Our first major investigation was Rosewell Plantation, located in Gloucester, Virginia. This place quickly became our groups first white whale in that it took us three trips there to actually proceed beyond the gate even. However early morning on the 7th we finally made it in and were able to collect some evidence.
Before I get into the specifics of our various trips I'll go into a bit of history about the plantation. Mann Page I started construction on the mansion in 1725 in the hopes that it would emulate the grandeur of the London townhouses of the time. Mann was a man of grandeur and he built the mansion with aspirations that it would dwarf the opulence of the recently constructed Governors Mansion in Williamsburg. However, his visions were not to be achieved as he died only five years after construction started. The mansion would later be completed by Mann's wife, Judith, and his son, Mann II. The mansion would later be inherited by John Page. John was the grandson of Mann and most notably the first Governor of Virgina. John was also famously friends with Thomas Jefferson while they both attended William and Mary College together in the early 1760's. It is also said that Jefferson wrote an early rough draft of the Declaration of Independence in the mansion. Many architects praise the style and over the top grandeur for the time. At the time, Rosewell mansion was the largest and most advanced brick building ever built. All this however came to an end in 1916 when the mansion was completely gutted by a fire leaving only the superstructure today as a testament to the engineering of the time.
There have been numerous hauntings and paranormal sitings at Rosewell, so many in fact that Rosewell is on many peoples lists of the most haunted place in Virginia, it is also mentioned in many books on the paranormal. The very first story from Rosewell comes from 1930 concerning the death of Mann Page I. When he died suddenly in the front parlor, the local bishop claimed that he was struck down by God as punishment for his lush attitudes and want of excess. Many people also claim to see apparitions of slaves walking throughout the ruins at night. There have also been some random, unconfirmed, sitings of what is supposedly Thomas Jefferson's ghost walking about. Some people claim to hear old-timey music and some have even been touched to the point of leaving bruises.
Unfortunately our paranormal encounters were much less subdued than these extreme cases. It should be noted though that it did take us three separate tries to actually advance beyond that gates at the front of the property. The first time we tried we went without any guidance from anyone that had previously visited. We made it out of our car and about half way toward the gate before feelings of impending doom overcame a few of our members and we were forced to retreat for the night. The next night we tried once more and encountered a foreign car that signified that there were unknown people out there and we didn't want to interfere or be caught in an uncomfortable situation. Also of note, another of our group felt these feelings of uncertainty and terror that the other two felt the night before. The very next night we went back, this time with guidance from a previous attendee. The fact that none of us experienced the terror that we had felt before leads me to hypothesis that it is a requirement for new paranormal seekers to be accompanied by someone who has been there before as a sort of right of passage.
We made it through the corn fields lining the passage with ease and progressed onto the ruins of the mansion. Once at the mansion we stood on the steps and were able to take some pictures and videos without too many problems. As we moved through the area surrounding the ruins we heard random unexplained noises intermittently. We took some time to take an EVP and realized that without a daytime run to scope out the woods or some sort of markings to mark the path we stood a very good chance of getting lost. As we were leaving a number of our members heard footsteps following us that stopped when we stopped. Also I myself heard what sounded like a woman's voice off in the direction of the ruins. Needless to say that as we left was when the worst of the feelings occurred, almost as if whatever entities were there did not want us to leave.
Upon returning home and reviewing our evidence we discovered many, many orbs throughout many of our pictures. This is consistent with some of the few pictures we were able to snap in the little time we spent at the entrance on our previous tries. While we didn't capture anything definitive that we are aware of at this time, as we still have to upload the videos and take some closer looks at the pictures, we could not ignore the feelings that we all felt at some point, not to mention the numerous stories and downright reluctance of many to ever visit again we firmly believe that Rosewell is a certifiably haunted location. We plan to visit sometime during that day soon to scope out the areas back in the woods and hopefully make a return trip preferably in the winter as a lot of our access to certain areas, most notably the interior of the mansion ruins, was blocked by plants and tall grass.
So until next, this is Jacob, scribe and videographer/technician, representing Bobbi, Dylan, Sam, and Miranda and all other aspects of S+S Paranormal Research Group. Like us on Facebook and maybe even pitch us some ideas for our next adventure.
Rosewell Plantation: Rosewell.org
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