Brown Lady
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The Brown Lady of Raynham Hall is a
ghost In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...
that reportedly haunts
Raynham Hall Raynham Hall is a country house in Norfolk, England. For nearly 400 years it has been the seat of the Townshend family. The hall gave its name to the five estate villages, known as The Raynhams, and is reported to be haunted, providing the ...
in
Norfolk Norfolk ( ) is a Ceremonial counties of England, ceremonial county in England, located in East Anglia and officially part of the East of England region. It borders Lincolnshire and The Wash to the north-west, the North Sea to the north and eas ...
, England. It became one of the most famous hauntings in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
when photographers from '' Country Life'' magazine claimed to have captured its image. The "Brown Lady" is so named because of the brown
brocade Brocade () is a class of richly decorative shuttle (weaving), shuttle-woven fabrics, often made in coloured silks and sometimes with gold and silver threads. The name, related to the same root as the word "broccoli", comes from Italian langua ...
dress it is claimed she wears.


Identity of the ghost

According to legend, the apparition is that of Dorothy Walpole (1686–1726), the sister of
Robert Walpole Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford (; 26 August 1676 – 18 March 1745), known between 1725 and 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British Whigs (British political party), Whig statesman who is generally regarded as the ''de facto'' first Prim ...
, generally regarded as the first
Prime Minister of Great Britain The prime minister of the United Kingdom is the head of government of the United Kingdom. The prime minister advises the sovereign on the exercise of much of the royal prerogative, chairs the Cabinet, and selects its ministers. Modern pr ...
. She was the second wife of
Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend Charles Townshend, 2nd Viscount Townshend, (; 18 April 167421 June 1738) was a British Whig statesman. From 1714 to 1717, and again from 1721 to 1730, he served as Secretary of State for the Northern Department . He directed British foreign po ...
, who was notorious for his violent temper. The story says that when Townshend discovered that his wife had committed
adultery Adultery is extramarital sex that is considered objectionable on social, religious, moral, or legal grounds. Although the sexual activities that constitute adultery vary, as well as the social, religious, and legal consequences, the concept ...
with
Lord Wharton Baron Wharton is a title in the Peerage of England, originally granted by letters patent to the heirs male of the 1st Baron, which was forfeited in 1729 when the last male-line heir was declared an outlaw. The Barony was erroneously revived in 1 ...
, he punished her by locking her in her rooms in the family home, Raynham Hall. According to
Mary Wortley Montagu Lady Mary Wortley Montagu (née Pierrepont; 15 May 168921 August 1762) was an English people, English Aristocracy (class), aristocrat, medical pioneer, writer, and poet. Born in 1689, Lady Mary spent her early life in England. In 1712, Lady Ma ...
, Dorothy was in fact entrapped by the Countess of Wharton. She invited Dorothy over to stay for a few days knowing that her husband would never allow her to leave, not even to see her children. She remained at Raynham Hall until her death in 1726 from
smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by Variola virus (often called Smallpox virus), which belongs to the genus '' Orthopoxvirus''. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (W ...
.


