The Full Bill Jackson Document Investigation
In this investigation series, the Compendium will be looking closely at various documents which have been associated with Oak Island, whether directly or indirectly. Allegedly, these all belonged at some time to Dr William “Bill” Jackson. This vast collection of documents included the “Jackson Oak Island Map” and the “La Formule” and “Cremona” documents, all of which have been mentioned on The Curse of Oak Island TV show. We mostly learn about Bill Jackson and his documents in two books: The Templar Mission by Zena Halpern and The Scrolls of Onteora by Don Ruh.
Doctor William Jackson
There is little known about William Jackson, what we have found we will present to you here. To fully understand his documents, we have analysed the texts, the words that were used and the possible date that they were written. We concentrated on the French documents that he owned as the most famous were written in - or encoded from - French.
You might be asking why we would have the knowledge and necessary experience to examine some of the French documents? Charlotte of the Compendium works as a French-English interpreter, translator, and teacher, she’s lived in France for 34 years and speaks French fluently. Charlotte and Daniel of the Compendium have been working on these documents for some time (it was one of our first subjects of research together in 2021). Erin King has also been involved in this investigation and has helped us source valuable information.
Being important to have other opinions, we have consulted with several French language experts who have also looked at these documents, including Mr Patrick Huré, a French author and novelist who has been published by the Education Nationale, and a French, Latin and Greek teacher who has experience with old French and the evolution of the French language. She has asked to remain anonymous as she works in a public school, which we fully understand.
Who was Bill Jackson?
Bill Jackson is a very mysterious character, before his alleged death in 2000, he collected many documents and manuscripts. Don Ruh’s account of Jackson’s life is the most complete we’ve seen so far. In Mr Ruh’s book The Scrolls of Onteora we learn that Jackson was born in 1938 and that they both knew each other as children. William Jackson became a doctor and worked for the US army in various secure locations. We also learn that Dr Jackson and Don Ruh were connected to a certain Dan Spartan who they both worked for periodically. Mr Spartan led a sort of mysterious company known as Spartan Enterprises. We don’t know much about the precise activities that Spartan specialised in, but from Don Ruh’s account it seems they installed surveillance materials, were once asked to test cold-weather clothing, and had an in-house photographer… Dan Spartan provided contacts to Dr Jackson and helped secure meetings. His story is as enigmatic as William Jackson’s.
Another intriguing part of Bill Jackson’s life, which we learn in Mr Ruh’s account, is that he was supposedly in some kind of witness protection. We have searched for his birth and death certificates, and any records about his life. We’ve looked both in America and in Ireland, which he seems to be connected to. We’ve looked for family members, schools, addresses, anything that could help us identify him. Bill Jackson seems to be a ghost… Or at the least, his life is very much like a cloak and dagger mystery.
Usually with our research we find the people we are looking for, or some sort of record of their existence. While Don Ruh provides some important information about Doctor Jackson; his children’s names, the fact they moved to Ireland, his wife’s name, what she did for a profession… We still can’t find anyone to contact to find out more about the man and his collection of documents. Both Zena Halpern and Don Ruh suggest that Dr Jackson changed his name, even possibly twice, which would indeed make it much harder to locate him. If fictitious, Jackson’s lack of verifiable information would be very convenient. Our only serious lead was finding a record for a Bill Jackson in a yearbook from a school in Mount Vernon, that Don Ruh says he attended.
The story of how Dr Jackson came into possession of these documents starts with a fishing trip where both he and Don Ruh went to Bannerman Island. There they found a couple of plaster boxes with orange-coloured balls on top which looked like gate-post decorations. Bill took these home to be used as ornaments for his garden wall. After an incident where his son broke one of the boxes, he opened the second box and found a mysterious document and a “seal” with various symbols engraved on it.
With this discovery, Bill Jackson got involved in research that brought him to own many documents, we are only examining a few in this investigation. According to Don Ruh, he was a close friend of Dr Jackson’s, he inherited his papers, his manuscripts, and his books after Bill Jackson’s alleged death in March 2000. Zena Halpern was introduced to Don Ruh in 2004 and this is how she also got involved with Dr Jackson’s research. Mrs Halpern and Mr Ruh were intending to write a book together but later had a disagreement. Zena Halpern appeared on The Curse of Oak Island TV show, where she shared the now famous map of the island and the “La Formule” page. Both Don Ruh and Zena Halpern decided to write separate books about the contents of the “Cremona Document”.
