Andreas Francisco Pacetti, historical background

Andreas Francisco Pacetti, historical background

Andres Paxeti ~Pacetti~ (1750 Trapani, Sicily -- 1818 St. Augustine, Florida) HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

Compiled by Marguerite Marree Mathews

First compilation in Feb. 1995 -- copy in St. Augustine Historical Library

Revised in 1999 for Web site; Revised in 2007 for sharing with family members

HISTORICAL BACKGROUND:

The history of the Minorcans, Italians and Greeks in Florida began in the eighteenth century when Andrew Turnbull, an enterprising Scots physician and former British Consul at Smyrna in Asia Minor, acquired well over one hunderd thousand acres of land from the British Government (British Period in Florida: 1763-1783) in order to establish an indigo plantation and cultivate sugar cane and cotton for export (Dr. Andrew Turnbull and the New Smyrna Colony of Florida, by Carita Doggett, Florida: Drew Press 1919). He named the area in Florida --- New Smyrna.

In 1768, Turnbull collected about 1,403 people from the Mediterranean to colonize and work on his project. One hundred ten of these were Italians recruited in the commercial port city of Livorno, Italy. Two of those Italians were: Josef/Giuseppe Bonelli and Andres Paxeti/Pacetti (both were my fifth great grandfathers). They were ensconced at Mahon, Minorca, the second largest of the Balearic Islands off the coast of Spain. Minorca was British controlled during that time-frame and Turnbull made its capital, Mahon, his port of call. For eight months, Turnbull sailed the Mediterranean and Aegean seeking Greeks but was thawarted in this effort by the Ottomans. He managed to procure a few Greeks, some Frenchmen, several Corsicans, the aforementioned 110 Italians, although the majority who signed on for his venture were Minorcans (The Minorcans In Florida: Their History, Language & Culture, by Philip D. Rasico, New Smyrna Beach: Luthers 1990). In the interim, Italian men married Minorcan women.

On 17 April 1768 eight caravels sailed out of the Mediterranean toward their destination across the ocean (Pacetty Manuscript (unpublished) by Marguerite Marree Mathews). I have not been able to find any document assigning the colonists' names to the various vessels. In 1987, while accompanying my husband on his medical conference in Washington, DC, I carefully combed through the boxes of Colonial Office Papers housed in the Manuscripts Division at the Library of Congress. I found only the ships names and numbers of passengers: Charming Betsy, 232; Henry and Carolina, 142; Elizabeth, 190; Friendship, 198; New Fortune, 226; Hope, 150; American Soldier, 145; Betsey, 120.

This was the largest group of settlers that had migrated to North America up to that time. Records show that of this particular group that sailed from Minorca to Florida in 1768, there was only one person with the name: ANDRES PAXETI.

After four months at sea, the ships reached St. Augustine but the colonists were not allowed to disembark. Finally, they arrived at Los Mosquitos Inlet (renamed Ponce de Leon Inlet), at the point where the Hillsborough River (now North Indian River -- Intracoastal Waterway) and the Halifax River converge into the Atlantic (An Eighteenth Century Greek Odyssey, by E. P. Panagopoulos, MA: Holy Cross Orthodox Press 1978). Prior to their arrival, Turnbull's overseers expected only 500 immigrants and made preparations for that number (Minorcans in Florida, by Jane Quinn, St. Augustine: Mission Press 1975). Hurried accommodations were made to house and feed over twice that many. They were hungry, exhausted, ill, not accustomed to the penetrating, sultry, midsummer heat and humidity of the tropical East Florida Coast. Pine trees, some eighty feet tall, interspersed with immense live oaks draped with Spanish moss, grew on higher ground, and cypress flourished in the swampy places (The Italians in Colonial Florida 1513-1821, by Bruno Roselli, Florida: Drew Press 1940). Portions of the lagoons and river banks were surrounded by thick mangroves and toward the coast the sand dunes were dotted with stunted spruces, sea grapes, dwarf hickory and scrub oaks. Inland the soil was rich and fertile but to get to it, they literally had to hack their way through hostile wilderness and densely tangled undergrowth.

When the settlers saw what a wild land it was that they were to cultivate, their disbelief and disappointment was considerable. The terrain was flatter than any piece of land they had ever encountered. No cool breezes, no steep cliffs, no rolling hills -- just an unvarying, tedious landscape so thick with palmetto and sabal plams that there was no way to walk the ground.

First priority was to clear the land of pines, live oaks, cabbage palms, palmetto shrub, and, drain the lagoons and marshes. Conditions were wretched and never improved: Unbearable heat and humidity; swarms of mosquitoes; inadequate clothing; scant time to gather food that led to near starvation; miserable sanitation; disease; untold death rates; palm-thatched huts for living quarters; cruel treatment by overseers; disgusting stench of indigo culture; unending planting and tending crops (Minorcans in Florida, by Jane Quinn, St. Augustine: Mission Press 1975). There were a few who had written contracts, some were oral. All fell under the Indentured Servant Law, to serve six to eight years, the end of which they were to be freed, with compensation of money and a bit of land. After nine years of exploitation, deprivation, unbelievable hardships and broken promises -- Turnbull's improvident colony in New Smyrna failed.

In May 1777 the entire group of Minorcans, Italians and Greeks walked the King's Highway to freedom in St. Augustine.

Father Pedro Camps, a Catholic priest from Mercadal, Minorca, accompanied the group to Florida. He was devoted to his parishioners and gained their profound respect (The Cross In The Sand, by Michael V. Gannon, Gainesville: U of FL Press 1983). He kept exquisite vital statistics records: The Golden Book of the Minorcans (known as Father Camps' Register), and, the beginning of the Cathedral Parish Records. Father Camps remained behind at New Smyrna, San Pedro Parish, to tend to the incapacitated and the dying. He made an entry into his Register that on 09 November 1777, he was allowed to move the Church of San Pedro to St. Augustine.

math962 originally shared this

20 Sep 2012 story

Historical background of immigration of Minorcans, Italians and Greeks from Minorca, Balearic Islands, Spain to New Smyrna, Florida in 1768; and events preceding their migration to St. Augustine, Florida in 1777.

1768 -- 1777 Minorca; Italy; New Smyrna, Florida; St. Augustine, Florida

(Source: ancestry.com)