Est. 1730 · National Historic Landmark · Home Of Declaration Signer Thomas Nelson Jr. · British Officer Quarters During Siege Of Yorktown · Cannonballs Embedded In Wall
The Yorktown townhouse known as the Nelson House was built circa 1730 by Thomas Nelson, the Scottish-born colonial merchant called Scotch Tom Nelson to distinguish him from later family members of the same name. Scotch Tom Nelson was one of Yorktown's wealthiest merchants in the mid-18th century. The two-story brick house, executed in a restrained Georgian style, was among the largest residences in the colonial Virginia tidewater region.
The house passed to Scotch Tom's grandson Thomas Nelson Jr., born in 1738. Nelson Jr. was educated at Cambridge and returned to Virginia to enter colonial politics. He served in the Virginia House of Burgesses, signed the Declaration of Independence in 1776 as a delegate to the Second Continental Congress, and was elected Governor of Virginia in June 1781 — during the closing months of the American Revolution.
The Siege of Yorktown in September and October 1781 brought combined American and French forces under General George Washington and the Comte de Rochambeau against Lord Cornwallis's British army, which had occupied the town. Cornwallis selected the Nelson House and several other large brick townhouses as headquarters and senior officer's quarters. Thomas Nelson Jr., as commander of the Virginia Militia during the siege, was reportedly aware that British officers were quartered in his own home. According to a long-told but likely apocryphal tradition, Nelson urged Washington or Lafayette to fire on the house and offered five guineas to the first artilleryman to strike it.
The house took multiple direct hits during the siege; two cannonballs remain embedded in the brick south wall and can be seen by visitors today. The actual British headquarters in the most-bombarded part of town was the home of Secretary Thomas Nelson, the uncle of Nelson Jr.; that building was effectively destroyed during the siege and Cornwallis relocated his headquarters to a sunken grotto at the foot of the Nelson family garden.
Following the siege, the Nelson House was returned to Nelson Jr., who served as Governor of Virginia until November 1781 and died at Hanover, Virginia in 1789. The house remained in the Nelson family through the 19th century and passed through several private owners before being acquired by the National Park Service in 1968 as part of Yorktown Battlefield. A complete restoration was undertaken for the 1976 American Bicentennial. The house is a contributing structure to the Yorktown Battlefield National Historic Landmark district.
Sources
- https://www.nps.gov/york/learn/historyculture/nelson-house.htm
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nelson_House_(Yorktown,_Virginia)
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Nelson_Jr.
- https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=61589
- https://ypsva.org/secretary-nelsons-property-2/
ApparitionsPhantom footstepsPhantom voices
The Nelson House occupies a central position in Yorktown's well-developed ghost tradition. The most-cited story involves a British officer who was reportedly struck and killed by an American cannonball while ascending a hidden staircase between floors during the October 1781 bombardment. Tour guides and local writers have repeated the story for decades; specific officer names cited in different versions of the tale vary and do not consistently match the British officer-corps casualty records published after the war.
Reports of his presence in the house include the sound of boot footsteps on the stairs, brief observations of a male figure in late-18th-century British uniform in the upstairs hall, and on rare occasions the sound of a man's voice speaking in low tones from an empty room.
A second figure occasionally reported is Thomas Nelson Jr. himself, observed at a window watching the bombardment that struck his own home. The narrative has obvious dramatic logic but lacks specific eyewitness foundation beyond local Yorktown oral tradition.
The two cannonballs embedded in the south wall — visible to any visitor — provide a tangible anchor for these stories. NPS staff treat the haunting traditions in archival terms during ranger-led tours and do not promote paranormal investigation of the property.
Yorktown has a wider haunted reputation tied to the unrecovered remains of soldiers killed in the 1781 siege and to subsequent Civil War engagements in the area. The Nelson House is one of several Yorktown buildings included in regional Colonial Ghosts walking tours; the tours operate from outside the property.
Notable Entities
The British Officer on the Hidden StairThomas Nelson Jr. at the Window
