5. Francis RICHARD II (Louis Joseph Francis-3, John Louis-2, Louis-1) was born in 1780 in St. Marc, San Domingue , Haiti . Ancestry Tree "17155" says he was born in Florence . He signed a will on 24 Jun 1837 in Duval Co., Florida .
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from book "Anna Kingsley" by Daniel L. Schafer. St. Augustine Historical Society. St. Augustine , Florida , 1944.) p. 13
"Francis Richard, Francisco Xavier Sanchez and several other men all had black wives or mistress, and interracial children."
"Kingsley, Clark, and Richard were all planters who hoped to strike it rich in East Florida and believed that slavery was essential to their prosperity. Yet they felt that race did not automatically and permanently consign persons to either slavery or freedom. According to Kingsley, "color ought not to be the badge of degradation. The only distinction should be between slae and free, not between white and coloured."
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“Slavery in Florida : territorial ???? Emancipation” by Larry Rivers
The large East Florida sugar and cotton plantations paralleled their Middle Florida counterparts by reliyng on some highly skilled slvates who labored mostly at jobs other than fieldwork. Salveholders who owned substantial numbers of bond servants neecded and easily justified keeping individuals speciall trained as crpenter, brick masons, coopers, cobblers, tanners, blacksmithers, and mechanics. A.B. Nance's blacksmith, two coopers, carpenters, and brick mason nubmered among his ninety slaves. Francis Richard's will mentioned a carpenter valued in 1837 at the substantial amount of $1000. The slaves of Duval County 's Isaiah D. Hart included a brick mason, a cobbler, and additional slaves who spent time building chimneys. Althought ther percetnage of skilled workers among slaves in East Florida is difficult to determine, it may reasonably be said that owners with over fifteen slaves usually kept one or two skilled bond servants. P75
Sources clearly portray two-, three-, and four- generational families in northeast F. Frank Berry, too young when a slave to remember the experience, still distinctly recalled his kinship ties on a St. Augustine plantatin. His grandmother, mother, stepfather, and siblings, plus the children he and his wife had after the war, all figured prominently in hismemory. Jimmy, Louisa, and their children - as well as Henry, his wife, children, and grandmother - lived on Francis Richard's St. Augustine estate. Even the owner joined in recognition of multigenerational families, providing in his will that, if his only “legitimate” son died, the abovle-mentined slaves were to go to Richard's “second family of colored children.” P94
In East Florida many masters pursued their financial self-interest by separating families; on the other hand, numberous owners made an effort to keep at least the single or simple family units together. In St. Johns County , for instance James R. Anderson sold davy and his wife, Betsey, and Bob, his wife, Peggy, and their children in family groups. Zephaniah Kingsley's will stated, “I do hereby authorize my executors not to separate the (slave) families.” Isaiah D. Hart, John Price, Francis Richard, David Turner, A.B. Nance, J.H. McIntosh, and others kept slaves together and sold them in single family units. P97
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The following two excerpts are from “The Letters of Don Juan McQueen to his family - Written from Spanish East Florida 1791 - 1807”
John McQueen to Eliza Anne McQueen Fort George 16 Apr 1799
My Dear Eliza
I wrote your Mother eight days ago in pretty good health, but ever since I have been exceedingly indisposed with Violent pains in my Shoulders & Ca. tho' I keep on my legs as much as possible. Monsieur Richard and his wife are here for a few days and they help me by baths & Ca. tho' I am now scarcely able o hold up my head to scrarwl you a few lines. The Maruqis (de Lafayatte) gave me a a very flattering account of the Ball given to Generals Pickney & Washington & tho not there he pays you and your Cozens many Compliments I expect a true accounty from yourself…..Mrs. Richard's little dog now under my feet put me in mind to ask if you received the one I sent you…p51
Footnote:
Luigui Giuseppe Francesco Richard was a native of Florence , Italy . His wife was Genevieve Bianne, a French Creole who escaped from the Negro insurrection in St. Domingo. Richard settled o the St. John's , and by 1807 had charge of McQueen's Ship Yard plantation.
