Fenning, Elizabeth (1792–1815)

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Fenning, Elizabeth (1792–1815)

English criminal. Name variations: Eliza Fenning. Born in 1792; hanged on June 26, 1815.

In March 1815, 21-year-old Elizabeth Fenning stood accused of attempting to poison the family of her employer, Orlibar Turner, by mixing arsenic in the dumplings. Fenning, who had been in domestic service since she was 14, strongly protested her innocence and proved that she too had been made ill by the dumplings. But there were those who were convinced that she had only sampled the poisoned food to deflect blame. Convicted, she was sentenced to hang. Because of public sympathy and her protestations, however, the verdict was twice reconsidered by the Home Office. Fenning was hanged nonetheless on June 26, 1815.