Don Juan Ponce de Leon, Discoverer of Florida
Don Pedro Menendez de Aviles, Founder of St. Augustine
A (very) brief family
history...
The oldest documented family in the New World is the Solana
family. According to church records, Don Vincent Solana married
Maria Visente in 1594. From the founding of St. Augustine in 1565
until 1763 St Augustine was but a lonely military outpost,
dependant on Spain and wealthier New World colonies for support.
The town basically consisted of a fort, church, seminary,
hospital, fish market and about 129 houses and shops. In a treaty
ending the Seven Years War, known as the French and Indian War in
the United States, Spain was forced to cede the island of Minorca
and the territory of Florida to Great Britain.
Copy of 1594 document recording the marriage of Don Vicente Solana and Maria Vicente.
Roughly translated, it reads " July 4, 1594 Vicente Solon of LaVila and Maria Vicente native of Espana. Daughter leg(?) of Manuel Vicente and his wife Francesca, sponsors mentioned (blank) ??? and his wife Madelina Rodriguez of this city and Don Plilip Peres. This was a marriage like the first ..."
During what is known as the British Period, Bartolome de Maestre arrived in Florida in 1768 from the island of Minorca , a small island in the Balerics group, south of Spain in the Medeterranean Sea, as an indentured servant on an indigo plantation in the area of New Symrna Beach, Florida.
Map of Minorca c 1768
Turnbull Plantation, Mosquito Inlet, New Smyrna, Florida
Almost immediately after arriving in the new world things began to go sour at the new plantation. Promised lodgings had not been built. The settlers were forced to seek shelter as best they could while their overseers pressured them to start the backbreaking work of producing indego. Food was difficult to come by and a rebellion insued on August 20 which was brutally crushed. Father Pedro Camps stood alone shielding the Minorcan settlers from Turnbull's intimidation, terrorism and even murder while trying as best he could to provide spiritual relief. Finally, after nine years of hardship, the Minorcan (a generic term for a group of Minorcan, Greek, Italian and Corsican emmigrants working at the Turnbull plantation) settlers, Fransisco Pellicer, head carpenter of the settlement, led the Minorcans out of bondage to the city of St. Augustine, Florida. Father Camps stayed behind to care for those who were too ill to travel.
Here in St. Augustine, Bartolome's daughter met and married Don Manuel Solana in 1781. The Solana family, originally a wealthy family from the area of Madrid, had been prosperous in the city of St. Augustine and Manuel was one of only three descendents of the first Spanish colony to remain in St. Augustine after Florida was ceded to Great Britain. Manuel and Maria had thirteen children which provided enough offspring to maintain the Solana line and unify the First Spanish period to the Second Spanish period (1784-1821). When Florida became a territory of the United States in 1821, the name deMaestre evolved to the English Masters. When, during the 1830's, the area to the west of St. Augustine became safer, many of the Minorcan families ventured out into the western part of what is now St. John's County farming the area of Moccasin Branch/Hastings where many of their descendants still live.
My great grandfather, Henry Francis Masters moved to Jacksonville, Florida in 1896,
working a farm in the area of Edgewood Avenue between US-1 and
Cleveland road. When he died his sons took over the farm acrage,
dividing the land among themselves. My Grandfather, Peter S.
Masters farmed the eastern end of the tract, where my father
Vernon E. Masters was Born September 25 1917. He married Betty L.
Lord of Jacksonville, Florida on January 3 1948. I was born on
October 28 1948, My sister Lynn November 22 1951, My brother
Lamar on October 31 1957 and my sister Pam on November 29 1959.
Suggested Reading
Books on St. Augustine History
Pictures...
Henry Francis Masters & Tallula DuPont Masters St Johns County Florida (My Great Grandparents)
Peter S. Masters & Verdie Smith Masters Jacksonville, Florida (My Grandparents)
Vernon E Masters, Betty Lynn Lord Masters (My Parents), Bruce Masters (Me) & Lynn Masters King (My Sister), Lamar Masters (My little Brother) and Pamela Masters Hancock (My Baby Sister)
Bruce E Masters, Donna Bellamy Masters & Laura E Masters
Born April 22, 1997
Maria Kathleen Masters
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