(This footnote says that"Monsieur Richard" is Louis Joseph Francois (Francis I). It also refers to his wife. I read that she did not go to Florida with her husband, so the Monsieur Richard referred to might actually be Francis II)
Letter from John McQueen to Robert Mackay St. Johns 4th Feb, 1897
…My Ship Yard Plantation is under the Management of an experienced French Man Monsieur Richard - and the care of my Pablo Creek place given to the care of a Mr. Fenwick...p72
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The Arlington Story. 1959
After the English had abandoned their plantations, the Spanish government gave large land grants to those who whould resettle the land. Spanish land grant records, dated June 4, 1817 , show that Francis Richard received 16,000 acres on Potsburg Creek ( Arlington River ). The settlements was known as Strawberrry Mills with grist and saw mills being operaterd for many years. They were located near the bridge crossing Mill Creek on Arlington Road, south of the Expressway. P11
The Robert Bigelow Plantation
Robert Bigelow came from Norfolk , Connecticut , to Jacksonville in 1829 following his graduation from Yale University . In 1832 he married ElizabethAnn Richard, daughter of Francis Richard. He was commissioned U.S. Quartermaster during the Seminole War and served as one of the trustees of the Richard Estate.p15
••••• •••••
(copy)
September 15, 1930
James M. Johnson
161 W. 135th Street
New York , NY
Sir:
Your claim #0301758, for $12176.00, alleged to be due the estate of Francis Richard, Sr., deceased, and Francis Richard, Jr., deceased, as a claim for damages arising under the article of the Treaty of 1819 with Spain, and known as an East Florida claim, has been carefully examined and it is found that no part thereof may be allowed for reasons hereafter stated.
The records of this office show that Warrant No. 8039 issued on certificate of the Comptroller of the Treasury No. 81651, dated April 28, 1841 . The warrantr is endorsed as follows:
"Received payment of the above warrant by Treasury Notes, viz:
Nos. 241 to 243, 3 of 500.00 $1500.00
Nos. 728 to 737, 10 of $50.00 500.00
22 1/14 interest 6% 66.00
S.L. BURRITT" 2066.00
Warrant No. 10136 issued on Certificate of the Comptroller of the Treasury No. 83129, dated December 3, 1841 , for $10,110.00, for which sight draft No. 6901, dated December 3, 1841 , was drawn on the Treasury of the United States to the order of Samuel L. Burritt. This draft, which is now on file, is marked paid December 11 on the back thereof, and is endorsed by Sam'l L. Burritt.
The records further show that Samuel L. Burritt was attorney in fact of John C. Richard, Administrator, de bonis non, of the estate of Francis Richard, Sr., deceased, and also attorney in fact of Robert Bigelow, Executor of the estate of Francis Richard, Jr., deceased. Payment of the said warrants was made to Samuel L. Burritt, attorney, as noted.
I therefore certify that no balance is found due from the United States .
