The Peyton Randolph House a Family That Believes
by John Kell
(Virginia Beach Va.)
My family and I are fans of ghost tours. We purchased a ghost tour from one of those coupon group things. We wanted to take the tour in October. However, upon trying, we discovered that the tours had all been booked. I did not read the fine print and as a result, the earliest that we could take the ghost tour was in the Month of December. We have done many different ghost tours. Apart from our home town of Williamsburg, we have also done tours in Saint Augustine and Key West, Florida. We were also part of a tour in Gettysburg. To see and experience nothing on a ghost tour is not at all unusual. However, we enjoy hearing the ghost stories and taking pictures of all of the millions of orbs that are caught when you flash particles of dust and water. We did not expect this tour to be any different. We did the tour previously with another company. So, basically, we were hoping for a few different stories and a cup of hot chocolate as the night was extremely cold. However, we got more than what we expected that night. We most certainly got our money’s worth on this particular tour.
We were walking in a group of 30 or more people with a story here and a tale there and we stopped in front of the Peyton Randolph House in Williamsburg, Virginia. The tour guide was setting us up with a pre -note of how the house was built with the tops of coffins stolen from the poor graveyard and a brief tale of another guest that was a paranormal psychologist who said "Never turn your back on the Peyton House its evil." and we all kind of took it with a grain of salt. As we all took our places in a kind of semicircle around her so we could hear her next spooky story in front of the Peyton House, a very distinct sound came from the door as if someone was trying to open the door. The latch or handle was being moved. Not everybody noticed at first, but some of us closer
This has never happened to us on any ghost tour. This sound makes the hair on your neck stand up. As we all stood there not really believing what was happening, the blinds in one of the upstairs windows opened and closed violently. Making a sound loud enough for the entire group to take notice and it happened again, then a third time. It was silent except for the fake sounds of cell phone cameras being clicked. The guide finished her story none of us paying attention except if you knocked on the door someone or something would knock back so 3 of our group including myself walked up towards the door and knocked on it. This being a ghost story we should have been scared to death with a return knock back it did not happen. So with what we had just witnessed, we laughed and continued our tour.
The next part I did not witness but my wife and son did. She told me that she saw our son turn around quickly to see who pushed him. I have two young boys who love to push each other, so he figured it was his brother pushing him and was turning around to get the last lick in, but was surprised to see no one there. He was kind of in shock because it felt like something strong but he was not sure how to describe what happened. My wife and he talked as we stopped in front of this tree and the tour guide started to tell the story of the ghost tree. She said that some say if you stand in front of the tree you may see a union solder and some have been touched by him. It is our story now, we always joked about what we would do if we saw a ghost we never talked about if we were pushed. So if you stop in front of The Peyton Randolph House or the ghost tree, pay attention you might get your money's worth.
