El PROYECTO
MACNAMARA
The Maverick Irish Priest and the
Race to Seize California 18441846
John Fox
To Glen, Karl, Mark and Dan
for your love and for blowing my horizons
First published in 2014 by Merrion
an imprint of Irish Academic Press
8 Chapel Lane
Sallins
Co. Kildare
2014 John Fox
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
978-1-908928-73-3 (paper)
978-1-908928-74-0 (cloth)
978-1-908928-75-7 (PDF)
978-1-908928-76-4 (epub)
978-1-908928-77-1 (mobi)
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
An entry can be found on request
All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved alone, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise) without the prior written permission of both the copyright owner and the above publisher of this book.
Printed in Ireland by SPRINT-print Ltd.
Contents
Acknowledgements
Thanks must go to: The Worshipful Company of London Goldsmiths for the Travel Fellowship; Karl and Doris for advice, tent and riffle-pan; Bill Anderson of Butte County, founding editor of California Territorial Quarterly, for the Macnamara challenge and a friendship. The late R.R. Miller, Emeritus Professor, UC at Hayward, the late 7th Marquess and the present 8th Marquess of Hertford, Admiral Seymours descendants, encouraged me. HE The Mexican Ambassador in London, and Marcella of his staff supported my first narrative, and Carlos Enrique Abreu and Erendira Penez of Archivo General de Mexico found the Macnamara dossier for me. Martin Roberts and fellow teachers put up with my Sierra tales. Dan Fox polished my maps.
So many archivists contributed: Rachel Naughton of the Goold Centre, Melbourne; staff at Honolulu archdiocese, Hawaii State Archive, Bishop Museum, and Bronwen Solyom of Manoa Library, University of Hawaii. Patrick Connors SJ trawled Georgetown cathedral crypt between stints upriver in Macnamaras wake. The Archivist of All Souls College, Oxford was helpful; thanks to Oxfords Dominicans for use of their library. Jesuit archivists helped in London, New York and Fordham, Franciscans at Santa Brbara and Les Pres Picpus in Rome. Mark Price, Manager at Ragley Hall arranged new illustrations and Paul Maher of the Gardai Archive, Dublin, invoked common sense! Coordinardora Emma de Ramon Acevedo and Anna Bravo Jura (head buried in papers like an ostrich) of the Chilean National Archive, Adriana Luna-Fabritius, of Mexican Visual History website, were key helpers. Amanda Martin of the Scillies Museum and Tresco Figureheads, Richard Hunter of Figurehead.com, Andy Peters, figurehead carver at Waterperry for their interest, and Jim and Wendy Reilly for literature on Palinurus figurehead: Macnamara crossed much water. Bodleian staff, Oxford University, particularly Jane and Johanna at Vere Harmsworth US Library and Joanne Edwards, Latin American specialist Warwickshire Record Office, Warwick, offered a warm welcome on cold days. Helen Sims, IBM Librarian, Hursley, UK, helped access all William Parrotts 1845 messages. Maria Orchard, our kind neighbour, helped with Spanish correspondence and Greg Harkin, of All Hallows archive, found valuable material. The Archbishop of Mexico allowed publication of his predecessors portrait.
Thanks go to The Bancroft and Huntington Libraries in California, UT at Austin Latin American Collection, and in London, to the Royal Horticultural Society, Royal Geographical Society, the London Geological Society, National Archive, British Library, British Newspaper Library and National Maritime Museum; to staff of the city public libraries in Oxford, Monterey and Los Angeles; in Ireland to priests of Killaloe diocese, the Presentation Order Archivist; the late Hugh Fenning OP, Dr Liam Chambers, Edward Whelan of Limerick Archive, Michael McMahon of Corofin, and especially Peter Beirne of Ennis Archive. Dr Ciarn O Murchadha kindly read my slant on Irish events in his busy schedule. I am also indebted to Kerby Miller, Curators Professor of History at the University of Missouri-Columbia, for his advice and accompanying comment.
The late Michael Costeloe shared a lifes research and new leads. Roy Foster, Oxford Carroll Professor of Irish History, believed Macnamara deserves to be taken seriously. Macnamaras will vanished, but Joseph Murphy of Limerick still showed a solicitors interest. New Royal Navy diaries and US naval papers have been used here but no archive survives the Bondholders, Barron and Forbes Company or ruling Cabinets in Mexico, Washington and London, only fragments. Macnamara and MacKintosh are spelled here as they signed themselves. Glen, my wife, has put up with Macnamara and Seymour for fifteen years, and with me for forty. I thank her for that and so much more.
List of Abbreviations
CHSQ & CHQ: California Historical Society Quarterly (now California History)
CO: Colonial Office (London)
CTQ: California Territorial Quarterly, B & P Anderson, Paradise, Butte Co., CA
FO: Foreign Office (London)
HBMG: Her Britannic Majestys Government (now HMG)
HBMS: Her Britannic Majestys Ship (now HMS)
ILN: Illustrated London News
LHS/RHS: London Horticultural Society (now Royal Horticultural Society)
NMM: National Maritime Museum (London)
ODNB: Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (new online edition, ongoing from 2004)
RGS: Royal Geographical Society (London)
RN: Royal Navy
SCHSQ & SCQ: The Quarterly:Southern California Historical Society is (now)Southern California Quarterly
TNA: The National Archive (London) (formerly PRO (Public Record Office))
UP: University Press
USM & USN:US Marine and US Navy
USS: US Ship
WRO: Warwickshire Record Office, Warwick, UK, repository of the Seymour Papers
List of Plates
Mid-morning, 7 July 1846, (L-R) USS Cyane, flagship Savannah and Levant salute US flag raised at Monterey. In Los Angeles, Macnamara was being awarded his land; at sea Admiral Seymour was becalmed, heading for Monterey. W.A Coulter, 1902. Monterey Public Library, California History Room Archives.
600,000 in Californian gold and Mexican pesos entering the Bank of England, 1849, securely transported by HMS Calypso for British merchants to avoid Mexican dues. Official smuggling damaged Royal Navy discipline and Mexicos ability to repay debt. Illustrated London News, 20 September 1849, Oxford City Public Library.
Eighteenth century Royal Arms of Ireland over the door of the Irish College, with the tricolour of the modern Irish Republic. The former college is now the Irish Cultural Centre, Paris. Author
Bishop John Hynes O.P., Apostolic Administrator, British Guiana, 1843-6, Apostolic Vicar, 184656. M. Gardignani, Rome, 1860. Melbourne Diocese Historical Commission.
Fort Ross[iya], California. A colony around Bodega Bay claimed the area as Tsarist Russian territory in 1812. President Monroe worried about a Russian base in North America. Russia abandoned it in 1842.