Respectfully,
J.R. McCara, Comptroller General of the United States
by: (signed) W.B. Dewhirst. May 26th, 1832
FRANCIS RICHARD vs THE UNITED STATED OF AMERICA
Land Claim: 16,000 acres
This day came as well the counsel for the said claimant as the Attorney of the United States for this District and the Court now being sufficiently advised of and concerning the claim of said petitioner and maturely considered the same together with the evidence and arguments of counsel on both sides, DOTH order, adjudge and decree that the claim is valid and that in accordance with the laws and customs of Spain and under and by virtue of the late Treaty of Amity Settlement and limits between the United States of America and the King of Spain ratified by the President of the United States on the 22nd day of February 1821 and under and by virtue of the Laws of Nations and of the United States,
It is hereby confirmed, adjudged and decreed unto the said claimant to the extent and agreeably to the boundaries as in the Grant for the said land and as in the survey thereof made by Andreu Burgevin, provided said surveys do not include a greater quantity than Sixteen Thousand acres, and dated the first survey Fourteen Thousand and Four Hundred acres on the first day of November 1824, and the second survey of Sixteen Hundred acres the 26th of November 1824, and filed, herein set forth to wit: said tract of Fourteen thousand four hundred acres is situated on Pottsburg Creek, the first line of the survey thereof runs from a branch of said creek South eighty-four degrees West Eighty-four chains to a pine marked X, the second line runs from said pine South five degrees West eighty four chains. Third line runs South thirty degrees one hundred and five chains. The Fourth line runs South sixty-five degrees East ninety one chains. The Fifth line runs South twenty-five degrees East one hundred and sixty five chains to a pine marked X. The sixth line runs North eighty degrees East Eighty five chains to a pine marked X. The seventh line runs from said North three degrees East one hundred and Ninety five chains to a pine marked X. The eighth line runs from said pine North sixty five degrees East twelve chains to a pine marked X. The ninth line runs from said pine North one hundred and sixteen chains, to a pine marked X. The tenth line runs North sixty five degrees West ten chains to a pine X. The eleventh line runs North ten degrees West three hundred and eighteen chains to a pine marked X. The twelfth line runs North forty degrees West one hundred and ten chains to a pine marked X. The thirteenth line runs South fifty degrees West eighty chains to a pine marked X and the Fourteenth line runs West one hundred chains to a Live Oak on the Bank of the river St. Johns marked X. The second survey is of sixteen hundred acres situated in a place called Cedar Swamp three of our miles South of St. Johns Bluff, and has the following lines to-wit:
The first line runs from a pine marked X North two hundred chains to another pine marked X. The second line runs from said pine West eighty chains to a black Oak marked X. The third line runs from said black oak South two hundred chains to a cypress marked X and the fourth line runs from said cypress East eighty chains to the pine at the beginning of the first line. As by the inspection of the transcript of record of the said Superior Court which was brought into the Supreme Court of the United States by virtu re of an appeal agreeably to the Act of Congress in such case made and provided fully and at large appears.
And whereas at the present Term of January in the Year of our Lord One Thousand Eight hundred and thirty-four, the said cause came to be heard before the Supreme Court on the said transcript of the record and was argued by counsel, In consideration whereof this Court is the opinion that there is no error in so much of the Decree of the Superior Court for the District of East Florida made in this cause as declares the claim to be valid and as confirms the title of the petitioner to the land described in the second survey mentioned in the said decree containing sixteen hundred acres, made the 26th of November 1824 and doth affirm so much thereof. But this Court is of the opinion that there is error in so much of the said decree as confirms the title of the petitioner to the land described in the first survey made on the last day of November 1824 because the said survey is admitted by the petitioner to contain more than fourteen thousand and four hundred acres of land not previously granted. This Court doth therefore reverse so much of the said decree as confirms the title of the petitioner to the land contained in the said survey according to the exterior boundaries in the said decree described and doth remand the cause to the said Superior Court with directions to confirm its decree to the decree of this Court by ordering the said tract to be survey as to contain Fourteen Thousand Four Hundred acres of land previously granted and no more.
Your therefore are hereby commanded that such further proceedings be had in said cause as according to right and justice and in conformity to the opinion and decree of this Court and the laws for the United States ought to be had the said appeal notwithstanding.
Witness the Honorable John Marshal Chief Justice of said Supreme Court the second Monday of January in the year of our Lord One Thousand eight hundred and thirty-four.
WM. THOS. CARROL
Clerk of the Supreme Court of the United States
- - - - - - - - - - - - -
IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE ABOVE SUPREME COURT MANDATE, this cause was brought before the District Court of the United States Northern District of Florida, April Term 1852, and certified copy of the location and survey of said grant having "this day been filed" by and under the direction of the Surveyor General of Florida, and presented to the Court, and "this Court this day be and the same is hereby confirmed and that the lands mentioned and set forth and described in the said plat and survey with the metes and bounds therein mentioned and set forth and in the places described are the lands granted and intended to be granted to the claimants or those under whom they claim and by virtue of the concession or grant from the Spanish Government heretofore declared valid by the former decree in this cause, and it is further decreed that the said lands as thus located and survey and described as above mentioned (16,000 acres in all) are hereby fully and finally decreed and confirmed to the said Claimant.
