The notoriously haunted Peyton Randolph house boasts many titles. The most haunted house in the US and the most haunted place in Williamsburg, even the East Coast, is among them.
Every month, guests on our Williamsburg ghost tour pass out or have medical issues in front of this house. This has happened four times in one month before, all in front of the Peyton Randolph House.
The Randolph House is featured on every ghost tour, and for good reason. Since its construction in 1715, about 30 people have died in the house. Neither children nor adults are safe. They’ve all succumbed to those by either freak accidents, murders, war, or mysterious illnesses.
Interested in learning more about the Randolph House and Colonial Williamsburg? Join Colonial Ghosts on a Williamsburg ghost tour to hear about it all!
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Who Haunts The Peyton Randolph House
The Peyton Randolph House in Williamsburg, Virginia, is said to be haunted by numerous spirits, including those of soldiers, enslaved individuals, and former residents. It is believed to be one of the most haunted houses in America. These hauntings are most commonly attributed to a 1782 curse from an abused enslaved person. But there are other theories. The Randolph House may be sitting atop or adjacent to Native burial grounds. Read on to find more!
History of the Peyton Randolph House
The Peyton Randolph house was built in 1715 by William Robertson. Afterward, Sir John Randolph later purchased the home in 1721 and the land next to it. He then built a second home on the east lot in 1724. Sir John Randolph, the only Colonial Virginian to be knighted by the English Crown, was highly respected and very wealthy.
When he died in 1737, his wife, Susannah, took care of the house until his second of three sons, Peyton, turned twenty-four.
Not to be outdone, the first son, Beverley, inherited property in Gloucester County, and the third son received land on the city’s southern edge. Susannah remained in the house until her death in 1754.
Peyton Randolph later expanded the home, building an elaborate center section. He connected all the rooms, forming the current L-shape seen today. However, the house’s east wing is not connected to the rest of the house. It serves like a modern mother-in-law suite.
The main center section still contains some of the original and best-surviving paneling in the historic district, including walnut paneling, fine brass hinges and locks, and a floor made mostly of the originally edge-cut pine.
On a tour through Colonial Williamsburg, one can see the attention to detail of the Virginia haunted house’s interior and some of the older aspects of the house on the second floor, where the Randolph family slept.
Peyton Randolph In American History
Peyton Randolph was the president of the First and Second Continental Congresses, which played an important role in the lead-up to the American Revolution.
He chaired the meeting during Patrick Henry’s fiery “Give me liberty or give me death” speech. He also negotiated Governor Dunmore’s return of the gunpowder to Colonial Magazine. His home served as a meeting place for other revolutionaries, including George Wythe and Thomas Jefferson, who were his cousins.
Following Peyton’s death in Philadelphia in 1775, his body was pickled in a barrel and sent back to Williamsburg. He is one of few buried under William and Mary’s Wren Chapel today. He lies in the Wren Crypt with his father, Sir Randolph, and brother, John Randolph, a Tory.
Books willed to Peyton from his father were given to Thomas Jefferson upon his death. Jefferson added the large collection to his own library. They became the first to be placed in the Library of Congress.
After Peyton’s death, his wife, Elizabeth “Betty” Harrison, resided in the home until her death in 1782.
The Many Uses of the Randolph House
In 1781, the house served as headquarters for the French Forces under the command of French general Jean-Baptiste-Donatien de Vimeur, Comte de Rochambeau, until French and American forces moved into field positions around Yorktown to surround General Lord Cornwallis.
Following Betty Randolph’s death in 1782, the home was auctioned and awarded to the highest bidder, Joseph Hornsby, in 1783.
The Williamsburg Peachy family later owned the home in the early 19th century. Mary Monroe Peachy welcomed the French General Lafayette into her home during his visit to the US. He spent two nights in the house on October 21 and 22, 1824.
During the aftermath of the Battle of Williamsburg, the Peyton Randolph House, occupied by the Peachy family, was used as a hospital to treat wounded soldiers. Nearly 30 other buildings were also used as hospitals during this time.
The Wilson/Ball family purchased the home in the early 1920s after renting it in 1919. The land was divided into several smaller lots, and two buildings were built on each.
Colonial Williamsburg purchased one of the main structures from Mrs. Ball in 1938 and completed the purchase of the rest of the original property in the 1960s. Both of the 1920s-era homes were removed in the early 1970s.
The first restoration on the property began in October 1939 and was completed in April 1940. A second restoration began in June 1967 and lasted for one year. The center and west sections of the house opened to visitors on July 1, 1968, while the east wing remained occupied.
Hauntings of the Peyton Randolph House
Voices are often heard inside this famous Virigina haunted house . Objects move on their own, and visitors, including the famous French General of the American Revolution, Marquis de Lafayette, have felt hands touch them or even push them. Sometimes even down a flight of stairs.
