Under British Rule
While St. Augustine lived on in apparent security, ominous events were
taking place in the world outside. England and France fought the Seven
Years' War, toward the end of which Spain allied itself with France. Far
to the north French Quebec fell to English arms in 1759, and to the
south Havana, Cuba, on which St. Augustine heavily depended, yielded to
an English fleet in 1762. Ministers of the three nations gathered at
Paris to decide the terms of peace.
On March 16, 1763, a lieutenant from the English sloop _Bonetta_ came
ashore at St. Augustine with important papers for the governor, who was
astounded by what he read. Under the terms of the treaty just concluded,
Spain ceded Florida to England in exchange for the return of Havana and
other territorial concessions.
St. Augustine's shocked residents soon gathered around the proclamation
posted on the government house. It specified they would be given
eighteen months in which to settle their affairs, dispose of their
property, and evacuate Florida, unless they desired to become subjects
of the British Crown. The very thought of remaining under English rule
violated their deep devotion to King and Church. All prepared to leave;
only eight being designated to remain in an official capacity.
Busy months followed. Homes were stripped for their furnishings. Linens,
silver, clothing, and various personal articles were packed into chests
and boxes. Tearful groups gathered at the landing place to bid farewell
to friends and neighbors. Some residents were able to sell their
property to the English, who were at first hard-pressed to find
accommodations, but much remained unsold and was left in the custody of
Spanish agents until more English buyers might appear. Some, including
that of the Church, was deeded in trust to two friendly English traders,
John Gordon and Jesse Fish.
On July 30, 1763, Major Francis Ogilvie arrived at St. Augustine with an
English regiment. English soldiers in their bright red coats paraded
brazenly on the Plaza green, while remaining Spaniards looked on in
sullen resentment. Governor Feliu and the last of the Spanish families
sailed on January 21, 1764. The departing Spaniards took with them all
of their movable possessions including, it is said, the bones of their
former governor and the remains of several of their Saints.
[Illustration: _The British divided the territory into two
provinces--East Florida, with St. Augustine as its capital, and West
Florida, with Pensacola as its capital._]
New Orleans
Mississippi River
GEORGIA
1764 BOUNDARY
1763 BOUNDARY
WEST FLORIDA
{~BLACK STAR~}Pensacola
Mobile
Apalachicola River
EAST FLORIDA
Chattahoochee
{~BLACK STAR~}St. Augustine
New Smyrna
Records show that St. Augustine at the time of the Spanish evacuation
had a population of 3,096--961 men, chiefly soldiers and officials; 798
women, and 1,337 children. The majority went to Cuba and the West Indies
to find new homes. The English flag with its cross of St. George waved
over the capital. The stout Castillo, the narrow streets, and the name
St. Augustine remained.
_British Rule Begins_
St. Augustine became virtually deserted except for the presence of the
English staff and garrison. Dust and cobwebs soon covered the Spanish
shrines. Weeds and brush grew deep in the yards of the vacated homes. As
time went on a few English families began to move in, and English
gentlemen of wealth and standing arrived to look over this new province
which their country had acquired.
On a hot August day of 1764 a salute of the fort's guns greeted the
arrival of Colonel James Grant, who came from London to serve as East
Florida's first English governor. He had earlier led an expedition
against French-held Fort Duquesne (Pittsburgh) and had served in the
Cherokee Indian wars in Carolina.
Governor Grant brought to St. Augustine all the picturesque qualities of
English colonial life. Handsomely attired gentlemen moved about the
streets in their white stockings, silk or velvet knee-breeches, and rich
embroidered coats with lace at the cuff. Grant's distinguished Council
included the aristocratic Moultries from South Carolina, Chief Justice
William Drayton, and the Episcopal clergyman, John Forbes. Also across
the scene moved Frederick George Mulcaster, reputed to be the natural
brother of England's King, George III.
