Public Gaol
Williamsburg's colonial jail, with cells ready by 1704, held debtors, runaways, the mentally ill, accused murderers awaiting the gallows, and most famously several of Blackbeard's pirate crew, who were jailed here ahead of their 1719 trial at the nearby Capitol. Most were sentenced to hang. The brick gaol served as the town prison into the early 1900s, and its cramped, brutal cells saw considerable suffering and death. Visitors and Colonial Williamsburg staff report disembodied voices and the heavy thump of boots from a deserted second-floor room, plus moaning and whispers late at night. Some describe shadowy figures gliding without explanation, and the old iron chains and shackles have reportedly been seen swinging on their own. The building is preserved and interpreted as part of the Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area and appears on nearly every Williamsburg ghost tour.
📍 461 E Nicholson St, Williamsburg, VA 23185, Williamsburg, VA · Get directions