Certified as a true copy by Geo. R. Fairbanks, Clerk of the District Court of the United States , northern District of Florida, October 13th, 1854 .
NOTE: The long delay in Court proceeding may have been caused by deaths in the Richard family, and also by the fact that the Seminole Wars began in 1835. It took from 1821 to 1854, for the 16,000 acres to be finally confirmed. It would therefore, appear to be the reason why so much of this grant was lost to the Richards.
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The following Memorial to the United States Congress is transcribed from The Territorial Papers of the United States . Compiled and edited by Clarence Edwin Carter; Volume XXIV:
The Territory of Florida , 1828-1834; pages 800-802.
The Memorial is transcribed as it appears in the above source with punctuation and spellings retained.
Memorial To Congress By Citizens Of The Territory
To the Honorable the Senate and house of Representatives of the United States .
The Petition of the undersigned Citizens of the Territory of Florida respectfully sheweth, that for several years past the legislation of the said Territory has been calculated materially to disturb the peace and happiness and to injure the property of the ceded inhabitants of the late provinces of Spain who are by the Treaty now Citizens of the United States. Your Petitioners are aware that the evils of which they complain have not arisen from any thing inherent in the institutions and Laws of the United States, but have their origin in the illiberal prejudices of a local government totally at variance with the liberal spirit and generous policy of the nation and age in which we live: it will not be necessary for us in appealing to so intelligent a body as the one we address, to say that every nation and people have particular customs and habits which if not at War with the institutions of other countries are universally viewed with great toleration and indulgence. The principle has been carried so far in other countries where there was an established religion that the ceded inhabitants were permitted to retain theirs. There are doubtless some practises in all countries tolerated by National indulgencies that may not be approved by all the people of the United States; but those are diseases of the body politic to be changed by example and public sentiment and not by the nostrums of political quackery which will nauseate and disgust every one whose misfortune it has been to be transfered to the United States.
The laws to which your Memorialists chiefly object as coming under the designation above mentioned are mostly those of the last Session of Council relating to free people of color: it cannot have escaped the observation of your honorable body that in all slave-holding countries some portion of the population and not a very inconsiderable part have without the formalities of Marriage ceremonies, children by colored women. In all Spanish countries they were free and admitted to most of the rights of Spanish subjects especially to the natural and inherent right of legal protection from which they are now excluded: however these practises may be at variance with the national prejudices of a portion of the United States they existed in the recently acquired country and are not to be extinguished at once by intolerance and persecution or any other moral or political fanaticism: These evils are not to be rooted out by legal penalties any more than faith is to be controuled by the terrors of the Inquisition and a resort to one is no more to be justified than to the other. The Legislative Council of Florida however acting upon the idea of bringing every thing to their own standard of moral perfection: as the Tyrant of antiquity did to His bed, have denounced penalties and imposed taxes on this class of population only on account of their color: These unfortunate people are not only requited to pay the usual taxes which other citizens pay but they are required to pay from five to ten dollars each on both sexes over fifteen years of age because of their color, in addition, and to be sold as slaves for life if they should be too poor to pay these odious and unequal taxes; besides being outlawed and excluded from all legal redress for injuries done either to their persons or properties: connected with this also is a law to break up all those paternal obligations and ties of natural affection which have existed for years past by imposing a fine of one thousand dollars with the penalty of disenfranchisement upon every White person who is suspected of having a connexion with a coloured woman and the like penalty for inter-marying with any person suspected to be of colored origin or for performing such ceremony.
The Legislative Acts of Florida are now replete with many cruel and unjust laws but those of mental persecution and proscription for the virtuous and sacred ties of domestic life and parental affection are certainly the most tyrannical and the most repugnant to the free institutions of our republican government and perfect novelties in modern legislation.
