Lady Fenwick’s Restless Spirit
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So we're standing in Fort Saybrook Monument Park right next to the marina at Saybrook Point. The marina is mostly empty, as you would expect, but it's easy to imagine how it's going to look in just a few months when the weather warms up. But yeah, for now, there is a chill in the air. I don't like the way you just said chill. Yeah, this week we're chasing a real chiller here on Saybrook Point.

Though today this is a really affluent area with nice and expensive homes, a little over a century ago this park was home to a train depot that was involved in moving goods and people to and from the busy docks. Yeah, this region used to be huge for shipping. Old Saybrook is just that, old. Given its location at the mouth of the Connecticut River, it's got a nice harbor, access to water, and good land. It does have all of that. Today it's picture-perfect New England coast, but back then it was a train depot.

They say it was built on land that used to be a cemetery, and maybe there was at least one below-ground resident who didn't take kindly to being relocated. We've come to investigate Fort Saybrook Monument Park because according to a newspaper account, this place is haunted.

Hello, I'm Jeff Belanger, and welcome to episode 384 of the New England Legends podcast. And I'm Ray Ogier. Thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time. We're always on the hunt for ghosts, monsters, roadside oddities, strange legends, and anything else that goes bump in the night. And a quick reminder that our annual zombie prom is happening Saturday, February 22nd at the Doubletree Hotel in Milford, Massachusetts. It's just $30 at the door to get in, and all the proceeds go to benefit the Community Harvest Project, which is a

and the great work that they do. You can find more information on the event on our website or in the link on our episode description. We'll go searching for the ghost of Fort Saybrook Monument Park right after this word from our sponsor.

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So this place is called Fort Saybrook Memorial Park because just a couple hundred feet from where we're standing right now in the parking lot is the square outline of what used to be a fortification that dates back to the 1600s. That square of land no doubt has its own storied history, but today we're focused on this piece of land in front of us. So this is pretty cool. Yeah. There's a bunch of stone slabs on the ground in an arc.

There's a couple of railroad tracks on two of them, and here's a set of railroad wheels on the track. So this must have been an old roundhouse? That's it, and it's ground zero for this haunting. As I said before, Old Saybrook is indeed old. For many centuries, this land was home to the Nahandic people. The Nahandic were conquered by the Pequots in 1590. Then Europeans arrived in 1614 when Adrian Bloch sailed up the Connecticut River to explore for the Dutch.

In 1631, the Earl of Warwick hooked up 11 of his closest friends with some prime real estate right here in this region. One of those friends was Colonel George Fenwick and his remarkable wife, Lady Alice Fenwick. The English were eager to beat the Dutch in settling this prime harbor town at the mouth of the river. The British did indeed succeed in settling here. George Fenwick served as its governor for a while.

After some early turbulent years, Saybrook grew into a busy harbor town. Now with more goods and people coming and going, the best way to get them in and out was a railroad. And this spot right here was perfect for a depot and a railroad roundhouse. Close enough to the water and ships, nice level land. There was only one problem. What was that? There was a cemetery in the way.

In 1870, in the name of progress, the cemetery was dug up and moved, and the depot, roundhouse, and turntable were built in its place, which would open up Old Saybrook to the rest of New England and the rest of the country. A roundhouse and turntable is a kind of stable for train engines. The engines can roll in, the giant turntable rotates, allowing the train to move into a stall, and then turn again to allow a different engine to pull in or pull out. Kind of like a parking lot for trains.

Right. A busy and noisy place in its prime when it was in full operation. But at night, that's a different story. So let's head back to the year 1900 and investigate this haunt. It's January of 1900 here in Old Saybrook, Connecticut. William McKinley is president of the United States. I'd Leave My Happy Home For You by Edward M. Favor is the number one song. And life on the coast of Old Saybrook is bustling.

That it is. The Roundhouse is a busy place. And being Friday, everyone is trying to get all the trains in place before the weekend.

It's about midnight, and all is quiet here at the rail yard. There's something about midnight that leaves us unsettled when we're not safe in our beds and sleeping through it. It's a time they say the graves yawn and give up their dead for at least a few hours. We're inside the train depot office. Sitting here is the night watchman, Charles Belcher. It's quiet out there tonight. There's not much for Belcher to do but keep himself awake.

Did you see that? Yeah, a large book on the shelf behind Belcher just flew off the shelf. It almost hit him in the head. It just landed on the floor. That was really weird. Whoa! It happened again! Another book from a different shelf just flew off and landed on the floor beside the first one. Belcher's in shock. He's staring at the books on the floor. Like him, I have no idea what to make of what just happened. Belcher's now getting up from his chair and looking around. I mean, there's no one else here.

He's bending over to pick up the books and setting them back on the shelf. He keeps looking over his shoulder. He's clearly rattled. Belcher's heading outside to tell one of his co-workers what just happened. Or maybe it's that Belcher doesn't want to be alone right now. I get it. Okay, so we're heading over to the nook where... Did you see that? Yeah, I did. That was Arthur Beebe. He was laying in a nook against the wall asleep when something tossed him from the shelf he was laying on. And some of the crates on the shelf were tossed on top of him.

