A Nova Scotia couple is trying to determine whether an old sword found hidden in the walls of their home may have played a role in a nearly 200-year-old murder.
Fabian Gerrior says he was doing renovations on his Guysborough home last year when a worker called him up to the attic.
“I came upstairs and he passed me this, he passed me this sword is what he passed me. I said ‘wow!’”
The rust-coated, metre-long cavalry sabre is British stock from the American Revolution. At the time, the sword would have had a wooden handle, but it has been lost over time.
“They did identify it by the crown here, being so close to the handle,” says Fabian. “The guy there said around 1780, is what he said it was.”
News of the discovery quickly spread to members of the Guysborough Historical Society.
“When I heard about this sword being found in the wall of the house, you know, it may be connected with an evil event of the past,” says Mark Haynes of the Guysborough Historical Society.
“I can understand why someone might simply want to bury it away in the wall of a house and hopefully it will be forgotten forever.”
Records show a cavalry officer by the name of Capt. Joseph Marshall moved to Guysborough as a loyalist after the American Revolution.
“If there’s anybody who would have been in possession of a cavalry sword, it certainly would have been him,” says Haynes.
In 1829, one of Marshall’s sons was charged in the unlawful death of Dr. Henry Inch. Charges were dismissed and the weapon, a sword, was never seen again.
The discovery has left the Gerriors wondering if the sword found in their home, built for the county sheriff back in 1939, was the one used in the murder of Dr. Inch.
“It would be really interesting to find out, really,” says Aldona Gerrior. “We’ll probably never get to.”
Fabian says he is also curious to know how much the sword is worth at auction, but he’s not ruling out loaning it to the Courthouse Museum so the public can enjoy the discovery too.
With files from CTV Atlantic's Dan MacIntosh
