WILLIAM EDWARD PETTY HARTNELL was baptised by a Franciscan padre at Mision San Carlos, near Monterey, on October 13, 1824

+++  As a devout Catholic, Cot advised conversion for his friend, not mere lip service as given by so many foreigners for worldly gain, but serious conversion accompanied by meditation, confession, and penance.  Referring to Father Martinez’ invitation to retreat, with its implication of conversion, Don Antonio exclaimed: “Would to God you would fulfil it, though I fear you won’t because of that cursed debility.”  ++  He well knew that a week without liquor, a week of self-examination and humble prayer, would loom like an eternity at this stage in Hartnell’s recovery from a prolonged drinking bout.  To his delight, his friend accepted the challenge.  Hartnell’s “holy week” was followed, shortly, by the confession of theft; then by the letter to his brother, enclosing all the cash he could spare, as partial amends for the wrong he had done to his uncle and the others.  ++  A few months later, after serious study of the Catholic creed and customs, Hartnell underwent the ceremony of baptism.  This was in the Mission of San Carlos, near Monterey, on October 13, 1824.  For flagellation, perhaps, he added his uncle’s Christian name to his own.  Ever after his business signature was W. E. P. Hartnell, the initials standing for William Edward Petty.  Ever after he remained faithful to the mother church.  From her he received the staff he needed to lean upon, and explicit directions for his “pilgrimedge.”  At last he felt that grace had been given him “to know the right path,” as he wrote Father Ripoll.  With humility and deep resolve, he entered on a new life of the spirit.  ++  Needless to say, this was not appreciated or understood by his business associates, McCulloch and Begg, or by his Church of England friends and family.  Each year, from this time onward, William received fewer and fewer letters from England, and these were increasingly perfunctory in tone.  Strong bonds were broken, in this twenty-sixth year of his life, but new and stronger ones were being formed.  ++  ”The loved one who fills your thoughts,” referred to by Father Martinez, was none other than the eldest daughter of Don Jose de la Guerra y Noriega, for many years the wealthiest, most cultivated and influential man in California. … +++ 

PADRE LUIZ MARTINEZ wrote to DON GUILLERMO HARTNELL @ Casa de la Guerra in Santa Barbara, proposing he ‘spend a holy week, without the loved one who fills your thoughts’

+++  Don Guillermo made a supreme effort and started north to meet with Don Antonio, whose patience seems quite inexhaustible by modern standards.  They stopped a few days in Santa Barbara, to prepare people for the ‘John Begg”s progress up the coast, and to visit at the home of Don Jose de la Guerra y Noriega, eclipsing in size and presitige Bandini’s San Diego establishment.  Don Jose entertained distinguished visitors from the Americas and Europe more frequently and lavishly than any other man in California.  A lovely wife, a large and lively family, aided the head of the house in dispensing hospitality.  One always enjoyed the music, the dancing, the food for body and spirit at ‘la casa de la Guerra.’  ++  Here Hartnell received a note from Father Martinez inquiring about most recent “news from Europe and all creditable places,” and placing an order for San Luis Mission from the company ship’s cargo.  Continued the priest (translation):  ++  ’I am glad to hear that your business has been transacted with all the profits anticipated, although I understand they have not been what you longed for.  For since the world is the world, no man finds complete satisfaction.  Although you are young men, you will know that one must endure storms to enjoy fair weather, otherwise you cannot strike a balance. . . . . . ++  ’It would please me to have you spend a holy week, without the loved one who fills your thoughts, so that you could satisfy Jesus Christ our Lord or perhaps I should say ‘my’ Lord for I do not know if he is yours.’  ++  Martinez was not alone in fearing that Hartnell might be godless.  The discovery that Voltaire was “contaminating” Don Guillermo’s Monterey library had been a bitter pill for several padres to swallow, and a complaint actually had been lodged by one of them with the city council.  ++  Hartnell was fortunate in his companion during this crisis in his life.  Don Antonio Cot encouraged him to taper off in his drinking, to make up for neglect of business matters in San Diego by working hard n Santa Barbara, and to seek a solution for the besetting moral problems which he had refused so long to face. …  +++ 