Sightings

The first recorded claim of a sighting of the ghost was by Lucia C. Stone concerning a gathering at
Raynham Hall Raynham Hall is a country house in Norfolk, England. For nearly 400 years it has been the seat of the Townshend family. The hall gave its name to the five estate villages, known as The Raynhams, and is reported to be haunted, providing the ...
in the Christmas of 1835. Stone says that Charles Townshend had invited various guests to the Hall, including a Colonel Loftus, to join in the Christmas festivities. Loftus and another guest named Hawkins said they had seen the "Brown Lady" one night as they approached their bedrooms, noting in particular the dated brown dress she wore. The following evening Loftus claimed to have seen the "Brown Lady" again, later reporting that on this occasion he was drawn to the spectre's empty eye-sockets, dark in the glowing face. Loftus' sightings led to some staff permanently leaving Raynham Hall. The next reported sighting of the "Brown Lady" was made in 1836 by Captain
Frederick Marryat Captain Frederick Marryat (10 July 1792 – 9 August 1848) was a Royal Navy officer and novelist. He is noted today as an early pioneer of nautical fiction, particularly for his semi-autobiographical novel '' Mr Midshipman Easy'' (1836). He is ...
, a friend of
novel A novel is an extended work of narrative fiction usually written in prose and published as a book. The word derives from the for 'new', 'news', or 'short story (of something new)', itself from the , a singular noun use of the neuter plural of ...
ist
Charles Dickens Charles John Huffam Dickens (; 7 February 1812 – 9 June 1870) was an English novelist, journalist, short story writer and Social criticism, social critic. He created some of literature's best-known fictional characters, and is regarded by ...
, and the author of a series of popular sea novels. It is said that Marryat requested that he spend the night in the most haunted room of Raynham Hall to prove his theory that the haunting was caused by local smugglers anxious to keep people away from the area. Writing in 1891,
Florence Marryat Florence Marryat (9 July 1833 – 27 October 1899) was an English author and actress. The daughter of author Capt. Frederick Marryat, she was particularly known for her sensational novels and her involvement with several celebrated spiritual m ...
said of her father's experience: Lady Townshend reported that the "Brown Lady" was next seen in 1926, when her son and his friend claimed to have seen the ghost on the staircase, identifying the ghostly figure with the portrait of Lady Dorothy Walpole which then hung in the haunted room. Ever since Marryat's encounter with the Brown Lady, sightings of her have dwindled - with some claiming that she now haunts nearby
Houghton Hall Houghton Hall ( ) is a country house in the parish of Houghton in Norfolk, England. It is the residence of the 7th Marquess of Cholmondeley. It was commissioned by the '' de facto'' first British Prime Minister, Sir Robert Walpole, in 1722, ...
and
Sandringham House Sandringham House is a country house in the parish of Sandringham, Norfolk, England. It is one of the royal residences of Charles III, whose grandfather, George VI, and great-grandfather, George V, both died there. The house stands in a est ...
.


''Country Life'' magazine

On September 19, 1936, Captain Hubert C. Provand, a London-based photographer working for '' Country Life'' magazine, and his assistant, Indre Shira, were taking photographs of Raynham Hall for an article. They claim that they had already taken a photograph of the Hall's main staircase and were setting up to take a second when Shira saw "a vapoury form gradually assuming the appearance of a woman" moving down the stairs towards them. Under Shira's direction Provand quickly took the cap off the lens while Shira pressed the trigger to activate the camera's flash. Later, when the negative was developed, the famous image of the "Brown Lady" was revealed. The account of Provand and Shira's ghostly experience at Raynham Hall was published in ''Country Life'' magazine on December 26, 1936 along with the photograph of the Brown Lady.''Country Life'' magazine 26 December 1936 The photograph and the account of its taking also appeared in the January 4, 1937 edition of ''
Life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
'' magazine.'The Camera Never Lies?'
Forde, Matt on Unexplained Mysteries website
Shortly thereafter, the noted
paranormal Paranormal events are purported phenomena described in popular culture, folk, and other non-scientific bodies of knowledge, whose existence within these contexts is described as being beyond the scope of normal scientific understanding. Not ...
investigator
Harry Price Harry Price (17 January 1881 – 29 March 1948) was a British Parapsychologist, psychic researcher and author, who gained public prominence for his investigations into psychical phenomena and exposing fraudulent Spiritualism (movement), spiritu ...
interviewed Provand and Shira and reported, "I will say at once I was impressed. I was told a perfectly simple story: Mr. Indre Shira saw the apparition descending the stairs at the precise moment when Captain Provand’s head was under the black cloth. A shout – and the cap was off and the flashbulb fired, with the results which we now see. I could not shake their story, and I had no right to disbelieve them. Only collusion between the two men would account for the ghost if it is a fake. The negative is entirely innocent of any faking."


