Juan Procopio Bassecourt

Juan Procopio de Bassecourt Thieulaine y Bryas López de Ochoa, (22 April 1740 – 12 April 1820) was Baron of Maials, Count of Santa Clara an office he assumed before the Spanish Cession enacted by the Adams-Onís Treaty of 1819, Captain General of Cuba, (6 December 1796[1] - 13 May 1799) and Captain General of Catalonia (14 May 1802 - 1808). 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.[2]

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

Birth

Juan Procopio Bassecourt y Bryas was born the son of Procopio Francisco de Bassecourt y Thieulaine, a Field Marshal of the Royal Spanish Army, Marquis of Bassecourt, 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, and of Ignés de Bryas, described in some papers and documents as Inés María de Bryas y López de Ochoa.

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 Gonzalez-Valor, Marquis of Gonzalez 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).

Personal life

He married in Barcelona Maria Teresa de Sentmenat y Copons, 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, (Barcelona, 1651 – Lima, Peru – 24 April 1710).

References
  1. 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.
  2. 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.

Bibliography
  • Prof. John Jay TePaske (1929–2007). The Governorship of Spanish Florida, 1700-1763 (Durham: Duke University Press, (1964), 248 pages. ASIN: B0007DN7VE
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