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The Ghosts of Raynham Hall

© Jill Stefko

Lady Dorothy married Lord Charles Townshend when she was 26. He was a widower. Legend has it that she had been Lord Wharton's mistress. Charles discovered this after the marriage and had her locked in an apartment in the mansion. Her cause of death is unknown and the legends vary. Different versions say that she died of a broken heart, smallpox, falling down the stairs or starvation. Fodor doubts that she died of starvation because Lady Townshend told him that forced starvation in the 1600s in the area was not possible unless Dorothy was on a hunger strike

There was a portrait of her that hung in the hall. She wears a brown brocade dress that is trimmed in yellow with a ruff around the throat. She has large shiny eyes. According to legend, the portrait is normal when viewed in daylight. When seen in candlelight, there are no eyes, just dark hollows.

In the early 1800s, George IV, then regent, visited Raynham and was given the State bedroom. He woke in the middle of the night to see a woman, wearing brown, hair disheveled and a very pale face standing beside the bed. He was very frightened and said he would not stay in the home another hour.

At Yuletide, 1835, Colonel Loftus was a guest at the manor. He saw the Brown Lady on two succeeding nights.

The first night, she was standing outside of Lady Townshend's room. He chased her and she vanished. The second night, he saw her on the stairs. She was carrying a lamp. She wore brocade and a tight fitting cap on her hair. Her eyes were empty hollows.

Shortly after this, Captain Frederick Marryat, a novelist, was a guest at Raynham. One night he and two of Lord Charles' nephews encountered her in a hallway. She held a lit lamp and grinned at Marryat. He felt the grin was evil. He had a pistol and shot at her. She vanished. He vowed that the bullet passed through her. It was found in the door that she had stood in front of.

The Brown Lady was not seen until 1926 when Marquis Townsend and one of his friends saw her when they were boys.

In 1936, Lady Townshend hired photographers Indra Shira and Captain Provand to take pictures of the hall. Shira saw a misty figure take form on the steps until it was shaped into a woman who appeared to be wearing a white draped garment. The ghost began to walk down the steps. Shira told Provand to take a picture and pointed in the direction of the phantom.

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