The White Witch of Rosehall

The Legend of the White Witch of Rose Hall is a lot of nonsense. It was completely debunked in the 1960s by well-known Jamaican historians such as Geoffrey Yates, Clinton V. Black, Glory Robertson and Freddie DuQuesnay, who is my Uncle's first cousin. The story currently being told by the Guides at Rose Hall Great House is simply rubbish, made-up and embellished to entertain and frighten gullible American tourists. Annie Palmer was neither Irish nor French and she was not born in France or Haiti to mysterious unknown parents. Her real name was Ann Mary Patterson and she was born in 1802 at The Baulk Estate, her father's plantation near Lucea in Hanover Parish, Jamaica. Her family was both prominent and well-known in Jamaica. Her father was John Patterson, a Scottish planter, and her mother, Juliana, was the daughter of the Hon. William Brown of Kew Estate, Hanover, an aristocratic Anglo-Irish sugar planter who was the Custos and Chief Magistrate of Hanover Parish. His wife, Mary Kerr James, Ann's grandmother, was a descendant of one of the oldest English families in Jamaica who had arrived with Penn and Venables during the English Conquest of 1655. Annie only had one husband, John Rose Palmer, Esq., the owner of Rose Hall and Palmyra Estates, St. James, who was a collateral ancestor of my Mother. They were married on the 27th of March, 1820, at Mount Pleasant Estate, St. James Parish, Jamaica, the home of Ann's mother and step-father. Following a honeymoon in England they returned to Jamaica and took up residence at Rose Hall Great House where they lived for almost eight years until John Rose Palmer died in 1827 at the age of 42. He was buried in the St. James Anglican Churchyard in Montego Bay by the Rev. Thomas Smith on the 5th of November, 1827. Following the death of her husband in 1827, Mrs. Ann Palmer found that both Rose Hall Estate and Palmyra Estate were deeply in debt. Unable to cope with their management, she left Rose Hall and went to live at Bellevue Estate, a small coffee plantation in the hills south of Montego Bay. Bellevue belonged to her uncle Thomas James Bernard, who also owned the adjoing Bonavista Estate, a large sugar plantation. In 1829 Ann Palmer sold her rights to Rose Hall and Palmyra Estates for a mere 200 pounds sterling and both plantations, facing bankruptcy, were placed under the jurisdiction of the Court of Chancery. Mrs Ann Palmer never returned to Rose Hall and she never re-married. She died a widow at Bonavista Estate in St. James in 1846, leaving the remainder of her estate to her 2 year old goddaughter, Giulia Mary Spence, the daughter of Dr. and Mrs. Patrick Spence of Montego Bay. Mrs. Ann Palmer was buried in the St. James Anglican Parish Churchyard in Montego Bay by the Rev. Thomas Garrett on the 9th of July, 1846. Her marble tombstone in the Churchyard has not survived. This then was the blameless lady who has been constantly slandered by generations of ignorant people and whose

I recently traveled to Jamaica and visited the Rosehall Great House. It is amazing and enchanting. Our guide told us a similar tale as presented in this book, although it's obvious that the people there still fear the White Witch very much. Her ghost is said to linger and haunt the people on the plantation to this very day. I recommend a visit to anyone who has read and enjoyed this book as much as I did.

Great tale. I had never heard of this story before finding a hardcover edition of this book at a flea market. I had no idea that it is such a well known and widely told legend. The book is engrossing and very readable. Based on the doubts of a previous reviewer as to the truth of the story, I did a little research. It doesn't seem like much factual information is out there, but from what I gleamed, I believe that the story is true , but that the book changed around,left parts out of and meshed other different elements of the story into one. Whether this was on purpose because he thought it would make a more smooth flowing story of if he wrote it as he heard it, I do not know. This story has been told and retold in Jamaica since it happened and even by 1928, when the book came out, I'm sure there were already many variables to the story.In my short research, I came across another account of Annie Palmers death. But I believe that the story is true .I believe that such things can and do happen. If what else I've read about Annie Palmer is true, despite her awful acts recounted in this book, she is treated very sympathetically within its pages.It was very appealing to read a book that is based on a true story and presents these happenings as fact, not silly superstition or fantasy.I recommend the book. It will draw you in and make you wonder and want to know more about the events at RoseHall.

De Lisser did a magnificant job of capturing the story of Jamaica's infamous witch Annie Palmer. Based on a true story, which actually took place on the island of Jamaica. This was the most scariest book I've ever read being the fact that I am West-Indian, and I'm quite familiar with the story. De Lisser certainly set out to do what he intended; to scare the living daylights out of me. The White Witch of Rosehall is a brilliantly written fictional account of a true story which took place over a century ago on the beautiful island of Jamaica. De Lisser's captivating telling of this story will leaving you shaking and at the same time, it will leave you with a sense of knoweledge of part of the history of Jamaica's infamous Annie Palmer,"The White Witch of Rosehall."For more on Annie Palmer you could visit Rosehall in Jamaica. Good Luck! Let me know how it goes.

To many Jamaicans, the White Witch of Rosehall is considered fact, not fiction.Having travelled to Jamaica on numerous occasions and studied Carribean Studies, particularly plantocracy, I felt compelled to read this novel.In my opinion, the book is a combination of both fact and fiction - with some folklore thrown in for good measure. It is a fascinating read leading up to the slave rebellions in 1831 on the island, focusing on Rosehall Estate and it's mistress, Annie Palmer. Legend says Annie murdered all three of her husbands and that she was a witch.If any truth lies in this novel, which unfortunately, I suspect it does, Annie Palmer was a wicked woman, who relished the physical and psychological torture of her plantation workers. Their eventual uprising, although disturbing (because similar events really happened during this time period) was gratifying. I would recommend this book to anyone who has travelled to Jamaica, particularly Montego Bay - which is the closest city to the estate. Regardless of fact or fiction, the book offers an interesting slice of Jamaican history.