In 1824, Lafayette returned to Williamsburg, where he had spent some time during the Revolutionary War. During his tour through the US, he stayed at the Peyton Randolph house in Williamsburg. He wrote,
“I considered myself fortunate to lodge in the home of a great man, Peyton Randolph. Upon my arrival, as I entered through the foyer, I felt a hand on my shoulder. It nudged me as if intending to keep me from entering. I quickly turned but found no one there. The nights were not restful as the sounds of voices kept me awake for most of my stay.”
As recently as the late 1960s, while the building served as a lodging house, guests would rush out in the middle of the night. They claimed to have been physically and violently shaking, their limbs tugged on, or to have seen apparitions over their bed.
An interview from the book by Jackie Bernhard, the Hauntings of Williamsburg, Jamestown, and Yorktown, recounts one guest’s experience:
“I was resting comfortably when awakened by the peculiar feeling that someone was tugging on my arm. Naturally, I assumed I was dreaming, so I rolled over and went back to sleep. A short while later, I was being shaken violently! As my eyes adjusted to the darkness, I could see that I was completely alone. I darted out of bed and ran as fast as I could. I didn’t even return to collect the things I’d left behind.”
The Curse of the Randolph House
Many sudden and unusual deaths have fallen upon the Randolph House.
One of the Peachy boys was climbing a tree in the 19th century when the branch broke, and he fell to his death. A young girl living on the second floor fell out of her window to her death.
A Confederate veteran attending the College of William and Mary suddenly and mysteriously fell ill and died in the house. Later in the 18th century, two men staying at the house entered a heated argument and shot and killed each other.
One of the more popular and recent stories is about a Colonial Williamsburg security guard who became trapped in the basement after entering through the shutter doors behind the house.
As he exited, he heard a large and terrifying growl. Something held his feet firmly down, stopping him in his tracks and preventing him from moving his legs. Then, suddenly, the shutter doors slammed shut, and his flashlight turned off.
He quickly used his radio to call for help. When his lieutenant finally came and pried open the cellar doors, he was released from whatever force held him. While some say he quit the next day, in fact, the security left three months later for a higher-paying job.
More Hauntings
Others have heard knocking on the inside of the house, furniture moving on its own, or children playing inside. The second floor of the house is regarded as the most haunted. Many report feeling something malicious pushing them, often down the stairs.
Security occasionally hears a woman singing in the backyard as if standing right before them, but they find no one.
Another event tells of an alarm that went off at the house’s east wing, on the right side of the Randolph house. Two women used to live there until they passed away. Security was unable to obtain a key to the property, so they found a way in through one of the windows inside. No evidence of fire or smoke was present.
Upon entering, they found something very unusual. A fire extinguisher was resting in the middle of the floor, its contents completely emptied around it in what looked like a controlled circular pattern. Security then decided that the house had been infiltrated, so they called on more support, surrounded, and searched the house for intruders.
Strangely, the fire retardant material did not seep under the door and enter the other section of the main house as if an invisible boundary stopped it. More uncanny was that the extinguisher was completely empty, and the PIN had been removed but never found.
The Fire Extinguisher
However, the most startling discovery was what they found when they lifted the extinguisher. There was absolutely no extinguisher discharge below it. It was resting in the middle of the room as if it had been placed from the wall onto the floor, with the discharge nozzle facing downward. It had sprayed around the room in an odd pattern while remaining in perfect position.
No residue was found underneath or on the bottom of the fire extinguisher. No intruders or signs of break-in were found. Furthermore, even if someone was involved, how could they achieve and control such an unusual spray pattern in the room?
Why Is The Peyton Randolph House Haunted?
A typical explanation is that the Virginia haunted house was cursed by Betty Randolph’s slave, Eve. In 1782, she cursed the house after being forcibly taken away and split from her son when she was sold to different owners as punishment for running away with the British the previous year.
The second explanation is that the house’s activities are caused by Betty Randolph’s cruel behavior towards her slaves, much of which is a mystery, possibly akin to New Orleans’s LaLaurie Mansion.
New Theories, Lost History
The most likely explanation is that Indian burials on and surrounding the house were disturbed at one or multiple points in history. Colonial Williamsburg, various written records, ghost tours, and other books about Williamsburg often overlook this fact.
Most like to tell the tale of Betty Randolph and her slave, Eve, which has existed for decades. But this kafkaesque explanation falls short. We believe that the primary and original source of the haunting activity reported in the home pre-dates 1699 and the Colonial presence in the area.
According to a Colonial Williamsburg report, there was no evidence of settlement. “Aside from a few residual or displaced projectile points and pottery, no aboriginal artifacts or features were located during the archaeological excavations of the 1930s, 1950s, or 1980s.” and “Indian remains specific to the Peyton Randolph back lot were virtually non-existent.”