The Cremona Document
The composition of the “Cremona Document” is confusing to understand, it has been given different names (Benvenuto Document, The Onteora Document) and seems to contain various manuscripts with texts and maps. It was supposedly written by different authors and there are different parts, including a journal written by a certain Ralph de Sudley in the 12th century. There are various subjects in the document but the most extra-ordinary involves a trans-Atlantic trip undertaken by a group of Knights of the Order of the Temple. It has been suggested that the document is a copy of the original, which explains part of the more modern looking handwriting. It was partly written in the Theban alphabet, and uses various languages, including English, Italian and French.
The Cremona has never been published in its entirety, we have only seen extracts from the internet, and in Zena Halpern’s and Don Ruh’s books, so unfortunately, we can’t analyse the full document properly. In part 1 of this investigation, we will examine the "Nova-Scotia Map" and a page that Don Ruh calls the "Ark Page"
The Map of Nova Scotia
The so called "Nova-Scotia Map" as seen above, was shown on the Curse of Oak Island TV show and features in both Zena Halpern's and Don Ruh's books. It is suggested that this document dates from the 12th Century. Though the map is not to scale, we can easily identify different parts of Canada including Nova-Scotia. The annotations on the map are in French and there are numbers written in Roman Numerals and in text form.
There are certain words/sentences that seemed slightly peculiar to us, but two annotations in particular caught our attention:
● The sentence "LA COURANT DE MONSTRE" ["The monster current"] is badly written and should have the masculine article "LE" as "COURANT" is a masculine noun. We know from various sources that parts of the Cremona could have been written by an English speaker but masculine/feminine is a common mistake throughout the Bill Jackson documents, some of which were supposedly written by native French speakers.
● We think the word "INUHIT" has a mistake and should be written "INUIT" like in English. There are no other similar words it could represent. "INUIT" is a very modern word, it is attested as being introduced to the French language in the 20th century (1). In the huge database of archives on the BNF website (French National Library) the first publication we've found with the word "INUIT" was published in 1963 (2) although it could have been used earlier. It's first known use in the English language was much earlier, in about 1745.
The Ark Document
In Don Ruh’s book, there is a photo of a page from Bill Jackson’s collection that has the drawing of a chest on it, this is supposedly a representation of the Ark of the Covenant. The rest of the document appears to be a sort of map, there are also lines which look like the shape of a river and various annotations in the Theban alphabet.
The Theban alphabet (also known as the Witches’ Alphabet and the Runes of Honorius) was supposedly created by Honorius of Thebes in the middle ages, this is first claimed in Polygraphia by Johannes Trithemius, polygraph, abbot and cryptographer, in 1518. But earlier writings in Theban have yet to be found and authenticated. Used as a replacement cipher for concealing secret messages, spells, and knowledge, it is often associated with witchcraft and the Wiccan and Pagan movements; it was used to write rituals and magic. In the Ark document, Theban was used to replace French words.
It has been suggested that the Order of the Temple used Theban symbols as a substitution alphabet but after extensive research we have found nothing to conclude this is the case. At the time of the Templars, substitution alphabets were indeed used, there are a few known examples of the Cistercian Numerals, which the religious group created as an alternative to Arabic Numerals. The Cistercians were closely affiliated to the Temple Order, and it would not be surprising if the Templars used a similar system, but there is no actual evidence to support that the Knights Templar used such a cipher.
Some researchers have suggested that the Cremona is a medieval document, even possibly a Templar document, which was partly recopied much later, this is purportedly the case with the “Ark Document”. To comprehend more about this document, its writer, and its possible age we have examined it in detail.
In Don Ruh’s book the words have already been transcribed into French and then translated into English, we have rechecked the writing in Theban that was done at the time and have looked at the sentences and words.
The letters in plain alphabet (A,B,C…) were added as an index for the annotations by researchers in the 1970s. We have put the annotations that we find the most revealing with their corresponding letters below. We have also added the source material of our analysis at the end of this page.
● A. “KARNAK”: the temple complex in Egypt. The earliest entry that we find of this name being used in French is in a 1786 book. There is an earlier usage in 1668 but this is spelt “CARNAC” like the megalithic monument in France (3 & 4).
● B. “LE SOUTERAIE”, which had been translated here as “tunnel”, actually means “underground”. Composed of the words “SOUS” and “TERRAIN”, in early French it is written with S or Z in front of the T. It appears without the middle S in the 3rd edition of the French Academy Dictionary in 1740 (5), though we have seen some earlier uses in publications from the 1560’s (6).
● C. “LOQSOR” = Louxor in Egypt, was indeed sometimes written that way in the 19th century.
● D. “LE CORRIDOR DE L’EAU”: Translated here as the “water pipe”, it actually means “the corridor of water”. We find “CORRIDOR” first attested in use in the 17th century (7 & 8). Though it might have been used earlier, it is doubtful it was in use before the 16th century.
