Kent inherited his dead lover's money, and her "ghost" accused him of poisoning her; a London jury convicted the ghost's handlers in 1762

Kind 1. William Kent, a Norfolk innkeeper and moneylender, married Elizabeth Lynes, who died in childbirth. Canon law barred him from marrying her sister Fanny because Elizabeth had borne him a living child. Kent and Fanny lived together in London and made wills in each other's favour. Kent lent their landlord, Richard Parsons, clerk of St Sepulchre's, 12 guineas, and later sued him for it. Fanny died on 2 February 1760; her doctors certified smallpox. Her will left her siblings half a crown each and the rest to Kent^†. Her sister Ann tried to block it at Doctors' Commons and failed^†, and her brother John Lynes sued Kent in Chancery in October 1761^†. In 1762 knocking began around Parsons' 11-year-old daughter Elizabeth. By one knock for yes and two for no, "Fanny" said Kent had poisoned her with arsenic and that she wished to see him hanged. Horace Walpole and the Duke of York came to listen. On 1 February 1762 a committee including Samuel Johnson heard nothing and concluded the girl made the sounds. On 25 February Kent had Fanny's coffin opened in the vault of St John's, Clerkenwell. Kent prosecuted Parsons, his wife, the girl's attendant Mary Frazer and two others for conspiring to take his life. On 10 July 1762 all five were convicted. Parsons got two years and three days in the pillory. Two defendants paid Kent £588^†. Kent kept Fanny's legacy; no outcome of the Chancery suit is recorded.