Wilmington, NC 10 - Much Ado About Murder

“pa-paw.” Pa-paw spent a lot of time rocking a young Dalton in a large rocking chair on the front porch. As he rocked he told Dalton stories.
    The stories he told Dalton made no sense to the four year old at the time. But later, as an adult the stories would come back to him in bits and pieces and some of them did make sense to him then. The stories had not been told in sequence, were all mixed up in time, and that further confused things for Dalton.
    There was a story of adventure on the high seas. In 1762, the first Dalton Montjoy had sailed from Liverpool on a ship destined for Barbados. For some reason that Dalton did not understand, it was common for ships to sail from England to Barbados, to transfer their goods and passengers there for other ships sailing north to the ports of the American colonies. The adventure happened when the American ship, Rebecca , on which his ancestor was the only passenger, was captured by a French privateer. If it had not been for the captain’s quick thinking, of bidding his passenger disguise himself as one of the crew, Dalton’s fifth great-grandfather might have been taken hostage and held for ransom. Instead the privateer’s commander imprisoned the Rebecca’s first mate .
    With the advent of computers and the internet, Dalton was able to research his family and confirm the stories told to him by “pa-paw.” The tale of the capture of the Rebecca by a French Polacco and the ransoming of the first mate for two-thousand dollars was reported in the August 19, 1762 issue of the Pennsylvania Gazette .
    But the stories Dalton loved best were the ones involving the family treasure. Every boy loves the idea of discovering a great treasure, and for Dalton to learn that his family possessed such a treasure was a dream come true.
    “Pa-paw” told him how the first Dalton Montjoy , Dalton’s fifth great-grandfather, had brought the treasure with him to America. Then, he had made his home in Wilmington, eventually becoming a successful Commission merchant, trading merchandise on the docks of the Cape Fear River. He built their fine home high on the bluff overlooking the river. Apparently, he had no need to exchange the “treasure” for money.
    But his great love had been the theater. He and several other professional actors, including Colonel Archibald McNeill, performed in Wilmington in 1788. As a former actor of Shakespearian plays at the Drury Lane Theater in London, the first Dalton Montjoy was an important member of the group. Their plays were so popular locally they formed a theater association, which they called the Thalian Association in honor of Thalia , the ancient Greek muse of comedy.
    The first Dalton Montjoy lived to the ripe old age of seventy-seven, a long life for those days. He lived long enough to see the construction of a theater on the first floor of the Innes Academy. And long enough to celebrate the incorporation of the Thalian Association in 1814 by an act of the General Assembly of the state.
    In 1825, during the years when Dalton’s fourth great-grandfather Randall Montjoy had been the head of the Montjoy household, Edward Bishop Dudley built a mansion on the property next door. Dudley and Randall Montjoy were friends and fellow members of the Thalian Association. In 1836, Dudley was voted president of the Wilmington and Raleigh Railroad. And he was elected by popular vote to the office of Governor of North Carolina.
    The story Dalton loved best was about the family treasure and Queen Elizabeth. Years later, Dalton realized this was not the current Queen Elizabeth but Queen Elizabeth the First. His family went back that far. And that was how he pieced together the truth of the tale of the family treasure. But what had become of it? When his parents died and left him the family home, he took early retirement and moved back to Wilmington. There were so many young people who loved the theatre as he did. Most had little money. He’d open the house to them, he decided. That way, he’d never be alone. He had the large upstairs bedrooms partitioned into smaller rooms. Bathrooms were fitted into closets and dressing rooms.
    All the while Dalton searched for the family treasure. What had become of it? It had to be hidden in the house somewhere.

17

    The doorbell rang. Now what? A woman stood outside the glass storm door. “Oh my gosh , Jon, I almost forgot. That’s the arborist, Dr. Matthews. She’s come to look at the oak tree in the backyard. To see