Is Onslow Company a militia?

[Red-Coat]

And he could have quoted just about any source he read. I've made some mistakes by quoting things from genealogical sources because they aren't always easy to verify. My own genealogy, if I relied on some published older works, is incorrect and was only ever straightened out in recent times to overcome what some has written down years ago. I've always been curious about this name. It seems possible; yet it is not verifiable. It's no shortcoming on your end. We can only use what is at our disposal. For all we know the OI story could be the source of someone's idea that there was a Simeon Lynds related to the Archibalds. Miller may not know why he's encountered the detail. It does remind me of the multiple families who claimed John Smith as their ancestor at times in the past.

The existence of Simeon Lynds is not in doubt and his family genealogy with the relationship to Colonel Archibald can be verified from the Nova Scotia, Cornwallis [township], record of births, marriages and deaths, 1720-1885. Unfortunately the older records are not digitised online but physically stored as microfiche and more determined researchers than I have used those records to build his story.

He’s also mentioned in Census, Property Assessments and Poll Taxes records, but you need an account to view the details (I hate that genealogy research has become so commercialised, with monopoly of that data).

What is very much in doubt is that he was a doctor and that seems to have arisen as a mistake or misunderstanding. Given that the key dates for his life and family are detailed and that he was in Onslow in the relevant period, it would be a remarkable coincidence for his connection to the Oak Island story to be pure invention.

 

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[SSR]

The existence of Simeon Lynds is not in doubt and his family genealogy with the relationship to Colonel Archibald can be verified from the Nova Scotia, Cornwallis [township], record of births, marriages and deaths, 1720-1885. Unfortunately the older records are not digitised online but physically stored as microfiche and more determined researchers than I have used those records to build his story.

He’s also mentioned in Census, Property Assessments and Poll Taxes records, but you need an account to view the details (I hate that genealogy research has become so commercialised, with monopoly of that data).

View attachment 2186045

What is very much in doubt is that he was a doctor and that seems to have arisen as a mistake or misunderstanding. Given that the key dates for his life and family are detailed and that he was in Onslow in the relevant period, it would be a remarkable coincidence for his connection to the Oak Island story to be pure invention.

If that's the case then we can consider what I have said to be an interesting coincidence only. Certain other things that are coincidental have to be chalked down to invention. If these people did not invent the recognizable details in this story the only individual that could have set that up to look that way in any quantifiable way is Charles Morris, who may have been influenced by Erasmus Philips prior to 1760. There is no possibility Morris surveyed in 1762 and just guessed right when the island was divided as it was in a way that is totally consistent with the numerical details of this story. It is possible to get carried away in trying to assess what is invented and what is not. What may work in the Archiblad's defense is that they seemed to actually believe what they were peddling at the American Masonic conferences. Haliburton, for his part, thought it was ridiculous as a suggestion. That it aligned so closely with the currents of Biblical prophecy in the 1840s is damning. What I would never allow for is the idea that prophecy is real. It can be made to appear that it is real, though. After the 1860s the story quickly moved in other directions which follow other currents in pop culture (Kidd, Francis Bacon...).

 

[Armchair detective]

Red coat
In post #6 you say that by 1789 Colonel Robert Archibald was in residence in Halifax.
There has ALWAYS been a newspaper in Halifax since the 1700's. It seems likely that Robert would be mentioned, and perhaps any business ventures as well. (For those of you who are looking to fill in past history of the Colonel)

 

[Red-Coat]

Red coat
In post #6 you say that by 1789 Colonel Robert Archibald was in residence in Halifax.
There has ALWAYS been a newspaper in Halifax since the 1700's. It seems likely that Robert would be mentioned, and perhaps any business ventures as well. (For those of you who are looking to fill in past history of the Colonel)

So, are you questioning whether Robert Archibald existed at all, or just whether he was in Halifax (County)? Or just musing in general that there must be more information to be had?

Archibald’s family tree, life events and known locations where he resided are well documented in official archives. As I said earlier, Nova Scotia’s early archives are not all available online, but the microfiche copies of the original paper records can be consulted. Genealogical researchers and descendants of his family have already done exactly that.

