Rose Hall                                                                  Back to Famous Haunted Places

by Walter Bissell
rose hall
Rose Hall great house, Jamaica
In the late1700’s, this great house was built for John Palmer,
the wealthy owner of a very successful sugar plantation.  
Rose Hall was built on a high ridge overlooking the
surrounding 6,600 acres, worked by more than 2,000 slaves.
On March 28, 1820, John summoned Annie Paterson to Montego Bay to become his wife.  
Annie, standing 4’ 11’’ tall and only 17 years of age at the time, made a beautiful bride.  
She is thought to be the widow of the builder’s grandnephew who had died quite suddenly
and mysteriously.

Some say, “Annie grew up in Paris, France and loved the glamour of French living”  Others
say, “Annie was born in 1802, in England to an English mother and Irish father.  At the age
of 10, her family moved to Haiti.  After her parents died of yellow fever Annie was adopted
by a Haitian voodoo priestess.”

Whether she acquired the knowledge of the rituals and practices of “Voodoo” from the
slaves after she came to the Island or from her adopted family, she became familiar with
and quite skilled in it.  Although it seemed a bit strange at first, she was a fast learner and
soon knew the power of this magic.

Annie could have had a wonderful life at Rose Hall, but “she missed the bright lights of
Paris or just became bored with the laid back Island living” so she began luring
innumerable men to her bed with the power of Voodoo.  Whether white or black, slaves or
visitors she enticed them.  When she grew tired of them, she killed them by poisoning,
stabbing, strangling and pouring boiling oil into their ears; then she buried them in
unmarked graves.  These murders may have been committed to strengthen her powers.
When John Palmer found out she was having affairs with young slaves, he is said to have
beaten her with a riding whip.  John Palmer died that night, and before long, rumors were
flying that his young wife had poisoned his wine.

After John’s death, Annie Palmer “began a reign of terror at Rose Hall.”  She became quite
nasty, more lascivious, more diabolical and very mean spirited to her slaves and all who
worked on the plantation.  She began Lording over them in vile and despicable ways.  
Annie started her day by stepping onto a small balcony at the rear of the plantation
overlooking the yard where she had the slaves assembled.  Here she issued the orders of
the day. “She would have some of her slaves whipped for just about no reason, often in
public to show the others just what they had in store if they disobeyed her orders in any
way.  She had a dungeon built and would put them in there and torture them as punishment
for the slightest infraction of her orders; some she would even have executed.”  It wasn’t
long before Annie Palmer earned the title, “White Witch of Rose Hall.”  She gained quite a
reputation of being ruthless and evil to everyone in the area.  Even the pirates that
frequented the area stayed away from her.  Annie Palmer was widely feared as a black
magician.

She married again, boasting, “If I survive I'll marry five.”  When she was bored with him, it is
said, “She got rid of this husband in the same manner as the rest, acquiring his fortunes as
well.”  Annie continued to dabble in voodoo, torture her slaves, and murder her lovers.

Some say, she made a final mistake at the age of 29, in 1831.  “She murdered a young
man who had been in love with a young girl who happened to be the daughter of the
overseer of the estate.”  They were to be married and the girl was heartbroken…the
overseer also was a high priest of Voodoo, something he didn’t want Annie to know.  He
was furious at this action on Annie’s part and decided to do away with her using his magic
against hers.  He prepared a special grave for her with specific markings and designed it
so that she would be unable to rise from the dead.  He then went into the house and
engaged in a battle to the death of both of them, fighting both physically and with all the
magic he could muster from his years of practicing this very strange voodoo religion.  They
then, “buried her in the grave he had prepared for her and that was supposed to be that!”  
Annie’s power prevailed in spite of this attempt and her ghost is said to roam the house
and grounds of Rose Hall still today.

Others say, Annie Palmer was eventually murdered herself by one of her slave lovers that
same year.  Fanciful legends of underground tunnels, blood stains and hauntings
continue…

Tours of the Rose Hall great house, Jamaica, can be scheduled on-line.  It is the
centerpiece of a golf development, now.

Ghost Pictures taken at Rose Hall:
Rose Hall Ghost Picture

For more information visit the:
Rose Hall Official Site
Another story about Rose Hall from Vickie Scholten:
"My husband and I just got back from Ocho Rios, Jamaica.  On our way to the Airport to Montego Bay I was taking
photos from the bus window.  It was a mostly sunny day with some clouds and a bit cloudier to the airport.  I took
several shots of the landscape along the way including a nice little church building that overlooked the sea, all of
these photos were fine, nothing out to the ordinary.  As we were getting closer to Montego Bay, not too far from the
Rose Hall Great House, I saw some children standing on the side of the road by a park it looked like, maybe it was
their school yard, not sure, but they waved and I decided to quickly snap a shot, that is the photo marked Rose Hall
witch. As we traveled further I was going to take a photo of the Great house in the distance but I could not get it.  
When we were about 5 miles or so from the Airport I saw some nice homes that I took photos of, both were filled
with orbs, but the one attached has the appearance of the Orb coming through or into the bus and one possibly
leaving on the other side with a bunch all around.  It is weird to me because when I took these photos it was a
clear day.  You can even tell on the first photo in the upper right hand corner the blue sky.  This photo really freaked
me out!  I see two faces in the image over the photo of the children.  The first face I noticed was from the top of the
aspiration where it looked like teeth, a mouth opened with many white teeth showing along with what appeared to
be dried wet blood coming from the corner and bulging eye to the left.  My daughter right away noticed the other
face in the photo, right above the child in green, I see a complete face.  Before I had these photos developed, I had
read the book "The White Witch of Rose Hall" and it was ironic to me that I seamed to be seeing a dead person's
face with the tongue and eyes bulging at the top, making me think of Annie's strangulation and then like a white
softer looking face below.  Others have looked and seen the same things, not sure what you will see or think of
these.

The second photo is strange too.  It looks to have hundreds of orbs with one big one passing into our bus right in
front of me and one leaving.  The photo should have been of a home setting that overlooked Montego Bay, a nice
little property, you can see some of the house in the background.  The orb passing sort of freaked me too because
it looked cylinder shaped with the square bottom, like Annie Palmer's grave tomb, I think the shape made me think
that.  Not sure what it is really.

I had not purchased any books about Rose Hall at the time of these photos.  There were several shots taken the
same day within an hour that are just fine.  The camera used was a 35 mm Olympus TRIP AF 60, nothing fancy.  
When I took our vacation film to Walmart I never even thought about seeing anything like this.  I do know we were
traveling close to if not through what would have been her land on the way to the Airport.  I had wanted to visit Rose
Hall, but since I had such a close encounter, not knowing of course, I think it was good not to go there.  My family
history is also of Irish and English decent and we have some rumors or in some cases fact of previous ancestors
having special powers, perhaps Wiccan.  A friend mentioned to me that she, the witch would not like me being
there, something about the Witch and Wiccans not seeing eye to eye, but this is all talk, not sure of any of it.  I do
know I was drawn to read her story and buy the book and I read it in about a day.  But like I said we did not visit the
home of Annie Palmer, these were taken on the property along the highway."
rose hall ghost picture of orbs
Left:
Second strange photo described by Vickie.
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