Arthur, are you okay? Oh. Okay, he's getting up now. Yeah, he's fine, but definitely confused. And look at poor Charles Belcher. Belcher just watched Bebe get tossed like the books in his office a few minutes ago. Now, while Bebe may be confused, Belcher is petrified. What's that? Those are train engine bells coming from the roundhouse. Okay, there's no one else in the roundhouse.

I'm completely freaked out right now. Yeah. Books and people are flying. Train bells are ringing on all the train engines. Did you see that over there? It looks like some kind of shadowy figure just darted by one of the train engines. I think I hear the running footsteps out there, too. Yeah, the night watchman and the other rail workers here on the overnight shift have gathered in the middle of the roundhouse. The plan is to stay put until dawn. It's been a long night.

As Saybrook begins to wake up Saturday morning, word travels fast about the supernatural happenings that occurred here last night. These men, including Belcher and Beebe, are men of solid character, as are the other workers here. Plus, Saybrook already has its share of haunted houses where strange things bump in the night and cause a stir. So many aren't shocked as to the roundhouse being haunted. But the roundhouse is less than 30 years old. It's not some ancient home where people have been murdered or died.

Well, some locals have their theories as to who is haunting the roadhouse and depot office. Now, who do they say is haunting the rail depot? More than a few have mentioned it must be the ghost of Lady Alice Fenwick. Now, why her? So Lady Alice Fenwick and her husband George helped found Sabert Colony way back in the 1630s. Lady Fenwick was beloved by all her neighbors. She grew lush gardens and was considered a healer. She'd mix roots and herbs for the sick, and many people got better.

She not only had a way with plants, she was also a crack shot with a hunting rifle, and she could sail small boats with ease. Sadly, Lady Fenwick died during childbirth in 1645. Heartbroken, her widowed husband George buried his wife on Tomb Hill, then returned to England with his motherless kids. Okay, this is getting clear. Tomb Hill used to be located just outside the Railroad Roundhouse, but those graves had to be moved in 1870 to make room for the train tracks and the new buildings. They did.

Now, when they were exhuming the body of Lady Fenwick back in 1870, she was still quite the local legend, the patron saint of Saybrook. Many people came to take a gander at her grave. And when her casket was opened, they were shocked at how well preserved she was 225 years later. Even her fiery red hair was still preserved. Some locals wanted a piece of her.

A literal piece. What did they do? They cut small locks of her hair and took pieces of her rotting clothes as if she were a saint and these were relics. Her grave was then moved just a few hundred feet down the road to a new cemetery and the train tracks were laid down the following year. Now some people believe because her mortal remains were desecrated and her grave moved, her spirit now walks the earth. And maybe last night the ghost of Lady Fenwick made her presence known by causing a stir inside the train roundhouse in office. And

And that brings us back to today. Now, the train tracks are long gone, as is the roadhouse. And all that's left there are the stone slabs and a few monuments. And now Saybrook Point is a pretty and affluent residential area. Considering we're so close, I do feel like maybe we should pay our respects to Lady Fenwick and her new final resting place. Well, new since 1870. It's just up College Street here a little ways.

So we're entering Cyprus Cemetery, and there's a bunch of monuments here on acres of well-maintained land. But that's the one we're looking for over there. There's a strange group of stones with a larger stone resting on them. Almost looks like a stone bench of sorts. The whole thing is surrounded by an oval wrought iron fence. I

I can see why they wouldn't want people to touch the stonework. It looks fragile. Go ahead and read the sign, Ray. All right. It says this tablet is erected to the memory of Lady Alice Fenwick, who died in 1648, daughter of Sir Edward and Lady Elizabeth Apsley.

widow of Sir John Boulthier, wife of George Fenwick, Esquire, governor of Saybrook Colony, 1639 to 1644. Some think the ghost of Lady Fenwick still roams Saybrook Point. Though the railroad roundhouse is long gone, there are just enough remains to stand where something spooked a bunch of hardy men at midnight when the graves yawn and let out the restless spirits lying below.

A spooky place for sure. And that takes us to After the Legend, where we take a deeper dive into this week's legend. And sometimes we veer off course. Sometimes. Now, After the Legend is brought to you by our Patreon patrons. Our patrons are the inner circle. They help us with all the many and growing costs it takes to bring you two stories each week. We couldn't do it without them.

And we could do even more if you joined us. It's just three bucks per month. And for that, you get early ad-free access to new episodes, plus bonus episodes and content no one else gets to hear. You get discounts on merch and tickets, and you'll be part of something great. Just head over to patreon.com slash newenglandlegends to sign up. And to see some pictures of the remains of the old roundhouse, click on the link in our episode description. Go to our website and click on episode 384.

It's an old-fashioned ghost story. Yeah. Love them. And I love that you can still stand at least where it happened. You can sort of see, you know, where the tracks was and things like that. Most of our information on this haunting came from the January 23, 1900 The Day newspaper from New London, Connecticut. So there's that. But yeah, it made the paper.