He's listed in the Nova Scotia 1770 Census records as resident in Truro, Colchester County which is about 20 miles from Middle Musquodoboit, Halifax County where he was living in 1789.

Are there any digitised records of Halifax newspapers to be had online? If there are, have you searched them and failed to find mention of Archibald?

[P.S. in an earlier post I wrongly assumed (without checking) that the Captain David Archibald listed as one of the Onslow Company participants might be his brother but I have now checked the family tree and David was one of his sons, documented as born in Truro on 2 April 1775]

 

[Armchair detective]

Just musing.

Coupla details.

First thanks to all who are sharing their research. I get the feeling that maybe this mystery can be solved.

I read that Colonel Robert had a father David. Is this true? Captain David?

There seems to be a list of participants in the OI legend - seen it twice.
Colonel Robert Archibald
David Archibald
Sheriff Harris
Where did this list come from? Why are they together on this list?

Thinking that newspapers seem to be the only surviving records of events between 1780 and 1820, I googled for papers operating then AND NOW. Halifax had continuous coverage, but there is a question whether it was the same operation under different mastheads.
"Nova Scotia Royal Gazette, pub 1801-1843".
If memory serves examples of paper were shown, but not a digital archive (need to recheck).
If no digital archive, copies may exist either on microfilm or even original papers, but I would guess access to them (papers) would be limited.
Still might be worth a phone call to see if such archives exist.

I view Colonel Robert as the tipping point of all searches after him - his was the first pick that turned imagination into a reality.

So it becomes important to determine whether Colonel Robert was ensorcelled or a hoaxer, hence my interest in his history.

Buried in Iceland? Are you sure? Seems more likely he was taken home to his ancestral Ireland. (Just comparing notes).

 

[Armchair detective]

And a Happy New Year to all.

 

[Red-Coat]

Just musing.

Coupla details.

First thanks to all who are sharing their research. I get the feeling that maybe this mystery can be solved.

I read that Colonel Robert had a father David. Is this true? Captain David?

There seems to be a list of participants in the OI legend - seen it twice.
Colonel Robert Archibald
David Archibald
Sheriff Harris
Where did this list come from? Why are they together on this list?

Thinking that newspapers seem to be the only surviving records of events between 1780 and 1820, I googled for papers operating then AND NOW. Halifax had continuous coverage, but there is a question whether it was the same operation under different mastheads.
"Nova Scotia Royal Gazette, pub 1801-1843".
If memory serves examples of paper were shown, but not a digital archive (need to recheck).
If no digital archive, copies may exist either on microfilm or even original papers, but I would guess access to them (papers) would be limited.
Still might be worth a phone call to see if such archives exist.

I view Colonel Robert as the tipping point of all searches after him - his was the first pick that turned imagination into a reality.

So it becomes important to determine whether Colonel Robert was ensorcelled or a hoaxer, hence my interest in his history.

Buried in Iceland? Are you sure? Seems more likely he was taken home to his ancestral Ireland. (Just comparing notes).

Colonel Robert Archibald’s father was indeed named David, but he was a Major, not a Captain (at least in later life) and, in any case, he died on 9 November 1779 (more than 20 years before the Onslow Company was formed in 1803). Robert had eight children, one of whom was also called David. As I said earlier, the Captain David Archibald listed as a participant in the Onslow Company is likely to be this son who was born 1775 and died in 1843.

Several genealogy websites, including ‘FamilySearch’ say that Robert himself was buried in Iceland, but without providing further details.

Likely, they have all drawn on the same source for that belief. ‘Iceland’ may indeed be an error of transcription for ‘Ireland.’ I find that many online digital records have been compiled from OCR scanning of paper documents and frequently contain errors from the software misrecognising individual letters, particularly when the original record is hand-written or in a fancy typeface.

‘Findagrave’ has no burial record for Robert in either country (or anywhere else). It’s the most comprehensive archive for burials but by no means complete, and tends to be more heavily biased towards American burials.