Only Padre Martinez knew DON GUILLERMO HARTNELL’s ‘consuming inner conflict … could not be dispelled by daily fiestas or aguardiente’

+++  People poured into San Diego from private ‘ranchos’ and the nearest missions to vie for exotic goods spread out on the ‘John Begg”s decks.  A fine opportunity was at hand for the partners to make business deals and establish enduring goodwill.  McCulloch and Captain Lincoln did what they could to handle the trade, but found Hartnell of little use, tipsy day and night.  They became impatient, and saw no excuse for it.  Mr. Begg’s foreboding seemed true, his insults justified.  ++  Only Father Martinez sensed the young man’s misery, his consuming inner conflict.  He knew it could not be dispelled by daily fiestas or ‘aguardiente’ (the California liguor that resembled rum) or even by hard work.  The days drifted by, while he watched Don Guillermo sink deeper into a mood of self-indulgence, self-pity, and despair.  The experienced “fisher of souls” was biding his time, allowing his fish the line to the point of exhaustion.  ++  Finally Hartnell received a jolt into some sort of action.  This came from Antonio Jose Cot, an understanding friend who was also a business rival.  Originally from Lima, Don Antonio now served in a position similar to Don Guillermo’s, as resident manager of Mancisidor’s California firm.  Knowing Hartnell of old, he adopted a chiding yet kindly tone in a letter written from Buenaventura near Santa Barbara (translation):  ++  ’I have finally learned from Don Pablo [a son of Don Jose de la Guerra] that you still are alive, but I feared that you were dead judging from the silence you have kept.  ++  ’Have you forgotten the agreement made this year by yourself, Juan Ignacio [Mancisido} and myself, that at the beginning of this month we were to meet at San Juan Bautista?  I see you have, and also what has been the cause: ‘fiestas’ and more ‘fiestas’ in San Diego which have so debilitated you as to make you fearful (so I have been told) of attempting to travel as far as San Luis.  Is it possible that such a thing is said of a Briton?  Never would I have imagined it.  I have been here 15 days waiting. . . . . Please make amends and take advantage of the fast express to come here and we shall immediately go to Monterey. . . . I have decided to wait for you 8 or 10 days, after which, if you do not come, I shall leave because ‘time is advancing.’ +++

Franciscan PADRE LUIS MARTINEZ of Mision San Luis Obispo ‘with DON GUILLERMO HARTNELL would play [guitar] + sing for hours on end, joining in all the fiestas’

+++  He had stolen money from the best friend, the constant benefactor of his boyhood.  The fact was sufficiently disturbing, without the news of Uncle Edward’s loss of health and wealth.  ++  William’s cry for help from his brother George followed a week of  retirement and meditation spent in the Mission of San Luis Obispo.  This was at the instance of friendly Father Martinez, his roommate at the Bandini home in San Diego, where William received Mary’s letter.  He had come to welcome McCulloch back from Lima aboard the ‘John Begg,’ which was carrying a cargo carefully selected for sale on the California coast.  McCulloch brought a packet of letters for the resident manager, besides books, magazines, newspapers, medicines, and small luxuries from friends and family, who felt that he lived in farthest limbo and must be comforted by presents.  ++  Reacting characteristically to the fateful letter from his sister, William refused to face the reality that now at last he must make amends; that Uncle Edward now needed the money “borrowed’ so long ago; that a way must be found to return it around the Horn, across the ocean, and into the old man’s pocket, without breaking his heart by telling him the truth.  Refusing to think, Hartnell commenced to drink heavily.  ++  Always in San Diego he stayed at the home of Don Juan Bandini, scion of a Peruvian-Spanish family.  Don Juan had been born in (in 1800) and educated in Lima, where the young men first met.  Accompanying his father on a business trip to California in 1819 or 1820, he had fallen in love with a daughter of Don Jose Maria Estudillo, then ‘commandante’ of Monterey.  When the British partners first arrived in San Diego, they found him settled there, starting a family which was to become famous for beauty, hospitality, and political activity.   Always something was going on under the Bandini roof.  ++  Father Martinez had ridden south with Hartnell, from San Luis Obispo to San Diego, to look over the ‘John Begg”s new cargo and to make a prime selection for his mission.  In his lighter moments the handsome padre played practical jokes and strummed the guitar.  With Don Guillermo he would play and sing for hours on end, joining in all the fiestas occasioned by the arrival of a trading vessel.  +++ 

