William E. P. Hartnell A California Patriarch, 1820-1854
California was founded and settled by Spanish Catholics and hence its background and culture, its place names and festivals, reflect Catholicism. The laws of the Church forbidding Catholics to intermarry with non-Catholics were strictly enforced. Consequently many who came as traders remained as settlers after marrying into the old Spanish families. A prerequisite of such marriages was the conversion of the non-Catholic trader who, more often than not, carried his responsibilities lightly. William Hartnell, the subject of this study, took his conversion to Catholicism seriously and found in his religion the opening of a new life with ample opportunity to demonstrate the several gifts of nature and of grace with which he was generously endowed. Hartnell’s career opens with his arrival in California just prior to the Mexican revolt from Spain in 1820. It was a time of intrigue and revolution, conditions which only served to highlight more sharply the constructive program and projects of a public-spirited individual, several of whose most cherished efforts ended in failure. Although his impact on California history was not of pri­mary significance in its effects, nevertheless the role he played was a contributing part of the Mexican phase of California’s history.
Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations