The case of Eliza Fenning who was convicted of attempting to poison the family of Mr. Turner by mixing arsenic in yeast dumplings : containing her trial, and the particulars of her execution, including ... several affecting letters written a short time previous to her execution / [Anon].

  • Fenning, Elizabeth, 1792 or 1793-1815.
Date:
[1815?]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The case of Eliza Fenning who was convicted of attempting to poison the family of Mr. Turner by mixing arsenic in yeast dumplings : containing her trial, and the particulars of her execution, including ... several affecting letters written a short time previous to her execution / [Anon]. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    of opinion that the guilt of this young woman has not been sufficiently shewn. The arsenic, it appeared, was kept in an open drawer with waste paper, to which every one might resort;—this was a very negligent practice, to say the least of it.—Examiner.] The following appeared in the Statesman of June 13, 1815, TO THE EDITOR. Sir, Natural philanthropy inclines every well-organized mind to sympathise with the unfortunate, and should call forth every generous feeling in contemplating oppressed inno- cence. Actuated by such disinterested motives, I ven- ture to call the attention of the unprejudiced and enlight- ened to the case of Eliza Fenning, now under sentence of death in Newgate, the circumstances attending which have laudably ingrossed much public feeling, particularly as to the fact of partaking so plenteously of what, in the event of her being conscious of the baneful effect, coupled with her candid avowal that no other person assisted in making the dumplings, and her leaving the pan, under such circumstances, in a state to afford detection, which could have been so easily prevented, discovers a new and important trait in the history of human nature. Such ex- traordinary deviations from the common course of things occasioned Voltaire to advocate successfully the cause of John Callas, who had been tortured to death on the rack, at Thoulouse, for the supposed murder of his son ; and in the case of Elizabeth Cunning, eight persons ordered for execution were, by the casual observations of a Mr. Ramsay in the daily papers, reprieved, and in the sequel proved innocent, and Elizabeth, Canning was transported as an impostor. It is conceived that the case under consideration is quite susceptible of a very different construction from what it has yet experienced; and if, through the medium of your valuable paper, a more scrupulous investigation can be elicited, humanity will be greatly indebted to your efforts. A. L, London, June 12. D