The Onslow Company list came from (or via) the researcher and TV personality Paul Troutman whose father worked with Robert Dunfield alongside Dan Blankenship in the 1960s and was a partner in the 1965 Oak Island excavation. How reliable it is I don’t know but it is said to have been derived in part from accounts given in 1848 to Robert Creelman of the Truro Company by John Smith and Anthony Vaughn Jr.

Happy New Year to you to.

 

[SSR]

Just musing.

Coupla details.

First thanks to all who are sharing their research. I get the feeling that maybe this mystery can be solved.

I read that Colonel Robert had a father David. Is this true? Captain David?

There seems to be a list of participants in the OI legend - seen it twice.
Colonel Robert Archibald
David Archibald
Sheriff Harris
Where did this list come from? Why are they together on this list?

Thinking that newspapers seem to be the only surviving records of events between 1780 and 1820, I googled for papers operating then AND NOW. Halifax had continuous coverage, but there is a question whether it was the same operation under different mastheads.
"Nova Scotia Royal Gazette, pub 1801-1843".
If memory serves examples of paper were shown, but not a digital archive (need to recheck).
If no digital archive, copies may exist either on microfilm or even original papers, but I would guess access to them (papers) would be limited.
Still might be worth a phone call to see if such archives exist.

I view Colonel Robert as the tipping point of all searches after him - his was the first pick that turned imagination into a reality.

So it becomes important to determine whether Colonel Robert was ensorcelled or a hoaxer, hence my interest in his history.

Buried in Iceland? Are you sure? Seems more likely he was taken home to his ancestral Ireland. (Just comparing notes).

There's no mention of anything of interest going on at OI in two published works (1820, 1829) that touch on the happenings and folklore of this specific area. The earliest sources for a "treasure" associated with a depression under a tree in Mahone Bay is from the Hobson's Nose accounts of ca. 1830. Almost every detail about the origin of the OI story is back dated at a much later time and could be assumed to be given by two of the principals in the story that have an interest in it keeping alive (as to not be sued for actually defrauding the public). None of the details can be corroborated, and the 1795 account of discovery is clearly a total fabrication. What seems to be informing a lot of this fabrication are the details in Masonic/Biblical legends. Who the first people are who started this is likely someone with some degree of knowledge of those. If it goes back to the planning and surveying period we are talking about Charles Morris and his historical links to Erasmus James Philipps. With those two there is a clear possible link to the idea that the NA colonial project was influenced by the same sort of symbolic considerations. In all cases it seems to suggest that there is a desire to bring a story to OI for consideration by the public. It's a story that invites an exploration into the roots of Christianity that necessarily leads to the consideration of old Hebrew legends. The fact we have geometry and symbolic numerology thrown into the mix is a dead give away, imo.
An important question is : Is there anything there that is actually surveyed and relatable to the 1762 survey as opposed to something being produced after that is sympathetic with it.

 

[Armchair detective]

On another topic...

Interestingly, before the battle of York George Washington wrote a letter complaining that the North Carolinians did not get along his regulars. This puts elements of the Truro Company NC
near York and New York City in 1780.

I wonder where they went.

 

[releventchair]

On another topic...

Interestingly, before the battle of York George Washington wrote a letter complaining that the North Carolinians did not get along his regulars. This puts elements of the Truro Company NC
near York and New York City in 1780.

I wonder where they went.

Well. There were some hairy legged ol boys you simply didn't want to annoy for your own sake.
Maybe the regulars were too regular for folks that didn't tolerate B.S..
Why would they stick around after dealing with the reason for their arrival? They participated when their way was threatened. Not until. There were things needing tending back home they would rather be tending.
They had settled where they did for a reason. Which wasn't to gladhand "regulars".
Disappearing on the way back home given the chance makes every logical sense.
Families. Crops. Livestock. Homesteads. Who took care and defended them while such men were tending Washingtons movements?
Washington wasn't sending groceries to their homes. And no supermarket and credit cards replaced them.

