Manuel Luis Gayoso de Lemos Amorín y Magallanes (1747 – 1799) was the Spanish governor of Louisiana from 1797 until his death in 1799. Born in Oporto, Portugal on May 30, 1747, to Spanish consul Manuel Luis Gayoso de Lemos y Sarmiento and Theresa Angélica de Amorín y Magallanes, he received his education in London, where his parents were living.
At age 23 Manuel Gayoso de Lemos joined the military, the Spanish Lisbon Regiment as a cadet (1771) and was commissioned ensign (sub-lieutenant) the following year. The Lisbon Regiment had been reassigned from Havana to New Orleans since the Spanish rentry under Field Marshal Alejandro O'Reilly in 1769. Throughout his life Gayoso de Lemos retained his military rank and he was a brigadier at the time of his death. Don Manuel Gayoso de Lemos married three times. His first marriage was to Theresa Margarita Hopman y Pereira of Lisbon, with whom he had two children. In 1792 he married Elizabeth Watts of Philadelphia and Louisiana; she died three months later. He then married Elizabeth's sister, Margaret Cyrilla Watts, with whom he had one son.
On November 3, 1787, Manuel Gayoso de Lemos assumed military and civil command of the fort and the newly organized District of Natchez (West Florida), having been appointed district governor by Governor-General Esteban Rodríguez Miró, governor of Louisiana and West Florida. On his arrival, Gayoso de Lemos established an informal cabildo (council) of landed planters which was formalized in 1792. Most of the council were of non-Spanish origin having come down from the Ohio River Valley settlements (especially Kentucky). Gayoso de Lemos continued to encourage American settlement on Spanish soil, especially by Catholics, notably the Irish and the Scots, and those who brought significant property. He moved the administrative part of the town of Natchez from the waterfront up onto the bluffs. One of the most troubling aspects during his civil administration was confusion in the land titles, with a number of inconsistent land grants. Unfortunately, Rodríguez Miró's successor, Governor-General Carondelet was not amenable to rectifying the problem.
While in Natchez, Gayoso de Lemos used the greed of a number of Americans, notably General James Wilkinson and Philip Nolan to help limit the growth of the United States. Also to this end, Gayoso de Lemos entered into alliances with the local Indian tribes and signed formal treaties with them in 1792, 1793 [1], and 1795. Under his direction the Spanish fortified the Mississippi at Nogales (later Walnut Hills, then later changed to Vicksburg) and Chickasaw Bluffs (later Memphis). He was instrumental in acquiring the information from James Wilkinson concerning the proposed US attack on New Orleans in 1793 by General George Rogers Clark.
However, under the terms of Pinckney's Treaty promulgated in 1796, Spain agreed to relinquish the Natchez District to the United States. Thus Gayoso de Lemos oversaw the gradual Spanish withdrawal from the east-side of the middle Mississippi. In March 1797 the fort at Nogales was decommissioned with the troops and stores being moved to St. Louis. Final evacuation of the district did not occur until 1798.
Gayoso de Lemos succeeded Carondelet as Governor-General of Louisiana and West Florida on August 5, 1797. His first act was to issue his own Bando de Buen Gobierno (Edit of Good Government) and to send a list of instructions to commandants of all posts concerning land grants.
As governor, Gayoso de Lemos consolidated the military, still fearing a possible thrust south by Britain and desiring to keep Louisiana as a buffer between the US and the Spanish province of Texas. He continued the unofficial policy of allowing Americans to bring their slaves with them from the north, although the importation of new slaves had been prohibited in Louisiana since 1792. In 1798, Gayoso de Lemos, issued a comprehensive edict concerning Catholicism as the state faith of the colony. In addition to increasing formal church membership (and tithing), it attempted to coerce people to give up unnecessarily working on Sundays and holy days. In it, Gayoso de Lemos condemned anyone who challenged the theology or social centrality of the church. That same year he instituted state-run garbage collection (a novel idea at the time).
Gayoso de Lemos died in New Orleans of yellow fever on July 18, 1799. Colonel Francisco Bouligny became the acting military governor and Nicolas Maria Vidal the acting civil governor.
| Preceded by Francisco Luis Héctor de Carondelet |
Spanish Governor of Louisiana 1797-1799 |
Succeeded by Sebastian de la Puerta y O'Farril |