Barrio Junco y Espriella, Pedro de (unknown–unknown)

Type: Biography

Published: 1952

Updated: August 1, 1995

Pedro de Barrio Junco y Espriella, son of Felipe de Barrio Junco y Espriella and Ana María Noriega Rubín de Celis, was born in Cardozo, Llanes, Asturias. He was the provincial alcalde of the Santa Hermandad of all New Spain and became governor ad interim of Texas on June 3, 1748. He had been governor of Nuevo León for six years and conducted many Indian campaigns. On the whole he was unsympathetic with the mission interests and opposed without success the location of the San Xavier missions on the site selected by the friars. His administration was arbitrary, and for a time he imprisoned the first regidor of San Antonio. After being accused of disregarding the royal cédula prohibiting gambling and of engaging in illegal trade with the French, he was removed from office late in 1750, and the charges against him were investigated. His last official appointment appears to have been as captain of Paso del Norte Presidio on March 27, 1765. He was married to María Antonia Rodríguez, and they had two children.

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Hubert Howe Bancroft, History of the North Mexican States and Texas (2 vols., San Francisco: History Company, 1886, 1889). Bexar Archives, Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, University of Texas at Austin. Herbert Eugene Bolton, Texas in the Middle Eighteenth Century: Studies in Spanish Colonial History and Administration (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1915; rpt., Austin: University of Texas Press, 1970). Carlos E. Castañeda, Our Catholic Heritage in Texas (7 vols., Austin: Von Boeckmann-Jones, 1936–58; rpt., New York: Arno, 1976). Juan Agustín Morfi, History of Texas, 1673–1779 (2 vols., Albuquerque: Quivira Society, 1935; rpt., New York: Arno, 1967). Elizabeth Howard West, trans., "Bonilla's Brief Compendium of the History of Texas, 1772," Quarterly of the Texas State Historical Association 8 (July 1904).

Time Periods:

Spanish Texas

The following, adapted from the Chicago Manual of Style, 15th edition, is the preferred citation for this entry.

Anonymous, “Barrio Junco y Espriella, Pedro de,” Handbook of Texas Online, accessed May 28, 2022, https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/barrio-junco-y-espriella-pedro-de.

Published by the Texas State Historical Association.

Original Publication Date:: 1952
Most Recent Revision Date:: August 1, 1995

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