LAST CONFESSION: ‘An astounding communication’ between WILLIAM HARTNELL + brother George Hartnell of William’s thefts from Uncle Petty in London, Aspinwall in Liverpool + Harrison in Paddington

+++  Since Hannah is Mr. Petty’s favorite niece, William always entrusts her with his messages to the old bachelor.  This time, ‘you will remember me kindly to him and assure him that I shall never forget the many obligations I owe him, and that I hope in 3 or 4 years more to have the pleasure of seeing and assuring him personally of my eternal gratitude.”  ++  And now, amongst the home-going mail, all dated April 3, 1824, comes an astounding communication.  It is the last letter to (or from) his brother George to be found among William Hartnell’s carefully preserved papers:  ++  ’I have now to request that you will pay particular attention to what I am going to communicate and I think it needless to enjoin the most inviolable secrecy as you will yourself see the necessity of keeping the affair from the knowledge of every living being; the subject is this [there follows eight lines of shorthand, using the now obsolete system of Samuel Taylor]:  ++  ’When I lived with my uncle Petty in London I took from him at several times certain sums of money.  In Liverpool I took some from Mr. Aspinwall and in Pddington from Mr. Harrison.  This can’t be called an actual robbery as I always intended some time or other to repay them and have never till now had it in my power.  But as Providence has been so kind as to furnish me at length with means, I can do longer delay satisfying the debt, and therefore desire you will take the most prudent measures you can think of, without endangering my reputation, to have conveyed to my uncle Petty 48 pounds, to Mr. Aspinwall 10 pounds, and to Mr. Harrison 2 pounds. . . . . .This sum will not now pay what I took from the several persons but let them interest for the time they have ‘lent’ their money.  I hope that you my brother, will be satisfied that although I may have committed errors in my youth I may still hope for pardon if I, as in this instance, do what lies in my power to make satisfaction and repent of them.’  ++  A letter from Mary directly stimulated this confession.  She told him in mournful detail of their uncle’s business reverses and described the ills of old age which made recouping unlikely.  From a constant pricking through the years, William’s conscience commenced to stab him until he could stand it no longer. …  +++ 

Bahia Packet letters written by DON GUILLERMO HARTNELL were sent to his DEAR MOTHER + sisters Hannah + Mary in Backbarrow Lancashire England

+++  ’I am sorry that circumstances have not permitted me in conscience to do much more, for until I receive accounts from Mr. Brotherston of the results of our two expeditions from this country to your place I can form no idea of what I am actually worth and must therefore for the present put bounds to the gratitude I owe to the best of mothers; yet I am fully confident that he will advance you on my account any reasonable sum you may require.  ++  ’I assure you that I am equally  anxious with yourself to return once more to the bosom of my family but God knows when I shall receive that pleasure.  Yet I firmly trust that the day is not far distant when I shall have the consolation of throwing myself at the feet and receiving the blessing of my beloved Mother, whom that the Almighty may preserve many years in this life and finally crown with bliss in that which is to come is the fervent prayer of her dutiful & affectionate Son.’  ++  Not only are the family worried because the years go by and William seems no closer to his return to England, but they imagine all sorts of dangers assailing their loved one in the wilds of California.  From reassuring his mother as to his desire for an early reunion, William turns to his worrying sister Mary with reassurance about conditions in his adopted country:  ++  ’California is not such a dreadful country as you imagine; it is true there are burning mountains and forests infested with wild beasts, but these lay out of the main road and it is not necessary to go near them without one likes.  Although I have been here almost two years and have traveled from one end of the country to the other three or four times, I have only once met with a bear on the road and that ran away to the woods as soon as it perceived me.  These animals are extremely savage when they are attacked, but if left unmolested they seldom or never do any harm.’  ++  Scattering his favors, writing a letter to each of his dearly loved family to go at the same sailing, William says to Hannah:  ++  ’I never in my life enjoyed such good health as I do in California.  It is a most beautiful climate and I am as comfortably situated as it is possible for one to be, who so anxiously wishes to return to his native home and to the society of his long lost friends.’  +++ 

