Scope and Content Note
The papers of Vicente Sebastián Pintado (1774-1829) span the years 1781-1842, with the bulk of material dating from 1799 to 1817. The papers consist of correspondence, bills of sale, court transcripts, testimonies, surveys, notebooks, plats, land grants, manuscript maps, petitions, and papers relating to Pintado's official duties as alcalde, commandant, and surveyor general of Spanish West Florida from 1799 to 1817. An undated Spanish/Talapuche Indian vocabulary is also in the papers. The papers include no record of his official duties in Havana. The collection contains four series: General Correspondence , Official Papers , Maps and Plats (Oversize) , and an Addition . Sixty-two maps and plats, originally part of this collection, were transferred to the Geography and Map Division in August 2012. They are included on the microfilm, and they are listed in this finding aid.
Spanish West Florida encompassed Louisiana from the Mississippi River to the Pearl River north of Lake Pontchartrain, the Gulf coasts of the present day states of Mississippi, Alabama (Mobile and vicinity), and western Florida (Pensacola and St. Mark's vicinity). The papers offer information on the critical transition in this region from the time of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803 through the seizure and occupation of West Florida by the United States in 1813-1814 to the ultimate cession of East and West Florida by Spain to the United States by terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. They provide insight into the multicultural relationships which developed in the area.
Place names that appear in this register are from this geographic area unless otherwise specified. Although some of the papers predate Pintado's appointment as alcalde in 1799, most of the material relates to land surveys, land purchases, and deeds from his appointment as alcalde until his departure for Cuba in 1817. After moving to Cuba, Pintado served as a military engineer. The papers include no record of his official duties in Havana.
The General Correspondence includes manuscript copies of many outgoing letters as well as communications from Christoval de Armas, Christopher Bolling, Antonio Cruzat, Vincent Folch (United States Governor of West Florida), Manuel Gayoso de Lemos (Governor of Baton Rouge), Charles Boucher de Grand-Pré (Governor of Baton Rouge), Ira Cook Kneeland (Pintado's deputy surveyor), Manuel López, Juan Ventura Morales (intendent of West Florida), Captain Francisco Rivas, and Charles Laveau Trudeau (Spanish surveyor in Louisiana). There is also documentation on the Nicolls raid in the Apalachicola River area and the Kemper brothers' raids in Louisiana, 1804-1805.
In addition to Pintado's personal and professional correspondence, the collection originally included part of the land records of Spanish West Florida. Maps , charts, plats, and land surveys now in the Geography and Map Division, many cadastral, relate to the coastal area from West Florida to the Mississippi River, with special attention to the Baton Rouge, Feliciana, Mobile, and Pensacola districts. This material is supplemented by correspondence between Pintado and his corps of surveyors including José Collins, Ira Cook Kneeland, Pedro Reggio (who became assistant surveyor after the death of Kneeland in 1812), and Patrick Tegart. Legal documents such as court transcripts, testimonies, surveys, land grants, deeds, and petitions are in the Official Papers.
The Addition to the papers consists of a bound volume dated 1806 containing five maps and written text concerning various properties of Juan Lynd located in the vicinity of Baton Rouge.