Liberal grants of land were offered by the British to attract colonists
to East Florida. Glowing accounts of its agricultural possibilities were
published and circulated. Titled English gentlemen and wealthy Carolina
planters secured grants of land in the vicinity of the capital and along
the St. Johns River. The eccentric Denys Rolle established a colony
called Rollestown near the present site of East Palatka, where he
planned to rehabilitate derelicts from the streets of London.
By 1768 Governor Grant was able to report encouraging progress: "This
province, which was a desert when I came into it, although inhabited by
the Spaniards two hundred years, will soon be a fruitful country. It
fills faster with inhabitants than I could have well expected, and there
are already a number of slaves at work on the different plantations."
In contrast with conditions under Spanish rule, vessels began to sail
from St. Augustine with cargoes of indigo, barrels of oranges, casks of
orange juice, lumber and naval stores. Grant made various improvements
to the governor's residence, facing the Parade, or Plaza. The Franciscan
Monastery was converted to serve as quarters for the garrison, and later
large new barracks were erected along the bayfront south of it. One of
the churches left by the Spaniards was taken over by the English, and
later remodelled by Lieutenant-Governor Moultrie, with the addition of a
handsome clock and steeple. It was called St. Peter's.
[Illustration: _A view of the Governor's residence in St. Augustine
from a drawing made in 1764._]
[Illustration: _Map showing location of Minorca._]
_The New Smyrna Colony_
During Grant's administration, a Doctor Andrew Turnbull and associates
of London secured a large grant of land near Mosquito Inlet, some eighty
miles south of St. Augustine. There they planned to establish a
plantation colony for the production of indigo, for which the British
government offered an attractive bounty. Turnbull named the place New
Smyrna in honor of his wife's native Smyrna, where he had also spent
some time.
After visiting East Florida to inspect his landgrant, Turnbull returned
to Europe to recruit colonists from the shores of the Mediterranean. He
secured some 200 from Greece, 110 from Italy, and then went on to the
Island of Minorca, where several years of drought had impoverished many
of the inhabitants. This island, one of the Balearic group off the coast
of Spain, was then an English possession. At its port of Mahon more
people than expected flocked to join the projected colony, bringing the
total to around 1,400.
In the spring of 1768 eight vessels brought these hopeful colonists to
East Florida, saddened by the death of almost 150 during the long
crowded voyage from the British base at Gibraltar. As customary in those
days, these colonists bound themselves to work for a period of seven or
eight years in return for their passage and sustenance, after which they
were to receive parcels of land and freedom from further obligation.
After touching at St. Augustine the vessels proceeded to New Smyrna,
where crude shelters were built. Clearing the land for cultivation, and
in the meantime feeding and clothing such a large number of people
proved more difficult and expensive than anticipated. Due in part to
crude living conditions, three hundred died during the first winter.
Soon after their arrival, some of the Greeks and Italians broke into the
storehouse, fatally wounded an overseer, and were on the point of
sailing for Cuba when intercepted by an armed vessel sent from St.
Augustine to subdue them. The ringleaders were later captured, brought
to the capital, tried, and three condemned to death. One was pardoned on
agreeing to act as executioner for the other two.
Governor Grant, who fully supported Turnbull and wanted to see his New
Smyrna colony thrive, returned to England in 1771. He was temporarily
succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor Moultrie. In 1774 Patrick Tonyn, an
ardent and arbitrary Loyalist, arrived from England to take over the
governorship of East Florida. Serious friction developed between these
officials and a faction in East Florida that included Turnbull, Chief
Justice Drayton, and others as to convening a representative assembly,
such as Virginia and other English colonies in America enjoyed. The
"inflamed faction," as Tonyn termed them, questioned the power of the
governor and his Council to rule arbitrarily in the absence of an
elected legislative body. They became bitter personal and political
rivals.