Your Memorialists therefore humbly pray that all those cruel, unnecessary and most impolitic laws not authorised by the Constitution of the United States be repealed and annulled and your Petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray &'
[Signatures]
Z. Kingsley, Charles W. Clarke, Geo:-JF:-Clarke F: Richard, Edward H Sams, D.S. Gardiner, F J Ross, Sam Kingsley, J.A. Coffee, Rocque Leonardi, Ant' Lazari, Adam Cooper
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Inhabitants of Alachua County to the President
About October 1829
General Andrew Jackson, President of the United States of America .
We, the undersigned, inhabitants of the County of Alachua , in East Florida , beg leave Respectfully to represent, that we regret the necessity of being again compelled to call the attention of the general government to the subject of the Florida Indians.
Scarcely three years has elapsed since some of our peaceable inhabitants were butchered by these savages, without respect to age or sex, and although their hostility was soon subdued, their depredations on our property and lawless conduct have been continued from time to time. We have repeatedly complained to the proper authorities of the Territory- of the impropriety of many of the privileges granted to these people; but we are sorry to say without effect. Our situation at present is alarming, and rendered still more so by a leave of absence for six months which we are sorry to learn has been granted the agent. Within a few days parties of them have been detected in the act of plundering our stock, in the very heart of our settlements, and fifty or sixty miles beyond their boundary.
About four weeks since a deputation from the Creek Nation visited these Indians - their business unknown, but certain it is, that their conduct while here was calculated to produce alarm. Since which time we have been informed that a party of one of two hundred of them have come among the Seminoles, and still remain there. We have further, from the Acting agent Mr. Sims, information that the chiefs of the Seminoles were to hold a council, for what object unknown, and that their deportment is hostile. For the protection of our frontiers, and to quell the fears of the people, we would beg leave respectfully to request that a garrison of four companies of U. S. Troops be stationed at Micanopia, in this county. Tho we admit that the company recently stationed at Fort King had its influence, yet in case of difficulty their efforts to check the Indians would have been of little avail being twelve miles with the boundary and affording no possibility of protection to our families, or of co-operation with our militia. We would beg leave further to request that one thousand stand of arms with ammunition may be sent to the Col of the sixth Regiment of the Florida militia, in this county, to be distributed to those who may not be supplied with arms.
All which we respectfully submit to your consideration.
Francis Richard Jr is among approximately 50 signers of this letter.
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The following from "Old Hickory 's Town: An Illustrated History of Jacksonville" . No page numbers
After the British left East Florida , the area between present-day McCoys Creek and King Street remained unoccupied for many years. In 1801, Francis Richard was granted 800 acres in what is now Riverside . He lived there briefly and abandoned the property. That same year, Philip Dell
(my note: Francis filed a lawsuit against William Dell for injuring one of his slaves)
was on the grant long enough to harvest a crop, then sold the land to John Houstoun McIntosh for $1,200. McIntosh received the title in 1805 and held it until 1823, when it was sold to Francis J. Ross.
…the island of Ortega …At the end of the British period, Daniel McGirtt lived briefly on a farm on Maxton's Creek, but did not own the land. In 1792, Governor Quesada gave the island to John McQueen, who cut lumber and made bricks on his plantation, which he called San Juan Nepomuceno for Quesada's patron saint. In 1804, McQueen sold the plantation to John Houstoun McIntosh for $10,000. McIntosh cultivated sugar and cotton crops and cut lumber on the plantaion, which he called Ortega. When he banished to Georgia following the Patriots Revolt, his son-in-law, Henry Robinson Sadler managed the plantation until just before the Civil War.
Another 16,000-acre mill grant was given by Governor Coppinger to Francis Richard at Strawberry Hills (Mills?) at the head of Pottsburg Creek in 1817. This area was also known as Tyger Hole. Earlier John B. Richard, who was married to Rebecca Hart, the sister of Isaiah D. Hart, had received a grant on this creek. Richard died in 1810 and his widow later married David B. Jones. Although it was long believed that the first water-powered sawmills in Duval County were built at Strawberry Hills (Mills?), it is now known that Frederick Rolfe received a British grant on the south fork of Trout Creek in 1772, and during the following year built a water-driven sawmill on his grant near the King's Road.
...William Hart, the father of Isaiah D. Hart ("the founder of Jacksonville "), was interested in settling at the Cowford 20 years before the town was founded by his son. Mrs. Rebecca Jones, (widow of Francis II's brother, John B.)Hart's daughter, made the following statement in the case of James Hall vs. Isaac Hendricks: …
...The first session of the Duval County Court was held on December 16, 1822 . The first sheriff was James Dell, who was succeeded by Daniel C. Hart…
...The first session of the Superior Court of East Florida was held in December 1823. Members of the first grand jury were John Houston, James Dell, Nathaniel Wilds,…
...While the War (Second Seminole War?) was ravaging in the interior of the territory, life was virtually unchanged for Francis Richard at Strawberry Mills on the Big Pottsburg Creek. He described his sawmill operation in these words:
I have always been in the habit of giving my Log cutters Six logs per day…
FR letter to Sammis - long p12-14
In addition to sawing several grades of lumber at his mill, Richard ginned and baled cotton for his customers and sold corn at $1 a bushel. Trusting no one, he seldom gave credit. And he did not want his workers to go to town “as they will learn only vices and probably no good.” Richard's primary interest, of course, was milling lumber. The cutting of oak and pine trees along the St. Johns was at least a century old. The live oaks had ben used to build ships, and the pines for naval stores. Stealing timber from public lands was commonplace…
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Ibid., Received of Mrs Richard $18 dollars for Maria's tuition and board at Madam DuPree's Seminary in Charleston .
Jacksonville
March 26th 1857 (Signed) Laura C. Farrar
••••• •••••
December the 17th 1859
Received of Mrs Richard the sum of Eight Dollars $8.00 in payment for two months tuition of Eugenia and Clinton.
(Signed) F. Pickering
••••• •••••
Hire of Negroes from Jan 1st 1859 to Jan 1st 1860
594.00
••••• •••••
Recd of Mrs Mary A Richard the sum of Seventy five dollars [by draft drawn some time since upon Mr. John S Sammis] for services in negotiating a settlement of her claim as Guardian of her infant children, for a man slave named Jim, which has been purchased by said Mr. Sammis ---
(Signed) S.L. Burritt
Jacksonville Jany 1st 1859
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The Will of Francis II
[First line missing]
in the Territory of Florida being of sound mind & memory, and in good bodily health but aware of the uncertainty of human life, do make and publish this my last Will and Testament hereby revoking and making void all former Wills by me at any time heretofore made.
And first I direct.. that my Body after my decease be decently interred, and that my funeral be conducted in a manner corresponding with my Estate and situation in life. And as to such worldly estate therewith it hath pleased God to bless me, I dispose of the same as follows:
First. I direct that all my debts and funeral expenses be paid as soon after my decease as possible, out of the first moneys that shall come into the hands of my Executors from any portion of my Estate real or personal.
Second. I give and bequeath to my legitimate son Francis Richard, for and during the [ ] of his natural life, and to his heirs absolute [ ] death in fee simple the following slaves to wit: Jimmy, a negro man and his wife Louis and children named Henry, Jimmy, Mary Ann, Elizabeth (a child) and Frederick. Also the grandmother of said children named Nanny.
[First line missing]
Slaves Affy and Jetty. In case my son Francis foresaid should die without heirs my will is that all of the aforementioned slaves should go to and be equally divided among my colored children, Fortune, Fernando, Cornelia, Anne, Fransisco=Pardo, John, Josephine, Genevieve, Teresa residing [ ].
Third. I give and bequeath to a free colored woman now residing in the Island of Hayti in the West Indies named Teresa my slaves Harry, Prince & Elizabeth and her issue.
Fourth . I direct that all my Lands & real property, and all my personal property including Slaves (excepting such as may be included in specific legacies herein made) be sold and converted into money, and out of the fund thus created, I give and bequeath to Eve a colored woman the sum of Five Hundred Dollars. The balance of said money I hereby direct to go to & be divided equally among the following persons to wit: My legitimate son Francis aforesaid and my colored children Fortune, Fernando, Anne, Cornelia, John, Fransisco=Pardo, Josephine, Genevieve, Teresa and her children Lewis, Michael & Christiana.
It is probable that my colored children before mentioned will soon all reside in the Island of Hayti in the West Indies, it is my wish and desire, and I hereby direct, that in case my son Francis aforesaid should die leaving no heirs, the slaves and the income thereof herein mentioned as given and bequeathed to him be divided in specific property as nearly as can be among my colored children before mentioned and shipped to them in the said Island of Hayti.
In case legal advice, counsel or assistance should at any time become necessary in the settlement or disposition of my Estate or of any affairs affecting touching the same, it is my will that Samuel L Burt, Esq,attorney and counselor at Law in East Florida should be consulted by my executors and Legal Representatives and his professional services employed if practicable. and in case the said Samuel L Burt should at any time wish or require associate counsel touching on matters relating to my estate as aforesaid then it is my will that John Drysdale Esquire of the City of St. Augustine, attorney & Counsellor at Law should be retained and employed for that purpose if practicable.
and I do hereby make and ordain my esteemed friends Antonia Alvarez of the City of St. Augustine and Robert Bigelow of the county aforesaid my executors of this my last will and testament.
In witness whereof
I, Francis Richard have to [ ] [ ]
Set my hand and seal this 19th day of August in the year of our lord One Hundred Eight Hundred and Thirty Seven.
Signed, Sealed and delivered in the presence of us whose names are subscribed in witness [ ] [ ] Subscribed in the presence of each other
Isaiah D. Hart / Tho. Douglas (??) / Elid (?) Fort / James [ ]
Clerks Office Duval County
It is [ ] that on this 2nd day of July A.D. 1840 I have recorded the above will in Book A, Page 95. Witness my name as Clerk of the County Court in the County aforesaid the acts aforesaid.
Isaiah D. Hart
(Isaiah Hart is considered the founder of Jacksvonville, Florida. Isaiah's sister, Rebecca, married Francis's brother, John William. Isaiah' son, Ossian Bing Hart, became the first native born governor of Florida)
"Francis II made petition to sell Francis I's property...??The 'indenture' was made 24 June, 1837 . He. He had his estate probated in Duval Co., Florida .
On February 22nd, 1821 , the president of the United States ratified the Treaty of Amity Settlement between the United States and the King of Spain. The Treaty for Amity, when Florida became part of the United States contained the proviso that land grants made by the King of Spain to certain of his subjects were to be honored by the United States , if such lands were being used by the grantees.
For reasons not recorded, Francis II, was forced into court proceedings to establish the Spanish Land Grant of 16,000 acres. The following is a copy of such proceedings:
DECREE OF THE SUPERIOR COURT
Richard, Francis II. Estate Papers.File No. 1756. Probate Records. Duval Co. , Florida .
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Epilogue: William Hart and the Savaging of the King' Flatt
William Hart, the father of Isaiah D. Hart, who would found the town of Jacksonville…Whatever the events of the Cowford signified of Bowles' intentions, the destruction of the flat was folowed quicly by other alarms along the St. Johns - alarms which governor While and McQueen sought to counter. Bowles had been on the St.. Mary's River in the autumn of 1800 with Richard Lang, a former captain in the East Florida Militia who had particpated in the capture of Fort San Nicolas at the Cowford in 1795. When several of Bowles' men, including Lang, were captured, Bowles and three of his slaves had to swim the St. Marys to avoid being caught…
…When the Spanish returned to the Cowford following the Revolution, they fortified San Nicolas on its outh bank. In the next forty years, Fort San Nicolas was a part of the last line of defense for St. Augustine . In 1788, it was noted by a military engineer that the sentry post at San Nicolas was literally falling down and should be replaced…In 1794 all buildings north and west of the river were burned to prevent French revolutionaries from finding shelter. Fort San Nicolas fell to these rebels briefly in 1795. And, of course, William Augustus Bowles' men stole and destroyed the King's Flatt a the Cowford in the above-mentioned incident. In the Patriots Revolt during the War of 1812, Fort San Nicolas fell once more.