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East Florida Governor’s Troublesome Children

Source: East Florida Governor’s Troublesome Children #1636

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February 28, 2026
EAST FLORIDA GOVERNOR’S TROUBLESOME CHILDREN

Colonel Vicente de Zéspedes came to St. Augustine to be
governor of East Florida after Spain regained some of its former
Florida territory after the War of the American Revolution. It was a
tumultuous time while Spanish subjects arrived, and former British
residents left East Florida.

In a period of three months, in 1785, two of the children of
Spanish East Florida’s governor openly flouted their father’s
authority. Antonio de Zéspedes and Dominga de Zéspedes caused
problems for their father as a parent and as a commanding officer.
Both slipped clandestinely out of the Governor’s House for very
different reasons. Their actions were surely embarrassments for
Gov. Vicente de Zéspedes.

On July 12, 1784, Zéspedes arrived at the Governor’s
House in St. Augustine with his wife, Doña Concepción, daughters
Dominga and Josepha, and two of his sons, Antonio and Vicente
Domingo. His two other sons were posted in Spain in the Army.
For Zéspedes’s children, St. Augustine must have seemed quiet in
comparison to Havana.

Within the year, Dominga eloped with a Spanish Army
officer under the command of her father. Dominga de Zéspedes
had fallen in love with Lt. Juan O’Donovan of the Hibernia
Regiment that arrived in St. Augustine with Governor Zéspedes.
The Hibernia Regiment was a regiment of the Spanish Army
formed in 1709 of Irish soldiers who fled Ireland due to political
and social turmoil.

Dominga’s brothers told their father that they overheard
O’Donovan’s boast that he intended to elope with the governor’s
daughter. His intentions exposed, Lt. O’Donovan requested to
marry Dominga, but the governor did not give his permission.
Zéspedes told O’Donovan that his daughter should marry someone
of noble birth, which O’Donovan was not. And O’Donovan was
not a Spaniard.

Zéspedes began the paperwork in March to have O’Donovan transferred to another posting. But military paperwork moved more slowly than Dominga and Juan. On May 29, 1785,Zéspedes gave a ball honoring the British officials who were
retiring from East Florida. Taking advantage of the bustle of the
farewell party, Dominga slipped away to marry Lt. O'Donovan at
the house of a good friend, located only a block from the
Governor’s House. Parish priest, Father Miguel O’Reilly, had
come to the “wedding venue,” expecting to minister to a woman
who had suffered a serious accident there. But the accident story
was a ruse to get the priest to the house so that he would be
available to perform the marriage.

By marrying secretly, Dominga disobeyed her father. The groom, Lt. O’Donovan, had disobeyed his military commander, Governor Zéspedes. Officers were required to have permission from their superior to marry.

The news of the wedding reached the Governor’s House during the celebration. Lt. O’Donovan was immediately arrested, and Dominga was returned to the Governor’s House. But Governor Zéspedes’s attitude soon softened. Still, he had to save face,
especially as the drama occurred in the presence of foreign (British) officers.

O’Donovan was sent to prison in Havana to await a decision by Spain’s King Carlos III of whether to absolve O’Donovan. Almost a year and a half after the clandestine wedding and of separation of the bride and groom, Zéspedes received the royal order that restored Juan O’Donovan to his former rank in the
Hibernia Regiment. Dominga and Juan could now live as a couple.

A few months after Antonio had tattled to his father about his sister’s elopement plans, Antonio himself did a runner. Cadet Antonio went AWOL in late July 1785. He slipped out of St. Augustine to surprise the family of British Lt. Col. Thomas Brown on board a ship at Amelia Island. Antonio and the Browns had developed affectionate ties in St. Augustine.

The Browns as British subjects were evacuating from East Florida after the colony was returned to Spain. It was often a long wait to depart at the St. Mary’s harbor as there were not enough ships to transport the number of evacuees and their possessions.

Chairs, tables, clocks, cooking utensils, and clothing of the evacuees blanketed the shore of the harbor. With his rank, Thomas Brown was able to secure lodging on board a ship while his family waited to sail. Others huddled in tents.

I suspect, although it is not stated in the correspondence of the time, that Antonio was infatuated with someone in Brown’s party. Antonio’s arrival brought entertainment and diversion to the dockside boredom. Historian Helen Hornbeck Tanner commented that “Antonio’s talented singing and guitar playing provided
entertainment for an audience of appreciate young women.”

Lt. Col. Brown’s fondness for Antonio did blind him to the reality that Antonio’s excursion was unauthorized. Spanish Army Captain Manuel de los Reyes, Zéspedes’s special envoy at the St. Mary’s harbor, was quietly displeased to have to oversee the delicate issue of the AWOL governor’s son in addition to all the problems of the evacuation.

Antonio realized that he had made a big mistake and wrote to his mother to ask her to intercede with his father. He also wrote to his father, the governor, to ask forgiveness. Lt. Col. Brown and Capt. de los Reyes also wrote letters in support of the misguided governor’s son. Governor Zéspedes showed a leniency for Antonio
that he did not for his daughter. It should not surprise us that the governor’s son apparently suffered little reprisal for his “desertion.” Other soldiers would have been severely disciplined.

Dominga and Juan soon after presented Governor Zéspedes with a grandchild on whom he doted.