Active Episcopal church since 1674, Civil War hospital with a mass Confederate burial, and the restless ghost of a wronged first wife
331 W Duke of Gloucester St, Williamsburg, VA 23185
Research updated June 2026
Age
All Ages
Cost
Free
Church and churchyard are free to visit; donations welcome
Access
Wheelchair OK
Flat churchyard with paved and brick walkways; gravel paths near older graves
Equipment
Photos OK
Est. 1715 · National Historic Landmark (1970) · Colonial Capital Church · Civil War Hospital · Confederate Mass Burial · Colonial Williamsburg Restoration
Bruton Parish was formed in 1674 when Middle Plantation Parish and Marston Parish were consolidated under a single vestry. The congregation is named for Bruton in Somerset, England, the ancestral home of colonial governor William Berkeley's family. The first wooden chapel gave way to a larger brick structure in 1683, and when Williamsburg replaced Jamestown as Virginia's colonial capital in 1699, the parish needed a building commensurate with its status.
The current cruciform brick church was constructed between 1711 and 1715. Thomas Jefferson, George Washington, and Patrick Henry worshipped here when Williamsburg served as the colony's capital; pew 14 is traditionally associated with Jefferson. The 1755 organ — one of the earliest pipe organs in colonial America — remains in use. John D. Rockefeller Jr. funded a significant restoration in the 1930s as part of the broader Colonial Williamsburg project.
In May 1862, Union and Confederate forces traded control of Williamsburg following the Battle of Williamsburg on May 5. The church was commandeered as a field hospital, treating casualties from both sides. Wounded soldiers lay on the original wooden floors, and the graveyard received hurried burials in the days after the fighting. Approximately 100 Confederate soldiers killed in the battle are interred in a mass grave on the church grounds — one of the earliest concentrated Confederate burials in the Tidewater region.
Reverend Scervant Jones served the parish in the eighteenth century. Both of his wives are buried in the churchyard alongside him — a burial arrangement that became the seed of the church's most enduring ghost story.
Sources
The haunting of Bruton Parish is anchored in a documented grave arrangement. Reverend Scervant Jones promised his dying wife Ann that they would be buried together. Within three months of her death, Jones had remarried and placed his second wife's grave between himself and Ann. The affront is still visible in the churchyard.
Reports of Ann's apparition began not long after the new wife's arrival. Witnesses describe a weeping woman in eighteenth-century dress seen in the pews and moving among the older graves. The crying is reported to be audible at dusk, particularly around the oldest section of the churchyard.
The 1755 pipe organ presents a separate category of report. Multiple accounts describe the organ sounding when the church is locked and empty, performing passages that volunteers say do not match any hymn in the parish's collection. The reports are anecdotal, attributed to late-evening visitors and staff entering after hours.
The mass Confederate burial adds another dimension. The roughly 100 soldiers interred here after May 1862 have no individual markers in the section. Visitors and paranormal investigators have reported EVP captures near the burial area, and some accounts describe the sensation of being watched from the churchyard's interior facing the street.
Notable Entities
Visitors can walk the historic churchyard, which contains colonial-era graves, the Confederate mass burial section, and the gravesite of Reverend Scervant Jones and his two wives. Parish volunteers are often available inside to answer questions. The church is still an active Episcopal congregation.
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