Skeptical reception

Some critics have claimed that Shira faked the image by putting grease or a similar substance on the lens in the shape of a figure, or moved down the stairs himself during an exposure. Others claim that the image is an accidental
double exposure In photography and cinematography, a multiple exposure is the superimposition of two or more exposures to create a single image, and double exposure has a corresponding meaning in respect of two images. The exposure values may or may not be id ...
or that light somehow got into the camera.
Joe Nickell Joe Herman Nickell (December 1, 1944 – March 4, 2025) was an American skeptic and investigator of the paranormal. Nickell was a senior research fellow for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry and wrote regularly for their journal, '' Skeptic ...
has written that a detailed examination of the photograph shows evidence of double exposure. John Fairley and Simon Welfare wrote "there is a pale line above each stair-tread, indicating that one picture has been superimposed over the other; a patch of reflected light at the top of the right-hand banister appears twice." The magician John Booth wrote the photograph could easily be duplicated by naturalistic methods. Booth had the magician Ron Wilson cover himself in a bed sheet and descend the grand staircase at
The Magic Castle The Magic Castle is a performance venue, restaurant, and clubhouse for the Academy of Magical Arts for magicians and magic enthusiasts in the Hollywood district of Los Angeles, California, United States. The Academy was started in 1952 by W ...
in Hollywood. The faked ghost image looked very similar to the Raynham Hall photograph. Other critics point out that the image of the lady very closely resembles that of a standard
Virgin Mary Mary was a first-century Jewish woman of Nazareth, the wife of Saint Joseph, Joseph and the mother of Jesus. She is an important figure of Christianity, venerated under titles of Mary, mother of Jesus, various titles such as Perpetual virginity ...
statue as would be found in any Catholic church, the light patch covering the bottom one third of the image, resembling an inverted "V" shape, being very indicative, as the outer garment above it drapes down on either side at an angle. Also the head is covered and the hands appear to be together as in prayer, and the square or rectangular pedestal on which she stands is also clearly visible. This strongly suggests that the photo is a simple superimposition of the Madonna statue onto the empty staircase.


Adaptions

In 1948, an unknown author and artist King Ward adapted the legend into "The Grim Lady of Raynham Hall," a 2-page comic story published in issue #2 of the
American Comics Group American Comics Group (ACG) was an American comic book publisher started in 1939 and existing under the ACG name from 1943 to 1967. It published the medium's first ongoing horror-comics title, ''Adventures into the Unknown''. ACG's best-known cha ...
horror anthology ''
Adventures into the Unknown ''Adventures Into the Unknown'' was an American comic-book magazine series best known as the medium's first ongoing horror-comics title. Published by the American Comics Group, initially under the imprint B&I Publishing, it ran 174 issues (cove ...
''. In 1953, uncredited creators produced a 1-page comic for issue #9 of the
Standard Comics Standard Comics was a comic book imprint of American publisher Ned Pines, who also published pulp magazines (under a variety of company names that he also used for the comics) and paperback books (under the Popular Library name). Standard i ...
horror anthology ''Adventures into Darkness'' based on the "Brown Lady" story. In 1974, writer
Carl Wessler Carroll O. Wessler (May 25, 1913 – April 9, 1989),Carroll O. Wessler
Social Sec ...
, penciler J. Noriega, and inker
Alfredo Alcala Alfredo P. Alcala (August 23, 1925 – April 8, 2000) was a Filipinos, Filipino comics artist, born in Talisay, Negros Occidental, in the Philippines. Alcala was an established illustrator whose works appeared in the ''Alcala Komix Magazine''. ...
created a 3-page story about Raynham Hall as "The Most Haunted House in England!" in issue #23 of the
DC Comics DC Comics (originally DC Comics, Inc., and also known simply as DC) is an American comic book publisher owned by DC Entertainment, a subsidiary of Warner Bros. Discovery. DC is an initialism for "Detective Comics", an American comic book seri ...
horror anthology ''
Ghosts In folklore, a ghost is the soul or Spirit (supernatural entity), spirit of a dead Human, person or non-human animal that is believed by some people to be able to appear to the living. In ghostlore, descriptions of ghosts vary widely, from a ...
''.''Ghosts'' #23 (DC Comics, 1971 Series)
at the
Grand Comics Database The Grand Comics Database (GCD) is an Internet-based project to build a database of comic book information through user contributions. The GCD project catalogues information on creator credits, story details, reprints, and other information use ...


See also

*
List of ghosts The following is a list of ghosts: African folklore * Adze, Ewe vampiric being * Amadlozi, Nguni spiritual figures * Asanbosam, Akan vampire * Egbere, Yoruban malevolent spirit * Kishi, Angolan two-faced demon * Madam Koi Koi, Nigerian ...


References


External links


'The Brown Lady of Raynham' on the Museum of Hoaxes website


in the
Fortean Times ''Fortean Times'' is a British monthly magazine devoted to the anomalous phenomena popularised by Charles Fort. Previously published by John Brown Publishing (from 1991 to 2001), I Feel Good Publishing (from 2001 to 2005), Dennis Publishing (from ...
{{coord, 52.796, 0.790, display=title English ghosts Female ghosts Supernatural legends People notable for being the subject of a specific photograph Norfolk folklore 1936 works 1936 in art 1930s photographs Black-and-white photographs