Eugenio de Espinosa

Eugenio de Espinosa was a Spanish soldier who served with Nicolás Ponce de León as interim co-governor of Spanish Florida from September 21, 1631 to July 29, 1633.[1]

At a young age, Espinosa joined the Spanish army, where he excelled and soon attained the rank of Sergeant Major.[2]

On September 21, 1631, he and the official Contador (accountant) of the province, Nicolás Ponce de León, were appointed as interim co-governors of La Florida to replace the incumbent governor, Andrés Rodríguez de Villegas, perhaps because of illness.[3]

During his administration, Espinosa was subjected to a residencia (court of inquiry}. He was accused of having spent 14,078 “reales” (1,280 ducats) more than the previous governor, Andrés Rodríguez de Villegas, from the so-called "Indian fund" appropriated as aid to the neighboring Indian provinces, assigned and administered by the Spanish government. The fund, disbursed as a portion of the situado, the annual royal subsidy, was intended to buy trade goods to be distributed as gifts among the various chiefs of the regional tribes, and thus secure their loyalty and encourage them in submission to the Crown and the Catholic Church.[4]

Governor Rodríguez de Villegas died in 1633 and was replaced by Luis de Horruytiner; consequently, the interim co-governorship of Espinosa and Nicolás Ponce de León came to an end.[3]

References

  1. ↑ Ben Cohoon. U.S. States F-K.
  2. ↑ Joseph M. Hall, Jr. (26 May 2012). Zamumo's Gifts: Indian-European Exchange in the Colonial Southeast. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 189. ISBN 0-8122-0214-7.
  3. 1 2 Amy Turner Bushnell (1987). David Hurst Thomas, ed. Situado and Sabana: Spain's Support System for the Presidio and Mission Provinces of Florida. Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History: The Archaeology of Mission Santa Catalina de Guale, No. 74. 68. University of Georgia Press. p. 212. ISBN 978-0-8203-1712-0.
  4. ↑ John E. Worth (1998). The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida: Assimilation. University Press of Florida. pp. 135–136. ISBN 978-0-8130-1574-3.
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