Peyton Randolph House Haunting Pt 4
Description:
Chris talks about some of his haunting experiences at the Peyton Randolph House in this clip from the Colonial Ghosts Interview Series.
Transcript:
Part four of our video interview series on the hauntings of the Peyton Randolph House in Colonial Williamsburg, Virginia. House featured on our ghost tour.
The Peyton Randolph House, where to start? You know when I first went to the Peyton House a long time ago I walked in front of it and I always thought it was a school because of the way it looks. You know, really long. It’s got a lot of windows and I didn’t know a lot about the history to it. I finally got the nerve to kinda walk around and it does have a very eerie feeling about it. When you walk in front of it, it just kind of sets itself apart from anywhere else in Colonial Williamsburg.
This past year I finally got the nerve to go to the backyard and walk around. You feel like something is watching you like, you know, if you look through the glass, like, somebody lived there, you’re trespassing, you’re not supposed to be there. That’s the feeling that the place gives you.
Not this past summer, but the summer before that I went back with my wife and my son, and what I did was I went to the backyard. I was looking around and I decided to go up the path past the well and past the new extension that they have. I heard some chairs moving and some tables moving or whatever, some furniture moving. I thought that’s kinda cool, maybe maintenance is cleaning up, maybe their doing something because it’s kinda the off season.
I got a little closer and I heard more and it got like progressively louder and I was like oh wow, it’s kinda cool. I wanted to look in the windows, like there was a piece of me that wanted to be nosey and go wow, what’s really in here? But I didn’t. Something held me back; something told me you need to leave. You’re trespassing, you shouldn’t even be here. I did go when the gate was closed in the first place. I really probably shouldn’t have been in there in the first place.
I went ahead and went back out and asked my wife, like hey are they doing tours or something? She said not that I know of. Usually when they do tours Colonial Williamsburg will have where you enter the house, they’ll have a flag out letting you know it’s open or they’ll have a person out there to let you know the next tour is at such and such a time. Neither were there.
I walked around and I looked, and I was like wow they really aren’t doing any tours. That’s when it hit me; I was like I just experienced something that was a little bit paranormal. I mean somebody was in there moving furniture and chairs.
If you were to go in the Peyton Randolph House, that spot that I was at, if you did the tour or you do the tour, it is where the dining room is, where the tables are and I think it’s like one table and it’s like four chairs. In the back of that is where the slaves and stuff brought in the food all the time.
I thought that was really, really weird and when I finally got to go in the house, I was like wow, this is really cool because this is where I heard the noise. It’s kinda what made it a little bit creepier because you know, it’s where I heard a noise. I looked on the floor and I didn’t really see any scratch marks or anything where furniture had been moved so I was kinda disappointed in that.
I took a few pictures. We went in the one entrance room where the fire place is, a real tiny room. Had some really ugly green furniture in there; like god awful ugly. They talked a little bit about the history that goes on in there with the slaves and how they get transferred and bought and all this good stuff. Then we went into another part of the room where we went upstairs and the first room was kinda cool. It was a little bit peaceful, but it was, you know, again you feel like you were being watched.
I let the group get a little bit ahead of me and I took the camera and I took some pictures. The further away the group got, the creepier I felt, like I was really creeped out, like I need to keep up with the people. Then I went to the next room, which was called the red room and its like really, really dark. They only had one window; they have all cherry furniture. Of course they had wood floors and they have an instrument on the bed, which I couldn’t really make out what it was. That one was really, really creepy. When I looked in there, you got, like, goose bumps, like you felt like something was watching you, like right there out of that particular room.
Then we went to the other room, which was supposed to be the most haunted room in the whole house, and it didn’t feel that haunted. It didn’t feel like it was like terribly haunted like everybody said it was. The one thing I did notice that when I got in there I looked around, that nobody else had noticed, was somebody was sitting on a bed. Now if you’ve ever seen any of the houses in Colonial Williamsburg, the mattresses you can bounce a quarter off of all of them. This one you could clearly see somebody was sitting there. I took a picture thinking maybe I had seen a ghost, but the only thing I got was the indentation of something being there.
Then we went back downstairs, we went down through the courtyard and I went through the slave quarters and stuff. There was one house where it looks like they had, where they kept the horses and stuff. Then they got a little room that goes upstairs. That one was a little creepy too, but other than that I mean you don’t really get the true feeling of how creepy it really is until you go out there at night. I mean it is creepy during the day, but it’s night and day when you go out there at night. It’s truly eerie. I find it funny that when I go out there at night, I love watching teenagers sit in front of the house and they’ll see something. They’ll see like a shadow of the branch and they’ll see that move in the window and they think it’s a ghost.
Just this past weekend I went in there and I was with some of the people and the tour guide and I asked Peyton, I like Peyton, I mean I’ve been here tons and tons of times. Show me something and I looked in the window and I kept on saying it. The more I said it the more and more I got goose bumps. It was a pretty decent night. It wasn’t too, too warm and they were off in the distance heading around to the back and that’s when I got that feeling again, like we were being watched. I was like wow, that’s really cool, like we’re being watched again. We went to the back yard and, you know, I showed them where I, you know, heard the noise and this and that, but that’s pretty much my experience at the Peyton House.
