William Willshire

[2] In the years thereafter he established himself as the foremost European merchant in the city, which was at that time an important trading port linking Saharan and Sub-Saharan Africa to Europe and North America.

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.

[10] 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.

[11] 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.

[14] 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.

[16] In late 1839, Willshire, along with his son Leonard and James Riley, were granted an audience with the Moroccan Sultan Mulay Abdir Ahman, where he received the blessings of the monarch.

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.

The families were eventually rescued by a French boat, and having been handed over to the British, the Willshires arrived in London on 4 September 1844 utterly destitute, with no home, no business, and no money.

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.

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.