Francisco Espaillat y Virol was a French-born surgeon, public officer, cattle rancher, and sugar, indigo and tobacco planter in the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo.
10 Facts About Francisco Espaillat
1.
2.
In 1756, Francisco Espaillat migrated eastward to the Spanish side of the island of Hispaniola, settling in Santiago, capital of the Northern region of the Captaincy General of Santo Domingo known as the Cibao region, invited by Antonio Quinones; two years later, he was legally authorised to exercise his profession in the Spanish colony.
3.
From 1761, Francisco Espaillat started to buy lands, ranches and sugar mills so by the late-1780s he owned 15 hatos, 2 estancias and 4 sugar mills and his net worth was estimated at 200,000 Spanish dollars.
4.
Francisco Espaillat's fortune was so massive that he was undoubtedly the richest man in Cibao and one of the wealthiest men in the Spanish colony, rivaling Old money elite families from the city of Santo Domingo such as the Guridi, Coca-Landeche, de la Rocha, and Angulo, and even surpassing individuals from the Castro-Rivera, Campuzano-Polanco, and other 12 elite families.
5.
Francisco Espaillat's butler was Pedro Armaignac, of French origin too.
6.
Francisco Espaillat was the Medic and Main Surgeon of the infantry troops in Santiago, La Vega, Monte Christi, and Puerto Plata.
7.
Francisco Espaillat became administrator of the Royal Tobacco Factory of Santiago and had a salary of 60 Spanish dollars per month.
8.
Francisco Espaillat fled the island in 1805 with his family, after the invasion of Jean-Jacques Dessalines to Santo Domingo, fleeing the massacres against the Dominicans committed by the Haitian army, moving to Aguadilla, in the Western side of the Spanish Captaincy General of Puerto Rico.
9.
Francisco Espaillat died in 1807 alienated from the great fortune he amassed and without the power he once held.
10.
Francisco Espaillat brought the surname "Espaillat" into what is the Dominican Republic.