The Gonzalez-Alvarez Oldest House

Francisca’s first child had arrived in the fall of 1723, and for years she bore children on an almost regular schedule of 18-month intervals. Six of the ten children survived to be more than baptismal records, the first daughter marrying at the age of 14. (Oldest House booklet)

From Mose in Secondary Literature by Amy 1727 Gonzalez baby boy died at 14 St. Francis Street.

Gonzalezes’ bio, by Jean Parker Waterbury It may have been that Francisca’s family was sufficiently well-off to provide a house and lot as her dowry. On the low pay of an artilleryman, often delayed or missing entirely, in all likelihood Tomas Gonzales could not have acquired such a piece of property. What seems certain is that four years after their marriage they were in the house at what is now 14 St. Francis Street. From this point, historians can fix definite names and dates to the location through written records. On August 17, 1727, Father Pedro Azevedo wrote out the burial record of an unnamed son of Tomas and Francisca, noting that Tomas lives near the convent of St. Francis. ...Life for the Gonzalez family was hard. There were the bad times when the garrison’s pay fell short or never arrived. Spain’s interest in her Floridian possessions was considerably less than in the lucrative silver and gold producing colonies. St. Augustine had its own wealth of crises: storms drowned the little gardens, drought shriveled them, and winter freezes struck down promising plants. Food storage suffered from heat and dampness and mysterious illnesses killed without warning. Gonzalez, like many of the garrison, grew much of his family’s food in small plots allotted them from the common lands outside the little settlement. In addition, in the garden back of his house, he and Francisca planted, hoed and weeded and, with fortune, harvested. Tomas could be expected to supply oysters and clams from the bay, along with catches of drum and mullet, and occasionally there was venison or wild turkey, if local Indians were friendly enough to bring such in for sale. Scrawny cattle and pigs, some local and some from Havana, supplied other meat. From Spain and Mexico came the important flour. Gopher, the burrowing land tortoise of the area, was a familiar sight in the big Indian clay cooking pots, and Indian pumpkins, corn, and beans were standard fare. Peach trees, carefully brought from Spain as cuttings, acclimated easily, as did oranges, and most yards had several of each. The native gourds made useful containers and ladles; in a corner of the garden watermelon vines could flourish. ...Francisca’s first child had arrived in the fall of 1723, and for years she bore children on an almost regular schedule of 18-month intervals. Six of the ten children survived to be more than baptismal records, the first daughter marrying at the age of 14. The little house would have been crowded with sleeping pallets as dark came on . There was little other furniture perhaps a chest or two, useful as seats as well as storage, a crucifix on the wall, Indian clay bowls for cooking and storing, olive jars for other storage, and perhaps a piece or two of majolica to brighten dark corners. Tomas could not always be at home; when he was not at the Castillo, there was duty at one of the nearby outposts, or skirmishes against the encroaching English and the ever-present and often hostile Indians. ...For Francisca and her children there were occasional dramatic events to witness just across the way at the convent. Funeral processions came down the sandy street when town leaders, wives, children, soldiers, occasionally a family slave, were buried in the convent’s chapel or graveyard.

Tomas could not always be at home; when he was not at the Castillo, there was duty at one of the nearby outposts, or skirmishes against the encroaching English and the ever-present and often hostile Indians. But he and his fellows stayed within the walls of the fortress in March 1728, when Carolinians came down as far as Nombre de Dios, the little settlement within sight of the Castillo. Governor Antonio de Benavides, unwilling to risk the limited strength of his garrison, saw the English burn the little cluster of dwellings around the chapel before they returned to Carolina. Tomas could go back to his house safely that time. (Oldest House booklet) “The center of community life was the new church, completed in 1797. Inside, near the door, was displayed a crucifix recovered from ruined Nombre de Dios after the Palmer raid of 1728, reminding the parishioners of an earlier period of Catholicism in the city.” AN333

Justis and his men followed. So did several local officials who were anxious to see Moral gone. Moral managed to evade his followers for several days. They finally found him seeking sanctuary in the Franciscan monastery facing the bay. The monastery was in the process of replacing its rotting wood with coquina blocks.* The Franciscans honored their vow to provide sanctuary amid the construction debris. Bishop Buenaventura, however, had seen too much neglect from this governor. St. Augustine’s little downtown church was falling apart. The different branches of clergy were in high rivalry. The citizens had all but forgotten their morality. The bishop out-ranked the Franciscans, went inside their monastery, and extracted ex-Governor Moral. Moral was immediately shipped to his prison cell in Morro Castle, Havana, to begin ten years of legal battles. (Mose in Secondary Literature by Amy) "Greater drama centered on the convent in March of 1737. On orders from Havana, Governor Francisco del Moral Sanchez was to turn over the town and Castillo to a replacement. Faced with the threat of an ignominious ouster, Moral Sanchez sought sanctuary in the Franciscan convent, creating a crisis between the friars and the secular authorities. Bishop Francisco de San Buenaventura, siding with the latter, went into the convent after the recalcitrant governor. (We can imagine the Gonzalez family watching with interest.) When the two came out, with the onlookers probably still agog, Buenaventura had prevailed, and Moral Sanchez boarded a ship bound for Havana. Quiet returned to the neighborhood, and family members resumed their normal tasks. Maria Francisca, the oldest, minding her sisters, Leonor, Josepha, Caterina and Margarita. While they played in the hard-packed dirt yard, she could work at the constant chore of grinding corn." ( Oldest House booklet) "Justis sailed into Matanzas Bay, and next morning he presented his credentials and the order for Moral to return to Cuba. Moral refused to accept the papers, much less turn over the town and the Castillo. Several days of maneuvering followed; Moral sought sanctuary in the Franciscan convent, Bishop Buenaventura went in after him, and eventually out came the governor to be put at once on a ship, destination Havana, a cell at Morro Castle, and in a few months, another cell in a Cadiz prison while the ponderous Spanish legal system dealt with his case. After a decade of hearings and appeals, in July 1748 Moral was exonerated by the Council of the Indies." (Source lost)