Rodrigo del Junco
| Rodrigo del Junco | |
|---|---|
| Governor of La Florida | |
|
In office 1590–1592 | |
| Preceded by | Gutierre de Miranda |
| Succeeded by | Domingo Martínez de Avendaño |
| Personal details | |
| Born |
Unknown Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain |
| Died |
1592 Off the coast of Florida |
| Profession | military, agent of the Kingdom of Naples, factor and Overseer of the Royal Treasury of Florida and the governor of Florida |
Rodrigo del Junco (born in Ribadesella, Asturias, Spain, died 1592) was a Spanish military agent of the Kingdom of Naples, factor and Overseer of the Royal Treasury of Florida, and the governor of the province in 1592.[1]
Biography
Rodrigo Junco was baptized into the Roman church of Santa Maria de Junco, in the council of Ribadesella.[2] He had one brother named Juan del Junco. He occupied the office of Army General and before 1550, he served Philip II, of Spain, as an agent of the Kingdom of Naples,[3] and later became an agent of Florida. He settled in St. Augustine, Florida as a factor and Overseer of the Royal Treasury of Florida.[4]
In late June 1579. King Philip II of Spain sent one hundred soldiers to Florida to reinforce the province. Nearly 50 of them drowned when the Santiago el Menor galleon, which was carrying them, was sunk near the port of San Augustine. Pedro Menéndez de Márquez sent a request to Rodrigo de Junco for fifty more soldiers to replace the soldiers who had died in the Santiago el Menor sinking. Rodrigo followed the order.
In addition, Rodrigo de Junco asked Philip II to send 30 slaves from Havana to Florida to work at Saint Augustine´s Fort, because the soldiers were reluctant to build the fort, and only using wood, as the construction of the Fort was not, according to them, part of their work. Philip II gave an order that these slaves were to be sent to Florida and work at Fort Saint Augustine for 4 years. Most of them worked at Fort under harsh conditions, and twenty of them were sent to Santa Elena to repair the fort and built a platform there for a small period of time.[5]
In 1550, he returned to Seville, where power was granted on 16 March that year with the notary Diego de la Barrera to take effect in Florida. On February 7, 1587, he was given, along with his wife, another power before the clerk Martin Calvo de la Puerta, to sell some houses that they had in Seville.[4] About 1590 his family returned to Florida, where he became a governor until 1592, when he died in a shipwreck off the coast of Florida.[2]
He was the second husband to Francisca de Miranda-Santo Domingo.[1][4] They had at least two children: Bartolomeo del Junco y Miranda [4] and Maria del Junco-Miranda.[1][4]
References
- 1 2 3 Historia de Familias Cubanas (Ediciones Universal, Miami, Florida 1985 ISBN 0-89729-380-0)
- 1 2 Visiones de Rivadesella. Historia, cultura y paisajes de Ribadesella (Principado de Asturias, España; In Spanish: Visions of Rivadesella. History, culture and landscapes of Ribadesella (Asturias, Spain)), by Ramón Fernandez.
- ↑ Rodando por Ribadesella (In Spanish: Ribadesella rolling)
- 1 2 3 4 5 CUBA-L Archives (In Spanish).
- ↑ Witness to Empire and the Tightening of Military Control: Santa Elena's Second Spanish Occupation, 1577-1587. Retrieved in July 20, 2014, to 01:47pm.