Sebastián Kindelán y O'Regan

Sebastián Kindelán y O'Regan
6th governor of Spanish East Florida
In office
11 June 1812 – 3 June 1815
Preceded by Juan José de Estrada
Succeeded by Juan José de Estrada
4th colonial governor of Second Spanish Colony of Santo Domingo (1809–1821)
In office
1818–1821
Preceded by Carlos de Urrutia y Matos
Succeeded by Pascual Real
71st Governor (Provisional) of Cuba
In office
1822–1823
Preceded by Nicolás de Mahy y Romo
Succeeded by Francisco Dionisio Vives
Personal details
Born December 30, 1757 (1757-12-30)
Ceuta, Spain
Died May 4, 1826 (1826-05-05) (aged 68)
Santiago de Cuba
Profession Military governor, political administrator
Signature

Sebastian Kindelán y O’Regan, also called Sebastián de Kindelán y Oregón,[1] (30 December 1757 – 4 May 1826) was a colonel in the Spanish Army who served as governor of East Florida (11 June 1812 – 3 June 1815) and of Santo Domingo during the Second Spanish period (1818–1821), as well as provisional governor of Cuba (1822–1823).

Biography

Early years

Sebastián Kindelán was born 30 December 1757[2] in Ceuta, Spain.[3] He was the son of Vicente Kindelán Luttrell of Luttrellstown and María Francisca O’Regan.[4] His father was an Irishman who settled in Spain[5][6] and joined the infantry of the Royal Spanish Army,[7] attaining the positions of Brigadier and military governor of Zamora. His mother came from Barcelona but she probably was of Irish descent.[6] He had a brother, Juan de Kindelán y O’Regan, and a sister, María de la Concepcion Kindelán y O’Regan.[2] Kindelán joined the Spanish Army as a cadet on November 18, 1768. During this time he was a soldier of the infantry regiment of Santiago de Cuba.[8]

Political career

Kindelán assumed the governorship of Santiago de Cuba and all the eastern territory of Cuba[8] on March 28, 1799 during a politically sensitive[9][10] period of the island's history.[11] In a missive dated February 19, 1804, some of its influential citizens reported to the Spanish Crown the dangerous situation of the island, asserting that Governor Kindelán had encouraged white refugees from the uprisings in Saint-Domingue to settle in Cuba after the French withdrew from the western portion of Hispaniola. They complained that some twenty thousand[12] or more French immigrants had already acquired land in Cuba,[13] and were importing black slaves to work their plantations.[14] The letter accused the governor of irreligion and dishonesty, and condemned him for having licentious habits and setting a bad example for the people. Kindelán rebutted the denunciations vigorously, and defended the French settlers, saying they were peaceful, and had no intention of inciting a revolution such as had occurred in Santo Domingo (Saint-Domingue).[15]

In a letter to the authorities in Spain dated 17 May 1804, Kindelán made note of recent attacks on the British colonies by privateers based in Cuba. He later requested a reassignment, and was transferred to East Florida on September 22, 1811. He was promoted to Brigadier of Infantry in December of that year. On 11 June 1812, Kindelán was officially named Royal Governor of Spanish East Florida, being named by the Cádiz Regency.[16][17] In 1812 rebel groups of Georgians tried to seize Florida, wanting it to be part of the United States. The Seminoles and their black tribal members, some of them enslaved, came to the aid of Spain.[18]

Governor Kindelán sent certain leaders of his black militiamen to meet with the Seminole chiefs King Payne and his successor Bowlegs, who allowed some of their warriors to fight alongside the Spanish as a gesture of goodwill.[19] Kindelán expressed his satisfaction when Bowlegs took two hundred of his men to join the Spanish at the St. Johns River, but complained that every time the Seminoles captured a slave, a horse or anything else of value, they left the field to try to secure the catch in their villages, so their utility as fighters was only temporary. Like his predecessors, Gov. Kindelán used black translators, including the free mulatto militiaman, Benjamin Wiggins, and the slave Tony Doctor[20] (Antonio Proctor), whom he described as "known to be the best interpreter of Indian languages in the province",[19][21] to promote a Spanish, Black, and Indian alliance.[22] In July 1812, Proctor traveled to the Seminole town of Alachua to meet with the chief King Payne, who called upon several hundred of his warriors to assist the Spanish.[23]

Kindelán left the position of Governor of East Florida on 3 June 1815,[24] when he was appointed Attaché to the General Staff of Cuba, but on August 12 that same year he was given the rank of Lieutenant in Havana. Three years later, in 1818, he was elected acting governor of the Second Spanish Colony of Santo Domingo. As governor, he was faced with the problem of the Haitians who wanted to take over that part of the island of Hispaniola.[25] On September 12, 1819, Kindelán was awarded the Grand Cross of San Fernando, third class, for his efforts in Florida in 1813 to stop the American attacks in the colony; he was also a Knight of the Order of Santiago.

