The Strange Story of Flora MacDonald and Daniel McInnis of Oak Island.

 The Strange Story of Flora MacDonald and Daniel McInnis of Oak Island.  New proof in a famous lost treasure saga.

Cort Lindahl 2/17/2020

In June of 1745 Bonnie Prince Charlie set out to invade Scotland using two vessels to facilitate his voyage there; one owned by a French Privateer named Antoine Walsh the other owned by France. Walsh was from a long line of Irish Walsh family members that had been exiled in France starting with the 1715 Jacobite Rebellion of Bonnie Prince Charlie’s grandfather King James II. In fact it is remotely possible that Walsh or another exile like him is who we later come to know as “The Chevalier St. George.”

Two of Walsh’s ships the le Du Teillay and the larger Elisabeth were used to clandestinely bring Bonnie Prince Charlie to the west coast of Scotland to kick off the ’45 rebellion. The ship Elisabeth had actually been donated by the French to this cause and was not owned by Walsh as the Du Teillay was. During the trip the smaller and faster Du Teillay was to carry Bonnie Prince Charlie and some of his staff while the Elisabeth was to carry one hundred Marines that had been supplied by exiled Lord Clare as well as a number of muskets and broadswords. In this story the Elisabeth also was carrying any gold specie that Bonnie Prince Charlie was bringing to Scotland at that time.

It is interesting that Bonnie’s expedition to regain his land and crown had been funded not by the French but by Spain and the Vatican. The French had supplied some material support in the form of the ship Elisabeth but Spain and the Vatican had pledged 400,000 gold livres a month towards the success of this rebellion. This is not surprising as the Vatican had not been pleased that their supporters the exiled Stewart Kings were ardent Catholics and had supported the Holy See in many ways when they held the Crowns of England, Ireland, and Scotland. Via a chain of events in this story we will come to understand that all or some of this gold was supposed to have been carried to Scotland aboard the ship Elisabeth. This also leads us to a rationale as to why the Vatican would be interested in Oak Island.

As the voyage progressed the two ships found themselves attacked by the English naval vessel “The Lion” commanded by captain Brett.

“The engagement depicted in this painting took place on 9 July 1745, and was described as follows: the French man-of-war the Elisabeth (64 guns), carrying arms men to Scotland and escorting the Sloop Du Theilly (La Doutelle) with the Young Pretender on board, was sighted by Captain Percy Brett in the Lion (60 guns), off the Lizard at four o'clock. Captain Brett made four drawings illustrating the successive stages of the encounter, and this picture is based on that of the final phase (in the Sandwich collection, Kingzett, op. cit. pl. 9a). The Elisabeth had seized the opportunity of a shift in the wind's direction to escape, and the Lion, much damaged and powerless to pursue, is seen firing a last raking volley.”

(Note: Lord Sandwich was a member of Dashwood’s Hellfire Club and Dillitante Society).

“After the action was over, Captain Walsh bore up to the Elisabeth to ascertain the state of matters, and was informed by a lieutenant of the severe loss she had sustained in officers and men, and the crippled state she was in. He, however, offered to pursue the voyage if supplied with a main-mast and some rigging, but Walsh had no spare materials; and after intimating that he would endeavour to finish the voyage himself, and advising the commander of the Elisabeth to return to France, both ships parted, the Elisabeth on her way back to France, and the Doutelle on her voyage to the Western Highlands.”

Now for the most interesting quote from the below weblink about Antoine Walsh and Bonnie’s arrival in Scotland:

“Painted by Samuel Scott (1702-1772), the inscription on the lining canvas, 'Action on the 9th of July 1745 between the Lion of 60 guns, Captain Percy Brett / and the Elisabeth of 64 guns, the Doutelle in the distance making / her escape with the Pretender on board. / Painted for Admiral Lord Anson'. Oil on canvas.102.7 x 152.3 cm (401/2 x 60 in).” 

