This two storey home located on a quiet back street in Belleville Ontario was purchased by the family in 1964 and remains in the family today. According to the son, who has done extensive research on the residence, the house was built between 1870-1875 by Marshal Bidwell Roblin, an insurance salesman and the proprietor of Belleville’s original “horse drawn” street cars until a fire in 1892 destroyed his fleet of cars.

The father, who was the main witness, states the activity started on “the very first day they moved in” and continued frequently throughout the 1960’s and 70’s. Amongst other things various sounds were commonly heard throughout the house. A ticking noise could often be heard emanating from the area of the summer kitchen where some boxes were stored. On one night, when the ticking was particularly dominant, he proceeded to open every one of those boxes, failing to locate the source even though he described the sound as “filling the room”. Of note, there was a dug well in the summer kitchen about 20 feet deep which was subsequently filled in in 2010. When asked by his son if perhaps the ticking was coming from the well he stated he “wasn’t sure, maybe”.

A further account tells of the father investigating voices heard at night downstairs. Thinking his daughter was staying up late with friends he checked her bedroom and then his son’s, only to find them both asleep. He then went back downstairs. As his foot touched the last steps he noticed the television in the living room was dying out in the way old television sets did when they were turned off.

Perhaps most interesting of all though, was the frequent, middle of the night sightings by the father of three apparitions seen together. He says he often saw them in the upstairs hallway at night but whenever he approached them, they would quickly disappear. He described the ghosts as being all well dressed, two of which were women in their early twenties, wearing circa 1900 dresses which flowed to floor length. The other ghost appeared as a gentleman who was slightly older, perhaps in his thirties.

The family believes the gentleman ghost is the original owner of the house, Marshal Bidwell Roblin. Through their historical research they found he had had two wives in life, one who died quite young (48), leaving them to speculate if the two female ghosts were indeed his wives.

The family took it into their own hands to rid themselves of the sounds and ghosts after living with the nocturnal disturbances for a time. By doing a “spiritual clearing” the activity quieted down considerably. At this point the family agrees that the home is no longer active.

Although the whole family experienced the unexplained noises, it was only the father and the son who saw the ghosts. The son was just 5 when he caught his first and only glimpse of the three apparitions. Not understanding what he saw at the time he still never forgot the unusual things he witnessed that night. It wasn’t until he got older that he realized what he had seen.

Our thanks to the witnesses for sharing their experiences with us.