FtV - Gov. Wentworth’s Missing Treasure
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Welcome, legendary listeners. Thanks for tuning in to From the Vault, a second look at some of our classic episodes. Look for a new episode every week. Now, can you go back and listen on your own at OurNewEnglandLegends.com? You bet. But you won't get the added bonus of an After the Legends segment featuring new commentary about that episode from your old pals Jeff and Ray. So let's open up the New England Legends Vault and revisit another legendary episode.

Welcome to the vault. Good to have you back in the vault where there might be some treasure. Oh, buried treasure? Buried treasure this week. First aired November 18th, 2021. Enjoy. So did you bring the shovels? Shovels? Yep. Check. Pickaxe? Yep. Got the pickaxe. The bags. Do we have some kind of bags to carry all the treasure? Plenty of bags. Okay, perfect. Our first stop on this treasure hunt is right here in Wolfboro, New Hampshire.

We just arrived at the site of the former Governor Wentworth Mansion in Wolfboro, though all that's left is a large rectangular stone foundation and an old plaque telling us that this was the site of the Governor Wentworth Mansion. Right. It says it was built in 1769 and burned to the ground in 1820. Right. Now, this is the starting point for our treasure hunt. They say during the early days of the American Revolution, Governor Wentworth fled this mansion site with chests full of gold and silver.

Fearing the treasure would get captured, he buried it. In between here and Portsmouth. So we don't have a map to go by? No. Okay, all we know is that this could be between Wolfboro and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is, Jeff, 50 miles away. That's right. Our search area is 50 miles! Right. Okay, do you know what that means? What? We're gonna be rich! Yes! Yes!

Hey, I'm Jeff Belanger, and welcome to episode 222 of the New England Legends podcast. If you give us about 10 minutes, we'll give you something strange to talk about today. And I'm Ray Ogier. Thank you for joining us on our mission to chronicle every legend in New England, one story at a time.

Did you know so many of our story tips and leads come from you? This one did. Thanks to Alana Jablonski for emailing us about this one. We love when you guys reach out to us through social media, our super secret Facebook group, or when you call or text our legend line anytime at 617-444-9683. Now, before we go hunt for Governor Wentworth's buried treasure,

We want to take just a minute to tell you about our sponsor, Nuwadi Herbals. Just in time for the gift-giving season, you've got to check out the Nuwadi Herbals website to see some of the great gift packages they have available, like their Christmas holiday package that includes their Christmas tea and holiday soap. Nuwadi Herbals has so many great teas, it can be tough to choose.

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you legendary listeners get 20% off your order when you use the promo code LEGENDS20 at checkout. Visit nuwadiherbals.com. That's N-U-W-A-T-I, herbals with an S, dot com. All right, Jeff, so we're going on a treasure hunt that starts here at the ruins of the old Governor Wentworth Mansion in Wolfboro, New Hampshire. Yep, that's the plan. Now, Governor John Wentworth was the British colonial governor at the time of the American Revolution. So let's head back to 1775 and see what happened.

It's June of 1775, and the heat is rising on Governor John Wentworth. And I don't mean the summer temperatures. No, I can imagine. The Boston Tea Party was less than two years ago, and revolution is in the air. It's not the best time to be aligned with the King of England. Governor Wentworth has already written letters to Admiral Graves and Governor Gage, urging them to send more ships of war to Portsmouth to protect the treasuries of the province.

tensions are high. Still, Governor Wentworth is trying his best to walk a razor's edge. For the most part, the people of New Hampshire like him, even if they're growing less fond of the king. And John adores his wife. Also his first cousin. Right. And also his first cousin, Frances Daring Wentworth. In fact, he likes her so much, he's named two different towns after her.

Francis Town in Daring, New Hampshire. The couple also recently welcomed a son in the world where their parents are in a tight spot. They owe their allegiance to the King of England, but their home is right here in New Hampshire. It's afternoon on June 13th when an angry mob shows up to arrest a loyalist militia officer in town. The mob seems satisfied to get their man and goes away, but Governor Wentworth realizes it won't be long before that mob returns for him.

