Haunted Colonial Williamsburg

The Gaol

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Mirror inside of Gaol.
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The Public Gaol

The Gaol, or as we know of it as "Jail" was at the end on the corner of a lonely road. Said to be the place of BlackBeard's Pirates, who were captured and hagged at the Hanging Tree for all to see.

As I entered into the Gaol, It was very eerie. Sparsley furnished it had a mirror which I could never focus on. Always looked blurry, so I took a picture of it, because it had a reading of .7 milligauss. Yep, the picture was blurry as well.

The tour guide, who was interested in what I was doing with my meter, took me aside after the tour. She was a young girl, in her late 20's. She said, "I've only just started this job about a month ago, but I know there is ghosts in here. When I'm changing into my garments, I hear laughing upstairs. They say, they used upstair for the lunies/crazy people. I would hear a bagging on the walls, like someone bagging their head on the walls. It freaks me out."

She let me up the stairs, where my meter went off the chart. She only let me up there for about a minute, but it was dark and strange.  They used to chain people to the walls so they wouldn't escape. Especially the criminally insane.

Outside, there was the public stalls or cells. They were outside to enflect more punishment. Sometime they were forced outside the cells and chained to the post of the fenced in area. Rain or Shine, they would have to bear the elements till their deaths.

Built in May of 1704.

Drawing of Public Gaol in Colonial Williamsburg.
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Pronouced "Jail", the Gaol hold Murders, Thieves, The Insane, Spies, and debtors.

BlackBeard the Pirate.
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15 of BlackBeard's pirates were captured and held at this Gaol in 1718. They were all hagged in a public excution to give warning to others.

Henry "Hair Buyer" Hamilton was a Governor of Fort Detroit during the Revolutionary War. He was also one of the guest of the Williamsburg Gaol for his purchase of hundreds of scalps of Pioneers/Patriots from the Native Americans in 1779.

Hand Branding
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Henry "Hair Buyer" Hamilton
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Governor of British Detroit.

Hand Branding

Done on the palms or between the thumb and forefinger.

M for murderer

T for Thief

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