[Illustration: _A view from the Governor's window, looking toward
Matanzas Bay, about where the Bridge of Lions stands today. From a
drawing in the British archives made in 1764._]
In 1776 Chief Justice Drayton and Turnbull sailed for London to seek
redress and answer Tonyn's charges. During Turnbull's absence, the
surviving New Smyrna colonists, who now numbered barely 600 out of the
1,400 who had left their Mediterranean homes, secretly sent a delegation
to St. Augustine. They demanded release from their contracts and
reported being cruelly treated by their overseers. Assured of Governor
Tonyn's sympathy and protection, all of the surviving colonists--men,
women, and children--later marched in a body up the King's Road to St.
Augustine. Turnbull returned from London in the fall of 1777 to find
himself and his New Smyrna colony ruined.
At St. Augustine the refugees were assigned lands north of the City
Gates, where they built crude shelters and managed to eke out a living
by fishing, hunting, and gardening. Time proved them a self-reliant,
industrious people, who gradually attained more comfortable
circumstances. They and their descendants became a distinctive part of
St. Augustine, and continued to live in the city down to the present
day.
[Illustration: _His Excellency, Patrick Tonyn, Governor of East
Florida for ten years, from 1774 to 1784. From a portrait in the
Division of Prints and Engravings, British Museum._]
_During the Revolution_
Soon after Tonyn became governor of East Florida reports began to reach
St. Augustine of unrest in the English colonies to the north, followed
by news of bloodshed at Lexington and Bunker Hill. Tonyn suspected some
in East Florida of being in sympathy with the rebel cause, including his
old enemies, Drayton and Turnbull. Most of the inhabitants, however, had
arrived too recently from England or other loyal colonies to desire
independence. St. Augustine remained as faithful to its English rulers
as it had been to its Spanish Kings.
In 1775 two detachments of troops, comprising 160 men, were sent from
St. Augustine to Williamsburg, Virginia, to support hard-pressed
Governor Dunmore. During August of that year another incident brought
the war home. The British brigantine _Betsy_ lay off St. Augustine's
inlet with a cargo of gunpowder for the garrison. A rebel sloop from
Charleston swooped down and captured it within sight of people on shore.
When the news of the signing of the Declaration of Independence reached
this East Florida capital, there was no rejoicing. Instead angry
Loyalists gathered in the Plaza to cheer the burning of straw-stuffed
dummies, representing Samuel Adams and John Hancock.
Expeditions left St. Augustine to attack the "traitorous neighbors" in
Georgia and Carolina. They in turn organized forces to invade East
Florida. These resulted in little more than border skirmishes. The _East
Florida Rangers_, a militia organized by Tonyn, plundered the frontier
of cattle, from the sale of which the governor is said to have profited.
As the war progressed an increasing number of Loyalists fled from
patriot wrath into East Florida.
Some of the prisoners of war taken by the British in various engagements
were shipped to St. Augustine to be held until exchanged. In 1780 forty
prominent American Patriots, captured at Charleston, were brought here.
They included three signers of the Declaration of Independence--Edward
Rutledge, Arthur Middleton, and Thomas Heyward, Jr.
The surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown, Virginia, in 1781, marked
virtually the end of the conflict. The English evacuation of Savannah in
1782, followed by their withdrawal from Charleston, caused Loyalists to
pour into East Florida and St. Augustine by the thousands. Housing was
inadequate. Many of the unfortunate refugees lived in mere huts of
thatched palmetto leaves. Plays were given in the statehouse for their
benefit. One of the newcomers set up a print shop and began publishing
Florida's first newspaper, the _East Florida Gazette_. The population of
East Florida soared to 17,000 including slaves.
In 1781 Governor Tonyn finally called East Florida's first Legislative
Assembly. It met in the statehouse at St. Augustine that year and again
during the winter of 1782-83. But there was little left for it to do but
pass laws governing the conduct of the many slaves, who had poured into
East Florida with their Loyalist owners.
