ACTUAL Research re: 1700s CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD

BY DANNY McCARTHY
“…Meanwhile, back in America, John Gardiner read in a newspaper that Kidd was no more… After giving it some thought, he contacted Lord Bellomont {a new governor of New York} and told him the treasure had been buried on his island. Soldiers were dispatched from Boston to come down and dig it up. When it was dug up, the soldiers and Gardiner made up two lists of what had been found. The treasure included a chest and box of gold, two boxes of silver, bars of silver, gold dust, Spanish dollars, rubies, diamonds, candlesticks and porringers… One list was taken back to Boston with the treasure. The other was left with John Gardiner as a receipt. Soon, the treasure arrived in London to become the property of the Crown.
Robert David Lion Gardiner was the 16th proprietor of the island from 1950 to about 1990 and a friend of {Dan’s Papers’ Dan Rattiner.}{Robert David Lion Gardiner} lived in an apartment in Manhattan, in a mansion on Main Street in East Hampton where one of his ancestors {David Gardiner} raised a daughter {Julia Gardiner https://www.findagrave.com/mem...} who went on to marry President Tyler, and at an estate house on the island. One day {Robert David Lion Gardiner} told {Dan Rattiner} this story.
In 1953, {Robert David Lion Gardiner} and his wife went to London to attend the coronation of Queen Elizabeth. While dancing with the new queen, he raised the issue of Captain Kidd’s treasure and told her he had in his possession the receipt list that his ancestor John Gardiner had been given when the treasure had been dug up on the island and taken to Boston.
‘The treasure passed through a few hands before it got to Buckingham Palace,’ he said to her. ‘I wonder if you have a list of what actually arrived. And I wonder, if you do, if the two lists would match up.’
The Queen ordered one of her chamberlains to see if they had the list, which they did, and before Gardiner returned to America, she sat with him and they held the lists together side by side to see if they matched. They didn’t.
‘A long ago theft,’ Gardiner told {Dan Rattiner}. ‘Things purloined. But the statute of limitations had expired.’
As a result of Captain Kidd’s dramatic life and bad end, many books have been written, movies made and even songs composed and sung about that man. The movie Captain Kidd was made in 1945 and starred Charles Laughton as Kidd, John Carradine, Barbara Britton and Randolph Scott. The plot said Kidd killed a man, after which the man’s son set out to seek revenge on Kidd and ultimately gets him hung.
There also have been many treasure hunters who have searched the shores of Long Island, Block Island and even the shorelines of Connecticut in search of more of Kidd’s buried treasure. One of these places is a small pond just a five-minute walk from the Montauk Lighthouse that came to be known, originally, as Captain Kidd’s Money Pond. Treasure hunters have found nothing there. In recent years, the pond seems to have been renamed to just ‘Money Pond,’ in the hope, I think, of throwing the treasure hunters and diggers off the track. No treasure has been found. But there have been a few people who have thrown pennies into the pond, thinking it gives them luck.
Perhaps it does.”

{From the February 7, 2016 Dan’s Papers’ article by Dan Rattiner titled “Captain Kidd: Pirate Buried Treasure on Gardiners Island”}

https://archive.org/details/liongardinerhisd00gard
The link below is from wikipedia and regards Lion Gardiner:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion_Gardiner

