2:30 – 3:20pm
23 October
This is the third event in a series run for the Bloomsbury Festival by the Friends of St George’s Gardens about people buried in the Gardens. Eliza Fenning was a cook, aged 20, accused of attempting to poison her employers with arsenic. She was sentenced to death. There was a public outcry about the verdict which was based entirely on circumstantial evidence. Thousands were in her funeral procession after she was hanged at Newgate Prison.
A book was written and published in the same year to expose the flaws in the trial, by William Hone (1780-1842) who has been called the father of investigative journalism.
This presentation will be largely based on Hone’s research, but with themes that can still resonate today – fake news, press distortion, processes that favour the privileged and disadvantage the poor. Two actors tell the story of her life, her trial, the public outcry at the verdict, the impact on her family and her legacy.