 

Via the Jacobite peerage we later learn that Bonnie Prince Charlie arrived in Scotland without any money or weapons as they had all returned to France aboard the damaged ship Elisabeth:

 

Ranald MacDonald was of course kin to the later builder of a castle on the Hudson River Francis Bannerman VI who was an established military surplus and arms dealer in mid nineteenth century New York City. So this is an interesting connection to Francis Bannerman who had built a bizarre replica of a Scottish Castle on Pollipel Island in the Hudson River in New York. Pollipel Island is just upstream from West Point, New York. It is interesting that he is one to note that Bonnie had arrived without any weapons or money. Note that the above source from the Jacobite Peerage states that Macdonald was educated at St. Germane en Laye the summer estate of Louis XV that had been given to exiled Jacobite King James II where of course Bonnie Prince Charlie also lived for an extended period.

Another important link to the earlier family of Francis Bannerman is exposed in the history of the 1745 Jacobite Rebellion. A woman named Flora MacDonald helped to hide Bonnie Prince Charlie after the Rebellion during the time he was escaping from Scotland to France. Eventually the French did evacuate Bonnie. Flora MacDonald was actually prosecuted by the English for helping him escape. After spending a year in prison Flora married an Irishman who was in the British Army also named MacDonald and moved to the Colonies in Anson County, North Carolina. When the Revolutionary War occurred the MacDonald’s, land was taken and they then moved to Ft. Edward, Nova Scotia.

Flora MacDonald also had another family member who figures prominently in the saga of Oak Island. Flora’s MacDonald family in North Carolina was also directly related to the family of one Daniel McInnis. Of course that name is familiar to fans of the Money Pit on Oak Island because this is the very Daniel McInnis who is noted in the fabled story of the “Three Young Men” discovering the money pit! The fact that both Flora MacDonald and Daniel McInnis came from Anson County North Carolina and ended up in Nova Scotia after the American Revolution is way more than a coincidence. This indicates that they could have somehow been involved in going on at Oak Island especially since McInnis once owned two of the lots on Oak Island. It is bizarre that many pundits and researchers seem to link Shugborough Hall owned by Admiral Anson to the Oak Island mystery. Here it may somehow be more than a coincidence that Flora and Daniel had come from Anson County, North Carolina that had been named in honor of Admiral Anson.

Both Flora MacDonald and McInnis’ families had originated on the Isle of Skye in Scotland. They had been related over a wide span of history and these family connections continued in North Carolina prior to the war. Here in the MacDonald family of Scotland we have Flora MacDonald and her two cousins Daniel McInnis and Jacques MacDonald having been in a position to have had intimate knowledge of both the truth of Oak Island and the whereabouts of any Jacobite Gold that had been hidden at Oak Island or anywhere else in Nova Scotia. Even though both Flora and Daniel (sometimes also known as Donald McInnis) seemed to be United Empire Loyalists during the Revolution they also seem to have been Jacobite spies or provocateurs in Nova Scotia.

In the persons of Daniel McInnes, Jacques MacDonald, and Flora MacDonald are individuals who may have been aware of the truth of how a treasure was left in Scotland and later taken to Oak Island. In this regard, it is very interesting that she later ended up spending a year in Nova Scotia during the American Revolution eventually returning to Scotland for good. It is notable that she at least was part of the family of the later Francis Bannerman who had a direct association with Bonnie Prince Charlie. The Bannerman’s of course were MacDonald’s who had been awarded the name “Bannerman” after saving the Scots banner at the Battle of Bannockburn earlier in history.

Still more of note is how Daniel or Donald McInnis had been part of the original folklore story of the discovery of the Money Pit that resembled the story of treasure found and lost in the pages of Philip Sidney’s book “Arcadia.” He had owned land on Nova Scotia and had to have been responsible in part for developing this story which possibly covered up something entirely more realistic and true. Given the connections we see being exposed with regard to McInnis and the MacDonald family we may assume something of real importance did in fact occur at Oak Island sometime after the American Revolution. In response, a folklore had sprung up that seemed to explain why people had seen activity on Oak Island at various times after the war. Many people also presented this as ghost stories that may have also served to keep people away from the Island.

