José María Coppinger

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José María Coppinger
8th Governor of Spanish East Florida
In office
January 6, 1816 – July 10, 1821
Preceded byJuan José de Estrada
Succeeded byAndrew Jackson
as Military Governor of American Florida
Personal details
BornApril 5, 1773 (1773-04-05)
New Spain
DiedJuly 15, 1844(1844-07-15) (aged 71)
Cárdenas, Cuba
Spouses
Antonia Maria Josefa Crescencia De Saravia
​
​
(m. 1797)​
Narcisa Armenteros Muñoz
​
​
(m. 1803)​
ProfessionBrigadier and governor

José María Coppinger (April 5, 1773 – August 15, 1844) was a Spanish soldier who served in the infantry of the

Pinar Del Río, Bayamo, the Cuatro Villas (the towns of Trinidad, Santo Espiritu, Villa Clara, San Juan de los Remedios) and Trinidad at various times between 1801 and 1834. He was also a member of the Royal and Military Order of Saint Ferdinand and San Hermenegildo
.

Biography

Family

José María Lopez de Gamarra y Coppinger was born in

military officer, property owner, and civil official origin.[4]

His mother was Cuban but her family was originally from

Royal Treasury.[4]

Coppinger's family was Roman Catholic, the faith in which he was raised.[3] He was the second of four sons.[4][5]

Career

Coppinger joined the

Pinar Del Rio, previously known as Nueva Filipinas (New Philippines), and the town of Bayamo. Later, in 1814, he was appointed governor and Capitán a Guerra (a chief magistrate invested with military power) of the Cuatro Villas of Cuba (the towns of Trinidad, Santo Espiritu, Villa Clara, and San Juan de los Remedios).[3]

Colonel Coppinger left this position on January 6, 1816, when he was appointed governor of

Governor Kindelán. That same month he moved to the provincial capital, St. Augustine.[4] In this year, Coppinger sold what is now called Sibbald, a tract of 16,000 acres of timberland between the Trout River and Six Mile Creek, to Charles F. Sibbald of Philadelphia,[6] and on April 16, 1819, he sold another 200 acres at Sondag's Bluff to Isabela Higginbottom.[7]

During Coppinger's tenure, the Nassau-St. Mary's region north of St. Augustine was divided into the regions of Nassau, Upper St. Marys, and Lower St. Marys, with magistrates courts and militia in each. This system ensured minimal complaint from the region to authorities in St. Augustine.[8]

Jose Maria Coppinger participated in the Battle of San Juan de Ulúa on the Mexican side.

Coppinger held this post until July 10, 1821, when Spain ceded Florida to the United States and Coppinger handed over St. Augustine to Colonel Robert Butler,

Seminole chiefs to move their tribespeople to Texas, and ordered that the U.S. flag be flown at the same level as the Spanish flag.[11]

On January 28, 1825, Coppinger relieved General

Spanish reconquest of Mexico,[12] Coppinger, the last commander of the fortress,[12][13] finally capitulated on November 21, 1825, after an epidemic of scurvy broke out among the Spanish troops.[12]

In 1834, Coppinger was appointed governor of Trinidad province in the central part of Cuba, an office he occupied until 1837.[5] He spent his last days in Cuba, where he died on August 15, 1844, in Cárdenas.[14]

Personal life

José María Coppinger married María Josefa Saravia y Villegas in Cuba, in the Parish of Santo Christo del Buen Viaje in Havana on July 11, 1797. They had four children: María de la Trinidad, José María, José Cornelius and María Antonia. His second marriage was to Narcisa Armenteros y Muñoz.[15] Coppinger's descendants still live in Cuba and (after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista and Fidel Castro's assuming power) Florida.[4][16]

References

  1. ^ a b Congressional Edition. U.S. Government Printing Office. 1836. p. 162. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  2. ISBN 978-84-00-04474-9
    . Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Alexander von Humboldt (1856). The Island of Cuba. Derby & Jackson. p. 178. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  4. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8173-5332-2
    .
  5. ^ a b Rafael Fernández Moya; Annette Leahy (November 2007). "The Irish Presence in the History and Place Names of Cuba". Irish Migration Studies in Latin America. 5 (3): 191.
  6. ^ Our History: Greater Metro North & North Shore History Archived June 30, 2014, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ^ Children of Iron Men.
  8. ^ Corbitt, Duvon. "The Administrative System in the Floridas, 1783-1821, II" (PDF).
  9. ^ "Card Description". www.uflib.ufl.edu. Retrieved March 25, 2019.
  10. ^ faces Tumblr_TumblrEasy[permanent dead link]
  11. ^ Nation's Oldest City: 192 years ago, the US took over control of Florida Archived July 26, 2014, at the Wayback Machine.
  12. ^
    ISBN 978-0-8071-4334-6
    . Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  13. ^ Ortiz Escamilla, Juan. Veracruz : la guerra por la Independencia de México, 1821-1825[permanent dead link].
  14. ^ "Presencia hispana en los Estados Unidos: Quinto Centenario". Gaspar, El Lugareño. Frank de Varona. Retrieved July 7, 2013.
  15. ISBN 978-1-59388-038-5
    . Retrieved July 8, 2013.
  16. ISBN 978-0-89729-409-6
    .

External links
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=José_María_Coppinger&oldid=1181707971"