click here for an artist's impression of the hanging. In those halcyon days, the sentence of the court meant what it said - not an execution that was all over in 15 seconds and carried out in such a way as to minimise the prisoner's emotional and physical suffering.

After her execution, the following paragraph appeared in a London evening paper :-

"We should deem ourselves wanting in justice, and a due respect for government, if we did not state that, in consequence of the many applications from the friends of this unhappy young woman who this day suffered the sentence of the law, a meeting took place yesterday at Lord Sidmouth's office, at which the Lord Chancellor, the recorder, and Mr Beckett were present. A full and minute investigation of the case, we understand, took place, and of all that had been urged in her favour by private individuals; but the result was a decided conviction that nothing had occurred which could justify an interruption of the due course of justice. So anxious was the Lord Chancellor in particular to satisfy his own mind, and put a stop to all doubts on the part of the people at large, that another meeting was held by the same parties last night, when they came to the same determination, and in consequence the unfortunate culprit suffered the penalty of the law." Her father had to pay 14s. 6d. (72p) as "executioner's fees" before he could obtain his daughter's dead body for burial. She was buried 5 days later, on the 31st in the churchyard of St George the Martyr in London, and her funeral was attended by several thousand people, such was the feeling of injustice done to her.

Comment.

Writing 190 years after the event, even with the benefit of the newly released trial transcript, it is difficult to be sure whether Eliza was guilty or not. What is interesting is that a lot of people at the time had serious doubts about her guilt, including if the above report is to be believed, the Lord Chancellor. Eliza was one of 6 women hanged nationally in 1815 so the execution of a woman was hardly a rare event. Four of these women were executed for murder and one for arson. Generally there did not seem to be any great public sympathy for women who had been sentenced to death. Admittedly Eliza’s looks and youth may have brought forth some, but many of the women hanged at this time were young.

The evidence against Eliza was circumstantial (as it usually was at this time) and principally given by people who were at least somewhat hostile to her.

It is unlikely that Eliza was having an affair with one of the apprentices (as alleged by Mrs. Turner) as she was engaged and due to be married. Unless we accept that Eliza had a wish to take revenge on Mrs. Turner for reprimanding her, by poisoning the family, what motive for the crime is left? Eliza risked her own life by eating a dumpling, if she knew it contained arsenic and also became ill, she almost certainly would not have known how much arsenic would be required to kill the family - how many people would? Was Mrs. Turner jealous of Eliza's good looks and wanted rid of her, for fear of her husband having an affair with her?

It has also been alleged that Robert Turner had become mentally unbalanced and decided to kill the whole family but we have no proof of this.

Obviously at this remove, we will never know who put the arsenic in the dumpling pan or at what stage in the proceedings. Was it put in there at the cooking stage or afterwards - the pan was not examined until the following day. Neither do we know whether the doctor was brow beaten into finding arsenic by Mr. Turner to protect his son’s reputation. Was Eliza simply a convenient scapegoat? There may even be a simpler explanation altogether - food poisoning! We do know that refrigerators hadn't been invented in 1815 and that deaths through food poisoning and gastro-enteritis were common place at that time due to the poor standards of public hygiene.

It is noteworthy that since poisons have been very strictly controlled (from the 1920's onward), the number of murders by poisoning has reduced to virtually nil and it is now a very rare crime.