Lawne's Creek Chapt1

The Ghost Light of BaconsCastle and Lawnes Creek Parish Church

Chapter 1

Probably no apparition in America is as well known or as reliable as the mysterious ‘light’ that has been witnessed for more than two hundred years traversing the roadway and fields between the graveyard and ruins of Lawnes Creek Parish Church and the historic old Jacobean mansion known as Bacons Castle. A two lane secondary road, State Route 10 is the main highway through this area of the county and it passes just a mere fifty feet from the old graveyard and church ruins making it an ideal location for the casual ‘ghost hunter’ to visit. Anyone traveling from Norfolk to Richmond or vice versa on the south side of the James River through Surry County must use this road. As fate always seems to dictate, sooner or later under favorable conditions a confrontation with the ghost light is bound to happen! Woe be unto those who are unfortunate enough to pass after dark when the ‘light’ is either on its way to the castle or in transit back to the graveyard in the wee hours of the morning. It could become a real ‘wake up call’.

The castle itself is located on Hog Island Road, a side road about a quarter of a mile to the northeast of the church, yet in a direct line across immense croplands separating it from the church graveyard. Midway of the croplands is an ancient gnarled pine tree that appears to have been around as long as the ‘light’ itself. It too, is in a direct path of travel for the ‘light’ as it passes from the graveyard to the castle. Both times I witnessed the ‘light’ during its travels, it seemed to have stopped momentarily at the pine tree before proceeding on to its final destination. What was happening once it reached the castle was impossible for me to ascertain from the church graveyard as the distance from there to the castle was too great plus the large ancient trees in the castle yard also made it hard for the eye to follow a moving object especially at dusk. I had always heard that the ‘ghost light’ would enter the castle in the back garret window on the top floor beside the three immense Jacobean style chimneys. Located there was a room that was rumored to have been the main one used as a dungeon during Bacon’s Rebellion and also used again in later years as sleeping quarters for some of the servants. If this legend has a ring of truth in it and it had indeed served as a dungeon, then perhaps, that fact alone could have a lot to do with the ghost ‘light’ entering there. Can you imagine the bedlam in that particular room should a ‘ghost light’ suddenly pop through the window into the midst of a group of unsuspecting servants.

Growing up in the area I was fortunate to been privy to all the old-timers’ tales as to how they had seen the ‘light’ and how it had affected their lives. Many of the old timer’s descendants still in the area and their never changing tales continue to spark an interest in me that will probably last my last my lifetime. Being of an inquisitive nature and having a near-by ghost to study was a great temptation for someone who had always had an interest in the paranormal but needed a good starting place!! Thus I began my lifelong endeavor to learn all I could from the ‘old timers’ before they passed on! I had hopes of someday compiling all this information into a treatise of sorts for future generations to enjoy as there is currently no real pertinent information regarding the ‘ghost light’, merely hearsay and distorted legends.

Even I began to encounter a multitude of problems as I broadened my search for information, especially when I searched existing history reference books with little or no information on the subject. It soon became apparent that the only reliable information on the subject would have to come from the hand-me-down legends of the still living family members who were descendents of descendents whose ancestors had worked at the castle in the ‘old days’. A stark realization was about to manifest itself! What if the ‘old ones’ who might have been able to provide me with really good information had already passed on? Such an extraordinary good starting point was in jeopardy and I had to work fast!

My first mission was to spend time photographing the graveyard and the church ruins, which dates back to 1639 plus the manor house that dates back to 1665. Perhaps at some point in this venture I would stumble onto something that would provide information on the source of the ‘light’ or at least might disclose something that would fill in the ‘voids’ surrounding it’s existence! Soon a series of events chanced to happen during one search and might have been enough to make even the most stalwart soul back off but somehow I seemed to become even more dedicated than ever!

It had been general knowledge among everyone I talked to that the ‘ghost light’ did indeed come out of the ground at the tombstone belonging to James Wallace Simpson who had been the previous owner of Ellerslie Plantation, a neighboring plantation directly to the east and in front of Bacons Castle. In ensuing years this plantation became a part of the lands of Bacon’s Castle. As Lawnes Creek Church Graveyard was the most sought after place for burials, Simpson tombstone was one of the earliest placed there and it was immense. It was surrounded by a border of giant English boxwoods. Over the years, an entrance hole through the boxwoods on the northeast side appeared. It was oval in shape and somewhat comparable to the four foot high by eighteen inch wide shape that so many witnesses, along with me, had estimated as the approximate dimensions of the ‘ghost light’ which could always be seen coming from the grave there. Could this just be pure coincidence? Another strange revelation was the fact that the leaves on the branches of the boxwoods around the opening to the great flat marble tombstone, appeared to be seared, a feature that could keep the hole pruned to the exact shape of the ghost light! Could this have anything to do with the ‘orange fireball’ appearance of the ‘light’? Nothing else seemed plausible at the time so I accepted this as fact for the time being and put it in the back of my mind. But why did the light seem to be coming from the area of the grave of James Wallace Simpson instead of from the grave of Arthur Allen II who had always been supposed to be the real Ghost? It would be in later years that I would find out. It seems that as the graveyard grew more crowded with new burial space at a premium, the old grave markers would be moved into the walkway areas and the new graves placed alongside the older ones. In places where there were no markers, new graves were simply placed wherever they would fit in. So somewhere in this melee, the remains of Arthur Allen II must have found their way alongside the remains of James Wallace Simpson or vice versa! Somewhere in my research, I did stumble on information that stated that when Arthur Allen died he was buried at the first Lawnes Creek Church at Hog Island Point. In later years descendents moved his remains to Lawnes Creek where he was re-interred! I cannot find this reference any more and cannot remember where I found it! Could both Arthur Allen and his son be buried in the later Lawnes Creek church near the Castle? I may never know but from all the information I have gathered the Ghost Light belongs to Arthur Allen II buried alongside James Wallace Simpson’s grave!

Now back to the nightly arrival and travel route of the "Ghost Light". Everyone is convinced that the ‘ghost light’ would comes up from the grave beside James Wallace Simpson and then slowly proceeds to the west-end door of the church ruins. There it enters the ruins and gently floats about a foot off the ground down a well-worn path right through the middle of the church densely overgrown with trees and ivy. It would then exit through a hole in the wall behind the pulpit. Once it passed through the ruins, it would then turn northeast and gradually pick up speed. After stopping for an instant at a gigantic pine tree standing alone in the middle of the immense fields, it would rest before taking off on a more direct route to the castle, its final destination. Why it had to take such a winding route through the church and then stop at the pine tree made no sense to me then and still doesn’t but after all I am not a ghost yet and cannot think like one. I am sure it had a very good reason for what it did and I will just leave it at that.

My next step would be to trace the route of the ‘light’ across the field and eventually to its entrance into the castle garret window. This would prove to be the most perplexing of all. Just to predict the exact time it would emerge from the grave and then traverse it’s unusual route, proved extremely difficult at best and I wasted many hours that I could have been sleeping or pursuing other more rewarding endeavors. I even tried Moon Phases, Planet Phases and every possible combination that I or anyone else could think of and all to no avail. It would simply have to be merely a chance encounter until I could somehow discover the unpredictable regimen it followed. In the past, all encounters had been on the spur of the moment which seemed like great planning on the part of the ‘light’ to frustrate a novice like me! I often thought it operated in this fashion so it could cause a more serious trauma to the human psyche and then get to enjoy the frustrated antics of its earth bound counterpart!