The History of Saint Augustine, Florida

by William W. Dewhurst

At that time it happened that some gentlemen visiting New Smyrna from St. Augustine were heard to remark that if these people knew their rights they never would submit to such treatment, and that the governor ought to protect them. This remark was noted by an intelligent boy who told it to his mother, upon whom it made such an impression that she could not cease to think and plan how, in some way, their condition might be represented to the governor. Finally, she decided to call a council of the leading men among her people. They assembled soon after in the night, and devised a plan of reaching the governor. Three of the most resolute and competent of their number were selected to make the attempt to reach St. Augustine and lay before the governor a report of their condition. In order to account for their absence they asked to be given a long task, or an extra amount of work to be done in a specified time, and if they should complete the work in advance, the intervening time should be their own to go down the coast and catch turtle. This was granted them as a special favor. Having finished their task by the assistance of their friends so as to have several days at their disposal, the three brave men set out along the beach for St. Augustine. The names of these men, most worthy of remembrance, were Pellicier, Llambias, and Genopley. Starting at night they reached and swam Matanzas Inlet the next morning, and arrived at St. Augustine by sundown of the same day. After inquiry they decided to make a statement of their case to Mr. Young, the attorney-general of the province. No better man could have been selected to represent the cause of the oppressed. They made known to him their condition, the terms of their original contract, and the manner in which they had been treated. Mr. Young promised to present their case to the governor, and assured them if their statements could be proved, the governor would at once release them from the indentures by which Turnbull claimed to control them. He advised them to return to Smyrna and bring to St. Augustine all who wished to leave New Smyrna, and the service of Turnbull. “The envoys returned with the glad tidings that their chains were broken and that protection awaited them. Turnbull was absent, but they feared the overseers, whose cruelty they dreaded. They met in secret and chose for their leader Mr. Pellicier, who was head carpenter. The women and children with the old men were placed in the center, and the stoutest men armed with wooden spears were placed in front and rear. In this order they set off, like the children of Israel, from a place that had proved an Egypt to them. So secretly had they conducted the transaction, that they proceeded some miles before the overseer discovered that the place was deserted. He rode after the fugitives and overtook them before they reached St. Augustine, and used every exertion to persuade them to return, but in vain. On the third day they reached St. Augustine, where provisions were served out to them by order of the governor. Their case was tried before the judges, where they were honestly defended by their friend the attorney-general. Turnbull could show no cause for detaining them, and their freedom was fully established. Lands were offered them at New Smyrna, but they suspected some trick was on foot to get them into Turnbull’s hands, and besides they detested the place where they had suffered so much. Lands were therefore assigned them in the north part of the city, where they have built houses and cultivated their gardens to this day. Some by industry have acquired large estates: they at this time form a respectable part of the population of the city.”[27]

It will be seen by the date of their removal to St. Augustine that the unfavorable comments of Romans and the Englishman whose letter he quotes upon the population of the town at the cession to Great Britain, could not have referred to the immigrants who came over under contract with Turnbull. It will also be seen that Williams speaks in very complimentary terms of these people and their descendants. I am pleased to quote from an earlier account a very favorable, and, as I believe, a very just tribute to the worth of these Minorcan and Greek settlers and their children. Forbes, in his sketches, says: “They settled in St. Augustine, where their descendants form a numerous, industrious, and virtuous body of people, distinct alike from the indolent character of the Spaniards and the rapacious habits of some of the strangers who have visited the city since the exchange of flags. In their duties as small farmers, hunters, fishermen, and other laborious but useful occupations, they contribute more to the real stability of society than any other class of people: generally temperate in their mode of life and strict in their moral integrity, they do not yield the palm to the denizens of the land of steady habits. Crime is almost unknown among them; speaking their native tongue, they move about distinguished by a primitive simplicity and purity as remarkable as their speech.”[28]

Many of the older citizens now living remember the palmetto houses which used to stand in the northern part of the town, built by the people who came up from Smyrna. By their frugality and industry the descendants of those who settled at Smyrna have replaced these palmetto huts with comfortable cottages, and many among them have acquired considerable wealth, and taken rank among the most respected and successful citizens of the town.

