  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 FeliÚ 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. The British divided the territory into two provinces—East Florida, with St. Augustine as its capital, and West Florida, with Pensacola as its capital.
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 BeginsSt. 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 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. A view of the Governor’s residence in St. Augustine from a drawing made in 1764. Map showing location of Minorca. The New Smyrna ColonyDuring 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 MahÓn 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, 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. 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 RevolutionSoon 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 TreatyToward 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 ZÉspedes 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 ZÉspedes 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. A page from Florida’s first newspaper, the East Florida Gazette, published at St. Augustine February 1, 1783 to March 22, 1784. |
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