Did the Knights Templar get to the United States? This question has fuelled a mass of speculation in recent years. The Westford Knight, Newport Tower, Oak Island and Kensington Runestone are objects or stories originating in America to support the idea that the Templars crossed the Atlantic.
FIND OUT MORE: The Templars in America
Westford Knight – the fast eroding proof of Templars in America
If we believe that a group of Knights Templar fled to the New World (America) led by a Scottish knight called Sir Henry Sinclair, then the evidence is fast disappearing. A rock carving in Massachusetts, believed to be a crusader grave, is being rapidly eroded by rain and wind to the point where it won’t be very recognisable as anything in the near future.
That is if you accept that what is on the rock has been carved by human hands – and not a passing glacier and that it’s a medieval knight and not a native American, as has also been postulated in the past.
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The location of the Westford Knight
If you’d like to take a look at the Westford Knight yourselves then it’s on Depot Street, near the Abbott School in Westford, a town north-west of Boston. Since the 1950s, it’s been identified by local historians as “a fallen Viking of the Gunn clan” who was with Henry Sinclair and his fleeing Templars wandering across the New World a hundred years before Columbus.
Spoilsports say the area was inaccessible at the time and that using the term “Viking” (tenth century and before) to describe a knight in the 1300s is historically inaccurate. Mainstream archaeologists comment that the sword could be a human carving but the rest are glacial striations and, basically, what people want to see. They state the claims about the Sinclair connection constitutes ‘pseudo-archaeology’.
Westford Knight – an evolving story
The explanation of the carving we now call the Westford Knight has changed over time. In the 1800s, it was believed to be a native American with a melon-shaped body. By the 1930s, it had an ancient Irish connection. It was in 1954, when local archaeologist Frank Glynn cleared the site, that the Templar connection was made.
In 1976, a memorial was unveiled commemorating this medieval, pre-Columbian expedition to north America. The ceremony was attended by the local Rotary Club, history society, and the Westford Minuteman Company.
If this kind of story interests you – then get yourself a copy of The Knights Templar: History & Mystery – by Tony McMahon – published by Pen & Sword – available on Amazon, WHSmith, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble.
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