Ambrosio O'Higgins
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Ambrosio O'Higgins Neale, Marquess of Osorno, (1720?, Ballinary, County Sligo, Ireland—1801) born Ambrose O'Higgins (Ó hUigínn, in Gaelic), was a colonial Governor of the Capitancy General of Chile, part of the Spanish Empire.
Ambrose O'Higgins was the son of Charles O'Higgins and Margaret Neale. It is said that Charles O'Higgins' grandfather (Ambrosio's great-grandfather), Sean Duff O'Higgins, was the Baron of Ballinary, and that he was married to a woman who was descended of the O'Connor clan, which ruled Ireland until the year 1000. The O'Higgins family possessed great expanses of land in the Irish counties of Sligo and Mayo, but with the expropriations of Catholics by Oliver Cromwell, and the deportation of tenants to County Sligo after the Cromwellian conquest of Ireland, the O'Higgins' lands became smaller and smaller. Due to this encroachment into their land, the O'Higgins family emigrated to County Meath, where Ambrose came into the employ of Lady Jane Rawley. In 1751, Ambrose arrived at Cádiz, where he dedicated himself to commerce as an employee of the Butler Trading House. As an Irishman and a Catholic, he was able to legally immigrate to Spanish America in 1756.
After emigrating to Spain and enrolling in the Spanish Imperial Service, he moved to La Plata Colony, in present day Argentina, where he tried some commercial ventures. Later he enrolled as draughtsman and then engineer for the Spanish Imperial Service. It was there that John J. Garland, another Irish engineer at the service of Spain, convinced him to move to the neighbouring, and less established, colony of Chile. He rose quickly through the Service and became Governor General of the Capitancy General of Chile.
During this time he had a relationship with Lady Isabel Riquelme, a criolla whose family was a member of the Spanish ruling class. From this unofficial union a son was born, Bernardo O'Higgins, who would later lead Chile to its independence from the Spanish Empire. Though Ambrose never officially recognised this son as his legal heir, he paid for his education in England and left him his possessions in Peru and Chile.
As Governor of Chile, the most problematic, poor and remote Spanish outposts, O'Higgins was extremely active, promoting the construction of a definitive road between the capital Santiago and the port of Valparaiso (part of the layout of which is still in use today), the building of the Palacio de la Moneda in Santiago, and the establishment of a reliable postal service between La Plata colony and the General Capitany of Chile.
In 1796, O'Higgins was appointed Viceroy of Peru, comprising present-day Peru, Chile, Bolivia, northwest Argentina and parts of western Brazil. Peru was the richest colony of the whole Empire and thus the Viceroyship the most prominent post in all of Spanish America. He occupied it until his death in 1801.
There are various towns, bays, and other Spanish discoveries in the Americas were named after his birthplace during his time as Viceroy, such as Vallenar (originally named San Ambrosio de Ballenary, later Hispanizised to Vallenar) in Chile or Vallenar Bay in Alaska.es:Ambrosio O'Higgins