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SA's interim treasurer got expelled from town for reacting badly to bad treatment
Source: The King?s Coffer #83
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The interim or substitute official was supposed to be someone familiar with the work of the treasury and possessed of steady character: rich, honorable, and married. It was unwise, though, to choose someone whose connections made him aspire to office himself. Alonso Sanchez Saez came to Florida with his uncle Lazaro Saez de Mercado, the accountant, and became a syndic for the friars. When Lazaro died the governor named Alonso ad interim on half-pay. At the next audit there was some question about his having been related to the former accountant, but the crown ruled that the governor could allow what was customary. Since at that time only a half of salaries was paid from the situado and the coffer had few revenues, the interim accountant’s salary translated into 100,000 maravedis a year for a 400,000 maravedi position. His requests for a royal title and full salary were ignored, as were his complaints about his heavy duties. The next proprietor, Bartolome de Arguelles, kept Alonso substituting in the counting house during his own lengthy absences. [Note 53: Alonso Sanchez Saez 5/8/1586; cedula to Pedro Redondo Villegas 11/14/1600; Bartolome de Arguelles 2/20/1600] The embittered nephew, who had inherited the work but not the salary or honor of his office, made a name for himself in St. Augustine by sequestering funds, giving false alarms, and being generally contentious. The governor forbade him to sit on the same bench during Holy Week with the other treasury officials. Alonso circulated a rumor that the governor was a defrocked friar. The interim accountant and his wife, whom he always called “a daughter of the first conquerors,” were eventually expelled from town, carrying the governor’s charges against them in a sealed envelope. [Note 54: Gov. Ybarra to Alonso Sanchez Saez 4/9/1605 and 5/11/1609; Gov. Ybarra 4/8/1608; acts against Alonso Sanchez Saez 2/4/1609] (Bushnell KC)
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