How An Innocent Woman Lost Her Life For Being Poor
Being poor should never be a crime, but unfortunately, in the late 1800s, if you didn’t have a dime to your name, your voice didn’t matter. You could bark all you want, but you would never bite. Elizabeth Fenning’s case was one of those, very disheartening and tears dropping. She was amongst the first woman in history to be convicted of a crime without concrete evidence or victims.
Background
Elizabeth Fenning was a British woman born in 1792 to peasants' parents. Trying to make ends meet and put food on the table proved difficult for the parents, leaving Eliza with no choice but to start domestic work at 14.
Towards the end of January in 1815, she landed a cook job with a middle-class family under the head of Orlibar Turner of number 68 Chancery Lane, London. Fenning moved in. Lived and worked along with the other maid Sarah Peer and two apprentices. In the beginning, she seemed happy with her bosses and colleagues until her mistress Mrs Charlotte Turner threatened her with dismal for inappropriate dressing while entering another apprentice room to borrow a candle. Unhappy with being yelled at, Eliza confided to Sarah that she did not like the madam anymore. Not knowing the mistress and Sarah never liked her initially and was not happy with her presence.
Approximately seven weeks into the job, a tragic incident emerged, which led to her death. lt is said that Fenning loved to cook, and one night, she decided to impress her employers by making delicious dumplings served with potatoes and beef steaks. Her mistress Charlotte also ordered her to prepare steak pies for the apprentices. Sadly things didn’t turn out according to her wishes.
Having too much to prepare, Elizabeth set the dumplings by the fire to rise and headed to the bakers to make the pies. Upon her return, she noticed the dumplings had failed to mature, and out of determination; she tried to fix them without success, as they were served small and black. Nevertheless, they feasted on them, including herself. Soon after dinner, everyone who had taken a bite of the dumplings experienced excruciating pain. A surgeon was called to examine them, and he concluded that they contained arsenic poison. The blame was automatically pointed to the cook, Eliza.
Sarah’s True Colours Revealed
Seeing that her life was in danger, Eliza asked her colleague Sarah, who had not eaten the dumplings, to call her father, William Fenning, from his workplace. Failure from Sarah to reveal the real reason behind Fenning summoning her dad made William reluctant to head over to Turner’s quickly. It wasn’t until 9 pm that he remembered his daughter wanted to see him.
He then left his house and headed to Chancery Lane, where the Turner’s lived. Plotting evil against Elizabeth, Sarah received an instruction from Charlotte to lie to William about Eliza’s whereabouts. She told him Eliza had gone on an errand and wouldn’t be back soon, so he departed, not knowing his daughter was in there physically fighting for her dear life and mentally scared that even if she survived the poison, she might not live to tell the story.
Everybody soon recovered from the poisoning, but Mr Robert Gregson Turner, his father Orliber Turner and his wife Charlotte were furious and vowed to let Fenning go unpunished. Later that day, she was reported for attempted murder.
The Arrest
Still physically weak from the effects of the poison, Fenning was dragged before the magistrate and sent to Clerkenwell Prison.
Her parents soon heard of the devastating story and knew they needed a good lawyer against the Turners. Not having a dime in their possession, they appealed to the public for donations, which mounted to £5. Out of pity, two famous lawyers at that time agreed to take the case, but the Turners had an advantage over them. Despite being unreasonable rich, having the best and feared lawyer on their side, their best friend and solicitor was a clerk in the same court where Elizabeth was being tried.
Beginning of the trial
Magistrate John Silvester preceded over the trial on the 11th of April 1815 at the Old Bailey.
The case of Eliza was a strange one. Without any victims, it concentrated on her general behaviour, attitude and potential access in obtaining the poison. Mrs Charlotte Turner testified that Fenning had stolen the arsenic to poison her after scolding her for inappropriate dressing within the home. Her friend in crime, maid Sarah, backed her up. She claimed that when Fenning confided in her about the lecture on her dressing from the madam, she mentioned the plot; however, she never reported it as she thought Eliza was pulling her leg.
