Melchor de Navarrete

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Melchor de Navarrete
76th Colonial Governor of Yucatán
In office
1754–1758
Preceded byJuan José de Clou
Succeeded byAlonso Fernández de Heredia
Personal details
BornJanuary 17, 1693 (1693-01-17)
La Rioja (Spain).
DiedAugust 28, 1761 (1761-08-29) (aged 68)
Cartagena de Indias (Colombia)
SpouseMaría Micaela de Sanz y de la Roche
ProfessionPolitician and soldier

Melchor de Navarrete y Bujanda (1693–1761) was a Spanish soldier and administrator who served as governor of

Yucatán (in what is now Mexico
), from 1754 to 1758. He was linked to several cases of corruption in Cartagena.

Biography

Early years and government in Cartagena

Melchor de Navarrete was born on January 17, 1693, in the town of

field marshal
.

Navarrete defended Cartagena in the Battle of Cartagena de Indias.

In 1736, Navarrete moved to Cartagena to become the King's Lieutenant.

lieutenant general in the Spanish Royal Army.[3][4]

In June, Navarrete wrote a letter to the

Marqués de la Ensenada asking him to ensure that food was sent to Cartagena. In July, the city received 100,000 pesos from duties on commerce.[5]
In 1742, Navarrete was charged with several crimes by the officers of the
Royal Treasury, who demonstrated that Navarrete had given commercial information to a French trader, Jean Lehen Brignon, advising him how to avoid paying royalties on a shipment worth 15,000 pesos, and suspected that Navarrete had taken the commission for himself. In response to these accusations, Viceroy Eslava replaced Navarrete as acting governor of Cartagena with Brigadier Basilio de Gante, and rejected Navarrete's petition to recover his office. The viceroy also suspended Navarrete as royal lieutenant.[6]

However, Navarrete's wife belonged to one of the most important merchant families in Cartagena, and in 1749, he got enough money to be appointed governor of Florida. He also regained his position as lieutenant to the king, until he left to assume his new office as governor. In spite of this, Colonel Diego de Pino, a smuggler who belonged to Cartagena's elite society, accused Navarrete of several criminal offenses: he had married after the king denied him a marriage license; when the English invaded Cartagena, he had forced more than 500 residents to leave the city; and he had allowed a frigate carrying 200,000 pesos of contraband into port in exchange for 8,000 pesos. Viceroy Eslava, who feared that his opponents, the mariners of the Marqués de la Ensenada's political party, would try to prevent him from continuing in office as viceroy of Peru (which later happened) allowed Navarrete and his wife to travel to Florida.[7]

Government of Florida and Yucatán

On August 8, 1749, Navarrete was appointed governor of

Fort Mose.[8] Fort Mose, inhabited mainly by free blacks, served St. Augustine as a buffer from Indian and British attacks. Navarrete left Florida office on July 3, 1752.[9]

In 1752, he was admitted as a knight of the

Ferdinand VI. They approved the declaration, and the forced work continued.[10]

Navarrete participated in a military campaign against

Campeche, Bacalar, Honduras, and Havana to take part in the campaign. The Spanish troops conquered Valis, captured many ships and soldiers, and burned all privateer settlements they found, although Valis was later retaken by the English, and privateer attacks continued).[11]

Also during Navarrete's administration, the town council of Campeche requested permission to build a powder magazine away from the town plaza,[12] where fires were frequently started by summer lightning storms. The powder magazine was completed in 1758, the same year that Navarrete finished his term in Yucatán.[13] After that, he returned to Cartagena, where he died on the evening of August 28, 1761.

Personal life

On May 28, 1740, Navarrete married María Micaela de Sanz y de la Roche. They had three children: María Antonia, María Josefa, and María Francisca de los Dolores.

References

  1. ISBN 978-84-00-04412-1
    .
  2. ISBN 978-1-349-00798-1
    .
  3. ISBN 978-1-4907-1158-4
    .
  4. ISBN 978-84-8021-518-3
    .
  5. ISBN 978-84-9717-127-4
    .
  6. ISBN 978-84-8021-518-3
    .
  7. ISBN 978-84-8021-518-3
    .
  8. JSTOR 30146288
    .
  9. ^ Ben Cohoon. U.S. States F-K.
  10. ^ Casares G. Cantón, Raúl; Duch Colell, Juan; Antochiw Kolpa, Michel; Zavala Vallado, Silvio (1998). Yucatán en el tiempo In Spanish. (Yucatan in Time). Mérida, Yucatán.
  11. ISBN 978-84-321-2107-4
    .
  12. ISBN 978-968-7364-71-1
    . Otras obras de importancia militar erigidas en Campeche durante este siglo fueron: A extramuros de Campeche: la mal llamada Casamata, cuyo nombre correcto es Almacén de pólvora y comúnmente Polvorín [Other works of military importance erected in Campeche during this century were: the so-called "Casamata" (casemate), properly called the "Almacén de pólvora" (powder magazine) and commonly known as the "Polvorín" (powder keg), built on the outskirts of the city.]
  13. ISBN 978-84-00-05579-0
    . Con posterioridad, siendo gobernador don Melchor de Navarrete se solicitó por el Cabildo de Campeche autorización para construir fuera de la plaza un almacén de pólvora, pues ésta se solía incendiar con las tormentas y tempestades de verano, con el consiguiente peligro de la población y la muralla. El año 1758 estaba terminado dicho almacén y limpia la campaña que le circundaba, verificándose su traslado. [Consequently, the Campeche council requested authorization to construct a powder magazine outside the town square, since the present one was in the habit of catching fire during the storms and tempests of summer, endangering the inhabitants and the city wall. The magazine was finished in 1758 and the surrounding countryside cleared as a result of this transfer.]

External links
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