Plus, there are rumors swirling around about a plot to kidnap the governor and other officers and hold them for ransom should any Boston or Portsmouth patriots get arrested. Governor Wentworth sends a letter to the King of England telling him he and his family are in grave danger. Following the advice of other loyalists, Governor Wentworth gathers up his riches into chess. He takes a few more of his prized possessions and sets off for Fort William and Mary in Portsmouth.

The journey from the governor's Wolfboro Mansion in Portsmouth is about 50 miles. It's going to take a few days to get there, and the wagon is heavy with chests of gold, plus some servants, Mrs. Wentworth, and their five-month-old son. Everyone is nervous that the mob that came for the Loyalist militia officer is going to track down the governor. The first 10 miles to Middleton, New Hampshire, are relatively smooth, but then the road turns muddy.

The wagon is simply too heavy. And now Governor Wentworth has to make a decision. Dump out his wife and servants and keep racing towards Portsmouth with his treasure, or... Yeah, one look from Francis Wentworth's face makes it clear that the governor better not be considering what she thinks he thinks he may be thinking. So Governor Wentworth has the carriage pull off the road, and they wait for night to fall. Under the cover of darkness, they dig a hole and hide the treasure.

At the crack of dawn, they're back on the road to Portsmouth, racing with all possible speed towards the safety of Fort William and Mary. Meanwhile, New Hampshire is growing more hostile toward British loyalists by the day. To keep them safe, Governor Wentworth sends his family on a ship back to England, while the governor sails on to Boston, where there's more protection for him.

But he never stops thinking about the buried treasure. He wants to go back to New Hampshire and get it. But all the money in the world does him no good if he's dead. It's 1776 when Governor Wentworth is forced to evacuate Boston and eventually make his way back to England. The Revolutionary War has begun.

Still, Governor Wentworth is certain England will win the war, and he'll return to New Hampshire to be reinstated as governor once again. It's just a matter of time. The King of England sends John Wentworth to Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he can serve as lieutenant governor while he waits out the war. Still, Wentworth can't stop thinking about the treasure he buried in New Hampshire. I mean, it's not that far to go get it, right? No, no, it's not. But there's a war going on, and it's not going England's way.

Showing up in New Hampshire right now is too risky. Plus, well, there's another problem. What's that? Frances Wentworth is not a fan of Nova Scotia living. Maybe out of boredom or out of spite, she has an affair with Prince William, a man 20 years her junior. Ooh, that is scandalous. So not only is John Wentworth's home province of New Hampshire changing hands...

His marriage is on the rocks. Considering the colonies ultimately win their independence from England, John Wentworth will never step foot in New Hampshire again. And that brings us back to today. Though centuries have passed, people have never stopped talking about Governor Wentworth's buried treasure. It's believed he buried $25,000 worth of gold and silver coins, plus silverware. Now converting $25,000 into today's money, you're looking at about $900,000.

Plus the value of the silverware, plus the historical value, I'm quite sure we're north of a million dollars. But all we have to go on is that he buried it somewhere between Wolfboro and Portsmouth, New Hampshire, which is 50 miles of road. Right, but we know from the story that going got slow somewhere around Middleton, New Hampshire.

Now, if we drive down Kings Highway out of Wolfboro toward Middleton, which would roughly be near the same road Governor Wentworth traveled all those years ago, there's still tons of forest on either side of the road. Yeah, you'd have to figure he would have traveled off the beaten path enough so that people wouldn't see his tracks. Sure. But not too far, because he'd be intending to return for it sometime soon. That all makes sense. Yet the treasure has never been found. Now, it's also possible the story is a red herring.

Something meant to throw people off. That maybe the treasure is buried near his mansion in Wolfboro. If you Google the story, it pops up on several treasure hunting websites. Plus websites for people who use metal detectors to search for these kinds of things. But without more to go on, you're basically shooting in the dark over the span of miles of forest. But there's one other clue. Governor Wentworth was said to be an experienced woodsman with an eye for unique geological formations.