Still wonder where they went?

The Overmountain Men

The Overmountain Men were not your average Patriots. Residing in the Carolina backcountry and the Appalachians, these men were originally reluctant to pick...

www.battlefields.org

 

[releventchair]

Overmountain Men, Summary, Facts, Significance

The Overmountain Men were American militia forces that lived west of the Appalachian Mountains and won the Battle of Kings Mountain in 1780.

www.americanhistorycentral.com

 

[Red-Coat]

On another topic...

Interestingly, before the battle of York George Washington wrote a letter complaining that the North Carolinians did not get along his regulars. This puts elements of the Truro Company NC
near York and New York City in 1780.

I wonder where they went.

What exactly do you mean by this? The ‘Truro Company’ has nothing to do with North Carolina. It was a successor to the Onslow Company with some of the same investors and takes its name from Truro, Nova Scotia where it was formed… and it wasn’t formed until 1849.

Was there something else called the 'Truro Company'?

 

[SSR]

What exactly do you mean by this? The ‘Truro Company’ has nothing to do with North Carolina. It was a successor to the Onslow Company with some of the same investors and takes its name from Truro, Nova Scotia where it was formed… and it wasn’t formed until 1849.

Was there something else called the 'Truro Company'?

Truro syndicate is what I've seen, but that may only refer to the general area where the group was from. It seems to have had Masonic members that stretched from Amherst, NS to New Glasgow, NS. Some of the same individuals had an interest in an other unrelated money pit story in Jolicure, New Brunswick (originally part of Nova Scotia). The sunk pit motif was used to draw investor interest there too. Why, and by whom, the Archibalds were ever lured to OI is unclear. Were they invited? Were they offered a lease? Had they come to try their hand at tackling a story whose details they recognized? These men were far from being fools, and they are not men who one might immediately assume were ready to drop their busy endeavors or stain their lofty reputations for no reason at all. I'd be very curious to know if they had not been privy to stories from within local Freemasonic circles about a special type of planning done by the Freemason Charles Morris there in 1762. This may have not ever registered with local imports. Anyone with any degree of education should have been immediately suspicious about the Money pit stories (if they were in fact already existing when the searchers got involved). Most of the back story is only given after 1848. Did they get sucked into a story, or are they the originators of it? It's not clear at all. Based only on Morris' plan and the existence of a body of knowledge about a Masonic plan for colonization that is modeled on geo-metry of the globe and symbolic considerations from Dee's paradoxical compass points, I suspect that the Archibalds already had an idea of what they were on the hunt for.

 

[Red-Coat]

Truro syndicate is what I've seen, but that may only refer to the general area where the group was from. It seems to have had Masonic members that stretched from Amherst, NS to New Glasgow, NS. Some of the same individuals had an interest in an other unrelated money pit story in Jolicure, New Brunswick (originally part of Nova Scotia). The sunk pit motif was used to draw investor interest there too. Why, and by whom, the Archibalds were ever lured to OI is unclear. Were they invited? Were they offered a lease? Had they come to try their hand at tackling a story whose details they recognized? These men were far from being fools, and they are not men who one might immediately assume were ready to drop their busy endeavors or stain their lofty reputations for no reason at all. I'd be very curious to know if they had not been privy to stories from within local Freemasonic circles about a special type of planning done by the Freemason Charles Morris there in 1762. This may have not ever registered with local imports. Anyone with any degree of education should have been immediately suspicious about the Money pit stories (if they were in fact already existing when the searchers got involved). Most of the back story is only given after 1848. Did they get sucked into a story, or are they the originators of it? It's not clear at all. Based only on Morris' plan and the existence of a body of knowledge about a Masonic plan for colonization that is modeled on geo-metry of the globe and symbolic considerations from Dee's paradoxical compass points, I suspect that the Archibalds already had an idea of what they were on the hunt for.

I think you’re way off-base here and going down rabbit holes.

