William Willshire

Who is William Willshire?

William Willshire also known as William Wiltshire, was British Vice Consul to Mogadore, Morocco from 1814 until 1844, before being assigned to the Consularship of Adrianople 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 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. 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, Robert Adams, and Captain Alexander Scott, all 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.