William Willshire
Encyclopedia
William Willshire also known as William Wiltshire (c. 1790 - August 4, 1851), was British
Vice Consul
to Mogadore (Essaouira)
, Morocco
from 1814 until 1844, before being assigned to the Consularship
of Adrianople (Edirne)
in 1845, until his death in 1851.
A native of London
, he became an employee of English
trading house James Renshaw and Co, and in early 1814 he was dispatched to Mogadore as that companies agent there. In the years thereafter he established himself as the foremost Europe
an merchant
in the city, which was at that time an important trading port linking Sahara
n and Sub-Saharan Africa
to Europe
and North America
. Today Willshire is best remembered as the man who redeemed, cared for and helped repatriate hundreds of Western
sailors
enslaved
in the Sultanate of Morocco during the early part of the 19th century, including Captain James Riley
, and Captain Alexander Scott, both of whom would later write and publish harrowing accounts of their hardships endured as slaves in the desert
. The town of Willshire in Ohio
USA was named after him in thanks, by James Riley.
with the resident British Vice Consul and merchant Joseph Dupuis.
for Mogadore too, (there being no Americans in the town to accept the duties of vice consul), until he left Mogadore in 1844.
(usually sailors) from slavery under the terms of an Anglo/Moroccan treaty. In order to secure a redemption he employed as payment The Ironmongers Fund, administered by The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers
in London and set up by one of its members, Thomas Betton in 1723, who himself had been enslaved in Barbary.
Willshire was an intensely devout Anglican throughout his life and upon arriving in Mogadore and learning of the desperate hardships suffered by enslaved, mostly European and American Christian
sailors who had been wrecked on the Saharan
coast, he resolved to work tirelessly to secure the freedom of as many as he was able, regardless of nationality
.
Upon learning of a wreck involving Christian sailors, Willshire would despatch a Moroccan
employee to try to find the enslaved crew and negotiate the terms of their redemption from their master. In this way, during his tenure as British Vice Consul in Mogadore, he secured the freedom of many hundreds of Christian sailors from the unimaginable hardships of slavery, and almost certain death.
The Ransom was completed successfully with Riley and some of his crew delivered to Willshire.
During Riley’s convalescence at Willshire’s house in Mogadore, the two became firm friends and later, business partners, forming a close relationship that lasted until Riley’s death in 1840. Riley later went on to find fame with his published journal Sufferings in Africa
, describing his experiences as a slave in the Moroccan Sahara.
In thanks to William Willshire for the kindnesses he had received during his redemption and subsequent convalescence, Riley named his third son William Willshire Riley. When building a new town in Ohio USA in 1822, Riley named it Willshire
in his honour. The town today has 400 inhabitants.
Willshire was also recipient of many notes of thanks from organisations and individuals for his humanitarian work in Mogadore during his tenure as Vice Consul there, including in 1821 being elected honorary member of the Massachusetts Peace Society
, receiving an award of $45 with the title.
Over time he began to play an important role in the various intrigues of the Moroccan elite and the foreign and Jewish merchants. For example during the early 1830s he was conferred power of attorney in the long and complex bankruptcy dispute between the influential Moroccan based Anglo
/Moroccan Jewish merchant house Macnin & Co and it's several dozen London based creditors, in their attempt to recoup the companies £21,729 debt from its Moroccan based assets.
Upon the return of James Riley to Mogadore that same year, the pair struck up what was to be a highly lucrative business partnership, exporting goods to New York.
Other activities that Willshire engaged in included drawing a sketch map of Southern Morocco for the Royal Geographical Society
and writing a commentary on it in 1845.
where he received the blessings of the monarch. It was at this time that Riley persuaded Willshire that he ought to think about returning to Christian lands.
By 1840, with his fortune from his business interests amounting to some $200,000 he was ready to leave Mogadore and through James Riley he bought a home in New York
at a cost of $16,000.
But soon after this James Riley died at sea and Willshire abandoned his plan to move to America, his New York property being sold.
Willshire instead remained in Mogadore and his business interests continued to flourish until an attack by the French
fleet
in 1844. As the most important foreigner in Mogadore it came to Willshire to negotiate with the Moroccan governor on the evacuation of foreign nationals out of the city and onto waiting British ships.
Despite securing the safe evacuation of most of the foreigners out of the city, due to a dispute over unpaid import duties with the Moroccan Sultans' officials in the town, Willshire and a number of other European merchants and their families were prevented from leaving the town and joining the British evacuation ships.