It seems that Colonel Robert Archibald’s interest was purely financial and he probably learned of the possibility of finding treasure from Simeon Lynds. Genealogy records suggest that he and Simeon's father, Thomas were brothers-in-law. Robert had married Hannah Blair; Hannah’s sister, Rebecca had married Simeon's father Thomas.

The Truro Company didn’t exist before 1849, although it was a ‘follow-on’ from the Onslow Company, which didn’t exist before 1802. Some sources say that the operational side of the Truro Company’s renewed efforts to find treasure were led by Robert Archibald’s cousin Charles Dickson Archibald who was an experienced miner and manager of the Acadian Iron Works in Nova Scotia.

However, the ‘known’ members of the Truro Company (and I use the word ‘known’ advisedly) were:

Dr. Simeon Lynds.
Enough has been said about him in earlier posts, including that he probably wasn’t a doctor. Either a mistake, misunderstanding… or maybe he falsely portrayed himself as having a doctorate in the interests of enhancing his reputation.

Captain Anthony Vaughan.
The Vaughn family had migrated from Ireland and settled in The Halifax area of Nova Scotia. Anthony himself was from Western Shore, about 75 miles from Truro.

John Smith.
John’s father died when he was a youngster and his mother remarried to Neal McMullen, who owned a lot on Oak Island. They lived there from 1788 onwards. Smith is said to have owned the lot of land that the pit was found on from 1795 until his death in 1857. It is also said that he was involved in the 1803 Onslow Company expedition, and likely retained a right to a portion of any treasure found during subsequent attempts to find it.

[Note that both Smith and Vaughn were acquainted with Daniel McGinnis who allegedly found the depression in the ground that he believed related to the Captain Kidd treasure story around 1799 while he was looking for a location for a farm. They assisted McGinnis in the early digging.]

James Pitblado (as Foreman).
The Pitblado family had migrated from Scotland in 1848 and settled in Truro. Both he and his father were railway contractors.

Adams Archibald Tupper (as Foreman).
Tupper was from Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, which is about 20 miles from Truro). He was a cousin of Robert Archibald.

John Gammel.
Gammel was also from Upper Stewiacke. He was Adams Archibald Tupper’s uncle.

Robert Creelman (as Manager).
Creelman was also from Upper Stewiacke. He was the great-grandson of Robert Archibald.

Jotham Blanchard McCully (as Manager and Drilling Engineer).
McCully was from Truro. He was a neighbour of Simeon Lynds.

No North Carolina connections here.

Personally, I think the vast majority of what is said about the treasure (as opposed to the people involved searching for it) is complete hokum and the History Channel’s show is a milk-cow for folklore that has little or no substantiation.

 

[SSR]

I think you’re way off-base here and going down rabbit holes.

It seems that Colonel Robert Archibald’s interest was purely financial and he probably learned of the possibility of finding treasure from Simeon Lynds. Genealogy records suggest that he and Simeon's father, Thomas were brothers-in-law. Robert had married Hannah Blair; Hannah’s sister, Rebecca had married Simeon's father Thomas.

The Truro Company didn’t exist before 1849, although it was a ‘follow-on’ from the Onslow Company, which didn’t exist before 1802. Some sources say that the operational side of the Truro Company’s renewed efforts to find treasure were led by Robert Archibald’s cousin Charles Dickson Archibald who was an experienced miner and manager of the Acadian Iron Works in Nova Scotia.

However, the ‘known’ members of the Truro Company (and I use the word ‘known’ advisedly) were:

Dr. Simeon Lynds.
Enough has been said about him in earlier posts, including that he probably wasn’t a doctor. Either a mistake, misunderstanding… or maybe he falsely portrayed himself as having a doctorate in the interests of enhancing his reputation.

Captain Anthony Vaughan.
The Vaughn family had migrated from Ireland and settled in The Halifax area of Nova Scotia. Anthony himself was from Western Shore, about 75 miles from Truro.

John Smith.
John’s father died when he was a youngster and his mother remarried to Neal McMullen, who owned a lot on Oak Island. They lived there from 1788 onwards. Smith is said to have owned the lot of land that the pit was found on from 1795 until his death in 1857. It is also said that he was involved in the 1803 Onslow Company expedition, and likely retained a right to a portion of any treasure found during subsequent attempts to find it.

