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The MYSTERY of the TOWER TREASURE
OLIVER CROMWELL
CHARLES II
SAMUEL PEPYS
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Club's
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Membership in the 17-21 Club is open
all within that age group.
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Contributions and all ac-¡ tivities of the Club will be limited to · members only.
I'
By HENRY LEWIS
you have visited the grey old fortress by the Thames that is the Tower of London
it is possible that you walked over a fortune that has been missing for 300 years.
While you listened to the beefeater', the Yeeman Warder who was your guide, you may have been within easy digging distance of a hoard of money worth possibly a quarter of a million pounds today.
The evidence that it was hidden in the Tower in 1662 was strong enough to cause Charles II to put Samuel Pepys, the diarist. In charge of a search party. In recent years it has caused the Ministry of Works to turn treasure hunters. But the money has never been found - so far as is known.
The money is said to have been hidden by John Barkstezd who started his career as a gold- smith in the Strand and later became a colonel in the army and an M.P.
As an M.P. he became a friend of Oliver Cromwell and with Cromwell signed the warrant for the execution of King Charles I.
Three years later, in 1652, Cromwell, now installed as dictator of England, made Barkstead governor of the Tower of London with £2,000 a -year pay
a very generous wage at that time,
The party dug until late-but found nothing.
The Tower was then not only king's warrant and Sir John about the hiding of the money, the palace of the reigning promised any help he needed. from Barkstead himself im- monarch, but the strongest From there Pepys went to his mediately before he left for Hol- fortress in Britain. Here were office where he was soon joined land. He had told her he put the royal arsenal and the royal by Wade, another man and a the money in some butter firkins. mint, the Crown jewels and porter with picks and shovels. During the night Pepys and his treasure. It was also the home They all walked over to the men dyg all over the cellar. By of the Courts of Justice and a Tower, lit a lantern and made lunchtime next day Pepys jail for important prisoners. their way into some clars. Wade discouraged though, he declared,
explained that he was for one that fitted a description hidden somewhere in the Tower.
looking he was certain the money he had been given.
extent.
Reward
Nothing
was
was
King Charles though was not prepared to accept defeat yet. He told Pepys to keep at it. Now, the search party gave up the cel-]
was
From the prisoners Colonel Barkstead extracted money that made his pay seem small by comparison. It Was normal practice in those days for the governors of jails to make Eventually he halted in an lars and began digging in the money from their prisoners, but arched vault and announced: garden though privately Pepys Barkstead did it to a scandalous "This must be the place." The thought this an unlikely place. party, reinforced by two other It was too public, he thought, for men, began to dig. They dug Barkstead to have dug there. until late, but found nothing.
Eventually the search Wade was not discouraged. "I abandoned, though Pepys still His reward was to be knigh- will get more information," he believed the woman's tip was a ted by Cromwell. He
became said.
genuine one. "I have great con- Sir John. He was an important, for two or three hours. Again no cheat in these people and that Two days later they dug again fidence," he wrote, "that there is wealthy man.
Then his world crashed, they found nothing. "We went they go upon good grounds." Cromwell died, and Charles II away the second time like fools," came to the throne. Barkstead wrote Pepys in his diary. fled. He got to Holland but That night Pepys met Wade royalists went after him,
and a friend by appointment in
The years passed until recently the Dolphin tavern. They had tured him and smuggled him now seen their informant who, the story. They are members of back to England where he was Pepys discovered, was a woman. the Speleological Society who 20th century potholers came into swiftly tried, hanged, drawn And now the hidden money was and quartered for his part in said to amount not to £7,000 but are interested not only in caves executing Charles I.
to £50,000. It would be worth but in all things underground. That was in July 1660. The many times that amount today.
With Ministry of Works per- treasure hunt began three A third dig was arranged and
mission Mr months later. It began when this time the woman came along; the Tower with a diviner.
Charles Quarrell, one of their officials, went th Samuel Pepys, secretary to the She said that she had navy, was called to see his cousin, the Earl of Sandwich, one of England's greatest sea- men.
cap-
Pepys had begun his famous shorthand diaries two years
earlier so we have full details of all that happened.
:
Hanged
Lord Sandwich told Pepys: "A Mr Wade has heard of the Tower (The amount was to go up con- siderably later) It was hidden there by Barkstead when he fled
£7,000 hidden in
• Contributions may consist to Holland. He was hanged in
of anything publishable
that
is such haste that no one question- articles, ed him about his fortune. You letters, stories, photo- are to discover it. graphs, drawings, verses. But only the best will be printed.
"His Majesty has given his approval to your search and sigried a warrant to authorise it. The king will take £3,000, Mr Wade wil get get £2,000 and 1
• All contributions MUST receive the remainder.
be original.
"You are to lose no time. See Sir Harry Bennett about your arrangements.”
• Written contributions Sir Harry was a Secretary of should not consist. of State. Mr. Pepys found him more than 350 words, early in the evening at the home in Minting Lane of Sir John photographs.
Robinsoni ryllor was both Lond recensibiltill Lieutenant of the ed in black-and-white, Tower. Bennett gave him the
draw
heard
is your name Rachel
RACHEL MIGHT. FEEL A LITTLE SHEEPISH OVER THIS, BUT HER NAME MEANS "THE EWE WHICH, TO THE ANCIENT - HEBREWS,
·WAS A SYMBOL OF GENTLENESS AND -INNOCENCE..
Years passed
With the clue' of the butter firkins in mind they went to a store room which was once part of the Tower's dairy. There the diviner claimed to detect the presence of objects beneath the cement floor only some five feet down.
Mailbox
DOOLEY
DRIVE
NOME of my friends and to at-
Smyself plan
tempt a "Dooley Drive." We want to do. some- thing to aid the unselfish programme of "MĖDI- CO."
We think that the rest of Hongkong's young peɔple will be interested in the projects.
:
We would like to know if
we can count on the sup-
port of members of the
17-21 Club who
are ins
terested in doing some-
thing constructive.
At present negotiations are "But the Ministry refused to still let us dig." Mr Quarrell told me
at a very early crossly. "They said that as they
stage. However, we hope were going to do some excava- to have everything over- tions in that area in some other connection they would also lock
come by the end of the out for the treasure.
week. That is to say, if the Club' is interested in promoting our appeal,
.
"Later they reported that they found nothing at the spot. But I still think it could be found near there. A
really exhaustive search is needed.”
The chief problem for treasure hunters is that the ground level inside the Tower has risen by many feet over the years. Build- ings that collapsed were cleared away. They were mere- ly levelled and new buildings erected
never
on top of them. So
will be more than -glad to send in particu- lars in time. for: - your Sofurday publication: Josephine Law, Kowlood.
buried treasure might now be Send in-details- of your
deep:
Did Sir John Barkstead : hidei the money he had extracted from prisoners inside the Tower when he fled to Holland? Is it still there? If so, where is it? And how could it be located withou pulling the whole Tower o Eleces or causing damage to this
fhistoric place).
scheme and its progress. We cannot speak for, all ́17-21 members; but if the project is in a worthy cause and needs their "active"-support", "wa, think that they'll help off they
can.
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