The Europeans were able to shelter safely in Willshire’s warehouse whilst the French started their bombardment, but when the Sultans' officials and troops fled Mogadore under the attack, local Arab
desert tribesmen seized the opportunity and plundered the town for two days and nights.
During the ransacking, all of Willshire’s fortune and goods were looted with Willshire and his family being manhandled and threatened in the process, his wife at one point having a scimitar held at her throat.
The families were eventually rescued by a French boat and having been handed over to the British, the Willshire’s arrived in London on the 4th of September 1844 utterly destitute, with no home, no business and no money. William Willshire was never able to return to Mogadore to reclaim his property.
The subsequent consolatory stance towards the belligerents by the British government prevented Willshire from claiming any compensation from the French and Moroccan governments and Willshire was obliged to seek a new consular appointment.
The Willshire families time in Adrianople was one of misery, disease and poverty. On an initial salary of just £60, despite frequent requests for a raise, it was only occasionally granted. Even after a miserable five years, his wife contracting Typhus, his children with frequent fevers and Willshire himself having an operation on a cancerous growth, his constant requests for a transfer were always turned down flat.
A typical response from Viscount
Palmerstone was simply “write larger and in a more upright hand”.
Desperate “to end my banishment from civilised society” he volunteered to retire and return to Britain, to live on his pension. The foreign office replied that his post did not entitle him to a pension, and that he could not be treated as a special case.
A response sent from Adrianople informed Palmerston that William Willshire had died on The 4th of August.
An intensely religious man, during his lifetime William Willshire, despite receiving thanks from many quarters for his work in redeeming Western Christian sailors from a life of slavery, including a vote of thanks from the US Congress, didn’t seek any accolades or recognition for his selfless and far reaching humanitarian work, but James Riley’s son described him as “an honour to his nation and an ornament to mankind”.
Lincoln
is quoted as saying that Riley’s journal of his experiences in Africa, which may never have been written without Willshire’s help to secure Riley's freedom, was one of the most important works in guiding his opinion on abolition
in the United States.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
Vice Consul
Vice Consul
A vice consul is a subordinate officer, authorized to exercise consular functions in some particular part of a district controlled by a consulate....
to Mogadore (Essaouira)
Essaouira
Mogador redirects here, for the hamlet in Surrey see Mogador, Surrey.Essaouira is a city in the western Moroccan economic region of Marrakech-Tensift-Al Haouz, on the Atlantic coast. Since the 16th century, the city has also been known by its Portuguese name of Mogador or Mogadore...
, Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
from 1814 until 1844, before being assigned to the Consularship
Consul (representative)
The political title Consul is used for the official representatives of the government of one state in the territory of another, normally acting to assist and protect the citizens of the consul's own country, and to facilitate trade and friendship between the peoples of the two countries...
of Adrianople (Edirne)
Edirne
Edirne is a city in Eastern Thrace, the northwestern part of Turkey, close to the borders with Greece and Bulgaria. Edirne served as the capital city of the Ottoman Empire from 1365 to 1453, before Constantinople became the empire's new capital. At present, Edirne is the capital of the Edirne...
in 1845, until his death in 1851.
A native of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, he became an employee of English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
trading house James Renshaw and Co, and in early 1814 he was dispatched to Mogadore as that companies agent there. In the years thereafter he established himself as the foremost Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
an merchant
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
in the city, which was at that time an important trading port linking Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
n and Sub-Saharan Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
to Europe
Europe
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
and North America
North America
North America is a continent wholly within the Northern Hemisphere and almost wholly within the Western Hemisphere. It is also considered a northern subcontinent of the Americas...
. Today Willshire is best remembered as the man who redeemed, cared for and helped repatriate hundreds of Western
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
sailors
Sailors
Sailors is the plural form of Sailor, or mariner.Sailors may also refer to:*Sailors , a 1964 Swedish film*Ken Sailors , American basketball playerSports teams*Erie Sailors, baseball teams in Pennsylvania, USA...
enslaved
Slavery
Slavery is a system under which people are treated as property to be bought and sold, and are forced to work. Slaves can be held against their will from the time of their capture, purchase or birth, and deprived of the right to leave, to refuse to work, or to demand compensation...
in the Sultanate of Morocco during the early part of the 19th century, including Captain James Riley
James Riley (Captain)
James Riley was the Captain of the United States merchant ship Commerce.-Sufferings in Africa:Riley led his crew through the Sahara Desert after they were shipwrecked off the coast of Western Sahara in August 1815, and wrote a book on their ordeal detailing his memoirs...
