Rhode Island Travel & Tourism

Haunted Rhode Island

Spooks, haunts, apparitions, spirits and ghost—Rhode Island is home to its share of paranormal activity. The cases are generally related to discord, violence, confusion and unfairness, and can be found in communities all over the state.

Rhode Island’s most renowned ghost is Mercy Brown of Exeter, who is thought to be a vampire and a ghost. She was a victim of “The White Death” and buried in Chestnut Hill Cemetery behind Exeter Baptist Church. Her story is used in H.P. Lovecraft’s The Shunned House.

In Warren, there have been numerous reports of seeing 8 disembodied heads near the Kickemuit River. Many believe the sightings have to do with a 1675 killing of 8 English settlers by area Native Americans. The Englishmen’s heads were left atop poles as a warning to others.

In Narragansett, owners of the Wedderburn House during the late 1800s and early 1900s reported seeing a young Spanish woman walking and weeping as she wandered the halls. The house, originally owned by Captain Japheth Wedderburn, was where his wife, Donna Mercedes lived while he was at sea. Donna was depressed due to being alone in a new country with no family—virtually a prisoner in her own home. When Captain Wedderburn returned home from a trip and announced that he was taking Donna home to Spain -nobody questioned it; nor did they question his claim that she remained in Spain when he returned without her 2 years later. Sometime after that the captain died. When others took up residence in the home, the haunting was reported. In 1925, workers doing renovations found a coffin sealed in the fireplace hearth. The box contained a women’s corpse wearing an antique Spanish tortoise shell comb with the body covered in pieces of a black lace mantilla.

Other ghostly Rhode Island guest include the old lady of Birch Swamp who has been noticed trying to hide a body, the ghost of Bristol farmer on Brickyard Pond, Civil War ghost in Abbot Run, the gold digger on Central pond, train driver’s ghost of Sweeden’s Swamp that have been sighted in the Pawtucket area, and many others across the state.

For a walking tour of ghostly adventure, you can contact the Newport Visitors Center. The Center has several guided tours available.

Some haunting reading can be found within these pages:

Citro, Joseph. Passing Strange, Houghton Mifflin, 1997
Holzer, Hans. Ghosts of New England, Wings Books, 1989
Reynolds, James. Ghosts in American Houses, Farrar, Straus and Cudahy, 1955
Robinson, Charles. The New England Ghost Files, Covered Bridge Press, 1994
Sharp, Eleyne. Haunted Newport, Self-Published

Rhode Island Ghost sightings

Photo Credits: Ghost Trees by John Morgan; Ghost in the Window by Ryan Remillard