Elisabeth Guppy

[6] John Grant has written that she "was a clever charlatan; her stunts bear all the hallmarks of extravagant stage conjuring tricks.

[2] In the 1861 census she was living at 57 Teddington Low Road, Hampton Wick, with William Grinsell Nicholl.

She gave her (correct) date of birth as 22 October 1838, and her address as 29 Great Norfolk Street (near the British Museum).

On 3 June 1871 it was alleged that Guppy had levitated out of her own house in Highbury three miles away to a séance room table in Lamb's Conduit Street.

Although this incident was considered genuine by spiritualists such as Arthur Conan Doyle and A. Campbell Holms, it was dismissed by sceptics as a hoax.