Letters written by WILLIAM HARTNELL from San Diego, April 3, 1824 show him playing role of French teacher to his young brother Nat, + dutiful son to his ‘DEAR MOTHER’

+++  ’At all events, if your knowledge of languages should procure you no pecuniary benefits you will always find yourself amply repaid for the trouble of acquiring it, by the innumerable funds of amusement it will put you in possession of.’  ++  William did not receive answers to his English letters for so long that the correspondence maintained a parallel course, the character of a monologue rather than an exchange of thought.  Sometimes, because of changes in a ship’s course or some events impossible to forsee at the start of a voyage, two whole years would elapse before an answer came to a long-forgotten question.  Writing to Nat again from San Diego on April 3, 1824, the older brother continues his attempt to educate through constructive criticism:  ++  ’Since my last of 10 September, per Bahia Packet, I have been favoured with yours of 24 Dec. 1822 and am very glad to hear that your prospects still continue so flattering.  ++  ’Your shorthand I have not been able to make out, but it appears to me not to be of the best kind, as I perceive that the letters are not joined together which must render it very tiresome to write.  However I am glad you take pleasure in applying yourself to anything useful and hope that the next letter I receive from  you will continue a specimen of your progress in French, parceque ma soeur m’a assure il y a longtemps que vous saviez deja traduire les Aventures de Telemarque et s’il est vrai il vous coutera bien peu ecrire actuelement une lettre francaise, ne soiez donc paresseux et faites de maniere que je reste content de vous.’  ++  Answering a letter from his mother of the same date, young William, whose imagination can propel him at any time to the most faraway scene, transforms himself from an exacting teacher to a model of filial devotion:  ++  ’DEAR MOTHER: It is impossible for you to form any idea of the pleasure I felt on the receipt of your kind letter of 24th Dec. 1822 and I return you a thousand thanks for your goodness in granting me so unexpected a favour.  ++  ’What little I have hitherto done for you is nothing more than what my duty forcibly compelled me to do, and does not merit the high encomiums you are pleased to pass on my conduct.  +++

WILLIAM HARTNELL wrote to his older sister Mary about their mother, sisters, Uncle Petty + younger artist brother Nathaniel about their mother’s portrait head, on Sept. 10, 1823

+++  A note accompanied his present to his older sister Mary, apologizing for accusations of neglect:  ++  ’I have before me your several letters . . . . . of last year, all of which reached me in California.  ++  ’My last letters to you have contained little else but complaints of your negligence in not writing me by every opportunity; but I am now fully satisfied that you were not in the fault and hope you will excuse my unjust complaints. . . . . ++  ’I am very sorry for the misfortunes [ill health and serious business reverses] which have happened to our best benefactor my uncle Petty, but it is no little consolation to me to think that providence has placed it in my power to supply in some degree the loss you have sustained in being deprived of the assistance of so valuable a friend.  [He gives detailed information about the provisions he has made, through Mr. Brotherston, toward the annual care of his mother, sisters, and young brother; then concludes:] I assure you that you are extremely welcome to any assistance it may be in my power to afford you, as I consider that what is mine belongs equally to you.’  ++  A portrait head of their mother painted by Nathaniel, the family artist, arrived about this time.  To his young brother, Hartnell wrote from Santa Barbara on September 10:  ++  ’I have at length recd. my mother’s picture for which receive my grateful thanks.  I think it very well executed as regards the painting, but I have either forgotten my mother’s features, or the likeness is not a very striking one.  ++  ’Let the next picture you send be the likeness of yourself, if you are possessed of sufficient ability to draw your own phiz.  If not send me whatever you like and be assured that nothing can come wrong from your hands. . . .Let no opportunity slip of writing me and give me a full acct. of the situation of your affairs, of the progress you make in you studies, and of the expectations and prospects you have for the future.  ++  ’Although the greater part of your time ought to be occupied in perfecting yourself in the profession you have made choice of, I would thoroughly advise you not to neglect the study of languages, particularly French and Italian, for depend upon it they will never do you any harm but on the contrary it is more than probable that they will one day or other become of especial service to you. … +++  