_Another Treaty_
Toward the end of the Revolutionary War in 1779 Spain declared war on
England in alliance with France. A Spanish expedition captured
English-held Mobile in 1780 and Pensacola in 1781. Spanish spies were
active in St. Augustine, which braced itself for an attack on East
Florida that was planned but never carried out.
Across the sea in Paris ministers of England, France, and Spain gathered
again at the peace table, and another treaty was concluded. On April 21,
1783, Governor Tonyn announced what had already become generally known,
that England had ceded the Floridas and Minorca back to Spain in
exchange for the retention of Gibraltar and other territories. British
subjects were given eighteen months in which to dispose of their
property and evacuate Florida.
This trend of events was a crushing blow to East Florida's numerous
English residents. Many had just recently moved to the province,
purchased or built new homes, and cleared land for cultivation. New
towns had grown up, such as St. Johns Bluff, which contained 300 houses,
two taverns, stores, and even a lodge of Freemasons. Appeals were
addressed to the British Crown to retain possession of East Florida, but
to no avail.
A period of confusion and disorder followed. Lawless elements, termed
_banditti_, took advantage of the unsettled conditions to plunder
plantations and travelers. The painful evacuation of the English
continued through the year 1784 and the spring of 1785. Many took the
wilderness trails to the west, others went to the Bahamas, some returned
to England, or embarked for Nova Scotia, Jamaica, Dominica and
elsewhere. They took with them all of their movable possessions. Even
the bells and pews of their church, and a crude fire engine were loaded
aboard ship for transfer to another colony in the Bahamas.
The Minorcans, who had moved to St. Augustine from New Smyrna in 1777,
were not greatly disturbed by the impending change in sovereignty. They
were Catholics and spoke a language similar to Spanish. They supported
themselves by fishing, hunting, and by cultivating small groves and
gardens. Some had become small shopkeepers. St. Augustine was their
chosen home.
Many English still remained when Governor Zespedes arrived off St.
Augustine with thirteen vessels to take over the province of East
Florida for Spain. The official transfer of the government took place on
July 12, 1784. The Spanish flag was unfurled again over the capital to
volleys from the Spanish infantry and a fourteen-gun salute from the
artillery. "On the following day," Governor Zespedes wrote, "we rendered
dutiful and solemn adoration to Christ the King, by attending the _Te
Deum_."
The curtain fell on twenty years of English occupation, and a second
period under Spain began.
[Illustration: _A page from Florida's first newspaper, the East
Florida Gazette, published at St. Augustine February 1, 1783 to
March 22, 1784._]
_East-Florida_ GAZETTE.
Nullius Addictus Jurare In Verba Magistri. Hor.
From _SATURDAY_, May 10, to SATURDAY, May 17, 1783.
St. AUGUSTINE, May 17.
On Sunday last arrived off our Bar, after a tedious passage from New
York, his Majesty's ships Narcissus and Bellisarius, having under convoy
four vessels laden with provisions for this province. Three other
victuallers had sailed in company, also for this place, but separated by
some accident on the passage.
EAST-FLORIDA.
_By his Excellency_ Patrick Tonyn, _Esquire, Captain General, Governour
and Commander in chief in and over his Majesty's Province of
East-Florida, Chancellor and Vice Admiral of the fleet._
A PROCLAMATION
Whereas his Excellency Sir Guy Carleton, Commanding in chief his
Majesty's forces in North America, hath informed me that provisions to
the 1st of October next, have been sent to this province, for the
support of his Majesty's good and faithful subjects, who have been under
the necessity of leaving the provinces of South Carolina and Georgia:
And whereas his Excellency the Hon. Robert Digby Esquire, commanding his
Majesty's naval forces in North America, from his tender and
compassionate regard for the sufferings of his Majesty's loyal subjects,
and anxious to lighten their distresses by every means in his power,
hath given me the strongest assurances of every assistance being
afforded the inhabitants of this province for their removal; that the
commanding officer of his Majesty's ships of war on this station has his
directions to consult the convenience of the inhabitants; and that
transports may be had for such of them as wish to proceed to England or
the West-Indies, or any other part of his Majesty's dominions, previous
to the evacuation of the said province, which probably will not be
effected during the course of this summer, as there are no accounts of
the definitive treaty of peace being signed. I have therefore thought
fit by and with the advice of his Majesty's Honourable Council, to
notify and make publick, and I do hereby notify and make publick such
information and assurances to all his Majesty's good and faithful
subjects of this his Majesty's faithful province of East-Florida; and
that such of the said inhabitants, who may not be employed in
agriculture, and are desirous of taking the easiest opportunity of
departing, do forthwith give in their names, numbers, and destination,
to the Secretary's Office, that they may be properly accomodated, hereby
offering every assistance and support in my power; and I do earnestly
recommend and require all his Majesty's said subjects who may be
employed in agriculture, to be attentive in raising their crops of
provisions now in the ground for their future subsistence.
