Buckle, William
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William Buckle (1801-1858) was a British sailor who (presumably) jumped ship and arrived in the Santa Cruz area in the first half of the 1820s (he is identified in Mexican-era records as Guillermo Bocle). Seven years later, his brother Samuel found him after a long search, and the two remained in the area, changing their last name to Thompson, and acquiring a homesite on the Mission Plaza - land that is now part of Holy Cross School. As "Thompson", William served as 2nd alcalde in 1847.
- Wm. Buckle married Maria Antonia Castro y Montero (1811-1877) and, in 1838, received the Rancho Carbonera land grant (as Guillermo Bocle).
- "The Official Survey of Santa Cruz", Santa Cruz Sentinel, June 23, 1866, 2:4.
- History Pages: 6 - The Sailors
- History Pages: 39 - What's in a Name? – Adventures in Spelling
- Stanley D. Stevens, The Alcaldes of Branciforte-Santa Cruz (1802-1850), SCPL
- The Sidewalk Companion to Santa Cruz Architecture (4th ed. 2023), Chapter Four, p88.
- Rowland wrote that the Buckle brothers arrived in Santa Cruz in 1824, and were both part of a foraging party from ships commanded by Thomas Cochrane. This story, however, is hard to reconcile with other sources.
- The unsourced biography on the Find-a-Grave page claims that Thompson was William Buckle's middle name, and that the change to William Thompson happened following California statehood. Would that indicate that brother Samuel also had the middle name Thompson?