Thirdly later in this story we may see the influence of Jacques MacDonald via a man named Constantine Beltrami who made a tour of both the cities and remote countryside of a young United States in the early nineteenth century. Both Beltrami and Jacques MacDonald were involved in the Grand Orient of Italy at a time when Bonnie Prince Charlie and his wife were exiled in Rome. The Grand Orient of Italy in turn was directly related to the Grand Orient of France during the Napoleonic era in which it was formed. Beltrami is noted as being close friends with the wife of Bonne Prince Charlie the Duchess of Albany.

In addition we should not forget the involvement of Francis Bannerman who was related to the MacDonald family at large and had displayed his value of this family in a memorial stone from the Glen Coe massacre that was included in his Castle on the Hudson. It is noted that in the 1980’s someone broke this stone in search of treasure they believed to have been stashed behind it. Only one other group of people has admitted to disturbing elements of the architecture at Bannerman’s Castle in the past.

What the reader here may be actually see is a plan that has come to fruition and been added to over many generations culminating in the life of Francis Bannerman. With what we have learned here it is starting to become obvious that Francis Bannerman had been in on the creation of what we may now consider the bogus “Cremona Document.” Though this document is obviously not of the vintage of the original Knights Templar we may assume that Bannerman may have been telling us some secrets he was privy to at that time. From that perspective the Cremona Document is of interest and should not be ignored if one believes it is fake. There is still real information left by Bannerman within its bogus pages.

So now we know that a large amount of gold that was supposed to have come to Scotland with Bonnie Prince Charlie in July of 1745 never made it there and was returned to France aboard the ship Elisabeth at that time. Is it possible that this gold was later brought by the duc d’Anville to Oak Island to hide it for Bonnie and the Jacobite cause? Could this indicate that part of the Jacobite plan was to establish a new country in Nova Scotia which undoubtedly, they considered part of their domain? Indeed, the exiled Stewart monarchy would have also viewed the American colonies as their property as well. It is possible that Nova Scotia was meant to be a Jacobite state that also included their French allies. During the era of the American Revolution this plan seems to have been altered to include Nova Scotia as part of the United States. As this story unfolds it also may become obvious that there were other French allies in Nova Scotia who had access to millions of dollars of wealth at this time.

The timeline of the events including the ’45 Jacobite Rebellion, the d’Anville Expedition and the Battle of Cape Finesterre all support that this could indeed be true. There are many hints and suggestions that the exiled Stewarts viewed all the colonies as their property as their family had claimed and developed them in many ways. They may have seen that coopting the colonies including Nova Scotia would be an easier task then regaining England, Scotland, and Ireland. It was for these reasons that Jacobite and French interests would later support the American Revolution.

The monies captured at the Battle of Cape Finesterre by Admiral Anson were said to total 300,000 English pounds worth of gold. This had been taken from Admiral Jonquierre who in fact had taken over control of the d’Anville Expedition after the duke met his untimely end in Nova Scotia.  Jonquierre had been present at two of the pivotal points in this saga. It is also possible that the Chevalier St. George has also been present at these battles and may have even been Antoine Walsh or another Scots Jacobite exile. We know now that Blaise d’Abbadie was also present on the same ship as St. George and was also captured.

In fact it is remotely possible that Admiral Anson had been to Oak Island as early as the 1730’s. At that time Anson was a British naval captain that was stationed in Charleston, South Carolina and had patrolled the waters of the East Coast for Spanish and French targets. He may have sailed near Oak Island several times during this seven year period including trips to and from England. It is more likely that an English ship would go to Oak Island only on the return voyage. 

More coming with regard to this new information very soon. Stay tuned. Thank You, Cort.