THE MINORCAN EXPERIENCE

 

An early Italian Immigration Happening

St. Augustine, Florida

 

In 1763 Spain lost Cuba to the English during the Seven Years War. It ended with the Treaty of Paris. In that treaty, England ceded Cuba back to Spain in exchange for the Spanish territory of Florida.

A Scotsman, Dr. Andrew Turnbull, and two other business men, invested in an adventure to develop a colony in what is now New Smyrna Beach, Florida. Dr. Turnbull, in recognition of the warmer climate, believed that Mediterranean people would be better suited to settling there. Consequently, he ventured to Italy, Corsica, Turkey, and to Greece, where he formerly was the British consul at Smyrna to the Ottoman Empire. His intent was to entice individuals to contract for indentured servitude. The lure was that each individual would receive fifty acres of land upon completion of their tenure. The length of servitude was six to eight years.

The amount of Italians recruited was 110; Corsicans 210, and a handful of Greeks and Turks. The rest were Minorcans, who, at the time, were under British rule. Outside of the Minorcans, the Italians were the first recruitments and Dr. Turnbull had them transported to Mahon, Minorca while he sailed to Greece and Turkey to recruit more people. During his tenure in Greece as consul he met and married a woman from Smyrna, hence the name―New Smyrna Beach.

He boarded the Italians on farms until the time for their departure to the New World. Some of them waited over a year and in the meantime many married local women. When Dr. Turnbull returned to Mahon, the signees asked permission to bring their wives.

The initial amount of persons that he intended to indenture was six hundred and sixty, but now, since there were wives, presumably, he was getting two for one. He granted them permission and in 1768 eight ships left Mahon with 1400 passengers. During the trip three births occurred and one hundred and forty-eight people died. Four ships became lost on the trip delaying their arrival by a month.

Father Pedro Camps, the priest for the flock accompanied them to and in New Smyrna and in St. Augustine. Father Camps was a highly dedicated individual who tended to his flock with the utmost care. It is because of him that there is an abundance of information about the “Minorqueños,” available. He recorded all the births, baptisms and deaths into what many refer to as, “The Golden Book of the Minorcans”. The original book is still extant and in good condition. Several handwritten copies are on file in the Historical Library in St. Augustine. The name of the colony was Les Mesquite.

The state of affairs in were harsh. Dr. Turnbull and his overseers were cruel and kept those who survived the rigors of the settlement beyond their servitude. Conditions were so bad that nine hundred and thirty individuals died before the end. During the first year four hundred and fifty perished. However, due to births, the number that made it to St. Augustine was six hundred. Of the original 1400 only two hundred and ninety-one survived.

Captives Ramon Rogero, Francisco Pellicer, and Juan Genoply (Genopoli) clandestinely built a make-shift boat, escaped and set sail to reach to St. Augustine to tell the governor of the conditions at the colony. En route a passing ship rescued them and took them to Baltimore. Once there they continued their journey to St. Augustine by horseback and on foot. Upon arrival in St. Augustine they met with the British Governor Tonyn and explained the conditions at New Smyrna. The governor had an investigation conducted with the findings that the colony was in deplorable conditions and the people were enslaved.

He freed and removed them en masse in a seventy-five mile march to St. Augustine in July of 1777.The trek took three days. Records of the investigation still exist. Seven years later the 1783 Treaty of Paris returned Florida Spain

 Some descendant names of the Italian survivors that made it to St. Augustine are Usina, Pacetti (Paxetty, Pachetty, Paxity, etc.) Capo, Canova, Bonelli (Bonelly), Mascaro, Mariano, Manusi, Trotti. Two famous Minorcan descendants are Judy Canova and Stephen Vincent Benét. Originally, his name had no accent. His grandfather, who was from St. Augustine was Stephen Vincent Benet, General U.S Army. His father was Esteve Benet from the Isle of Minorca, arriving in New Smyrna Colony in 1768.

 

Below is a picture of the Oldest Wooden School House in the United States. Juan Genopoly (Giovanni Genopoli) built it.