Image courtesy of Scott Barrett/Daily News Photo via The Providence Journal
It was a cold night in Portsmouth, Rhode Island in February of 1673. Rebecca Cornell declined to eat dinner with her family—seeing as it was salt mackerel, we don’t blame her—and spent the night in her sitting room. Her family ate and her son, Thomas, sent his son, Edward, to go check on Rebecca. Maybe she’d be hungry, or want something to drink.
As Edward approached, a dog ran from the sitting room, startling Edward. He went to get a candle and his father, and as the two returned to the sitting room, they found Rebecca dead. She had burned to death. The likely scenario was that ash had fallen from her pipe and started a fire. Based on this theory, the coroner ruled Rebecca’s death an accident.
Now, here’s where things get wild.
Rebecca’s brother, a man named John Briggs, claimed to have been visited by his dead sister in a dream. According to John’s statement, the shape and appearance of a woman appeared, badly burned on her shoulders, face, and head, pleading for him to see how burnt she was from the fire. (There is some speculation as to whether or not John and Rebecca were even siblings, further fueling the speculative nature of the case.)
John told authorities who reopened the investigation. A second look found a strange wound on Rebecca’s stomach and the case turned into a homicide. The suspect—Thomas Cornell, Rebecca’s son.
Image courtesy of Newport Buzz
Let’s step back for context. The Cornell family played a significant role in the early days of Portsmouth, Rhode Island. Arriving around 1638, Thomas Cornell Sr. was a follower of religious dissenter Anne Hutchinson, fled Massachusetts after her expulsion, and helped establish Portsmouth. Because of their role in Portsmouth’s founding, Thomas Sr. received a land grant in 1646. When he died in 1655, Rebecca had to deal with the estate and eventually turned it over to her son, Thomas, the man now accused of her murder.
The case against Thomas Cornell was based largely on what is called spectral evidence, testimony based on visions or dreams, rather than objective facts. Sure, there was testimony from people in the community who made the Cornell household look unfit to live, but the trial was truly centered around the claims by John that his sister had visited to tell him she was murdered.
Thomas was found guilty and hanged. His widow, Sarah, was tried but found not guilty. But she did have a daughter shortly after his execution, whom she named Innocent. Innocent married into the Borden family and is the great-great-great-great grandmother of Lizzie Borden, who was also accused of murdering her parents. We don’t want to be glib, but does this run in the family?
The Ghosts of Valley Inn
Image courtesy of Tim Weisberg/Townsquare Media via Fun107
In 1889, the original Cornell farmhouse burned down, but six years later the Valley Inn was built. Today, the structure still stands as the Valley Inn Restaurant, owned by Joe Occhi. The current structure is built on the same farmhouse design with Rebecca buried in a Cornell family plot located near the restaurant. Her accused son, Thomas, is buried under the restaurant driveway, as far from his allegedly slain mother as his burial site could get.
This unfortunate tale of murder and mystery lingers over the Valley Inn Restaurant to this day, as Rebecca is said to haunt the ground. In 2021, Travel Channel’s Kindred Spirits used the restaurant as a site for an episode, investigating the paranormal happenings of Valley Inn.
But it isn’t just Rebecca who haunts the Valley Inn Restaurant. We found a story that the owner Occhi told The Newport Daily News. Here’s what they wrote:
“Occhi related one incident involving a female guest at a dinner party. Upon exiting the restroom, Occhi said, a bottle flew from a bar shelf for no reason as the guest passed by. She showed no reaction to this, promptly went into the private residence portion of the restaurant, crouched down in front of the fireplace, and, ‘started talking to somebody who wasn’t there. She was talking to thin air.’ When questioned, the guest told Occhi that she saw a woman holding a bleeding child, and that the phantom woman was speaking in a non-English language. This could indicate that the ghost may have been Native American, which fits the Cornells’ time period as Native Americans were frequently enslaved or employed as indentured servants.”
It would seem the Valley Inn Restaurant may have more than it bargained for, although it has a pretty good story to entice guests.