While doing research for another project at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Daniel Rolph stumbled upon a mysterious letter written in 1716 about a buried treasure. There is no doubt the note is authentic (shown below), but there are other questions being asked. The biggest ones being, ‘Was the treasure ever retrieved?’ or ‘Is it still there where the letter says it is, waiting to be discovered?’
The letter was sent from St. Jago de la Vega, Jamaica. This location, along with the timing and contents of letter, offers suspicions that the treasure is an actual buried pirate treasure!
It is well known Jamaica was a favored location of many pirates traveling the seas in the late 17th and early 18th centuries. Some of the most famous pirates, Blackbeard, Calico Jack, and John Roberts definitely held up there. (Unfortunately for Calico Jack, it is also where he met his death by hanging). And, it is also well known, Philadelphia was a major port for ships traveling from the West Indies up the coast to stop.
While the letter doesn’t provide a definite clue to who precisely buried this treasure, it does detail exactly where and what was buried.
Portions of the letter include:
“South end of the – of Philadelphia”, “Called Society Hill”, “Pretty good Brick House with an apple orchard, but called Cherry Garden”
“Observe at the front of the – house, which fronts the west is a porch. Measure exactly 45 from that porch along the —South. There you will find a stone post in the ground”
“3 foot or perhaps 4 foot most from the post is a chist (chest). 4 and half foot long 2 foot broad and half foot and the same depth accordingly being about 6 foot from the bottom of the chest to the surface of the ground”
“It contains – silver or pieces of eight – double reals – bits and double bits – pistoles – “
“go there with the first opportunity”
“I order you immediately to burn this direction”
As can be seen by the start of the letter, it seems to be from one brother to another. The brother, whoever he may be, was trusted with a fortune and was also trusted to not leave any account of it. Obviously since the letter survives, he did not follow the complete instructions of his brother. The letter is currently being kept safe at the Historical Society.
This brings up the question; ‘did he follow the other orders of the letter and dig up the treasure?’ Or ‘did maybe something tragic happen before he was able?
The preservation of the letter presents a genuine buried treasure mystery to solve! How exciting!
The location of Society Hill is in a historic area of the city today. The neighborhood is in the Center City section of Philadelphia, and has experienced much development and change since 1716. Back in the days of 1716, however, Society Hill was an area filled with merchants of the Free Society of Traders who had offices there; hence the origin of its name.
There are many older maps of the town, and research reveals a location known as Cherry Garden. With its position along the Delaware River and being a major port, there is lots of support for a treasure being buried there as described in the letter.
The mystery comes down to whether it was retrieved by one of the brothers, found by past developers, or if it remains. Because of its historic location, permissions, and the high plausibility the place wanting dug up matches the directions provided in the letter, must be met.
What if it is waiting there to be found? The possibility is exciting, and hopefully someday, with the proper clearances, the mystery can be solved.
Another, time will tell situation!
Best of luck with all that you seek! Always Treasure the Adventure!
Very cool Jenny!
Interesting indeed.
I had to do some more research because so often news articles don’t give further dates, including their own publication date. That’s annoying. lol
I found this article, again no date on it’s publication, but fortunately there was a replay dated “two years ago”.
And the article states that Daniel Rolph first found the letter “two decades ago”. So that would be about 22 years ago that he found the letter.
But he didn’t research it right away and published his own findings “eight years ago”, so about 10 years ago.
http://www.phillyvoice.com/treasure-buried-beneath-society-hill/
Treasure trove laws sure make things difficult. Why would someone go through the expense and trouble if they just have to give it up? I can understand previous owners’ rights, lost property and such. Agreements can be made to handle reward for effort. But for the government to just take it away from a finder seems ridiculous to me.