William Bulkeley was a

Liverpool Liverpool is a city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. With a population of in 2019, it is the 10th largest English district by population and its metropolitan area is the fifth largest in the United Kingdom, with a popul ...

merchant, son of Thomas Bulkeley of Anglesey, who financed voyages for slave-trading,

privateer A privateer is a private person or ship that engages in maritime warfare under a commission of war. Since robbery under arms was a common aspect of seaborne trade, until the early 19th century all merchant ships carried arms. A sovereign or deleg ...

ing, and the

Greenland Greenland ( kl, Kalaallit Nunaat, ; da, Grønland, ) is an island country in North America that is part of the Kingdom of Denmark. It is located between the Arctic and Atlantic oceans, east of the Canadian Arctic Archipelago. Greenland is t ...

whale fishery. He was apprenticed to Foster Cunliffe, a merchant of Liverpool, in

1731 Events January–March * January 8 – An avalanche from the Skafjell mountain causes a massive wave in the Storfjorden fjord in Norway that sinks all boats that happen to be in the water at the time and kills people on both sho ...

. By

1750 Various sources, including the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, use the year 1750 as a baseline year for the end of the pre-industrial era. Events January–March * January 13 – The Treaty of Madrid between Spain ...

he was prosperous enough to be one of the first pew-holders o
St Thomas's Church, Liverpool
Bulkeley was part of a consortium of Liverpool merchants who in 1744 invested in '' Old Noll'' which they put to work as a

.during the

War of the Austrian Succession The War of the Austrian Succession () was a European conflict that took place between 1740 and 1748. Fought primarily in Central Europe, the Austrian Netherlands, Italy, the Atlantic and Mediterranean, related conflicts included King George's W ...

. Between

1747 Events January–March * January 31 – The first venereal diseases clinic opens at London Lock Hospital. * February 11 – King George's War: A combined French and Indian force, commanded by Captain Nicolas Antoine II Coul ...

and

1756 Events January–March * January 16 – The Treaty of Westminster is signed between Great Britain and Prussia, guaranteeing the neutrality of the Kingdom of Hanover, controlled by King George II of Great Britain. *February 7 & ...

he was part-owner of eleven slaving voyages. He also co-owned many other ventures, including from

1749 Events January–March * January 3 ** Benning Wentworth issues the first of the New Hampshire Grants, leading to the establishment of Vermont. ** The first issue of ''Berlingske'', Denmark's oldest continually operating newspaper, ...

the ship Golden Lion, captured from the French on the last day of

1744 Events January–March * January 6 – The Royal Navy ship ''Bacchus'' engages the Spanish Navy privateer ''Begona'', and sinks it; 90 of the 120 Spanish sailors die, but 30 of the crew are rescued. * January 24 – The Dag ...

, by HMS Port Mahon, (Hy. Aylmer Smith, commander), which was then used as a

.History of the Liverpool Privateers and Letters of Marque, with an account of the Liverpool Slave Trade, 1744-1812. pp. 80-83. Gomer Williams. Reprint of the 1897 edition (William Heinemann (London) and Edward Howell (Liverpool), McGill University, Canada, 2004 Bulkeley and his partner bought her in 1749, and fitted her out for a new career as a Greenland whaler, the first such ship from Liverpool. Under Captain Metcalf she made at least two successful voyages to Greenland. Bulkeley had other interests; he also bought and sold large amounts of

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

References

English merchants Year of birth missing Year of death missing British people in whaling Privateers People from Liverpool English slave traders {{England-business-bio-stub