Orliber Turner gave his testimony mentioning that he had stored two rappers of arsenic in a chest of drawers in the office used by his apprentice and clearly labelled “Arsenik, Deadly Poison”. He said that its primary use was to kill mice and rats around the house. About two weeks before the incident, Turner told the jury that the arsenic had vanished. One of the apprentices backed him up, declaring that he had seen Eliza coming out of the office with some paper stored in the same drawer with the poison the day it disappeared. ln defending herself, Fenning advised the jury that one of the apprentices, Thomas King, could testify on her behalf that before she went in herself, she had pleaded with him to bring her the paper to set the fire, but he had refused. Unfortunately for her, Thomas was denied the opportunity, and her attorney, Mr Alley, proved incompetent.
He hardly defended his client, leaving Elizabeth completely vulnerable all the time. Desperate to serve his child’s life, William presented proof to the jury that despite the one incident with Mrs Charlotte, his daughter was happy with her employers. Not surprisingly, the court considered it a tale of lies. At that moment, he knew Eliza stood no chance of coming out alive.
The Ruling
Without taking much time to look at the evidence provided by both parties, the jury gave Eliza a guilty verdict accompanied by a death sentence. Those present in the courtroom and the community were not shocked by the ruling, neither did Eliza herself. However, the public began writing letters to the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth and the Prince Regent to try and preserve her life. Some letters were presented to the Times for publication, for some suspicious and concealed reasons, the newspaper company never publicised the
Response From the public
Prominent people began secretly digging into the Turners lives to see if they could find anything that could bring hope to the case. One Mr Basil Montagu, a prominent Quaker, disclosed that Robert Turner had previously been mentally unstable, behaved “wild” and “deranged”, threatened to kill his wife and himself. He presented this evidence to magistrate Silvester, who rejected it as “wholly useless”. It was clear nothing could be done or said that would change the course of things for Eliza.
One man who worked and owned a chemist decided to visit the Turners and plead with them to drop the charges and sign the free Elizabeth petition. lt was the only hope after all. Once he arrived shockingly, the preceding magistrate Silvester was present in what seemed a celebratory night tea for the case. Though disturbed by his presence, the young man presented his plea to Orliber Turner. At first, Orliber appeared to be accepting but later refused as advised against by everyone at the table, including the judge. All hope was lost.
Last Words and execution.
On the 26th of July 1815, Elizabeth woke up early and prepared for her death. She took a shower and said a prayer, after which she looked over the window and saw other prisoners who had climbed over the window to say their last words to her.“Goodbye! goodbye! to all of you,” she sobbed uncontrollably.
She put on the clothes she had been given to wear and was brought out. “I wish to leave the world – it is all vanity and vexation of spirit. But it is a cruel thing to die innocently, yet I freely forgive everyone and die in charity with all the world, but cannot forget my injured innocence.”
With an aching heart and arms bound behind her, Elizabeth Fenning mounted the scaffold. “I am innocent”, and she dropped. Present at her execution was the famous writer, journalist, and activist for the oppressed William Hone. He shared his thoughts “…I had the greatest horror of witnessing an execution, and of this particular execution, a young girl of whose guilt I had grave doubts. But I could not help myself; I was closely wedged in; she was brought out. I saw nothing, but I heard all. I heard her protesting her innocence – I heard the prayer – I could hear no more. I stopped my ears and knew nothing else till I found myself in the dispersing crowd and far from that dreadful spot.”
The burial
Soon after, her parents were charged 14 shillings and some pence for the burial, which they could not afford but wanting a befitting burial for her daughter; they borrowed the money. On the 31st of April, Elizabeth was laid to rest at St George the Martyr, near Brunswick Square. Many came out in numbers to bid farewell.
Personal Analysis
As someone who was born in a low-income family, this story breaks my heart. There are chapters l wrote with tears in my eyes. For all the stories l have written, though l have always sympathised with the victims, l had never shed a tear before. I am lost for words at what this poor young lady went through; however, l salute and respect how everybody, even those rich at that time, responded and tried their best to save her life. She is one of the strongest people I have read about ever. Like Jesus on the cross, she forgave her enemies. What a heart.
More True Crime
Sources
https://www.oldbaileyonline.org/browse.jsp?div=t18150405-18
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_Fenning
https://www.exclassics.com/newgate/ng567.htm
https://georgianera.wordpress.com/2015/06/25/eliza-fenning-innocent-but-proven-guilty/
