THE STORY
Reported Haunting
Raynham Hall has been associated with ghost stories for more than a century. Visitors and staff have reported apparitions, phantom footsteps, and mysterious sounds throughout the historic mansion.
Raynham Hall has been known to be haunted since the early 1900s. Among the phenomena here are a phantom white horse and a rider, an apparition of an Irish servant named Michael Conlin, an elderly man’s ghost seen coming down the stairs (believed to be Robert Townsend, the Revolutionary War spy also known as Culper, Jr.), and the sound of swishing petticoats on the stairs. Noises and voices as well as footsteps and phantom odors, like baking apple pie, have been noted here as well. But the museum’s most well-known ghost story is that of Sally Townsend and John Simcoe. Sally is thought to have fallen in love with Colonel Simcoe while he stayed here during the Revolutionary War. But after the war he never returned for Sally, and she died unmarried at 82. She kept a Valentine’s letter that Simcoe had once sent, and it was found well worn and creased. Her sad ghost is said to remain here.