AGUAYO, MARQUÉS DE SAN MIGUEL DE (?-1734). José de Azlor y Virto de Vera, soldier and governor, the son of Artal de Azlor, was born in Spain, a member of a family long distinguished in the service of the Spanish crown. He married Ignacia Xaviera, daughter and heiress of AgustÃn de Echevers, first Marqués de San Miguel de Aguayo. Through this marriage José de Azlor became the second Marqués de Aguayo.
In 1712 he and his wife went to Mexico to live on one of their haciendas, Patos, which included almost half of Coahuila. In 1719, after offering to drive the French out of the area claimed by Spain, Aguayo was appointed governor and captain general of the provinces of Coahuila and Texas, an office he assumed on October 21. In 1720 he received a commission from the viceroy of New Spain to reoccupy the East Texas missions and presidios that had been abandoned during the French invasion in 1719. Aguayo offered to finance the expedition himself, and the viceroy accepted that proposal. The Aguayo expedition so solidified the Spanish claim to Texas that it was never again challenged by the French. When Aguayo entered Texas the province had only one presidio and two missions, one of which, San José y San Miguel de Aguayo, had been established only a few months earlier under the patronage of the Marqués. When he left, Texas had four presidios and ten missions. Aguayo was also responsible for the beginnings of colonization in Texas. He recommended that steps be taken to settle 400 families between San Antonio and the East Texas missions, one-half of the settlers to be recruited from Galicia, the Canary Islands, and Havana and the other half to be composed of loyal Tlaxcalán Indians.
On June 13, 1722, Aguayo resigned the governorship of Coahuila and Texas because of ill health resulting from the hardships of the expedition. In 1724 he was rewarded for his efforts with promotion to field marshal by the Spanish king. He died on March 7, 1734, and was buried in the chapel of Santa MarÃa de las Parras.
BIBLIOGRAPHY: Eleanor Claire Buckley, "The Aguayo Expedition in Texas and Louisiana, 1719-1722," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 15 (July 1911 Charles W. Hackett, "The Marquis of San Miguel de Aguayo and His Recovery of Texas from the French, 1719-1723," Southwestern Historical Quarterly 49 (October 1945).
