The Ocean-Born Mary House, Henniker: Pirates, Silk and a Famous Hoax

For most of the twentieth century, the Ocean-Born Mary House outside Henniker was one of the most famous haunted houses in America. Visitors paid to tour it, dug for pirate gold in the yard with rented shovels, and went home with tales of a tall, red-haired woman who watched from an upstairs window and glided down the main staircase. Magazines, radio shows and later ghost hunting books repeated the story so often that it became New Hampshire’s best-known legend.

Underneath it is a real woman with a remarkable start in life. Mary Wilson was born on an emigrant ship in 1720, and a pirate captain really is part of her family story. But the ghost, the treasure and the pirate buried under the hearthstone were added much later, by owners who ran the house as an attraction. This guide separates the two, explains why the house is now off limits, and tells you where you can visit Mary herself.

The real Ocean-Born Mary

In the summer of 1720 a ship, usually named as the Wolf, sailed from Ulster for Boston carrying Scots-Irish emigrants, among them James and Elizabeth Wilson. Elizabeth gave birth to a daughter at sea in late July; the New England Historical Society gives July 28 and Wikipedia July 26. During the voyage the ship was stopped by pirates. The family story, told in Londonderry, New Hampshire, for generations, is that the pirate captain heard the baby cry, asked her name, and promised to spare everyone if she was named Mary, after his mother. He left a bolt of green silk for her wedding dress.

How much of that is literally true nobody can say, and historians and storytellers have argued about it for a long time. What is certain is that the Wilsons reached New England, that James Wilson died soon afterward, and that Elizabeth remarried and settled in Londonderry, where Mary grew up. Londonderry is said to have marked her birthday every year. On December 18, 1742, Mary married James Wallace, reputedly in a dress made from the pirate’s silk, and pieces of that silk survive in collections in Londonderry, Henniker and Concord.

Mary and James had four surviving sons and a daughter. James died in Londonderry in 1781. Her son Robert had settled on a large tract outside Henniker, where he built a big two-and-a-half-story Georgian farmhouse with a hip roof and a central chimney, and her son William lived in Henniker too. In 1798 the widowed Mary moved to Henniker to live with William, not Robert. She died on February 13, 1814, aged 93, and was buried in the Center Burying Ground behind what is now Henniker Town Hall, where a plaque reads Ocean-Born Mary.

William’s house later became the town poor farm and burned in 1923. Robert’s house still stands, and it is the one everyone calls the Ocean-Born Mary House. In 1917 it was bought by Louis “Gus” Roy, who had come east from Wisconsin, and Flora Roy owned it from the 1930s to the 1950s. The family filled it with antiques they said had been Mary’s, gave tours, and began telling a much more exciting story than the true one.

The legend and the hoax

The story the Roys told

In the Roy version, the pirate captain, often called Don Pedro, never forgot the baby on the Wolf. Years later he retired from the sea, came to Henniker, built the mansion and lived there with the widowed Mary as his housekeeper or wife. One night he was murdered on the grounds, possibly by a rival pirate, and Mary buried him under the kitchen hearthstone along with his treasure.

Mary herself, the story went on, never left. Visitors described a tall woman with flaming red hair and green eyes, seen at an upstairs window or on the main staircase as people came in, and said she watched over and protected the house. The Roys rented shovels so tourists could dig for the treasure in the backyard.

What the records say

Almost none of it holds up. Mary never lived in Robert’s house; she lived with William. No pirate captain is recorded in Henniker, there is no evidence anyone was murdered there, and no treasure or human remains have ever been found under the hearthstone or anywhere else. New England Today, which has written about the house since the 1970s, puts it bluntly: the pirate building the house, the buried treasure and the body under the hearth are not true, and Flora Roy began and promoted them. Wikipedia sums up the view of townsfolk and historians that the story was entirely invented.

Why the legend spread

The story had everything: a baby, pirates, silk, gold and a beautiful ghost. Lois Lenski’s 1939 children’s book about a young Ocean-Born Mary, written with help from local historian Dorothy Vaughan, added to her fame, and ghost books kept repeating the Roy version long after the hoax was exposed. Historian Jeremy D’Entremont’s book Ocean Born Mary: The Truth Behind a New Hampshire Legend sets out the documented history.

Later owners

After the Roys, Bob and Mary Gregg bought the house in 1972 and raised four children there, and Terry and Bob Stamps bought it in 2000 and restored it. When it went on the market in 2017, with about 141 acres, six fireplaces and an asking price of $1 million, New England Today wrote about the sale without a word about ghosts. The house has been a private family home for decades.

Where to look

• Mary's grave: in the Center Burying Ground behind Henniker Town Hall, marked with a small Ocean-Born Mary plaque. This is the place to visit.
• The upstairs window: where the Roy-era ghost was said to watch for visitors. The house is private: please do not drive up to look.
• The main staircase: where the red-haired woman was said to glide down to greet guests, in the stories told on the old house tours.
• The kitchen hearthstone: the supposed grave of the pirate and his treasure. Nothing has ever been found there.

Visiting Ocean-Born Mary

The Ocean-Born Mary House is a private home and is not open to the public. Please do not drive onto the property, knock on the door or trespass to take photographs; generations of ghost hunters and treasure seekers have made life hard for the families who live there.

You can visit Mary herself. Her grave is in the Center Burying Ground behind Henniker Town Hall at 18 Depot Hill Road, in the middle of the village. Look for the stone of Mary Wallace with the small metal plaque reading Ocean-Born Mary in front of it. The cemetery is a public town burying ground, so visit in daylight and treat it with respect.

Henniker is a small college town on the Contoocook River, about 20 minutes west of Concord. Pieces of the green silk are held by local historical collections, so ask at the Henniker or Londonderry historical societies if you want to see one.

• Visiting The house is a private residence with no public access; the grave in the Center Burying Ground is in a public cemetery
• Ghost hunting Please do not visit the house or knock on the door

Tips for your visit

• Visit the grave, not the house: the house is a private home.
• Look for the Ocean-Born Mary plaque in front of the Mary Wallace stone behind the town hall.
• Read Jeremy D’Entremont’s book before you go for the real story.
• Combine Henniker with the Concord area and the Tilton Inn, about 40 minutes north.

More haunted places nearby

• The Tilton Inn, Tilton: a haunted inn with a ghost named Laura, about 40 minutes north
• Haunted places in New Hampshire: Blood Cemetery, Madame Sherri’s Castle and the rest of the state
• Haunted hotels in New Hampshire: where to spend a haunted night in the state
• Haunted places in New Hampshire

Sources

Facts on this page are checked against the official website, historic records and news coverage. Ghost stories are reported as staff, visitors and investigators tell them, and we say where records contradict a story.

• Wikipedia: Ocean Born Mary
• New England Historical Society: New Hampshire legend, Ocean Born Mary
• New England Today: The most famous house in New Hampshire is for sale (2017)
• Atlas Obscura: Ocean-Born Mary
• New Hampshire Magazine: The most haunted places in New Hampshire