[1771.]
CHAPTER XV.

ADMINISTRATION OF LIEUT.-GOVERNOR MOULTRIE.—DEMAND OF THE PEOPLE FOR THE RIGHTS OF ENGLISHMEN.—GOVERNOR TONYN BURNING THE EFFIGIES OF ADAMS AND HANCOCK.—COLONIAL INSURGENTS CONFINED IN THE FORT.—ASSEMBLING OF THE FIRST LEGISLATURE.—COMMERCE OF ST. AUGUSTINE UNDER THE ENGLISH.—RECESSION OF THE PROVINCE TO SPAIN.

Governor Grant’s administration lasted until 1771, when he returned to England suffering in health. Upon his departure the province was under the authority of Hon. John Moultrie, the lieut.-governor, for a period of three years. The spirit of liberty, which was making itself felt throughout the British provinces at the North at this time, was here in Florida exciting in the breasts of those born under the British flag a determination to demand the rights granted by the Magna Charta. Urged by leading men in the council, the grand jury made presentments setting forth the rights of the inhabitants of the province to a representative government. These presentments the lieut.-governor disregarded, but finally yielded so far as to consent to the formation of a legislature which should be elected and meet every three years. The freeholders were inflexible in their determination to have annual sessions of their representatives, and continued without representation rather than to yield. The chief justice, William Drayton, a gentleman of talents and great professional knowledge, being unwilling to yield to the pretensions of the lieut.-governor, was suspended from his office, and the Rev. John Forbes, an assistant judge, was appointed to the vacancy by Lieut.-Governor Moultrie. It was charged against Mr. Forbes that his sympathies were with the Americans of the northern colonies. The confirmation of his appointment was therefore rejected and a chief justice sent from England.

In March, 1774, a new governor arrived from England. This gentleman was Colonel Patrick Tonyn, a protegé of Lord Marchmont, and very zealous for the royal cause. He at once issued a proclamation inviting the inhabitants of the provinces to the North, who were attached to the crown, to remove with their property to Florida. This invitation was accepted by a considerable number of royalists. In 1776 Governor Tonyn issued another proclamation inviting the inhabitants of the towns on the St. Johns, and of the Musquitoes, to assemble and co-operate with the king’s troops in resisting the “perfidious insinuations” of the neighboring colonists, and to prevent any more men from joining their “traitorous neighbors.” This was met by a counter proclamation by President Batton Gwinnet, of Georgia, who encouraged the belief that the God of “armies had appeared so remarkably in favor of liberty, that the period could not be far distant when the enemies of America would be clothed with everlasting shame and dishonor.” Governor Tonyn issued commissions to privateers, and held a council of the Indians to secure their alliance against the patriots of the neighboring colonies.

Upon the receipt of news of the Declaration of Independence of the American colonies, the royalists showed their zeal for the king by burning the effigies of John Hancock and Samuel Adams on the plaza, near where the constitutional monument now stands. In 1775 some privateers from Carolina captured the brig Betsy off the bar, and unloaded her in sight of the garrison, giving to the captain a bill signed “Clement Lamprière,” and drawn on Miles Brewton, at Charleston, for one thousand pounds sterling. The cargo consisted of one hundred and eleven barrels of powder sent from London, and the capture was a great mortification to the new governor.

During the early years of the struggle between the American colonies and the mother country, St. Augustine was the British point of rendezvous and an asylum for the royalists. From Georgia and Carolina there were said to have been seven thousand royalists and slaves who moved to Florida during these years. So hazardous to the colonial interests had the British possession of St. Augustine become, that Governor Houston, of Georgia, urged upon General Howe to attack the place in the spring of 1778. This expedition was never undertaken, though Colonel Fuser, of the Sixtieth Regiment, issued a proclamation on June 27th, 1778, commanding all those who had not entered the militia to join him, as “the rebels might be expected every instant.”