This assumption contradicts a 1952 Archaeological Report conducted by Colonial Williamsburg on the Peyton-Randolph House. After interviewing the previous owner, Mrs. Ball, the report stated, “Indians are buried on the east side of the yard. Mr. Chorley and Mrs. Ball both agree they should not be disturbed.”
The 1998 report recognizes some inconsistency in the discovery of these Native American burial remains.
The East Side
The “east side” containing the Indian Graves was first identified on July 12, 1938. “East side” refers to the area in front of or behind the small reconstructed addition to the Peyton Randolph House.
The statement by Mrs. Ball was made on July 12, 1938, before the east wing had been reconstructed and before the National Park Service built the Colonial Parkway tunnel under the Historic Area.
Sources for the information regarding the alleged burials are unknown, and no archaeology, other than uncovering the foundations of the so-called “east wing,” has taken place in that part of the yard.
Construction of the Colonial National Historic Parkway tunnel in 1940 disturbed much of the east side of the yard (and the newly reconstructed “east wing”) where the previous owners originally reported the Native American graves.
In an interview with two owners of Lot 7 on the Randolph land, identified as Mr. and Mrs. Skillman, the government had condemned the east property where the Indians were buried to build the Parkway:
Mrs. S. “They had several people. There was an army couple. After your daddy died [1958] we were still renting. Where did you have your chicken house? He sold eggs.”
Mr. S. “That was behind the garage.”
Mrs. S. “The tunnel goes through there now. See, he owned that property…”
Mr. S. “That piece of property went all the way back. The United States Government had it condemned to build a tunnel for the Parkway, then let C. W. have it. Daddy was finally paid for it in 1946 or ’47. They came right up to the edge of the garage and took all the back part of it away, then covered [the tunnel] back over which you’d never know anything’d ever been done to it.”
Tom and Leah McCaskey (1982)
In a separate interview conducted with Tom and Leah McCaskey regarding the lots they occupied, lots 5 and 6, they recounted their experiences with the construction of the Parkway Tunnel and excavation.
In it, they note that the graves of one of their dogs were destroyed during construction, a piece of Indian pottery was removed and kept by one of the family members and that the first excavation was shallow.
It only reached the colonial foundation, overlooking any possible further Native American discoveries underneath in favor of reconstructing the Colonial Peyton Randolph House:
1940 Tunnel Construction
The graves were originally discovered in 1938, disturbed in 1940, and again mentioned in 1952, but were destroyed when the National Parkway Tunnel was built in 1940. The National Parkway tunnel runs underneath the grounds near the Peyton Randolph House. When it was constructed, the nearby Indian burial site was disturbed and lost to history.
We believe that this is a more credible explanation for the hauntings in the Peyton Randolph House, a cause that would pre-date Betty Randolph and Eve and offer stronger evidence of paranormal activity.
The many strange deaths and occurrences in the house over the past 300 years only serve to compound the activity likely caused by disturbed Native American burials on Randolph House grounds.
The Best Williamsburg Ghost Tours
The pre-colonial history of this area may have been overlooked or underreported. This is especially true when many of these buildings were originally built in the early 18th century, and these sites are not representative of the Colonial Period for which Colonial Williamsburg emulates.
Native Americans inhabited this land for thousands of years. They lived on it, they died on it, and they were laid to rest in it. It’s reasonable to assume that their spirits, disturbed from their resting places, also inhabit the area just as the ghosts of our Colonial ancestors.
But the influence of Native Americans on our history must not be forgotten. Their rightful place in our ghost stories and ghost tours must not be overlooked. Our ultimate, extended, and regular Williamsburg ghost tours recount these events as a primary explanation for the hauntings and activity surrounding the Peyton Randolph House.
We hope you enjoyed this article and look forward to seeing you on one of our Williamsburg ghost tours! Read our blog for even more information about haunted Colonial Williamsburg, and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for the best spooky content around!
Sources:
- https://research.colonialwilliamsburg.org/DigitalLibrary/view/index.cfm?doc=ResearchReports%5CRR0175.xml&highlight=
- https://usghostadventures.com/haunted-cities/williamsburgs-most-haunted/the-peyton-randolph-house-and-its-hauntings/#:~:text=The%20Peyton%20Randolph%20House%20is,it%20was%20built%20in%201715
- http://research.history.org/DigitalLibrary/View/index.cfm?doc=ResearchReports%5CRR1538.xml
- https://www.mountvernon.org/library/digitalhistory/digital-encyclopedia/article/peyton-randolph-1721-1775
- https://hauntedhouses.com/virginia/the-peyton-randolph-house/
- https://www.colonialwilliamsburg.org/events/peyton-randolph-house/
- https://www.onlyinyourstate.com/experiences/virginia/peyton-randolph-house-most-haunted-house-in-va