Laura Wright 
During the nineteenth century, the Robinson family was one of Rhode Island’s notable families. At its head was the strong-willed Rowland Robinson.
His daughter Hannah was much like him.
Beautiful, genteel, and equally determined, Hannah attracted the attention of numerous eligible young men. Her father had very definite ideas about whom she should marry and carefully selected wealthy suitors from respectable families.
Hannah, however, had ideas of her own.
She fell in love with a man her father considered entirely unsuitable.
The decision would lead to estrangement, an unhappy marriage, abandonment, illness, and eventually death.
According to Rhode Island folklore, it also gave the coast one of its most unusual ghosts.
She became known as Unlucky Hannah.
A Daughter With Many Suitors
Rowland Robinson wanted his daughter to marry well.
He had a string of prospective husbands in mind, choosing wealthy young men from some of the best families. Hannah’s beauty and reputation for gentility meant there was no shortage of suitors interested in her.
But Hannah’s heart had already settled elsewhere.
One night, Rowland heard his daughter murmuring inside her room.
Curious about whom she might be speaking with, he looked outside.
Hannah tossed a white handkerchief toward someone concealed among the bushes.
Rowland immediately knew something was wrong.
None of the respectable young men he had selected would hide outside the house or attempt to court his daughter without the proper ceremony.
He threw open the door and began beating the bushes with his cane.
A man emerged.
The French Dancing Master
The mysterious visitor was Mr. Simons, a music instructor employed by a family friend.
Rowland was furious.
After carefully selecting wealthy and respectable young men for Hannah, he believed she was now “throwing herself away” on a man he dismissed as a “French dancing master.”
Rowland decided the clandestine romance would end immediately.
He assigned several of his most trusted servants to watch Hannah constantly.
The surveillance continued for months.
Friends and relatives pitied her. Many also thought highly of Mr. Simons and believed the couple should be allowed to marry.
Hannah, meanwhile, began showing signs of a lingering physical illness.
Those around her hoped her health would improve once the emotional strain had passed.
Instead, matters became worse.
Hannah Plans Her Escape
Hannah’s friends and relatives eventually decided to help the couple.
A plan was arranged for Hannah to escape and meet Mr. Simons. Together, they would elope to Providence.
The plan succeeded.
The couple married.
According to one later legend, Rowland was so enraged by his daughter’s escape that he shot the man who brought him the news.
No evidence has been found to substantiate that part of the story.
Hannah had escaped her father’s control and married the man she loved.
Unfortunately, the marriage she had risked so much to obtain was not the happy ending she expected.
Hannah’s Marriage Turns Bitter
After their marriage, Hannah and Mr. Simons moved into the home of his father, Peter.
They remained outside the city for several months until Simons finally found employment in Providence.
The couple then moved into the city.
For approximately two years, Hannah endured an increasingly difficult life.
Simons was careless with money and dishonest in his business dealings.
Worse, his attitude toward Hannah began to change.
Once he realized she would probably be disowned and disinherited by the Robinson family, his treatment of her deteriorated.
He became cruel and neglectful.
He developed problems with alcohol.
He was also suspected of having numerous affairs.
The young woman who had defied her family to marry him found herself trapped in a miserable marriage.
Unlucky Hannah
As Simons’s behavior worsened, so did Hannah’s health.
The illness that had begun during the conflict with her father became increasingly severe.
Eventually, she was confined to bed.
Then Simons abandoned her.
Perhaps the saddest element of the story is that Hannah apparently never stopped loving him.
Despite the cruelty, neglect, suspected infidelity, and eventual abandonment, she remained devoted to the man for whom she had sacrificed so much.
By then, she desperately needed help.
It finally came from her family.
Hannah’s Mother Finds Her
Hannah’s mother eventually located her and began sending money so that she could live independently.
Rowland also wanted his daughter home.
But the stubbornness that Hannah had inherited from him had not entirely disappeared from her father.
Before he would bring her home, Rowland demanded that Hannah reveal the names of the people who had helped her elope.
Hannah refused.
She would not betray her friends.
Rowland visited her Providence home four times.
Each time he made the same demand.
Each time Hannah refused.
Her Friends Confess
The people who had helped Hannah elope eventually learned what was happening.
They knew Rowland had repeatedly visited his daughter. They also knew his refusal to forgive the people who had assisted her escape was preventing a complete reconciliation.
So they came forward themselves.
One by one, Hannah’s friends revealed their involvement.
By the time Rowland returned to his daughter’s home, his anger was gone.
What remained was fear.
Rowland Brings His Daughter Home
The woman Rowland found bore little resemblance to the beautiful daughter he remembered.
Hannah looked almost like a ghost.
She was frail and desperately ill. Her once-beautiful complexion had become thin and gray.
Whatever anger remained in her father disappeared.
Rowland wept.
He lifted his daughter and carried her to the waiting carriage himself.
Then he cried during the long journey home.
Hannah had finally returned to her family.
But the reconciliation came too late.
She died soon afterward.
According to legend, however, Hannah’s story did not end with her death.
Unlucky Hannah Returns
Hannah was eventually said to return as a spirit.
Witnesses described a woman wandering in a long white robe, particularly along the coast between Newport and New York State.
But Hannah was not remembered merely as another spectral woman in white.
Her experiences in life apparently determined her purpose in death.
Hannah became a protector of the betrayed.
A Ghost Who Warned Deceived Lovers
According to the folklore, Hannah sometimes entered the dreams of young men and women who were being deceived by their lovers.
She warned those whose affections were being abused.
The woman who had trusted the wrong man in life apparently tried to prevent others from suffering the same fate.
But Hannah’s spirit was not always benevolent.
She was also said to seek vengeance against people who were unfaithful.
For faithful lovers, Unlucky Hannah might offer a warning.
For the unfaithful, encountering her could mean something very different.
From Tragedy to Folklore
Hannah’s story contains many elements common to older New England legends: a wealthy and controlling father, a forbidden romance, a secret signal exchanged at night, an elopement, betrayal, illness, death, and finally a restless spirit.
But there is an unusual symmetry to the legend.
Hannah was deceived by the man she loved.
After death, she supposedly became the enemy of deceptive lovers.
She had refused to betray the friends who helped her, even when doing so might have restored her relationship with her father.
In the ghost stories, that same loyalty seems to remain part of her character.
She does not wander simply because she is dead.
She has a purpose.
Was Unlucky Hannah Really Seen?
As with many stories preserved through folklore, the historical Hannah and the supernatural Hannah are difficult to separate.
A tragic life can easily become the foundation for a ghost story, particularly when generations retell it.
The image is certainly memorable.
A pale woman in a long white robe wandering the Rhode Island coast, appearing in dreams when a lover cannot be trusted.
Perhaps Hannah’s ghost was simply a moral tale, a warning passed from one generation of young lovers to another.
Choose carefully.
Do not mistake charm for character.
And beware the person who loves your fortune more than you.
But along the old coastline, people remembered the warning by another name.
Unlucky Hannah.
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