, and Captain Alexander Scott, both of whom would later write and publish harrowing accounts of their hardships endured as slaves in the desert
Desert
A desert is a landscape or region that receives an extremely low amount of precipitation, less than enough to support growth of most plants. Most deserts have an average annual precipitation of less than...
. The town of Willshire in Ohio
Ohio
Ohio is a Midwestern state in the United States. The 34th largest state by area in the U.S.,it is the 7th‑most populous with over 11.5 million residents, containing several major American cities and seven metropolitan areas with populations of 500,000 or more.The state's capital is Columbus...
USA was named after him in thanks, by James Riley.
Early life and posting to Mogadore
William Willshire was born in London in 1790 and spent his early life there. Having gained employment with the London based, English trading house James Renshaw and Co, he was despatched to Mogadore (Essaouira), Morocco as the companies agent in early 1814, partnering a successful mercantile establishment that was engaged in trading between Mogadore and Great BritainGreat Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
with the resident British Vice Consul and merchant Joseph Dupuis.
Appointed Vice Consul
When Dupuis returned to Britain in August 1814 he recommended Willshire to take over as British Vice Consul in Mogadore, a recommendation that was accepted by the Foreign Office in London. After his appointment he remained the Vice Consul in the city and the agent of the American Consul General in TangierTangier
Tangier, also Tangiers is a city in northern Morocco with a population of about 700,000 . It lies on the North African coast at the western entrance to the Strait of Gibraltar where the Mediterranean meets the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Spartel...
for Mogadore too, (there being no Americans in the town to accept the duties of vice consul), until he left Mogadore in 1844.
The redemption of Christian slaves
Part of the British Vice Consuls duties at Mogadore involved the redemption of British NationalsNationals
Nationals may refer to:* Washington Nationals, a major league baseball team in Washington, DC* Potomac Nationals, a minor league baseball team in Woodbridge, VA* Syracuse Nationals, a 1939-1963 professional basketball team...
(usually sailors) from slavery under the terms of an Anglo/Moroccan treaty. In order to secure a redemption he employed as payment The Ironmongers Fund, administered by The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers
Worshipful Company of Ironmongers
The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers is one of the Livery Companies of the City of London. The Ironmongers, who were originally known as the Ferroners, were incorporated under a Royal Charter in 1463...
in London and set up by one of its members, Thomas Betton in 1723, who himself had been enslaved in Barbary.
Willshire was an intensely devout Anglican throughout his life and upon arriving in Mogadore and learning of the desperate hardships suffered by enslaved, mostly European and American Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
sailors who had been wrecked on the Saharan
Saharan
The term Saharan is used in the English language to denote someone or something from the Sahara desert, including:* Sahrawi , referring to the people of the Western Sahara* Saharan languages, a subgroup of the Nilo-Saharan languages...
coast, he resolved to work tirelessly to secure the freedom of as many as he was able, regardless of nationality
Nationality
Nationality is membership of a nation or sovereign state, usually determined by their citizenship, but sometimes by ethnicity or place of residence, or based on their sense of national identity....
.
Upon learning of a wreck involving Christian sailors, Willshire would despatch a Moroccan
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
employee to try to find the enslaved crew and negotiate the terms of their redemption from their master. In this way, during his tenure as British Vice Consul in Mogadore, he secured the freedom of many hundreds of Christian sailors from the unimaginable hardships of slavery, and almost certain death.
Captain James Riley
It was during one such redemption in 1815 that he first became aware of Captain James Riley. An American national, Riley’s ship had been wrecked off the Moroccan coast in the August of that year and he and his crew enslaved. Willshire was approached by Riley’s master Sidi Hamet with the purpose of ransoming Captain Riley and some of his crew.The Ransom was completed successfully with Riley and some of his crew delivered to Willshire.
During Riley’s convalescence at Willshire’s house in Mogadore, the two became firm friends and later, business partners, forming a close relationship that lasted until Riley’s death in 1840. Riley later went on to find fame with his published journal Sufferings in Africa
Sufferings in Africa (book)
Sufferings in Africa is a 1817 memoir by James Riley. The memoir relates how Riley and his crew were captured in Africa after being shipwrecked in 1815. Riley was the Captain of the American merchant ship Commerce. He led his crew through the Sahara Desert after they were shipwrecked off the coast...