● E. “LE COMPARTMENTS”: Meaning “the compartments”. The grammar is incorrect, it has a singular article for a plural noun. It should also be spelt “COMPARTIMENTS”.
● H. “LA BAGOUTTE DE ZINC”: Supposedly meaning ‘the zinc rod”. It should be spelt “BAGUETTE”. More interestingly, the word “ZINC” was attested as being written “ZAIN” until the mid-17th century, when it first appears in various publications (9). It is not until the 4th edition of the Academy Dictionary in 1762 that it is officially spelt “ZINC (10)”
● I. “LE COUIVRE BAGETTE”: Translating as “the copper rod”. This is not correct and should be written “LA BAGUETTE DE CUIVRE”. Both the spelling and sentence construction are wrong.
● J. “LA VITRINE D’OR”, which is translated in the book as “cabinet” or “chest of gold", is certainly more a cabinet than a chest. The word is attested in use in the early 19th century but only first appears in the French Academy dictionary in its 7th edition in 1878 (11).
● L. “LA AILE DES AIGLES”: Meaning the wings of the eagles, the article “LA” should be L’ as the following word starts with a vowel. This is a common mistake on many Bill Jackson documents.
The French, which was encrypted into Theban at some point, has many spelling mistakes and grammar problems. It's highly unlikely that the writer was a native speaker. We understand from the researchers who have studied these documents, that they are likely to be copies and that the original writers might not have been French. We take their arguments into account, but these mistakes remind us of the other Bill Jackson documents supposedly produced by other writers at other dates, where there are many similar issues (plurals, articles, masculine/feminine). This document has many common points with the “Oak Island Map” and with the “Abraham Letter”, which were both supposedly produced at different times and by different people. This would indicate the likelihood that the documents had the same author or authors.
Provenance
It is from Zena Halpern’s and Don Ruh’s accounts that we learn how the “Cremona Document” came into Bill Jackson’s hands. It was supposedly on a trip to France with Dan Spartan that Bill Jackson learned of the existence of a document from Cremona in Italy. In the early 1970s, Dr Jackson apparently visited a rare-book dealer in Paris. It is here that he bought a pamphlet which eventually led him to the Cremona Document. Both Don Ruh and Zena Halpern published a letter from a Mr Alex Caron which relates how Dr Jackson found and bought the document.
From the letter we learn that the bookdealer was called Pierre De Valzac, he lived at “15 rue des Fontaines” in Paris, we have researched this address thinking that such a banal street ("Fountain Street") would believably exist in Paris, but it doesn’t seem to. There are other variants of the name: rue Jean de La Fontaine, rue de la Fontaine du Roi, rue de la Fontaine Mulart, rue des Fontaines du Temple – but we have not found the one we’re looking for. Maybe the street names have changed since the 1970s?
We continued by searching for this Monsieur de Valzac, knowing the date they visited him, it was possible that de Valzac was no longer alive, but there should still be records of his life and maybe descendants to contact. We were greatly surprised to find no record whatsoever of any person named de Valzac in France. The only thing we found with this name was a brand of wine and a brief mention of a man in an English book from 1828. There are no results for any person with that surname on specialised sites like Geneanet, FamilySearch or Ancestry. Strange to say the least…
The clear text French extract
An extract of a French document was also published on the Templar.gold website, though we are not sure where it fits with the rest of the document. The names mentioned in the text are also mentioned in parts of the Cremona Document, so we imagine it belongs to this collection. We do not know if this is supposedly an original, whether it was written in Théban, like many pages of the Cremona, and then “decoded” more recently. The paper it is written on looks old, which seems to imply it is not a recent document.
We have transcribed the text below but we’ve chosen not to publish it here, as the site has now been taken down. You can see this French extract at this link: https://web.archive.org/web/20220706183244/https://templar.gold/the-cremona-document/ .
Transcription of the text:
Firstly, we must say that the French grammar in this document is acceptable, there are no gender mistakes, and the verb and grammar usage is good. It is likely to have been written by someone who has some experience with the French language, though this could probably be done with a decent grammar book and a dictionary. Certain turns of phrase demand good usage of articles, pronouns and at least a mediocre usage of grammar.
There are however certain passages that do not look natural for a native French speaker. The first sentence makes little sense, as you can see in our translation. The usage of the word “ICI” seems slightly strange, the word “RESPIRONS” means to breathe and makes no sense in this context. The spelling of “DOUX” is wrong, we imagine that it should be “DOUZE” (twelve) but spelt in this manner it means “sweet” or “soft”.
The fact that the names mentioned also appear in the "Ralph de Sudeley Journal" (Tama and Cedric) suggests that this extract is supposedly from the 12th century. Yes, it might be a more recent transcription from Theban, but it would have originally been in French, in both cases it should reflect French from de Sudeley’s time.