If one is burying treasure in the woods and you intend to return for it, you might want to bury it near some kind of landmark that you can remember. So we need to comb those woods looking for something that sticks out. Yeah, it's not much to go on. No, it's not. But the story survives, and I love that it connects us to yet another buried treasure in New England. ♪

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Now, normally you would think of pirates, right? Buried treasure, pirates, go hand in hand. Not always. No, just a nervous Englishman. Governor, no less. Governor, no less. This is one of those episodes that got us a couple of emails after it had aired. And I remember they were from treasure hunters who obviously pay attention to this stuff, believe it's still out there. And it could be. It absolutely could be. It's also possible...

uh it was never buried it was possible that someone came back for it who knew where it was where did they think it was again somewhere between right yes somewhere in between wolf uh wolf borough and portsmouth portsmouth right so which is as we said was 50 miles of road and then it wouldn't be right off the road right it could be you know another mile into the woods which today could be like the back parking lot of a mcdonald's it could be the wentworth hotel right it

It could be buried underneath. Yeah. You never know. It could be anywhere, right? So if they came in and they developed into neighborhoods...

You know, if the backhoe was lucky enough to crack open the thing and find it, but that would have made the news. Right. And it's only $25,000. Or was it $25,000 then? Was it $25,000 then? It's probably about a million in today's money. So that's something worth looking for. And historically speaking. Oh, sure. Right. Plus there's forks and silverware and historic items. Museum items. Absolutely. So it could be, you know.

I think we converted $25,000 and today's money would be like $900,000 something. Not bad. It's not a million, but that's okay. But if you add the historic value and all that other stuff, you could probably go north of a million. Yeah.

And wouldn't that be fun? Like you live somewhere on that road, on that route or along that route. Yeah. And you're digging in your backyard. We've talked about this. As a kid. As a kid. Just digging a hole to China. Digging. I remember I would just dig holes. Yeah. Like every kid did that. Oh, yeah. Why did we do that? Because we thought we could get to China. Or treasure. I can distinctly remember planning that hole with a friend.

and thinking we're gonna get so far down, we're gonna hit water. We're gonna hit, the devil's gonna show up at some point. - The fiery center of the earth. - Yeah. - Yeah. - Really thinking that that was gonna happen. And then you get two feet down, you realize digging a hole is not easy. - No. And you start thinking about career choices. You're like, oh, like ditch diggers. - The world needs ditch diggers, Danny. - They do, they do, end quote, Caddyshack. - Yes, nice.

That was, what was his name? Judge Smales. Judge Smales, that's right. That was amazing. Yeah, so yeah, we did get some emails. I think people thought maybe we had some secret insight. Yeah. Will you share it with us? Yeah, will you let us know? We just... We did. We told you everything we knew. Yeah. We left nothing out. By the way, if we had researched this story and uncovered something...

I don't think we would have done it. I would have been like, Ray, look, I found this thing. Don't tell anybody. I think we got maybe the exact spot. Let's go dig. We'll record while we dig and everything. We'll make this an epic special. Yeah, yeah. If we find nothing, well, then we'll just Geraldo Rivero it. Right. And if we find something, we'd have to bury it immediately. Or sell it and then put the episode out. Be like, we found it. That would have been an epic thing.

you know, crescendo of a story. Like not only did we hear the story, but we found some evidence. We discovered it. Could you imagine back then fearing for your life and you still have 50 miles to get to the coast? Slow miles too. That's what I mean. We're not talking you'll be there in under an hour. We mean, you know, that's, that's days. Yeah. He, I mean, he lived on the edge for a long time until he left, finally left.

Whenever you bury treasure, too, that is also quite the desperate move. Oh, sure. Yeah. Because you know something's going to go south. Things are bad. Yeah. If you're literally digging a hole and hiding your wealth, you're just like, it's bad. Leaving that much money behind, not being sure if it's going to be there when you come back. Right. So that is a very desperate move. For all we know, somebody was on his tail.