Homesick for the Dirty Dog & Camel, ‘a pot of good old English porter, + … smoking welsh rabit,’ WILLIAM HARTNELL nevertheless claimed to William Dobson that he was ‘universally looked upon here as the greatest personage in California’

+++  ’I beg your acceptance of the accompanying Bow & Arrows, it is the only curiosity this out of the way place affords.  ++  ’With kind remembrances to my cousin Dobson, I remain, Dear Uncle, yours very affectionately.’  ++  Writing to Uncle Edward, thinking of other members of his family, induced a nostalgic mood.  While deep in it, Hartnell wrote a letter to William Dobson still living in London, still visiting with childhood friends in familiar haunts:  ++  ’How willingly would I give five hundred dollars to be able to drink a pot of good old English porter, and eat a smoking welsh rabit [sic] with you tonight at the Dirty Dog & Camel; how gladly would I forfeit the half of my promising expectations to be able once more to breathe the air of my native country, to hear once more the voice of real friendship, to see once more those, the remembrance of whom alone makes life tolerable.  But alas! these pleasures are reserved for such as have been wise enough to stop at home, for such as ambition has not tempted, nor fortune obliged, to seek in other countries what they could not find in their own.  These my dear Coz are pleasures which you have every moment within your grasp, but which you will never know how to appreciate until (which heaven forbid should ever happen) you have been so long deprived of them as I have been.  ++  ’Notwithstanding this doleful apostrophe, I assure you I am a great deal more comfortably situated than I eighteen months ago had any right to expect; I was then a poor clerk, stretched upon a bed of sickness which by everyone who knew me was pronounced to be my death bed – I am now a partner in the most respectable house on this side of Cape Horn, enjoying better health than ever I did in my life, and universally looked upon here as the greatest personage in California.’  ++  By the ‘Bahia Packet,’ which carried the letters to Cousin Dobson and Uncle Edward, Hartnell sent a collection of Indian curiosities – beautifully designed and woven baskets, beadwork, and bows and arrows secured by Father Ripoll – for every member of the family and a few dear friends. … +++ 

DON GUILLERMO HARTNELL wrote to his UNCLE EDWARD PETTY in England on July 10, 1823: ‘Missions…are inhabited almost entirely by Indians’

+++  Once, when a particularly large quantity of inferior tallow had been discovered in the hold of a company ship, the skeptical Scot advised his partner, “although they are great Christians in that quarter, look sharp after them – several of the skins have got very bad tallow and are black as pitch.”  ++  Yet in spite of petty and passing  annoyances, there was cause for congratulation at the end of Macala y Arnel’s first year in California.  Evidence abounded of hard work and the constant use of intelligence and tact on the part of each partner.  An unprecedented contractual guarantee of the mission trade, special building permits and coasting privileges granted by the government, ships received and dispatched on schedule, and prospects of an expanding business – all these indicated a solid foundation for the first mercantile house in California.  ++  Writing to Uncle Edward Petty from Monterey on July 10, 1823, Hartnell permits himself a bit of boasting:  ++  ”I believe you are already informed of my being taken into partnership with my late employers Messrs. John Begg & Co. jointly with my former fellow clerk Mr. H. McCulloch; and of our destination to this country for the purpose of forming an establishment for the collection of Hides for the European and tallow for the Lima markets.  ++  ’We have now been here about 15 mos. and have every prospect of succeeding in our undertaking; we have already had four vessels to our consignment, have sold two valuable ships’ cargos and are at present loading two vessels, the one with hides for England (which will be the first cargo of the description ever procured in this country and the only vessel that ever sailed direct from New California to Europe) and the other with Tallow for Lima.  The Firm here is McCulloch, Hartnell & Co.  ++  ’New California consists of 4 Presidios, 19 Missions, and 2 small Villages; Monterey is the Capital and residence of the Governor, the other Presidios are commanded by Captains under his orders; the Missions which are inhabited almost entirely by Indians are under the direction of the friars of the order of Saint Francisco, who are in general jolly, fat, good-natured fellows, who do nothing all day but pray and fill their bellies.  ++  ’We have been fortunate enough to induce the greater part of them to enter into a contract with us for all the hides and tallow which the missions may produce for the ensuing three years, which circumstances gives us great advantage over any other person who might be tempted to come here and set up in opposition to us. …  +++