The jail, the jail I didn’t know was the jail until recently. Years ago I used to think that was where they kept the slaves because it doesn’t say jail. It is a huge wall, probably eight or nine feet tall and it does look like it is a place where they kept the slaves. Every time I’ve ever gone down there, it felt really, really, wow. That’s something paranormal out here.
I decided one day, again I got the season pass to go and view all the houses. I went inside of it and it was kinda cool; the inside of it was cool. They did a little story and they take you to the courtyard. I went to the courtyard and I was like that’s kinda neat. You know it’s a jail, it’s a courtyard, you got outside the courtyard you got four jail cells. You got two in the front and two in the back. I decided to look around and I thought this is really cool. This is a long time ago, I wonder what jails really looked like. I decided to go in one of them. I went in the first one on the left side and I went in. My wife and my kid, they were outside of it and when I went in, I got in and it was really kinda chilly. This was the summer time now and I know it’s got a little chilly in there because it’s dark so not a lot of heat is going to get in there. This was really chilly.
I looked and I noticed a ball and chain that weight probably eighty plus pounds on the wall started moving slowly. It started progressing then I decided to go ahead and you know, kinda get out of there and my wife was like you look like you seen a ghost. I was like well, I did just see a ball and chain moving. Well, maybe they don’t weight a lot, maybe the wind blew it.
The one thing you have to understand is in a jail they have like eight foot walls surrounding the thing. Then you go inside and they have four separate jails with roofs over top of them. Inside of that roof is where you have the ball and chain. I don’t care if you have a tornado or a hurricane, you’re not moving those ball and chains. It had to have an act of God to move those chains. That wasn’t happening that night or that day.
Then recently I went back with a buddy of mine and we went back there with a tour group. I went ahead, you know because after a while you see things, you hear things that just an every day event. You get used to it.
Colonial Williamsburg, I’ve lived here for a while and you get used to things. I went around back and I looked around because I thought I heard a noise. I was looking; I heard people talking. When I looked in the field, there was nobody. I looked just to the right, there’s another field and there’s still nobody. I looked inside the jail. I didn’t see anybody, but I heard a man and a woman conversing like they were talking. I was like this is really weird, like what is that? I got a little closer and you hear but you couldn’t make out what they were saying. I motioned Charles to come over so he could hear it and he got over there and it stopped. As soon as, you know, the tour guide and stuff came over nobody else heard it. It stopped and it was kinda disappointing because you know I wanted somebody else to hear what I had heard. But nobody else heard it and nothing else happened, but that’s what happened at the jail.
Our Tours
COLONIAL GHOSTS TOUR
Uncover the chilling past of Colonial Williamsburg, where history and hauntings intertwine on a journey through the historic streets.
ULTIMATE GHOST TOUR
Delve into the darkest corners of this historic town, uncovering the mysteries that lurk in the shadows after hours.
WILLIAMSBURG HAUNTED PUB CRAWL
Sip on signature cocktails while discovering the best local legends, terrifying tales, and haunted locations in one of the oldest towns in America.
WILLIAMSBURG BLACK HISTORY EXPERIENCE
Discover the remarkable history of the Black experience in colonial America and the resilience of Williamsburg's enslaved inhabitants.
SECRETS OF COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG
Explore the dark underbelly of Williamsburg, uncovering long-buried secrets of crimes, affairs, and scandalous escapades.
DRINK WILLIAMSBURG PUB CRAWL
Journey through Williamsburg’s iconic pubs, each with its own unique charm and stories waiting to be discovered.
TASTE OF WILLIAMSBURG - CULINARY TOUR
Indulge your palate on a culinary adventure through Williamsburg’s food culture, from colonial classics to modern twists.
COLONIAL GHOSTS TOUR
Uncover the chilling past of Colonial Williamsburg, where history and hauntings intertwine on a journey through the historic streets.
ULTIMATE GHOST TOUR
Delve into the darkest corners of this historic town, uncovering the mysteries that lurk in the shadows after hours.
WILLIAMSBURG HAUNTED PUB CRAWL
Sip on signature cocktails while discovering the best local legends, terrifying tales, and haunted locations in one of the oldest towns in America.
WILLIAMSBURG BLACK HISTORY EXPERIENCE
Discover the remarkable history of the Black experience in colonial America and the resilience of Williamsburg's enslaved inhabitants.
SECRETS OF COLONIAL WILLIAMSBURG
Explore the dark underbelly of Williamsburg, uncovering long-buried secrets of crimes, affairs, and scandalous escapades.
DRINK WILLIAMSBURG PUB CRAWL
Journey through Williamsburg’s iconic pubs, each with its own unique charm and stories waiting to be discovered.
TASTE OF WILLIAMSBURG - CULINARY TOUR
Indulge your palate on a culinary adventure through Williamsburg’s food culture, from colonial classics to modern twists.