The Appearance of Truth: The Story of Elizabeth Canning and Eighteenth-century NarrativeUniversity of Delaware Press, 1994 - 278 pages "On 1 January 1753 Elizabeth Canning, an eighteen-year-old maidservant, disappeared somewhere between her uncle's and her mother's home. Nearly a month later she reappeared at her mother's door; she was half-naked, emaciated, unable even to swallow. Elizabeth's neighbors rallied around her with medical and legal support, and when they pieced together her story of assault, kidnapping, and detention, they pursued her assailants. Susannah Wells, an Enfield woman, was soon identified as the owner of the house where Canning said she had been held; Canning identified Mary Squires, a gypsy woman resident in Wells's house, as the person who had stripped her of her stays and thrust her into the derelict attic from which she had eventually escaped." "Eighteenth-century criminal proceedings were swift: Squires was sentenced to hang within a month of being charged, and Wells was branded and imprisoned. Lord Mayor Sir Crisp Gascoyne of London had presided at their trial, but he was dissatisfied with the verdict. He began to collect evidence that would provide an alibi for Mary Squires. Other prominent figures were drawn into the complexities of the case, among them the novelist and magistrate Henry Fielding, who saw Canning as a figure of injured innocence, as well as Dr. John Hill, an enemy of Fielding and a journalist, who presented her as a scheming sexual adventuress." "Public controversy over the case grew rapidly inflamed. Although Wells remained in jail, Squires was pardoned, and Canning was charged with and ultimately convicted of perjury. Her trial, one of the longest in the eighteenth century, presented evidence placing Mary Squires in Enfield, where Canning said she was, and in Dorsetshire, at the same time. The case was ultimately decided not on the contradictory alibi evidence but by the judge's instructions to the jury to convict. Canning was sentenced to transportation, and she ultimately lived out the remainder of her life in Wethersfield, Connecticut, leaving the unanswered questions of her case to the many contemporary and subsequent authors who have written about it." "This study examines both the trial record and the various accounts of the Canning case. Issues of probability, class, gender, and, most importantly, narrative truth and authority are all central to this reanalysis of the notorious case."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved |
Contents
Acknowledgments | 7 |
Elizabeth Cannings Story | 13 |
Assault and Theft | 24 |
Copyright | |
7 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
The Appearance of Truth: The Story of Elizabeth Canning and Eighteenth ... Judith Moore Limited preview - 1994 |
Common terms and phrases
Abbotsbury affidavit Alderman Chitty alibi witnesses Allan Ramsay appeared argument Arthur Machen asked believe Betty Betty Kane Canning's friends Canning's story Canning's trial Canningites certainly character court Davy defense Dorset eighteenth-century Elizabeth Canning's Enfield Wash Enfield witnesses fact February fiction Fielding Fielding's Franchise Affair Gentlemen Genuine and Impartial George Squires Gipsy girl guilty gypsies Hall's hayloft Henry Fielding Hill Hill's Howit Impartial Memoirs innocent John John Squires Josephine Tey Judith Natus jury justice kitchen later letter Liverymen London Lord Mayor Lucy Machen Mary Squires Mary Squires's Morton mother Myles narrative never ning ning's novel Old Bailey perhaps perjury person probably prosecution question Refutation Robert Rossiter Scarrat seems Sir Crisp Gascoyne Squires family Squires's alibi Susannah tell testified testimony thing Thomas tion told Tom Jones took Torre Torre's Treherne truth verdict Virtue Hall Wells's house Whiffin William Wintlebury writers