William Hartnell in 1825 married Maria Teresa de la Guerra, daughter of Don José de la Guerra y Noriega who was the commandant of the Santa Barbara Presidio. He spent the rest of his life in California where he raised a large family (over twenty children including adoptions) and became a prominent citizen with a school, Hartnell College, and a number of streets and parks in Monterey being named in his memory. He never achieved financial success though and tried a variety of occupations, including founding the first school in California in 1833, albeit a short-lived venture, after which he fulfilled a number of administrative roles for the State Government, both during the Mexican controlled years and the subsequent American government of California for whom he translated the first California Constitution and other important documents. Two famous American Generals, William T. Sherman and Henry W. Halleck, were among his acquaintances, and Sherman mentions him a number of times in his memoirs. He must have been quite flattered to receive this letter regarding the termination of his duties as Government Translator from the then Captain Halleck (who in 1862 was appointed General-in-Chief of all the Union Armies):
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| The letter concludes: "We have been associated together in office for nearly two years and a half, and during that period I have had full opportunity to learn your varied talent and great accomplishments as a linguist, and at the same time to appreciate your character as a man. It is therefore with no ordinary feelings that I now announce to you the termination of our official relations." |
William Hartnell's complete life story is told in great detail in a book "The Lives of William Hartnell" by Susanna Bryant Dakin published in 1949 but now out of print. Perhaps his most notable achievement was his retention over many years of his business and personal letters and documents which reveal so much of his history and that of his business associates, not to mention the hide trade itself.
Hubert Howe Bancroft, who knew some of Hartnell's contemporaries such as Mariano Vallejo, wrote in his History of California “Hartnell was a man who enjoyed and merited the respect and friendship of all who knew him, being perfectly honest and straightforward in all his transactions, of most genial temperament, and too liberal for his own interests. In some directions he was a man of rare ability, being a master of the Spanish, French, and German languages besides his own. He was not a good business manager, lacking application, method and energy, and always being in financial trouble; but in any clerical or subordinate capacity he was most reliable and efficient. In the later years he drank to excess...His correspondents were men of education and standing in many parts of the world.”
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For John Begg the Californian hide business was just one of several ventures. Alongside his merchanting business he was also involved in mining projects in Peru in association with General John Thomond O'Brien, an Irishman who had played a leading role in the South American independence wars.
One unnamed source writes:
"Mr Begg was the first person who projected the application of steam to the navigation of the west coast of South America, and in 1827 caused a steamer to be built called the Telica, which was sent round Cape Horn, but was unfortunately blown up at Paita. The undertakings of Mr Begg and General O'Brien in the prosecution of their labours in their mining establishments at Puno, were such as had never before been considered practicable. They were the first persons who succeeded in carrying steam engines over the Andes......"
General William Miller, an Englishman who fought for the patriot armies, wrote in a letter in March 1823 following his arrival in Lima:
"I have taken up my quarters at the hospitable mansion of my excellent friend Mr Begg".General William Miller, an Englishman who fought for the patriot armies, wrote in a letter in March 1823 following his arrival in Lima:
So, like Hartnell, John Begg could count two Generals amongst his friends! He appears to have continued with his mining exploits into the 1830's but with little success and is believed to have died in Chile around 1840 a poor man. In his will, written in Lima in 1831 "...on the eve of a long voyage and taking into consideration the perils thereof...." he left all his estate to his sister Mary, wife of James Brotherston. He does have the rare distinction of having a rock in the Pacific Ocean named after him, or at least after his ship. Begg Rock off the coast of California was named after the brig John Begg which struck it on September 24th 1824 whilst bound for San Pedro with a cargo of McCulloch & Hartnell's hides. She was recovered and repaired and continued sailing until at least 1849 when she carried a shipload of Irish emigrants to Baltimore.
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| Begg Rock San Nicholas Island |
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James Brotherston fell victim to the volatile nature of the merchanting business and he was declared bankrupt in 1830. He subsequently recovered his standing somehow and returned to the banking occupation that he had left many years earlier and in 1842 he was appointed manager of the newly opened branch of the National Provincial Bank in the Welsh town of Newtown, Montgomeryshire. According to the bank's official records he was still the manager there in 1844 but their records being incomplete they don't disclose when he left or retired. He died in 1850 in Newtown. (The evidence for this being the same James Brotherston as our Liverpool merchant is beyond dispute, even though it seems strange in this day and age that a former bankrupt could become a Bank Manager!).
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William Atherton we have not mentioned before. He was not a partner in the Californian business but a junior clerk working first for John Begg and later for Hugh McCulloch. He was prone to writing lengthy, gossipy letters which give us the best insight we have into McCulloch's character.
In January 1823 he writes to Hartnell:
"beg to refer you to Mr Hugh McCulloch [for news], who we have made quite a polished gentleman of since his arrival. I assure you he cuts it fat in our city and his company is esteemed by every British merchant, he wears the title of “California Ambassador” and believe me your situation and prospects are looked upon by all adventures to this side.....................On Xmas day we had rather a grand dinner when 104 Britons sat down to beef and pudding, and after taking a small portion of wine (say six bottles each) we retired to the race ground where hunting and racing became the sport, but the ground was so covered with tulips [perhaps a derogatory term for fallers] that it was dangerous to ride about, amongst whom was 'Sturdy Mac laying on his back'...."
“....I was just going to enter into a long detail upon the War between France and Spain but bringing to mind the great inclination you have for doing business in a superior style (that is by knocking off a letter quick) I think I had better conclude.......
...... I hope you have met with more success with the Californian ladies than you represented when last with us. I should not be surprised to hear of your being married – a wife from your country would be a curiosity at home” (McCulloch never did marry, and in one of his letters to Hartnell he bemoaned, in laddish terms, his lack of success with the ladies).
It does appear that Atherton became a partner with John Begg in later years as he is cited as such in the Brotherston bankruptcy notice and he was also himself declared bankrupt in 1833:
Strangely the petitioning creditor was his father, James Atherton, a prominent Liverpool businessman and property developer who McCulloch mentions in this letter from 1823 as he wants Hartnell to send him a Californian saddle:
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| I hope you will attend to what I am going to request, and that is to remit per Neptune to Atherton's father a Saddle of the Country complete with every thing.... |
In 2019 a refurbished Public House in the town of New Brighton near Liverpool was renamed the "James Atherton" in memory of the town's founder, William's father.
William Atherton was back in Liverpool by 1840 and with his father having died in 1838 he then managed the properties his father had built. As will be seen, he was to be an executor of Hugh McCulloch's estate.