{"id":2600,"slug":"sherwood-forest-plantation-charles-city-virginia","story":[{"heading":null,"paragraphs":["Sherwood Forest is the '42 — the 'Tyler' that's the president, the 'Robin Hood' that's the outlaw. The '300 feet' is the longest — the 'frame house' that's the America, the 'wings hyphens' that's the added. The 'Julia' is the bride — the 'Gardiner' that's the married, the 'Whig expelled' that's the renamed.","The '1780' is the core — the 'Walnut Grove' that's the before, the 'Weanoc' that's the camps. The 'Confederate' is the died — the 'Congress' that's the member, the '1862' that's the death. Sherwood Forest is the family — the 'still Tyler' that's the owned, the '20 portraits' that's the inside.","The file keeps Sherwood Forest: the 1842 Tyler purchase, the Robin Hood name, the 300-foot longest, and the still family.","Sherwood Forest is the archive's Virginia file — the outlaw president."]},{"heading":"Why this file matters","paragraphs":["Sherwood Forest is the archive's Virginia file — the president's exile.","A house keeps its outlaw — the file's suggestion being that Sherwood's hold is the irony: the 'Robin Hood' that's the renamed, the '300 feet' that's the longest, and the 'still Tyler' that's the owned."]}],"name":"Sherwood Forest Plantation","aliases":[],"type":"MANSION","type_label":"Mansion","cats":["LOCAL_FOLKLORE","HAUNTED_PLACE","HISTORIC_ESTATE"],"groups":["hauntings","historic-sites","legends"],"desc":"John Tyler’s 300-foot house—the president who joined the Confederacy.","full_desc":"Sherwood Forest Plantation is a mansion in Charles City, Virginia. John Tyler’s 300-foot house—the president who joined the Confederacy. HauntHunt files it with local folklore and haunted places. The presence its accounts keep returning to is the one they call the gray lady. The dossier holds 2 reported claims, 1 legend, 1 documented fact and 1 named or described presence — documented record and retelling kept side by side. The site is open to visitors.","address":null,"city":"Charles City","county":null,"state":"Virginia","postal":null,"region":"South","lat":37.348306,"lon":-77.062955,"coord_kind":"CITY","status":"ACTIVE","access":"PUBLIC","access_notes":null,"ownership":null,"website":null,"phone":null,"year_built":null,"year_opened":null,"year_closed":null,"year_demolished":null,"designation":null,"current_use":"Historic site / park","research_notes":"VA battlefields batch; VERIFY task auto-queued.","stage":"SOURCE_RESEARCH","quality":{"level":"MEDIUM","score":59.4,"dims":{"location_confidence":0.75,"identity_confidence":0.65,"historical_confidence":0.8,"source_quality":0.3999999999999999,"paranormal_claim_provenance":0.8,"coordinate_confidence":0,"current_access_confidence":0.7,"freshness":0.65}},"claims":[{"id":2117,"type":"NAMED_GHOST_LEGEND","description":"The Gray Lady is reportedly seen on the stair. A house with Charles City's history behind it gives the reports a setting that needs no exaggeration. The story is documented as legend — recorded and retold, never verified as fact. Named ghosts are the ones that last — this one has lasted. The file stays open on it.","evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","evidence_label":"Documented legend","entity":"The Gray Lady","where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Sherwood Forest","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]},{"id":2118,"type":"APPARITION","description":"Reported a presence in the long house. Sherwood Forest Plantation in Charles City, Virginia is the kind of old house where every sound eventually gets a name. Witness accounts, no evidence file: the claim is anecdotal and stays that way. The figure remains the site's most-repeated sighting. The telling survives; the proof stays folklore.","evidence":"ANECDOTAL","evidence_label":"Anecdotal","entity":null,"where":null,"first_report":null,"approx_date":null,"confidence":0.8,"conflict_notes":null,"source":{"name":"Sherwood Forest","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4},"conflicting_source":null,"variants":[]}],"history":[{"description":"Tyler owned it from 1842; the Gray Lady legend is documented. A house in Charles City, Virginia with this much documented history gives the dossier substance underneath the lore. It's verified history: the dossier's load-bearing detail. The record appears in 'Sherwood Forest'. The detail belongs to the verified spine of the entry.","evidence":"HISTORICALLY_VERIFIED","date_start":"1842","date_end":null,"confidence":null,"source":{"name":"Sherwood Forest","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"legends":[{"name":null,"summary":"The Gray Lady is reportedly seen on the stair. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. It's a documented legend: the telling is real, the contents remain folklore. The report is preserved in sources like 'Sherwood Forest'. Every community keeps one story like this; this is theirs.","earliest":null,"evidence":"DOCUMENTED_LEGEND","source":{"name":"Sherwood Forest","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"entities":[{"name":"The Gray Lady","claimed_identity":"The Gray Lady","verified":null,"summary":"The Gray Lady is reportedly seen on the stair. The house's rooms are where the accounts concentrate — old houses keep their stories in the walls they were built around. Sources including 'Sherwood Forest' keep the claim in circulation. Named presences persist where anonymous reports fade — the file's name here is The Gray Lady.","behavior":"The Gray Lady is reportedly seen on the stair.","area":null,"first_ref":null,"source":{"name":"Sherwood Forest","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}}],"events":[],"investigations":[],"encounters":[],"media":[],"persons":[],"visitor":{"tour_availability":"Verify before visiting","notes":"Historic mansion; check the official site for tour times.","last_verified_at":"2026-09-18 11:32:55","source":{"name":"HauntHunt generic access guidance","url":"https://haunthunt.com/about#access-guidance","publisher":"HauntHunt editorial","type":"DIRECTORY","authority":2}},"sources":[{"name":"Sherwood Forest","url":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sherwood_Forest_Plantation","publisher":"Wikipedia","type":"ENCYCLOPEDIA","authority":4}],"conflicts":[],"wiki":null,"counts":{"claims":2,"history":1,"legends":1,"entities":1,"sources":1}}