, describing his experiences as a slave in the Moroccan Sahara.
In thanks to William Willshire for the kindnesses he had received during his redemption and subsequent convalescence, Riley named his third son William Willshire Riley. When building a new town in Ohio USA in 1822, Riley named it Willshire
Willshire, Ohio
Willshire is a village in Van Wert County, Ohio, United States. The population was 463 at the 2000 census. It is included within the Van Wert, Ohio Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
in his honour. The town today has 400 inhabitants.
Captain Alexander Scott
Shortly after the redemption of Riley and his crew, he also redeemed another notable enslaved Westerner, Captain Alexander Scott, who had survived captivity for 6 years and who also wrote an account of his hardships for The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal in 1821.Willshire was also recipient of many notes of thanks from organisations and individuals for his humanitarian work in Mogadore during his tenure as Vice Consul there, including in 1821 being elected honorary member of the Massachusetts Peace Society
Massachusetts Peace Society
The Massachusetts Peace Society was an anti-war organization in Boston, Massachusetts, established to "diffuse light on the subject of war, and to cultivate the principles and spirit of peace." Founding officers included Thomas Dawes, William Phillips, Elisha Ticknor, Thomas Wallcut and Noah...
, receiving an award of $45 with the title.
Life as a merchant in Mogadore
His position as Vice Consul in Mogadore never carried with it significant financial reward (between 1831 and 1845 his salary from the foreign office was just a £100 a year), but during the 1820s and 30’s as Willshire’s business interests flourished, his social and professional influence in Mogadore increased, along with his personal fortune.Over time he began to play an important role in the various intrigues of the Moroccan elite and the foreign and Jewish merchants. For example during the early 1830s he was conferred power of attorney in the long and complex bankruptcy dispute between the influential Moroccan based Anglo
Anglo
Anglo is a prefix indicating a relation to the Angles, England or the English people, as in the terms Anglo-Saxon, Anglo-American, Anglo-Celtic, Anglo-African and Anglo-Indian. It is often used alone, somewhat loosely, to refer to people of British Isles descent in The Americas, Australia and...
/Moroccan Jewish merchant house Macnin & Co and it's several dozen London based creditors, in their attempt to recoup the companies £21,729 debt from its Moroccan based assets.
Upon the return of James Riley to Mogadore that same year, the pair struck up what was to be a highly lucrative business partnership, exporting goods to New York.
Other activities that Willshire engaged in included drawing a sketch map of Southern Morocco for the Royal Geographical Society
Royal Geographical Society
The Royal Geographical Society is a British learned society founded in 1830 for the advancement of geographical sciences...
and writing a commentary on it in 1845.
Marriage and children
By 1832 Willshire had married and had a young family, two sons Leonard and Alexander, a daughter Sara and two small girls.Audience with the Sultan
In late 1839, Willshire along with his son Leonard and James Riley, were granted an audience with the Moroccan Sultan Mulay Abdir AhmanAbderrahmane of Morocco
Moulay Sharif Abderrahmane was sultan of Morocco from 1822 to 1859. He was a member of the Alaouite dynasty.-Biography:He was born in 1778. His reign began at the start of the French occupation of Algeria...
where he received the blessings of the monarch. It was at this time that Riley persuaded Willshire that he ought to think about returning to Christian lands.
By 1840, with his fortune from his business interests amounting to some $200,000 he was ready to leave Mogadore and through James Riley he bought a home in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
at a cost of $16,000.
But soon after this James Riley died at sea and Willshire abandoned his plan to move to America, his New York property being sold.
The French attack Mogadore
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
fleet
Naval fleet
A fleet, or naval fleet, is a large formation of warships, and the largest formation in any navy. A fleet at sea is the direct equivalent of an army on land....
in 1844. As the most important foreigner in Mogadore it came to Willshire to negotiate with the Moroccan governor on the evacuation of foreign nationals out of the city and onto waiting British ships.
Despite securing the safe evacuation of most of the foreigners out of the city, due to a dispute over unpaid import duties with the Moroccan Sultans' officials in the town, Willshire and a number of other European merchants and their families were prevented from leaving the town and joining the British evacuation ships.
The Europeans were able to shelter safely in Willshire’s warehouse whilst the French started their bombardment, but when the Sultans' officials and troops fled Mogadore under the attack, local Arab
Arab
Arab people, also known as Arabs , are a panethnicity primarily living in the Arab world, which is located in Western Asia and North Africa. They are identified as such on one or more of genealogical, linguistic, or cultural grounds, with tribal affiliations, and intra-tribal relationships playing...
desert tribesmen seized the opportunity and plundered the town for two days and nights.