And, you know, by name, people saying like, hey, this is what happened. Multiple witnesses as well. Multiple people. Everybody was buzzing about it. And immediately they were like, you know, that's where Lady Fenwick was buried. Right. So she was still revered in 1900 because that's the first thing they thought of is that used to be her.

where she was buried. Right. We moved her. She's still got a place of distinction, the wrought irons around her grave and everything because it's a heavily visited grave. She was already a legend at that time. Already. Yeah. And for kindness, which is nice, for healing, for helping, for being just an amazing woman. Yeah. Crack shot with a rifle, could sail a boat, could mix you up some herbs and heal you when you're sick. Like, of course, that's amazing. Like, what an amazing person. Yeah.

Yeah. And so now she's buried. It's maybe a thousand feet up the road, just from the parking lot of where the roundhouse was. So they didn't move her very far. Right. But as we've learned, one's not supposed to move the dead. Right. She was probably happy where she was. Yeah. You're not supposed to move them even two feet. That's a universal taboo, is you don't desecrate a grave, right? You respect the dead, no matter what, no matter where you are. Well, when you pay a lot for that site, for that grave site, you don't want to be moved out of it. There's that. Yeah.

However, there are countless stories where graves get moved. We've covered plenty of them. Oh, sure. It happens. We've seen it in the movies plenty of times. Like, I would never desecrate the dead. This is a sacred ground. This is hallowed ground.

We could put a train depot in here and that would help us make a lot of money. Sorry. How many times in a movie did you hear, wait a minute, this used to be a graveyard? And it's true. This is a funny thing. You think it's like some Hollywood trope? Yeah. No. It happens all the time. All the time. Now, the miracle of miracles is that they found her casket.

Because, you know, as we've learned from Poltergeist and from countless other cases, sometimes they just move the headstones. And the reason for that is that when you see an old cemetery where all the headstones are nicely lined up, it's entirely possible that there is a casket beneath that headstone that belongs to the name on the headstone. It's also possible that the casket is like several feet away because they hit ledge or they hit a rock and they're like, they're digging with shovels and they're just like,

we need the headstones in a nice row. You can't put those willy nilly everywhere. You couldn't walk right. Right. If you had them all mixed up.

So sometimes they put caskets on top of other caskets that they buried a few weeks ago. Yeah. You know, I mean, so yeah, your loved one's nearby. Close. Which is fine until you go to relocate a cemetery and you take a headstone and you start digging down and you go, there's no casket under here. And you don't know where it is. Yeah. And so what are you going to do? I mean, it was buried 150 years ago. You're going to go looking for it. You're going to dig up the whole area. Yeah.

So that stuff happens. Also, Cypress Cemetery, we didn't mention it at the time of the story because it seemed too far aside, but there's another squared off area with a monument in the middle that says that this was the original site of Yale College. Oh, no kidding. Which is a school your buddies Jeff and Ray could have never attended. No, not at all. Not even. They wouldn't. Couldn't afford it. We'll leave it at that. They welcomed me with open arms. I just couldn't afford it. Yeah.

tempted to apply just to see what you get. You know what I mean? But it was like 50, 60 bucks to apply back then. And you're like, I don't want to just...

you know, throw money away for what, when I know the answer. The thought never crossed my mind. I know we're jesting, but it did as a, as a goof. I knew I had no prayer, but I just wondered if I'd get the letter that just said, ha, we really enjoyed your joke. Nice. Yeah. Right. Not even a nice, you know, we were, I'm sorry, but you cannot come here, but it was, yeah, the laughing, the LOLs. Yeah. Would have been nice to have on print. We looked at your grades and there was no hope. And then we looked around our campus and didn't see your last name on a single building. And,

We look for two things, grades and names on buildings. Yeah. If, you know, now if the Belanger name was across like one of the main halls, you know, we'd have to give this a closer look. But nope, it's not. So we did not go to Yale or any Ivy League school for that matter because... And here we are. And here we are, still alive and doing okay anyway. But no, I love this story because it's all still there. And apparently...

the local historical society may just have some, some of those locks of her hair that were removed in 1870 on display. Crazy. Still checking into that. But, um, I don't know if I'd mess with that stuff with the ghost stories and everything. Why would you want any of her being around? No, I get it. It's a, it's a, it's a very strange, uh, story. And, but I adore the fact that so much of the,

so much of the pieces are still there that you can see where the rail depot was. It's just a park now. So wherever the, the train tracks were, the train tracks are gone, but you could, but burial Hill would have been right there. And then just up the street is where they moved her to. So it's all still there. And, uh, who knows the, the park closes at sundown. So, uh,

maybe if we got special permission to be there at midnight. Or if we were sneaky enough. We could see what happens. I didn't say that out loud, sorry. No, that's the kind of area that police patrol. Do they? I mean, we're talking a lot of rich people. That's true, yeah. Two guys at midnight, yeah. Looking like us. Who couldn't get into Yale. Yeah, they'd be right on top of us.

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