Pedro Benedit Horruytiner
Pedro Benedit Horruytiner | |
|---|---|
| Royal Governor of La Florida | |
| In office 11 April 1646 – 8 January 1648 | |
| Preceded by | Benito Ruíz de Salazar Vallecilla |
| Succeeded by | Benito Ruíz de Salazar Vallecilla |
| In office 19 October 1651 – 18 June 1654 | |
| Preceded by | Nicolás Ponce de León |
| Succeeded by | Diego de Rebolledo |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 1613 |
| Died | November 20, 1684 |
| Profession | Soldier and Administrator (Governor of Florida) |
Pedro Benedit-Horruytiner y Catalán (1613 – November 20, 1684) was a Spanish soldier who served as interim governor and contador (royal accountant) of La Florida between 1646 and 1648 alongside Francisco Menendez Marquez, and as governor between 1651 and 1654.
Biography
Pedro Benedit Horruytiner was born in Zaragoza, Spain[1] in 1613. He was the son of Gilberto Benedit Horruytiner and Inés Catalán, and the brother of Micaela Benedit Horruytiner Aragón. He was a nephew of the former governor of Florida, Luis Benedit Horruitiner.[2] Pedro Horruytiner joined the Royal Spanish Navy as a youth on December 10, 1635.[3] and gained the ranks of sergeant major (" sargento mayor") and lieutenant colonel, which he held when he was appointed interim governor of Florida. Horruytiner moved to Saint Augustine, Florida, on 11 April 1646.[1]
Pedro Benedit Horruytiner was appointed acting governor of Florida on 11 April 1646.[4] On September 5, 1647, Horruytiner and Francisco Menendez Marquez issued an ultimatum to the Chisca Indians, who had attacked the Christianized Timucuans, forcing them to choose within two months between their annihilation in Florida, or settlement in the territory of the Christian Timucua. The Chisca chieftains settled their people in the Timucua territory.
In January of the same year, Horruytiner ordered Ensign Pedro de Florencia to search for the Indians who had been living in the missions of San Francisco de Potano and [[Santa Fé de Teleco], fearing those places would be permanently depopulated. Although the expedition seems to have achieved its goal, these missions and all those located near the Camino Real were nearly depopulated after the Timucuan revolt in 1656. Although the Spanish attempted to repopulate these places, many of their inhabitants continued abandoning them.[5]
Horruytiner's term as interim governor of Florida ended on 8 January 1648; he was reappointed as governor on 19 October 1651. He retired on 18 June 1654, and was replaced by Diego de Rebolledo.[4]
Horruytiner died at the age of 71 on November 20, 1684, still in the service of the Spanish Crown.[1]
Personal life
Pedro Benedit Horruytiner married María Ruíz de Cañizares Mexía y Florencia in Saint Augustine, on February 19, 1637. They had several children, including Isabel, Manuela, Jacobina, Juan, Pedro, Josef, Lorenzo, and Juan Benedit de Horruytiner y Ruíz de Cañizares.[1] Juan Horruytiner was a captain in the Spanish Army. According to other sources, his mother-in-law was Sanchez de Urisa.[6]
Legacy
- The private library of Pedro Benedit Horruytiner in St Augustine is one of the oldest preserved in Florida.[3][note 1]
- A distant descendant of Horruytiner, José Antonio Primo de Rivera, son the Spanish dictator Miguel Primo de Rivera, was the founder of the Falangist Spanish political party, which governed Spain between 1923 and 1930. He was killed on November 20 (the same date as Pedro Benedit Horruytiner's death), in 1936 during the Spanish Civil War.[1]
Notes
References
- ^ a b c d e Revista Hidalguía número 298-299. Año 2003. 298-299. Ediciones Hidalguia. 2003. p. 516. GGKEY:U29GGJGT4CY.
- ^ Juan - Heráldica Aragonesa: Genealogía de Aragón y Pedro Benedit Horruytiner
- ^ a b c Santamaría García, Antonio (2011). Florida en el siglo XVI. Bibliografía anotada (English: Florida in the sixteenth century. annotated Bibliography). Page 3.
- ^ a b Ben Cohoon. U.S. States F-K.
- ^ John E. Worth (1998). The Timucuan Chiefdoms of Spanish Florida: Resistance and destruction. University Press of Florida. p. 17. ISBN 978-0-8130-1575-0.
- ^ Eleanor Philips Barnes (1961). "To be added to the section recording Lorenzo Horruytiner". ufdc.ufl.edu. University of Florida. pp. 2–3. Retrieved 4 June 2017.