Concerning the datage of the text, this was certainly not written in the 12th century, there are numerous words in the document that did not exist at this time and there is no doubt at all that this was written much later. We would like to stress that etymological studies of words are very thorough, though they might not be precise to a specific decade or century, the records of word usage in the French language (which was very well documented) can give insights to the rough time that a text was written - or in this case, not written.
Here are a few examples of anachronisms in this text:
· “ETRANGE”: meaning “strange” in English. This would have been written “ESTRANGE” (1) until the 1700s when the letter S was later replaced by an accent. It is written with S in the very official French Academy Dictionaries until 1740 (2).
· “CEDRIC”: This name was unused in France until the mid-20th century, and was first used in the United Kingdom in the 1819 novel Invanhoe by Wolter Scott, who had supposedly invented the name at the time. Various forms were used much earlier but these were spelt differently and stemmed from the Celtic name Cedd, who was a saint in the VII century. In the huge French National Library database, the name Cedric first appears in 1820 (4).
· “SOUTENU”: meaning “supported” or “held up”. This would have been written with a S or even Z in front of the T in medieval French. It appears as “SOUSTENU” in the French Academy Dictionaries until 1740 (5).
· “ILE”: Meaning “island” in English it was written “ISLE” (6) until the replacement of the S with a circumflex accent. The first time this happened was in the mid-16th century but was not generally accepted until the French language reform in the 18th century. Having looked at many old documents (letters, ship logs, publications) from the medieval period until the 18th centuries we think it would be highly unlikely to find it spelt without an S before the 17th Century.
· “Tempête”: Meaning “storm”. As with the previous word, in the 12th century it would have been written with S as “TEMPESTE”. The etymological dictionary records this word first being written without the S in 1638 (7). It is still written “TEMPESTE” in the 1694 and 1718 editions of the French Academy Dictionary. In this text it has a circonflexe accent which is absolutely impossible for a medieval document.
Clearly the datage of the words used does not fit with a 12th century document. Some may argue that it was written later… Maybe? In that case it was transcribed inexactly using more recent vocabulary and accents that did not exist!
More intrigues
In The Scrolls of Onteora, Don Ruh presents a series of photos that were sent to him after William Jackson’s death. These are supposedly photos of pages from the Cremona Document There are 2 photographs that we find very interesting.
One of these is of a letter which is dated 1118 and signed by Bernard de Clairvaux, a very important French abbot who brought many reforms to the Catholic church. He took his name from the abbey he founded, known at the time as the abbey of “Clare Vale or “Clear Vale” in English. His uncle, André de Montbard, was one of the founders of the Order of the Temple and a Grand Master. The date of the signature is quite interesting because in the year 1118 Bernard de Clairvaux retired from his abbatial duties temporarily and went into hermitage (8).
Bernard de Clairvaux wrote many letters and sermons, mostly in Latin and we have yet to see a signature on any papers attributed to him. What we found interesting is the way his name is written. In the document he wrote "Bernadi Abbotis" supposedly latin for Bernard Abbot, he then added “de Clairvaux”, which is in French and means “from Clairvaux”. It is surprising to us that he did not use the Latin form "Claravallensis", which would have been normal in this context. One of the specialists we worked with on this investigation is a French, Latin and Greek teacher, she also pointed this out and found his siganture incoherent. Furthermore, our research suggests that at Bernard’s time the abbey was known as “Clare Vale”, “evolving to Clere Vaux” before its final change to Clairvaux. Actually, we only first find the “Clairvaux” spelling in a 1637 book.
The above are examples of the “Clerevaux” spelling in the 16th and 18th centuries. In all likelihood Bernard de Clairvaux would not have signed his name with a spelling variation that did not exist.
The other photo of interest is on the next page of Don Ruh’s book, there is an interesting list of book/document titles, some of which are in French. Mr Ruh calls it “The decoded list of documents Ralph De Sudeley recovered during his mission to… Hunter Mountain”. We will not go into too much detail, here are a few of the more remarkable French titles:
· La Bibliothèque
· La Chronique de Mananus Scotus (…)
· La Histoire de Cleopatrae (…)
Again there are incoherences with a supposed medieval text. “Chronique” which is first attested in this form in 1536 (9) and “Histoire”, first attested in 1646 (10), were not at all written this way in the medieval period. The word Bibliotheque is attested in the 15th Century (11), 300 years after Ralph de Sudeley’s time. Furthermore, thoughout the list, there are problems with grammar and with gender accords.
But what does this mean for the other documents that Bill Jackson owned? In the next part of this investigation the Compendium will examine one of Bill Jackson's documents that has been connected to the island.