THE OLDEST CITY'S HISTORY
English period: 1763 to 1784
For 21 years the English took over.
After only ten days Captain Hedges was replaced by Major Francis Ogilvy of the Ninth Regiment
who directed all military and civil affairs in the now British colony for the next thirteen months.(details)
The Castillo was renamed Fort St. Marks.
On August 29, 1764 Colonel James Grant (details) arrived to be first governor of British East Florida. (summary)
To restore order and civil leadership he requested James Moultrie, a former attorney general in South Caroline,
to come to St. Augustine in his function as chief justice of East Florida.
He encouraged other friends from South Carolina to settle in St. Augustine as planters, one among them was John Moultrie
(James' brother). With a degree in medicine from Edinburgh University, well educated and one of the best planters in Amerika,
John Moultrie's plantation "Bella Vista" became an example for all others to follow.
As the first settlers arrived in St. Augustine they found one man in control of about half the entire housing
and lots in the city. Before they left the former Spanish landowners had reached an agreement with Jesse Fish, (details)
agent for the New York merchant William Walton, to sell the properties to new arrivals.
Although he denied it Fish did very well and acquired Anastasia Island, where he built a home(details)
and started an orange grove there named El Vergel ("The Garden") exporting juice to the northern colonies.(more details)
To offset the depopulation further emigration to the new territory was encouraged.
One important new settler was Dr. Andrew Turnbull (details)who founded the New Smyrna colony, named after
his wife's birthplace in Asia Minor, in 1768. He recruited 1403 laborers from Minorca, Greece and Italy to work there
under indenture labor contracts.
Under very harsh conditions, treated as slaves, eventually, in 1777, 600 Minorcans walked to St. Augustine
and were released from indenture by the current governor and given a little plot of land west of the city.(details) (video)
We still find Minorcan names, such as Pacetti, Usina and Greek names as Hypolita and Llambias in our town.
The St. Photias shrine on St George Street commemorates the Greeks.
Under the leadership of James Grant, later temporarily under John Moultrie as lieutenant governor,
St. Augustine changed from an impoverished military town depending on money and supplies from abroad
to a rather prosperous community.
Produce from the plantations such as oranges were exported as well as indigo, cotton, turpentine and lumber.
Very fortunate for the city it remained safe from attack during the American Revolutionary war (1775-1783),
even florished in trade and population.
Bachelor James Grant an affable gourmet and "bon vivant" was well liked an respected.
Eventually, though, his lifestye caught up with him and illness, including a painful gout condition,
forced him to sail back to England in May 1771.
In his absence John Moultrie, as Lieutenant Governor, took over for the next three years.
Under his direction a network of road was constructed adding to the town's prosperity.
In March 1774 the new governor arrived. Forty nine years old, governor Tonyn was a career army man,
but unlike the popular Grant, was intolerant and short-tempered (details)
Relations between the governor and the senior citizens suffered.
Ten years later his was the unhappy task to to execute the details for the Second Treaty of Paris,
returning Florida to Spain in exchange for the Bahama Islands.
A few British subjects such as Francis Philip Fatio (details)remained as well as all Minorcans.
All others left. As twenty years before the housing market collapsed.