Kindelán was replaced by Brigadier Pascual Real as colonial governor of Santo Domingo in 1821, prior to the short-lived independence of that colony won by José Núñez de Cáceres and his group.[17][26] In 1822, as Cabo Subalterno,[27] he was appointed Provisional Captain-General (or Governor) of Cuba[28] to replace former Gov. Nicolás Mahy y Romo.[29][30] Like his predecessor, Kindelán strove to unite the military and civil power in the office of the Captain-General; this effort aroused antagonism between the Spanish troops and the local militia.[31] Between 1824 and 1826 he served as Field marshal (Mariscal de Campo)[4] of the royal army, and died in Santiago de Cuba on 4 May 1826,[32] with that rank.

Personal life

Kindelán married Ana Manuela Mozo de la Torre Garvey in the Cathedral of Santiago de Cuba on 11 December 1801.[3][33] The couple had six children:[34] Juan (born in Santiago de Cuba on September 8, 1806),[4][6] Bárbara,[35] Vicente (1808–1877),[4] Fernando (1808–1889), María (1810–1879) and Mariana (1810–1880).[33]

References

  1. ↑ Sociedad Dominicana de Bibliófilos (2009). Frank Moya Pons, ed. Volumen V: Historia (pdf). Colección Pensamiento Dominicano (in Spanish). Santo Domingo: Banco de Reservas de la República Dominicana. p. 247. ISBN 978-9945-457-16-2. Retrieved 3 November 2013. 1818. GOBIERNO DE KINDELÁN. Sucedió a Urrutia don Sebastián de Kindelán y Oregón, quien no sólo era más inteligente que su antecesor, sino que era hombre de vasta ilustración y de tendencias justicieras.
  2. 1 2 Vicente de Cadenas y Vicent (1995). Pleitos de hidalguía que se conservan en el Archivo de la Real Chancillería de Valladolid: Maceira-Martinez Ballesteros. Ediciones Hidalguia. p. 23. ISBN 978-84-87204-69-2. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  3. 1 2 Veinticinco años de la Escuela de Genealogía, Heráldica y Nobiliaria. Ediciones Hidalguia. 1 January 1985. p. 85. ISBN 978-84-398-4671-0. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Guillermo Lohmann Villena; Francisco de Solano (1993). Los Americanos en Las órdenes Nobiliarias. Editorial CSIC - CSIC Press. p. 246. ISBN 978-84-00-07351-0. Retrieved 27 July 2013.
  5. ↑ Bernard Burke; Sir Bernard Burke C.B. Ll.D. (May 2009). The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales, Comprising a Registry of Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time. Heritage Books. pp. 565–. ISBN 978-0-7884-3720-5. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  6. 1 2 3 "Kindelán – Escudo Heráldico (Kindelan - Heraldic Shield)". Escudo Heráldico (In Spanish). 25 March 2008. Retrieved October 1, 2010.
  7. ↑ Courier du Bas-Rhin. 1768. p. 589. Retrieved 21 July 2013.
  8. 1 2 Ricardo Repilado (1 January 2007). Tapiz de ángeles: Ensayos de Literatura Cubana. Ediciones Unión. p. 266. ISBN 978-959-209-758-2. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  9. ↑ Doris Lorraine Garraway (2008). Tree Of Liberty: Cultural Legacies of the Haitian Revolution in the Atlantic World. University of Virginia Press. p. 40. ISBN 978-0-8139-2686-5. Retrieved 18 July 2013. Testimonio de los autos obrados sobre la arribada que han hecho a este Pro. de Santiago de Cuba 5 Goletas y una balandra francesas...con varias familias de la misma nación pidiendo hospitalidad
  10. ↑ Juan Andreo García; Lucía Provencio Garrigós (September 2008). "Tan lejos de La Habana y tan cerca de Saint-Domingue: Santiago de Cuba durante la crisis de 1808" (PDF). Recoge los contenidos presentados a: Asociación de Historia Contemporánea. Congreso. Universidad de Murcia. p. 5. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  11. ↑ Gabino La Rosa Corzo (2003). Runaway Slave Settlements in Cuba: Resistance and Repression. UNC Press Books. pp. 86–87. ISBN 978-0-8078-5479-2. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  12. ↑ Leslie Derfler (1 January 1991). Paul Lafargue and the Founding of French Marxism: 1842 - 1882. Harvard University Press. pp. 12–13. ISBN 978-0-674-65903-2. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  13. ↑ Lourdes M. Rizo Aguilera. "La plantación cafetalera del siglo XIX en Santiago de Cuba como modelo de asentamiento rural sustentable". Santiago.cu. Universidad de Oriente. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  14. ↑ Lux, William R. (1 July 1972). "French Colonization in Cuba, 1791-1809" (PDF). The Americas. 29 (1): 58. doi:10.2307/980536. ISSN 0003-1615.
