Juan Procopio Bassecourt

In this Spanish name, the first or paternal surname is Bassecourt Thieulaine and the second or maternal family name is Bryas López de Ochoa.

Juan Procopio de Bassecourt y Bryas (22 April 1740 – 12 April 1820), 2nd Count of Santa Clara (Kingdom of Naples),[1] an office he assumed before the Spanish Cession enacted by the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, Captain General of Cuba (6 December 1796[2] – 12 May 1799[1]) and Captain General of Catalonia (28 March 1803 – 25 November 1807).[1] While he was Captain General of Cuba he was responsible for the construction or improvement of numerous fortifications in Havana, including the Santa Clara Battery.[3]

Birth

Juan Procopio de Bassecourt y Bryas was born the son of Procopio de Bassecourt y Thieulaine, Marquis of Bassecourt, a Field Marshal of the Royal Spanish Army, as well as Count of Santa Clara (a noble title granted in 1748 by King Fernando VI of Spain, the family having served imperial Spain since at least the middle of the 16th century), Baron of Maials, and Governor of Lerida. His mother was Catalina Inés de Bryas y Ulloa.[1]

Coat of arms of Juan Procopio de Bassecourt (decorated tiles at the Capitania General de Barcelona)

He was the nephew of Maria Catalina de Bassecourt, who married the Palermo-born Spanish military officer Juan González-Valor, Marquis of González since 1736, a title awarded in 1736 by Charles VII of Naples and Sicily, King of Naples and Sicily 1716–1736, later King Charles III of Spain (1759–1788).^[citation needed]

Personal life

In 1761, he married Maria Teresa de Sentmenat y Copons,[1] a niece of the Marquis of Sentmenat and Marquis of Castelldefels (title granted 6 April 1696 by King Carlos II of Spain), descending from a Catalan family from Mallorca and Barcelona, known since the 12th century, granddaughter of the Spanish ambassador in France since 1698 to the court of Louis XIV of France, and the Viceroy of Peru, Manuel de Oms y de Santa Pau (1651 – 24 April 1710).

Early career

Having enlisted in the Walloon Guards Infantry Regiment of the Royal Guard, he served as a standard-bearer in 1752 before being promoted to Grenadier lieutenant in 1772 and captain in 1774, seeing service in Portugal and Algiers. He was promoted to Infantry brigadier in 1783.[1]

Later career

Unfit for active service in the field, he was attached to Barcelona. Promoted to field marshal in 1789, he was interim military and civil governor of Ceuta from May to November 1793 and interim military and civil governor of Gerona (November 1793 – March 1795), before being appointed military and civil governor, and corregidor of Barcelona.[1]

References

1. (in Spanish). Ozanam, Didier. "Juan Procopio de Bassecourt y Bryas". Diccionario Biográfico electrónico (DB~e).] Real Academia de la Historia. Retrieved 13 February 2025.
2. Ramiro Guerra (1958). A History of the Cuban Nation: Freedom of Commerce (from 1790 up to 1857). Editorial Historia de la Nación Cubana, S.A. p. 12.
3. United States. Adjutant-General's Office. Military Information Division; Louis Charles Scherer (1898). Military Notes on Cuba. U.S. Government Printing Office. pp. 2, 67.

External links

• Web.archive.org
• Asasve.es Archived 2016-03-03 at the Wayback Machine
• Cubagenweb.org
• Website on Irish immigration in Latin America

Bibliography

• TePaske, John Jay (1964). The Governorship of Spanish Florida, 1700-1763. Durham: Duke University Press, 248 pages. ASIN: B0007DN7VE