You might ask me: “What ‘ledger’ to do this?”
“Rumors” have abounded and I have known about this for many years and had thought to most assuredly do some further research and compose this post as it has been documented that Captain Kidd did place certain precious material below soil plus within or at other styles of places {spots} – yes, - to bury treasure! {There’s a point to this – or maybe in the case of CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD – “there’s a port to this!} - {as I would say!}
It has been “discovered” that there truly has been the dropping and placing {burying} of 1700s CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD’s Buried Treasure; i.e.: the island of Madagascar; Gardiner’s Island; in Massachusetts; property on Fishers Island; Manhattan; and New Jersey’s Cape May & Raritan Bay.
Now – Of course you just may have heard of A TREE GROWS IN BROOKLYN - but “today” even though I am dealing with “days in our past” and am thinking about the present and the future {too!} – I am relating about the 1700s CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD who “truly just might have buried some treasure” on the North Fork of Long Island in the Town of Southold hamlet of Mattituck -which is shared here {!}
JUST FOR THE SAKE OF IT – BELOW IS DEFINITELY SOMETHING THAT IS NOT THAT FAR FROM A MISSING LINK AS IT CARRIES THE findagrave.com ENTRY FOR WILLIAM KIDD (1645-1701):
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/11376751/william-kidd
There is no particular precise mention of SUFFOLK COUNTY, LONG ISLAND, NY or any other NEW YORK STATE-area places CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD visited with the majority of locations I mentioned in my post– {and despite the fact of course that that item begins featuring its “write-at-the-top” {so-to-speak!}: – “17th Century Pirate. Born in Greenock, Scotland, he emegrated to New York …” within that online on-board website link.
Editorially Speaking
Pace University History Professor Marilyn E. Weigold’s “PECONIC BAY Four Centuries of History on Long Island’s North and South Forks” does include two pages in her book index regarding “Kidd, William, 58, 183” – Well … Marilyn, I must share that on your page 58 there is no mention of {Captain} William Kidd and when “tuning-in to” page{s}183 to 184 you do discuss CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD but there was no “tale” of his Mattituck “visits.”
ALSO:
According to the pages in the index of PECONIC BAY ... carrying the pages found in Marilyn’s book re: piracy - it includes pages 182-185 & then 275. But yet again, no mention of the CAPTAIN WILLIAM KIDD Mattituck “visits” are found.
I was shocked too that History of Southold: ITS FIRST CENTURY BY THE REV. EPHER WHITAKER, Pastor of the First Church of Southold, Councilor of the Long Island Historical Society, Corresponding Member of the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, etc. {stet} didn’t either.
AND IT IS the same situation with Whitaker’s Southold BEING A SUBSTANTIAL REPRODUCTION OF THE HISTORY OF SOUTHOLD, L. I. ITS FIRST CENTURY which is “BY THE REV. EPHER WHITAKER, D.D. EDITED WITH ADDITIONS BY THE REV. CHARLES E. CRAVEN, D.D. AUTHOR OF A HISTORY OF MATTITUCK PUBLISHED BY AMEREON HOUSE {of Mattituck} as that publication {presently not available!} also did not have Captain William Kidd’s Mattituck “visits.” ~
This is not a “legend in one’s own mind!”
DON’T BE IRATE
ABOUT THE PIRATE! …
I’m Reviewing the Situation…
You Say You Want A Resolution?
In going online to Southold Town Hall Laserfiche {the Town’s website}, I was able to locate the 1940 Landmark Listing document that states:
“… WOLF PIT LAKE. Where wolves were baited. Small lake at Nathaniel Tuthill’s place.
SITE of the KIDD OAK. Near Breakwater. On Long Island Sound. …”
I referred to A History of Mattituck finding on page 46 that Wolf Pit Lake “{was a} wolf pit swamp now on the property of Capt. Ellsworth Tuthill, located the range of William Reeve. This tract of or part of it seems to have been owned by Daniel Reeve in 1736, but there is no trace of ownership until when Obadiah Hudson appears as owner, mortgaging the this property to Jared Landon and John Wells, Esquires {stet} … In the mortgage is described as ‘a certain tract of Parcel or Land and Meadows with all the Buildings and Tan fats thereon erected situate in that part of the Town of Southold called Mattituck. It is bounded on the north by the Sound and on the South by the Pond. The dwelling house was south of the road, near the present site of Geo. H. Fischer’s ice house, the same that became the dwelling of Elymas Reeve in 1825.
Now folks … This really is not about me.
North Fork Nostalgia which is a compilation of The Peconic Bay Shopper “such-a-regular contributor” named Becky Terry’s articles {columns}. Becky Terry had her Street Names article in The Peconic Bay Shopper dated February 1993.
In North Fork Nostalgia, on page 160, is that Becky Terry Street Names column:
Here’s a portion, and I PROUDLY re-quote, okay?:
“… Captain Kidd Drive was named for the notorious pirate. While he hid some of his booty on Gardiner’s Island, the story of treasure hidden under a certain Mattituck tree is a romantic legend. But according to historic records, Kidd’s Tree did figure in the days of the Revolution. Certain refugees who fled from the British to Connecticut did make night-time sorties across the Sound to Mattituck to gather clothing and supplies. Their rendezvous point was ‘Kidd’s Tree’ near the mouth of Mattituck Creek. …”
North Fork Nostalgia is a paperback volume by Barbara Terry Charnwews (daughter of Becky Terry) and Richard R. Terry (son of Becky Terry).
I hope this is ship-shape enough for you to get out wearing your bootys, putting your best foot forward, and having some parties with fellow pirates on Halloween!– “Don’t hold your water!” -’Cause you’re a good sole! - That’s the spirit!
YES! – PUN-intended! That is because there can be FUN-intended!
Cheerio & Thanksalatea! ~ Anchors Away!