PATRICK TONYN.
_Given under my Hand, and the Great Seal of his Majesty's said Province,
in the Council Chamber, at St. Augustine, the twenty-ninth day of
April, one thousand seven hundred and eighty three, and in the
twenty-third year of his Majesty's Reign._
God save the King!
_By his Excellency's command_,
David Yeates, Secretary.
All persons who have any demands against the estate of the late John
Reid deceased, are required to bring in their accounts properly
attested, and all those any ways indebted to the said estate, are
required to make payment immediately to
DONALD M'CALPIN &
WILLIAM DENNIE. Adms.
_St. Augustine, April_ 12, 1783.
(_BY PERMISSION._)
On TUESDAY Evening, the 10th of May,
WILL BE PRESENTED,
_At the THEATRE_,
In the _STATE-HOUSE_,
DOUGLAS,
A Tragedy,
_To which will be added_,
The _ENTERTAINMENT_ of
BARNABY BRITTLE;
The Characters by Gentlemen, for the benefit of the _distressed
Refugees_.
Doors to be opened at SIX o'Clock; Performance to commence at SEVEN; no
money taken at the door, nor any person admitted behind the scenes.
Tickets to be had at Mr. Johnston's store, formerly Mr. Payne's.
_PITT, 3s. 9d._ _GALLERY, 4s. 9d._
PUBLICK AUCTION.
On THURSDAY next, the 22d inst.
_At ELEVEN o'Clock_,
WILL BE SOLD,
(_Without reserve_)
At Major Manton's quarters, new Barracks,
A MAHOGANY Bed-stead with elegant Furniture, and Window Curtains
A good eight-day Clock
A double Chest of Drawers
A Book Case
A Desk and other Drawers
Chairs and a Sopha
Pier, Chimney and dressing Glasses
Carpets
Brass and other Doggs
Tea and Table China
Glasses and Glass
Shades
A well toned Guittar
Some Plate, &c. &c.
JOHN CHAMPNEYS.
Any person having the following NEGROES, good property, which they wish
to dispose of, may hear of a purchaser, who will pay down the cash, by
applying to the Printer.
_A good Carpenter, two Bricklayers, a Black-Smith and a good Gardener._
TEN DOLLARS REWARD.
Stolen or strayed out of my yard, on the night of Tuesday last, a bright
bay Horse, upwards of fourteen hands high, about eight years old, paces,
trots, and canters; lately branded on the mounting shoulder, M.S. with a
slit in his left ear. The above reward will be given to any person that
will deliver the said Horse to the subscriber in St. Augustine, Captain
Cameron in Pacalato, or to Mr. Sutherland at Hester's Bluff.
JAMES SEYMOUR.
_NOTARY PUBLIC._
JOHN MILLS,
_For the conveniency of Captains of Vessels, Merchants and others_,
HEREBY GIVES NOTICE,
That he keeps his _Notary-Office_
At his House the North end of _Charlotte-street_, near the house of Mr.
Robert Mills, House Carpenter.
All sorts of LAW PRECEDENTS done with care and expedition.