11/04/2026
THE LADY IN GREEN: THE HAUNTING OF SHIELDS TAVERN
For more than three centuries, the walls of Williamsburg’s historic taverns have witnessed countless stories. Some have been preserved in historical records. Others are said to linger long after their storytellers have departed.
Along Duke of Gloucester Street stands Shields Tavern, a property with a history reaching back to the earliest years of Virginia’s colonial capital.
In the early 1700s, the property was home to an ordinary operated by John Marot, who served travelers, merchants, and members of Virginia’s colonial society. Following his death in 1717, the business continued under his widow, Anne, who received a tavern license in her own name in 1721, an unusual accomplishment for a married woman in colonial Virginia.
By the 1740s, the establishment had passed into the hands of James Shields and his wife, Anne Marot Ingles Shields, granddaughter of the original tavern keeper’s generation.
Unlike the fashionable Raleigh and Wetherburn’s taverns, Shields catered largely to travelers and members of Williamsburg’s middle and upper-middle ranks. Its rooms offered food, lodging, entertainment, and conversation. An inventory taken following James Shields’s death in 1750 revealed an impressive establishment containing fourteen bedsteads, sixty chairs, eighteen tables, backgammon boards, and even a billiard table in the cellar.
Life within the tavern was far from quiet. Guests came and went, political discussions filled the rooms, and the daily operation depended heavily upon the labor of enslaved men and women whose individual stories have largely been lost to history.
But beneath this fascinating history lies another story.
For years, employees of Shields Tavern have reported seeing a mysterious woman wearing an elegant green colonial gown.
One of the most remarkable encounters allegedly occurred in the underground service tunnel connecting Shields Tavern with the neighboring King’s Arms Tavern.
An employee entering the tunnel noticed a woman in a beautiful green dress approaching from the opposite direction. The woman raised her hand in greeting, and the employee waved back.
A moment later, the employee glanced away.
When she looked again, the woman had vanished.
The tunnel stretched approximately twenty yards between the two taverns, with no intervening exits through which the mysterious stranger could have disappeared.
Perplexed, the employee returned to the kitchen and questioned her coworkers. Nobody had seen the woman.
Other encounters followed.
In one of the tavern’s chambers, an employee reportedly looked up while cleaning and discovered a woman in a green colonial gown standing silently in the corner.
Even more strangely, the woman appeared startled herself, as though she had not expected to be seen.
Then, before the employee’s eyes, she simply dissolved.
Another employee reported seeing the same mysterious figure reflected in a mirror. Yet when she looked again, the woman was gone.
In 2006, additional sightings were reported near the tavern’s pantry. On three separate mornings, employees allegedly witnessed a woman wearing a forest-green gown standing near a doorway, appearing lost or confused. Moments later, a nearby door would open and close, and the woman would disappear.
WHO WAS THE LADY IN GREEN?
One intriguing possibility leads us back to the family of James Shields.
Historical records reveal that Shields had a daughter named Frances, born around 1730, from his first marriage to Elizabeth Cobbs.
When James Shields prepared his will in December 1747, Frances was conspicuously absent. His other surviving children were mentioned, but Frances was not.
Historians have suggested that she may have died sometime before her father, although her ultimate fate remains uncertain.
Could the Lady in Green be Frances Shields, forever wandering the place her family once called home?
Or might she be another woman whose name has disappeared from the historical record?
There is no evidence establishing the apparition’s identity, and the reported encounters remain part of Williamsburg’s enduring ghost lore.
The building visitors recognize today is a reconstruction, completed in 1954 and adapted for tavern use in 1989. Yet the history of the property, and the legends associated with it, reach considerably further into the past.
Perhaps the most haunting thing about the Lady in Green isn’t that she appears without warning. It’s that, after all these years, nobody knows whom she might be searching for.
Here in Williamsburg, history doesn’t always remain confined to the pages of a book.
Sometimes, according to local legend, it walks among us.
Join Spooks & Legends Haunted Ghost Tours as we explore the darker side of Williamsburg’s past, where documented history meets centuries of folklore, mystery, and unexplained encounters.
Visit www.spooksandlegends.com to book your next adventure.
Have you ever experienced anything unusual at Shields Tavern? Tell us your story in the comments.