[Note that both Smith and Vaughn were acquainted with Daniel McGinnis who allegedly found the depression in the ground that he believed related to the Captain Kidd treasure story around 1799 while he was looking for a location for a farm. They assisted McGinnis in the early digging.]

James Pitblado (as Foreman).
The Pitblado family had migrated from Scotland in 1848 and settled in Truro. Both he and his father were railway contractors.

Adams Archibald Tupper (as Foreman).
Tupper was from Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, which is about 20 miles from Truro). He was a cousin of Robert Archibald.

John Gammel.
Gammel was also from Upper Stewiacke. He was Adams Archibald Tupper’s uncle.

Robert Creelman (as Manager).
Creelman was also from Upper Stewiacke. He was the great-grandson of Robert Archibald.

Jotham Blanchard McCully (as Manager and Drilling Engineer).
McCully was from Truro. He was a neighbour of Simeon Lynds.

No North Carolina connections here.

Personally, I think the vast majority of what is said about the treasure (as opposed to the people involved searching for it) is complete hokum and the History Channel’s show is a milk-cow for folklore that has little or no substantiation.

Yes to the last sentiment. There's no NC militia link to anything at OI.

Pitbaldo is a known scammer who was trying to sell bogus coal mining claims in NS, wasn't he? Vaugh was a down and out scoundrel and a man of ill repute (described as a philander and a drunk). He is alleged to have tried to sell a lease to Smith's land which he did not own. The Archibalds, are the money men in this scheme. They were high society and known to all of the Halifax socialites. Charles Morris was a judge, and so was Thomas Haliburton. They all hung in the same elitist circle. Where Haliburton differed is that he wasn't a Freemason, or even a Christian, and he was very skeptical of the motivations of both these factions in the colony. What we can trust is that money was raised, bills were not paid and the story fizzled and was later reinterpreted in the papers differently. The rabbit holes I tend to go down are not in any way to give credence to the searcher stories. They are part of another tale of intrigue that appears to trace back to ideas that may have been brought to NS by Erasmus James Philipps, from Boston in ca.1742. I don't think you can separate this story from Freemasonry in NS. It influenced the presentation of the mystery. It must have been done to make it be identifiable to a gullible public. An interest in Mahone Bay by Freemasons predates this OI story. I think it was presented in a way that is consistent with alleging OI was the intended location of Masonic interest all along. It clearly isn't.

Nolan himself believed that Morris was the only one who could have surveyed his "discovered" stone cones. That's why he favored a British Military involvement. Morris was the first to chart this Bay precisely for the Royal Navy in 1751 a full decade before he surveyed OI for the Shoreham grant as Surveyor General of NS. The problem with the idea that anything was ever buried there by the military is that Morris would have known he was granting that land to Planters from New England in 1763 (so giving away the prize). The notion that Morris symbolically planned is fine with me, because doing so is not an unlikely thing. Most of the architects and surveyors were following symbolic conventions first given by Vitruvius which had influenced Georgian design. He may have done that to pay homage to Philipps who died suddenly in 1760. They were close. We know from reading the preaching of Philipps' sermons that he was beyond deluded with the Freemasonic plan for North America. The language he spoke with was highly evocative of the British doing God's work in Nova Scotia. The point of the entire colonial project was to erect an upright God fearing colony of Loyalists to the crown upon the ashes of the burnt French settlements. It was a highly religiously flavored narrative. We tend to forget how powerful these sort of narratives were. Effort to make pre Roman Catholic stories appear to be valid served to convince the fools that they were in fact witnesses to evidence God's plan was in action. With the Archibalds Haliburton smelled rats. They are not to be mistaken for simpletons even if many in their entourage were. Did they go to Oi to have a "free" look like the Laginas are? Possibly. Reality is always a complex network of relationships and shouldn't be imagined to be a series of simple explanations that is easily unraveled by reason.