During the ransacking, all of Willshire’s fortune and goods were looted with Willshire and his family being manhandled and threatened in the process, his wife at one point having a scimitar held at her throat.
The families were eventually rescued by a French boat and having been handed over to the British, the Willshire’s arrived in London on the 4th of September 1844 utterly destitute, with no home, no business and no money. William Willshire was never able to return to Mogadore to reclaim his property.
The subsequent consolatory stance towards the belligerents by the British government prevented Willshire from claiming any compensation from the French and Moroccan governments and Willshire was obliged to seek a new consular appointment.
Consularship of Adrianople
After initial refusals, the Foreign Office offered him the consulship of Adrianople (Edirne) following the previous consuls death.The Willshire families time in Adrianople was one of misery, disease and poverty. On an initial salary of just £60, despite frequent requests for a raise, it was only occasionally granted. Even after a miserable five years, his wife contracting Typhus, his children with frequent fevers and Willshire himself having an operation on a cancerous growth, his constant requests for a transfer were always turned down flat.
A typical response from Viscount
Viscount
A viscount or viscountess is a member of the European nobility whose comital title ranks usually, as in the British peerage, above a baron, below an earl or a count .-Etymology:...
Palmerstone was simply “write larger and in a more upright hand”.
Desperate “to end my banishment from civilised society” he volunteered to retire and return to Britain, to live on his pension. The foreign office replied that his post did not entitle him to a pension, and that he could not be treated as a special case.
Death
Eventually the Foreign Office decided that it did make financial sense to close the consulate in Adrianople and use the money saved to pay Willshire on his return to Britain, a pension of £100 a year. Palmerston proposed it and the Treasury agreed. They wrote to him on the 18th of August 1851 to let him know the good news.A response sent from Adrianople informed Palmerston that William Willshire had died on The 4th of August.
An intensely religious man, during his lifetime William Willshire, despite receiving thanks from many quarters for his work in redeeming Western Christian sailors from a life of slavery, including a vote of thanks from the US Congress, didn’t seek any accolades or recognition for his selfless and far reaching humanitarian work, but James Riley’s son described him as “an honour to his nation and an ornament to mankind”.
Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln
Abraham Lincoln was the 16th President of the United States, serving from March 1861 until his assassination in April 1865. He successfully led his country through a great constitutional, military and moral crisis – the American Civil War – preserving the Union, while ending slavery, and...
is quoted as saying that Riley’s journal of his experiences in Africa, which may never have been written without Willshire’s help to secure Riley's freedom, was one of the most important works in guiding his opinion on abolition
Abolitionism
Abolitionism is a movement to end slavery.In western Europe and the Americas abolitionism was a movement to end the slave trade and set slaves free. At the behest of Dominican priest Bartolomé de las Casas who was shocked at the treatment of natives in the New World, Spain enacted the first...
in the United States.
See also
- James Riley (Captain)James Riley (Captain)James Riley was the Captain of the United States merchant ship Commerce.-Sufferings in Africa:Riley led his crew through the Sahara Desert after they were shipwrecked off the coast of Western Sahara in August 1815, and wrote a book on their ordeal detailing his memoirs...
- CommerceCommerce (ship)The Commerce was a Connecticut-based American merchant sailing ship that ran aground in 1815 at Cape Bojador, off the coast of what is now Western Sahara...
- History of Western SaharaHistory of Western SaharaThe history of Western Sahara can be traced back to the times of Carthaginian explorer Hanno the Navigator in the 5th century BC. Though few historical records are left from that period, Western Sahara's modern history has its roots linked to some nomadic groups such as the Sanhaja group and the...
- History of MoroccoHistory of MoroccoThe History of Morocco spans over 12 centuries, without considering the Classical antiquity. The country was first unified by the Idrisid dynasty in 780, representing the first Islamic state in Africa autonomous from the Arab Empire. Under the Almoravid dynasty and the Almohad dynasty, Morocco...
External links
- The Life of James Riley and later anti slavery work in Ohio
- The Captivity of Captain Alexander Scott, from The New Monthly Magazine and Literary Journal Vol I (1821)
- The Story of The Sultan's Jew in early 19th Century Morocco
- Details of Thomas Betton's bequest at the website of The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers