Francisco Espaillat

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In this
Spanish name, the first or paternal surname
is Espaillat and the second or maternal family name is Virol.
Francisco Espaillat
Lieutenant-Governor of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo for the Northern region
In office
1783–1786
MonarchCharles III of Spain
Governor
  1. Isidoro de Peralta y Rojas
  2. Joaquín García y Moreno
Succeeded byMiguel Negrete
Administrator of the Royal Tobacco Factory of Santiago
In office
1781–?
Preceded byFrancisco Antonio Velilla y Torres
Personal details
Born29 May 1734
Aguadilla, Captaincy General of Puerto Rico, Spanish Empire
NationalityFrench (1734–1787)
Spanish (1787–1807)
Spouse
  1. Catalina Tavares y Zapata
  2. Petronila Velilla y Sánchez
Children14
RelativesFrancisco Antonio Velilla (father-in-law)


Ulises Espaillat
(grandson)

Rhina Espaillat (5th-great-granddaughter)
ResidenceSantiago de los Caballeros (1756–1805)
Occupationpublic officer, cattle rancher, sugar, tobacco and indigo planter
Professionsurgeon and physician

Francisco Espaillat y Virol (1734 – 1807) was a French-born surgeon, public officer, cattle rancher, and sugar, indigo and tobacco planter in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo. As the largest slaveholder in this Spanish colony, he became one of the wealthiest men there and the ancestor of most of the present-day elite in Santiago, and the Dominican Republic elite in general, as his descendants used to marry with other upper-class families.

Early life

Born in

Cap-Français, then capital of the French colony of Saint-Domingue located in Western Hispaniola.[1]

Life in Santo Domingo

In 1756, Espaillat migrated eastward to the Spanish side of the island of Hispaniola, settling in

Santiago, capital of the Northern region of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo also known as the Cibao region, invited by Antonio Quiñones;[1] two years later, he was legally authorised to exercise his profession in the Spanish colony.[1]

From 1761, Espaillat started to buy lands, ranches and

Campuzano-Polanco, and other 12 elite families.[1][2][nb 1]
He became the largest slaveholder —by a large margin— in the Spanish colony with over 1,000
slaves throughout all of his properties. Most of his slaves were imported from either Saint-Domingue or Africa, and many records of the African ethnicities of his slaves are still preserved.[3][4]

His butler was Pedro Armaignac, of French origin too.[4]

Espaillat became a Spanish subject on 17 August 1787 when King Charles III of Spain naturalised him by decree; he paid a tax of 5,100 maravedís (18.75 Spanish dollars).[1]

Espaillat was the Medic and Main Surgeon of the infantry troops in Santiago, La Vega, Monte Christi, and Puerto Plata.[1][2]

He became administrator of the Royal Tobacco Factory of Santiago and had a salary of 60 Spanish dollars per month.[2]

As a philanthropist, Espaillat donated over 5,700 Spanish dollars to the

Our Lady of the Assumption Hospital in Santiago.[2] He also treated poor patients for free.[1]

Later life and death

Espaillat fled the island in 1805 with his family, after the invasion of

Haitian army, moving to Aguadilla, in the Western side of the Spanish Captaincy General of Puerto Rico.[1]

He died in 1807 alienated from the great fortune he amassed and without the power he once held.[1][2] Nevertheless, his children were able to return to Santo Domingo and retrieve his estates in 1815 during the España Boba period. They bought new slaves as their former slaves were freed.[1]

Marriages and family

Espaillat married twice. His first wife was Catalina Tavares y Zapata and he gave a dowry of 600 Spanish dollars; he had 1 son with her. His second wife was Petronila Velilla y Sánchez, who was from an elite family, and he gave a dowry of 7,000 Spanish dollars, one of the highest dowries ever given in the Spanish colony of Santo Domingo. With Velilla he had 13 children.[1][2]

His father-in-law, the

Italian).[2]

He brought the surname "Espaillat"[nb 2] into what is now the Dominican Republic. Notwithstanding this, not every person with that surname is a descendant of him as many of his slaves (but not all) were given the surname. Pedro Ignacio Espaillat (1826–1863), a Dominican soldier and cabinetmaker who fought in the Dominican War of Independence, and American politician Adriano Espaillat (born 1954), are descended from former slaves of Francisco Espaillat.[4][5]

Today, his descendants still have economic influence in the Dominican Republic and are core members of the Dominican elite, especially those descended from his grandson

Ulises Espaillat
.

Notes

  1. ^ The other elite families are: Frómesta, Heredia, Leos-Echalaz, Mañón, Lara, Pérez-Caro, Arredondo, Urdaneta, Coronado, Lecanda, Alarcón, and Sterling.
  2. hispanization. It is not clear which is the original French (or rather Occitan
    ) surname of Francisco since it appears to have been either Espailhac, Espeilhac or Espeillac; all of them surnames common around Masclat.

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k Campillo, Julio Genaro. "Francisco Espaillat y el Desarrollo del Cibao". Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía. Santo Domingo, 1986.
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Torres, Ruth. "Élites y Grupos de Poder: Los Hacendados de Santo Domingo (1750–1795)". University of Salamanca, 2008.
  3. ^ Hernández, Manuel Vicente. "Expansión Fundamental y Desarrollo en el Norte Dominicano (1680–1795): El Cibao y la Bahía de Samaná". Archivo General de la Nación. Santo Domingo, 2007. ISBN 978-9945-020-12-0.
  4. ^ a b c Espinal, Edwin Rafael. "Black Lives: Los Esclavos de Francisco Espaillat". Hoy. Areíto. Instituto Dominicano de Genealogía. 18 July 2020.
  5. ^ Espinal Hernández, Edwin (15 July 2023). "Adriano Espaillat: representante de una estirpe negra en la Cámara de Representantes". Areíto (in Spanish). Hoy. Retrieved 14 December 2023.
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