55 Facts About Elizabeth Canning

Elizabeth Canning was an English maidservant who claimed to have been kidnapped and held against her will in a hayloft for almost a month.

Elizabeth Canning ultimately became central to one of the most famous English criminal mysteries of the 18th century.

At Wells' house in Enfield Wash, Elizabeth Canning identified Mary Squires as another of her captors, prompting the arrest and detention of both Wells and Squires.

Elizabeth Canning spoke with witnesses whose testimony implied that Squires and her family could not have abducted Canning, and he interviewed several of the prosecution's witnesses, some of whom recanted their earlier testimony.

Elizabeth Canning ordered Canning's arrest, following which she was tried and found guilty of perjury.

Squires was pardoned, and Elizabeth Canning sentenced to one month's imprisonment and seven years of transportation.

Elizabeth Canning died in Wethersfield, Connecticut in 1773, but the mystery surrounding her disappearance remains unsolved.

Elizabeth Canning's father died in 1751 and her mother and four siblings shared a two-room property with James Lord, an apprentice.

Lord occupied the building's front room, while Elizabeth Canning's family lived in the back room.

Elizabeth Canning was described as a plump 18-year-old, about 5 feet tall with a face pitted by smallpox, a long, straight nose, and wide-set eyes.

The next morning Mrs Canning travelled to the Colleys' house, but to no avail, as Elizabeth was still missing.

Neighbours were asked if they knew of her whereabouts, and weeks passed as Mrs Elizabeth Canning searched the neighbourhood for her daughter, while her relatives scoured the city.

Elizabeth Canning was described as being in a "deplorable condition"; her face and hands were black with dirt, she wore a shift, a petticoat, and a bedgown.

Elizabeth Canning awoke "by a large road, where was water, with the two men that robbed me" and was forced to walk to a house, where an old woman asked if she would "go their way".

Elizabeth Canning had refused, and the woman cut off her corset, slapped her face and pushed her upstairs into a loft.

Elizabeth Canning had eventually made her escape by pulling some boards away from a window and walking the five-hour journey home.

Elizabeth Canning recalled hearing the name "Wills or Wells", and as she had seen through the window a coachman she recognised, thought she had been held on the Hertford Road.

Elizabeth Canning was visited by the apothecary, but with her pulse faint, and so weak she could scarcely speak, she vomited up the medicine he gave her.

Elizabeth Canning administered several clysters until satisfied with the results, following which Canning was taken by her friends and neighbours to the Guildhall to see Alderman Thomas Chitty, to ask that he issue a warrant for Wells's arrest.

Elizabeth Canning had twice been widowed; her first husband was a carpenter and her second had been hanged for theft.

Elizabeth Canning, who had arrived in the chaise with her mother and two other people, was carried into the house by Adamson.

Squires and Wells were committed, the former for removing Elizabeth Canning's stays and the latter for "keeping a disorderly house".

The onus therefore was on Elizabeth Canning to take legal action against those she claimed had imprisoned her, and she would be responsible for investigating the crime.

The charge of theft was extremely serious; the value of Elizabeth Canning's stays meant that if she was found guilty, Squires would almost certainly be hanged at the Tyburn Tree.

Elizabeth Canning's refusal had prompted Squires to cut off her stays, slap her face, and push her up the stairs into a darkened room.

Elizabeth Canning claimed to have escaped by removing a board from a window at the north end of the loft, climbing out, and jumping down to the soft clay below.

Elizabeth Canning fled along a lane behind the house, through some fields, and on finding a road set out for London.

Elizabeth Canning was cross-examined by William Davy, who questioned her recollection of events in the house.

Elizabeth Canning was celebrated by the mob and gentry, several of whom contributed to her purse, enabling her to move to better accommodation in the house of a Mr Marshall, a cheesemonger in Aldermanbury.

Elizabeth Canning had progressed through the ranks to become Master of the Brewer's Company, then served as Alderman of Vintry Ward, Sheriff of London, and been knighted after presenting an address to the king.

Elizabeth Canning had argued on behalf of the city's orphans and was known for his benevolence in Essex, where he owned large estates.

Elizabeth Canning thought it unlikely that the three witnesses found by George Squires would travel so far "to foreswear themselves on behalf of this miserable object" and Harris did not disappoint.

Elizabeth Canning justified his activities by comparing his apparent compassion for the victim, Mary Squires, with his outrage for the deceit of her accuser, Elizabeth Canning, but his fervour was influenced in part by the attitudes of the time.

Elizabeth Canning considered the behaviour of the Canningites inappropriate for their low station and was more impressed by the assurances of people such as Alderman Chitty and Reverend Harris, who as gentlemen and public advocates were presumed more reliable.

Elizabeth Canning was committed to the Poultry Compter, where the Canningites continued to support her until they learnt that "particular persons only" were allowed to visit.

At this point it appeared certain to Gascoyne that Elizabeth Canning had not told the truth.

At this point Elizabeth Canning had not been seen publicly for some time, and she was proclaimed an outlaw.

Elizabeth Canning was represented by three attorneys, George Nares, John Morton and a Mr Williams.

Elizabeth Canning attacked Canning's story and told how Squires and her family had travelled through England with smuggled goods to sell.

Elizabeth Canning offered new evidence to support Squires' alibi and rubbished Canning's description of her prison, before questioning her account of her escape.

Elizabeth Canning concluded with Virtue Hall's recantation of her earlier testimony.

Elizabeth Canning's defence began with opening statements from Williams and Morton.

Elizabeth Canning complimented the jury and poured scorn on Davy's allegations, and seized upon the prosecution's unwillingness to call Virtue Hall to the stand.

One possible line of defence for her daughter was simply that she was too stupid to have ever invented the tale, but under cross-examination by Davy Mrs Elizabeth Canning demonstrated that her daughter was capable of writing "a little".

Elizabeth Canning's employer was questioned, as was her apothecary, who thought that Canning would have been quite able to survive on the pitcher of water and crusts of bread she claimed to have been given.

Elizabeth Canning was not alone; several of the defence's witnesses were unable to manage the 11-day correction required by the calendar change.

Elizabeth Canning summarised the prosecution's case by telling the jury that Canning was guilty of "the most impious and detestable [crime] the human heart can conceive".

The recorder, William Moreton, stated the defence's case, and asked the jury to consider if they thought that Elizabeth Canning had answered the charges against her to their satisfaction, and if it was possible she could have survived for almost a month on "no more than a quartern-loaf, and a pitcher of water".

Elizabeth Canning, held at Newgate, was reported to be in the presence of Methodists, an unfortunate accusation for her side.

Elizabeth Canning arrived in Wethersfield, Connecticut, and by arrangement with her supporters went to live with the Methodist Reverend Elisha Williams.

Elizabeth Canning was not employed as a servant, but was taken in as a member of Williams's family.

The partisan nature of the Canningites and the Egyptians ensured that the trial of Elizabeth Canning became one of the most notorious criminal mysteries in 18th-century English law.

Elizabeth Canning viewed the lack of detail in her testimony as unsurprising to a more analytical mind.

Treherne considers this theory very unlikely however, and instead concludes that Elizabeth Canning was almost certainly at Enfield Wash, but was not kept prisoner at Wells's home.

Elizabeth Canning suggests that Robert Scarrat implanted the suggestion that Canning had been held at the Wells's house, as a useful decoy, and that he had somehow been involved in an unwanted pregnancy.