answers: Benjamin Franklin Gates
context: David Marteen David Marteen (fl 1651-1672) was a Dutch privateer and pirate best known for joining Henry Morgan’s raids against Spanish strongholds in present-day Mexico and Nicaragua. He is also the subject of a popular buried treasure legend. Marteen had been active in the Caribbean as early as 1651, and by 1663 had accepted a commission from Jamaican Governor Thomas to sail against the Spanish. In his barque "Charity" he may have joined Christopher Myngs for raids on Campeche, ignoring the cessation of hostilities between England and Spain. Although raids against the Spanish were prohibited under British law, he agreed </s> been made that locks of hair were removed from the body of George Washington during the 1837 unsealing, though attempts to auction them in recent years have proved unsuccessful and doubts about their authenticity have been raised. In an 1835 book about the life and times of the Marquis de Lafayette, Jules Germain Cloquet reports that Lafayette – on his visit to the United States in 1824 – received a ring from one of George Washington's step-grandchildren into which was enclosed George and Martha Washington's hair. According to Cloquet, the ring was given with the wish that it be descended </s> family legend of a fantastic treasure trove of artifacts and gold, hidden by the Founding Fathers of the United States, and the attempts by the scion of the family, Benjamin Franklin Gates, to find the treasure before his ex-friend, Ian Howe, steals the Declaration of Independence. In the sequel to the original 2004 film, black market dealer Mitch Wilkinson locates one of the 18 missing pages of John Wilkes Booth's diary and suggests that Ben's ancestor, Thomas Gates, was a conspirator in the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, so Ben sets out to prove his innocence by kidnapping the current
question: who tried to steal the declaration of independence