Well, right. Or, I mean, he wasn't alone. So his driver might've been like, yes, I will get you down to Portsmouth. Yeah. Make note that tree, that fork in the road. Got it. He blindfolded the driver. That's what happened. Right. Yeah. He's like, so he delivers me. You gotta get me there, but I'm blindfolding you. All right. Dropping you off. Good luck, governor. I gotta, I gotta go. I got somewhere to be. Um,

Did you leave the shovel back? I'm just asking if you left the shovel in the back. I just, you know where I could get a good shovel. You're going to take that one. Where'd you get that? Where'd you buy that shovel? Is there like a hardware store? I just got to make one quick stop. I got to get home to the kids. You know what I mean? Like we're going to watch Netflix. I got some stuff to do. Yeah. So I'll just, I'll be, I'll, I'll catch up with you. Yeah. Um,

Yeah. I mean, the old pirate stories would be, right, you'd have a couple of the deckhands dig the treasure, dig the hole, you'd put the treasure in, and then you'd say, well, I

I got some good news and bad news. Right, right. The good news is you know where the treasure is. Yeah. The bad news is you ain't leaving. You're not leaving the treasure. Yeah. Your ghost is going to guard it because dead men tell no tales. And they're not always buried on the beach. No. Like you would think. They would go inland. Yeah. Right. Because the tide could take it out. Right. And you could lose your

booty but the movies always show yeah I think it was the Pirates of the Caribbean showed a buried treasure on a beach yeah right that doesn't make sense no it does not so yeah when one wants to bury so the trick though is we've talked about this with some of the pirate stories we've done and

You want to bury it somewhat accessible. You don't want to go down like... So like Curse of Oak Island, right? You're not going to go down hundreds of feet, even if you could with that old technology. You need it to be like just in an inconspicuous spot that you can get back to quickly because you might be on the run the second time. Yeah. You might be like, dude, we got 20 minutes. So you don't need like an eight-hour excavation to try to get your loot. You know, you're going to need to be like, all right, it's behind that tree. It's only down a couple feet. Go. Right. Yeah.

Yeah. And it doesn't have to be that far off the road, like you said. Right. It doesn't have to be 20 miles in. Right. Just a few steps, really, if it's got enough, you know, cover. Right. So we've talked about how you look for like something conspicuous, like a big boulder or something, and then you walk 10 paces. Yeah. Which direction? I don't know.

That's why you make a map. That's why you dig as a kid. Yeah. I remember we used to, we're like, oh yeah, we're going to go to that tree. We're going to walk 10 paces. And we would even take big paces like an adult. Yeah. And then we'd start digging. Like we're going to find something. Yep. Because obviously. Because it's 10 paces from, everyone knows. Everyone knows. 10 adult paces from this tree right here. Obviously. Everyone knows that. Yeah. Or for a mini tree. Yeah. And we would dig for a while and then be like, oh. Always 10 paces. Time to go home for dinner. Didn't find anything.

Found an acorn. But we dug and we found rocks and stuff. That acorn you found could have been from 300 years ago or a prehistoric acorn. I once did find a crushed Coca-Cola can from 1492 that Columbus...

I'm not sure. That's what you told yourself? That's what I pretty much told myself. And they're like, was Coke around in 1492? I'm sure it was. Yeah. Of course it was. And they're putting it in aluminum cans. You tried to sell it? Yeah. To the neighborhood kids? To the kid who didn't find it. I was like, that's worth millions. I'll sell it to you for 10 bucks. I would bury it somewhere. Yeah. And then go back for it when you're a big boy. Right. And sell it. But that was it. So yes, if you are still hunting that treasure, thinking it might still be out there,

please let us know if you find it. That would be incredible. But as far as insight, we've given you all we know. Oh, since they heard it from us, we should get at least 10%. I was thinking 20. 20? But they get negotiated down to 10. Start high. Start high. Yeah. So 20% and then, yeah, 10 is fine. So, hey, kids, if you live somewhere along that route and you're a young person...

Dig. Because you would make childhood history. Never stop digging, kids. Yeah. If finally... You know what I mean? Wouldn't that be Finding the Treasure for all of us? Yeah. The Goonies sequel. Like some 12-year-old kids find the treasure, dig it up, and go, we were just digging because we listened to this podcast. Yeah.

Every adult everywhere would just be like, oh, it could happen. Like, that's all I need to know. Even if it's not me, I just want to know it could happen. Yeah, it'll bring that spark of youth back to your life. And then we just quit our jobs. And dig. Right? We're going to need some shovels and some Advil. And some beer. This is going to hurt. But yeah, never stop digging. When you get the Planet Fitness Black Card, you can bring a friend anytime you work out.

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