  15. ↑ Palau, Antonio (1948). Manual del librero hispano-americano: inventario bibliográfico de la producción científica y literaria de España y de la América latina desde la invención de la imprenta hasta nuestros dias, con el valor comercial de todos los artículos descritos (2 ed.). Barcelona: Libreria anticuaria.
  16. ↑ John Charles Anderson Stagg (1 January 2009). Borderlines in Borderlands: James Madison and the Spanish-American Frontier, 1776-1821. Yale University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-300-15328-6. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  17. 1 2 "Biografía de Kindelán O´Regan, Sebastián (1763-?) (Biography O'Regan Kindelan, Sebastian (1763 -?)) (In Spanish)". La web de las biografías.com.ar (The Biography web). 2010. Retrieved 2 October 2010.
  18. ↑ Franklin Evan Nooe (2008). "Renders it Necessary that We Should be Prepared": A Reexamination of the Militant South Thesis in Territorial Florida. ProQuest. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-549-69641-4. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  19. 1 2 Richmond F. Brown (1 December 2007). Coastal Encounters: The Transformation of the Gulf South in the Eighteenth Century. U of Nebraska Press. p. 108. ISBN 978-0-8032-1393-7. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  20. ↑ Jane Landers (1 February 2010). Atlantic Creoles in the Age of Revolutions. Harvard University Press. p. 113. ISBN 978-0-674-03591-1. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  21. ↑ Gene Allen Smith (22 January 2013). The Slaves' Gamble: Choosing Sides in the War of 1812. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 83. ISBN 978-1-137-31008-8. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  22. ↑ Frank Marotti (5 April 2012). The Cana Sanctuary: History, Diplomacy, and Black Catholic Marriage in Antebellum St. Augustine, Florida. University of Alabama Press. pp. 78–. ISBN 978-0-8173-1747-8. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  23. ↑ Landers, Jane (2003). Germán Rodrigo Mejía Pavony (trans.). "Cimarrones africanos e indios en la frontera española con los Estados Unidos. El caso de los Seminoles negros de La Florida" [African Maroons and Indians on the Spanish Florida Frontier with the United States] (PDF). Memoria y Sociedad (in Spanish). 7 (15): 8. Retrieved 20 July 2013.
  24. ↑ U.S. States F-K.
  25. ↑ "Governors of Santo Domingo" (in Spanish). El Rincón del Vago.
  26. ↑ Leslie Bethell (11 July 1985). The Cambridge History of Latin America. Cambridge University Press. pp. 254–. ISBN 978-0-521-23224-1. Retrieved 19 July 2013.
  27. ↑ David Turnbull (1840). Travels in the West: Cuba: With Notices of Porto Rico, and the Slave Trade. AMS Press. p. 552. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  28. ↑ Willis Fletcher Johnson (1920). The History of Cuba. B.F. Buck, Incorporated. p. 128. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  29. ↑ United States. War Dept. Cuban Census Office (1900). Census of Cuba ...: Bulletin. U.S. Government Printing Office. p. 697. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  30. ↑ "History of Cuba" (in Spanish). Archived from the original on 2009-10-26.
  31. ↑ Juan Guiteras; Rafael María Merchán; Gonzalo de Quesada (1897). Free Cuba: her oppression, struggle for liberty, history, and present condition. Publishers' union. p. 32. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  32. ↑ Max Henríquemayz Ureña (1978). Panorama histórico de la literatura cubana. I. Arte y Literatura. p. 107. Retrieved 19 July 2013. En la colección Boloña los Ocios de Guantánamo se suponen escritos en 1829, a juzgar por esta mención que aparece debajo de ese título general: «Silvas dirigidas al señor brigadier don Sebastián Kindelán el día 24 de junio del año 1829.» Esto resulta a todas luces extraño, porque Kindelán había muerto antes de esa fecha: su fallecimiento acaeció en Santiago de Cuba el 4 de mayo de 1826, y ya no era brigadier, sino mariscal de campo.
  33. 1 2 Micheline Kerney Walsh (1978). Spanish Knights of Irish Origin: Documents from Continental Archives. Stationery Office for the Irish Manuscripts Commission. pp. x, 37. Retrieved 17 July 2013.
  34. ↑ Vicente De Cadenas Y Vicent (1956). Caballeros de la Orden de Alcántara que effectuaron sus pruebas de ingreso durante el siglo XIX. Ediciones Hidalguia. p. 156. GGKEY:F9DW3Y0BGNS. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
  35. ↑ Francisco Xavier de Santa Cruz y Mallén (conde de San Juan de Jaruco) (1940). Historia de familias cubanas. Editorial Hércules. p. 193. Retrieved 18 July 2013.
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