Going Inside Williamsburg’s Most Haunted
The Peyton Randolph House is one of the most haunted in all of Virginia, perhaps on the East Coast—a subjective opinion of those that have seen, heard, or even felt one of the many malevolent forces that dwells inside. (I’m told that Colonial Williamsburg has denied several attempts by the Ghost Adventures crew to have a “lock in” at this haunted, dark domicile.) I have had a tour group in front of this house when a rolling “mist” came across the field in Market Square (right behind the group), stop, and then completely disappear in a spit second as everyone watched. I have had groups observe as the single candle in each window during the Christmas season is snuffed out at about 10:00 p.m. (when the battery is supposed to last till 2:00 a.m.) as if somebody is walking through the building and draining each light’s battery. Whole groups have heard what sounds like someone smashing mirrors and furniture inside the house, but have witnessed Colonial Williamsburg Security go inside to find nothing broken or out of place. Why all of the paranormal activity? Some say it’s due to several suicides during the house’s long history (the original part of the home was built in 1715), some say the activity inside is demonic, and the newest theory is that the house was built right over a Native American burial ground.
I have many photos of the entities that live there, including one that looks like a young girl of about nine or ten. I had several people tell me of a painting of a young girl inside the house that looks like my ghost photo, and so I went to the house during the daytime to tour the inside—hoping to find and photograph the young girl’s painting so that I could compare the likeness of my photo with that of the painting. During my tour through the Randolph House I was disappointed to learn that the painting of a young girl was not in the house. At the end of the tour I asked about the young girl’s painting, but our knowledgeable guide informed me that Peyton and Betty Randolph had no children. “I know that,” I said, “but wasn’t there a painting of a niece or some other family member here?” He replied with a bit of condescension in his voice, “No.” but it was a former interpreter who worked at the Randolph House that told me about the painting.
Here is the face of the young girl I captured in one of the windowpanes at the Peyton Randolph House.
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So I left disappointed, but I went home and downloaded the photos I had taken on the tour, hoping that something paranormal might show up in one of the photos to make the trip worth it. On my first run through of all the photos I found nothing, but upon a slower, closer look I found that a very small portion of the vanity mirror in Betty Randolph’s room was visible, and in it I saw the angry face of a young African-American woman. I immediately thought this might be “Eve”, the personal attendant of Betty Randolph, who ran away during the Revolutionary War. The royal governor of Virginia had issued an edict stating that any slave who helped the cause of the British army would get their freedom papers. She never made it—she was captured and whipped severely, and forced to come back and work for her haughty mistress. Betty Randolph even wrote into her will that Eve was supposed to be separated from all the other Randolph slaves (basically her friends and family) and auctioned off separately because of her attempt to run away. Some interpreters think that one of the angry ghosts who inhabit the Randolph House is Eve, and that she tries to shove the people that work at the house down the stairs. So take a look at the photo of Betty Randolph’s bedroom, and look for the corner of the mirror. As always, I have zoomed in, cropped, and enlarged the visible part of the mirror so that you can see the young African-American woman’s face as well as other smaller, less conspicuous faces, seemingly trapped in the glass of the mirror. So my afternoon trip was worth it—I may not have found the painting of the little girl, but I did find a young woman who is still angry over the abuse, separation from friends and family, and the forced labor she endured during an ugly chapter in our country’s quest for independence and freedom.
This is Betty Randolph’s bedroom; notice a rectangle is drawn around the visible corner of the mirror at her vanity:
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Here is the corner of the mirror taken from the same photo, enlarged so that you can see the young, angry African-American’s face—visible from across the room. Can you make out other faces in the mirror?
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After 2 years of research, a lot of experimentation, and over 10,000 photographs, check out the world’s first groundbreaking photographic study of ghosts: Haunted, Historic Colonial Williamsburg Virginia with Breakthrough Ghost Photography available at both Schiffer Publishing and at Amazon, nominated for consideration in the nonfiction category for the 19th annual Library of Virginia Literary Awards:
Amazon: http://amzn.com/0764350609
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Part 2 of this book will be released in September, 2018, although it’s available for preorder right now. This book features the largest number of ghosts ever captured in a single camera shot, as well as several photos of apparitions that look alien to our world. Here is the link:
https://www.amazon.com/0764355724
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Tim Scullion is a published author, photographer, and musician. He is a graduate of the College of William and Mary, with both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree Cum Laude. In addition to the book mentioned above, Tim has written a novel, a series of instruction books on the guitar, a children’s book (all available on Amazon) and has a photo-essay published by the University of Virginia in the book Troubled Times Companion, Vol. III.
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