In the year 2014 the small balance of about £70 remaining in a little known charity called the "McCulloch Bequest for the Poor of Durness" was absorbed into a trust fund called the "Highland Charities Trust" along with some other small charities whose funds had reduced to levels that made them uneconomic to administer individually. In the new combined fund this charity became known simply as the "Durness Poor Fund", so the name of McCulloch disappeared from the records. Not that the records ever revealed much about him, but McCulloch, baptised Hugh in October 1793 to Kenneth McCulloch and his wife Barbara, in the parish of Durness, County of Sutherland, Scotland played a significant role in the history of the State of California in the United States of America. Over the following pages we will explain what we know of his life, in particular his founding of the Californian Hide and Tallow Trade in 1822 which was the very beginning of the commercial economy of modern California, and which is commemorated by the following plaque in San Pedro, the Port of Los Angeles in California.
Kenneth McCulloch, Hugh's father, was a small tenant farmer on land near to Loch Croispol, pictured below, and it is even possible that the land he farmed is included in the photograph. Their home, such as it was, would have been a primitive cottage built of loose stones with a turf or thatched roof and they probably shared it with their cow and other animals.
Loch Croispol is situated just south of the village of Durness which is the nearest settlement to Cape Wrath, the northwest point of mainland Britain, and in his earliest years Hugh probably attended the nearby school situated at the southern end of the loch. However in 1804 his younger brother James was baptised in the parish of Thurso, some 70 miles away, with their father being described as a day-labourer so it seems that at that time the family had left the farm either on a temporary basis to bolster their income or perhaps on a permanent basis as a result of the Highland Clearances. Later events indicate that they maintained strong connections with Durness and we do know that Hugh's mother at least returned to live there at some point so perhaps their time in Thurso was only temporary, though the journey there would not have been easy with no roads to speak of in that part of Scotland at that time and a journey by sea of some 50 miles would have been difficult with there being no harbour as such at Durness. Thurso itself was a fairly substantial town and a busy port with regular connections to other parts of Scotland including, significantly for this story, Leith, the port of Edinburgh.
Hugh would have been 11 years old in 1804 when we know the family was in Thurso and maybe it was in that port town that he first became involved in the merchanting trade which was to become his future career, but there was also an interesting family connection which might have had some bearing on the path his life took. His uncle, John Ross, a Quartermaster Officer in the 71st Highland Regiment, lived in comfortable circumstances in Musselburgh, just 5 miles from the port of Leith, and we know from events later in life that Hugh had a close relationship with him, which makes us wonder if Hugh might have lodged with him in his youth. Our reason for thinking this is that John Begg, Hugh's future employer then business partner in America, was a native of Musselburgh, having been born there in 1791, making him just two years older than Hugh, so perhaps it was in Musselburgh that they first met. It would certainly make sense, if Hugh had started working in the merchanting trade in Thurso, that he would make his way to the busier port of Leith to further his career.
Hugh's parents, Kenneth and Barbara, are buried in the Balnakeil Burial Ground in Durness, pictured above, and it was the inscription on their memorial stone (not in this picture, though the group of memorial stones in the centre foreground are those of his relatives) that gave us the first inkling of his remarkable life story. At the base of their stone it reads "Erected by his eldest son Hugh MacCulloch Callao S. America". It was this inscription which we noticed whilst undertaking some otherwise fairly ordinary family history research that led us to discover the story of his life as a merchant in South America and California including the business of McCulloch Hartnell & Co and the Californian Hide and Tallow Trade.
Whilst we have only been able to make some guesses as to his early life we are fortunate that Hugh's business partner William Hartnell retained a great deal of his business correspondence and much of the more reliable information on the following pages is sourced directly from letters and business documents in that collection which is held by the Bancroft Library at Berkeley University in California. We have provided links to these document images on a separate site HERE.
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| Loch Croispol looking towards the moorlands of the Parph wilderness beyond which is Cape Wrath |
Loch Croispol is situated just south of the village of Durness which is the nearest settlement to Cape Wrath, the northwest point of mainland Britain, and in his earliest years Hugh probably attended the nearby school situated at the southern end of the loch. However in 1804 his younger brother James was baptised in the parish of Thurso, some 70 miles away, with their father being described as a day-labourer so it seems that at that time the family had left the farm either on a temporary basis to bolster their income or perhaps on a permanent basis as a result of the Highland Clearances. Later events indicate that they maintained strong connections with Durness and we do know that Hugh's mother at least returned to live there at some point so perhaps their time in Thurso was only temporary, though the journey there would not have been easy with no roads to speak of in that part of Scotland at that time and a journey by sea of some 50 miles would have been difficult with there being no harbour as such at Durness. Thurso itself was a fairly substantial town and a busy port with regular connections to other parts of Scotland including, significantly for this story, Leith, the port of Edinburgh.
Hugh would have been 11 years old in 1804 when we know the family was in Thurso and maybe it was in that port town that he first became involved in the merchanting trade which was to become his future career, but there was also an interesting family connection which might have had some bearing on the path his life took. His uncle, John Ross, a Quartermaster Officer in the 71st Highland Regiment, lived in comfortable circumstances in Musselburgh, just 5 miles from the port of Leith, and we know from events later in life that Hugh had a close relationship with him, which makes us wonder if Hugh might have lodged with him in his youth. Our reason for thinking this is that John Begg, Hugh's future employer then business partner in America, was a native of Musselburgh, having been born there in 1791, making him just two years older than Hugh, so perhaps it was in Musselburgh that they first met. It would certainly make sense, if Hugh had started working in the merchanting trade in Thurso, that he would make his way to the busier port of Leith to further his career.
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| Balnakeil Burial Ground |
Hugh's parents, Kenneth and Barbara, are buried in the Balnakeil Burial Ground in Durness, pictured above, and it was the inscription on their memorial stone (not in this picture, though the group of memorial stones in the centre foreground are those of his relatives) that gave us the first inkling of his remarkable life story. At the base of their stone it reads "Erected by his eldest son Hugh MacCulloch Callao S. America". It was this inscription which we noticed whilst undertaking some otherwise fairly ordinary family history research that led us to discover the story of his life as a merchant in South America and California including the business of McCulloch Hartnell & Co and the Californian Hide and Tallow Trade.
Whilst we have only been able to make some guesses as to his early life we are fortunate that Hugh's business partner William Hartnell retained a great deal of his business correspondence and much of the more reliable information on the following pages is sourced directly from letters and business documents in that collection which is held by the Bancroft Library at Berkeley University in California. We have provided links to these document images on a separate site HERE.
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