A native of Scotland, William Kirkpatrick established himself as a successful merchant in Malaga, Spain. Recommended to George Washington to become the American consul in that port, he was eventually named to the position in 1800. He diligently filed reports to the administration, often about affairs in the Barbary states, and in 1807, Robert Smith appointed him U.S. naval agent in Malaga. In addition to his mercantile business, Kirkpatrick owned a vineyard and a cotton plantation. Mixing easily with the Spanish landed class, he successfully married his daughters to nobles, and one of his granddaughters became Empress Eugénie of France (Desmond Seward, Eugénie: The Empress and Her Empire [Stroud, Eng., 2004], 1-2; John S. Doskey, ed., The European Journals of William Maclure [Philadelphia, 1988], 155; JEP description begins Journal of the Executive Proceedings of the Senate of the United States … to the Termination of the Nineteenth Congress, Washington, D.C., 1828, 3 vols. description ends , 1:332-3; NDBW description begins Dudley W. Knox, ed., Naval Documents Related to the United States Wars with the Barbary Powers, Washington, D.C., 1939-44, 6 vols. and Register of Officer Personnel and Ships’ Data, 1801-1807, Washington, D.C., 1945 description ends , 6:514; Washington, Papers, Pres. Ser., 7:455n; Madison, Papers, Sec. of State Ser., 5:42, 127, 370-1, 457-8, 502; Vol. 25:309n; Vol. 36:383n).