Bound by Faith, Freed by Courage: The Menorcan Journey to St. Augustine

 May 02, 2025

In 1768, a Scottish man named Dr. Andrew Turnbull traveled to the island of Menorca in the Mediterranean to entice people of little means to board his ship bound for Florida to work on his indigo plantation that was to be built. Turnbull promised the Menorcans a small parcel of land in exchange for their labor for nine years. Dr. Turnbull lived in England and was friends with the current governor of the East Florida Colony, James Grant. Grant had given Turnbull (records state anywhere from 60,000-100,000) acres of wild Florida scrub, located along the coast about 70 miles south of St. Augustine in what is now New Smyrna.  These large grants of land resulted from the Proclamation of 1763, which occurred when Great Britain was gifted Florida after the end of the Seven Years' War.  Turnbull recruited 1404 people from the islands to travel to America. Those people had no idea of the work involved in cultivating a land that no crop had ever grown. They must also contend with the heat, mosquitoes, alligators, and snakes. Only 1255 of the 1404 survived the journey by ship, and in just two years after arrival, half of those who arrived on shore were dead from malnutrition and disease. Like many wealthy landowners given large parcels in hopes of colonizing wild Florida for Great Britain, Turnbull did not spend much time at his Indigo plantation and soon returned to England after starting his plantation.  No civilized people wanted to live in the wilds of Florida at that time. 

After nine years of death, severe abuse, and near starvation, a group of Menorcans walked the 70 miles to St. Augustine to petition Governor Patrick Tonyn for their freedom. Upon seeing their conditions and hearing of their distress, he took pity on them, demanded their release, granted them asylum, and gave them a portion of St. Augustine to flee. 

We know many of these individual stories because of one man, Father Pedro Camps. Father Camps was a priest who kept the Menorcan's faith alive, and one of those who pleaded for their freedom. He kept a book of records, The Golden Book of the Menorcans, where he recorded births, deaths, baptisms, and marriages. Father Camps has a bronze statue dedicated to his remembrance in the back gardens of the Cathedral Basilica in downtown St. Augustine, and his grave is located on the church grounds. Thanks to the meticulous record keeping of Father Camps, we can know the history of this group of people who have over 10,000 descendants in the St. Johns County, Florida area, and who have molded and shaped the community into what it is today. 

Sources:

 “The  Menorcans - Fort Matanzas National Monument (U.S. National Park Service).” Www.nps.gov. https://www.nps.gov/foma/learn/historyculture/menorcans.htm.


Rasico, Philip D. “The Minorcan Population of St. Augustine in the Spanish Census of 1786.” The Florida Historical Quarterly 66, no. 2 (1987): 160–84. http://www.jstor.org/stable/30147868.

“170    Diocese of St. Augustine.” 2024. Diocese of St. Augustine. September 23, 2024. https://dosafl.com/timeline/1700s/.

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