St Johns County FlArchives Biographies.....Bonelli Pacetti, Maria (Mary) Catalina February 29, 1784 - October 1835 ************************************************ Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/fl/flfiles.htm ************************************************ File contributed for use in USGenWeb Archives by: Marguerite Marree Mathews mmevans@att.net October 3, 2007, 2:31 pm Author: Marguerite Marree Mathews Maria (Mary) Catalina Antonia Bonelli was born 29 February 1784 in St. Augustine, Florida, daughter of Joseph Bonelli of Tuscany, Italy, and Maria Moll of Ciudadela, Minorca. The island of Minorca is located in the Balearic archipelago off of the coast of Spain. Maria Catalina Bonelli or Bonelly, as listed on her marriage document, married first to Tomas (Thomas) Paxeti (Pacetti) on 16 November 1801 in St. Augustine. Thomas Pacetti was born 10 February 1776 in New Smyrna, Florida, son of Andres Paxeti (Pacetti) of Trapani, Sicily, Italy, and Gertrudis Pons of Mahon, Minorca. Marys parents and Thomases parents emigrated from Minorca to New Smyrna, Florida, in the spring of 1768 with what is known as the Dr. Andrew Turnbull group. Andrew Turnbull, an enterprising Scots physician-land developer wanted to establish an indigo plantation in mid-Florida. He petitioned the then British government of East Florida for thousands of acres of land, gained support of wealthy backers in Scotland and in England. He sailed to the Mediterranean to Mahon, Minorca, at that time under British dominion and his port of call. He scoured the Mediterranean gathering recruits for his project. He wanted Greeks but the Ottoman Empire refused. His agents learned that there were Italians out of work at Livorno, a large port city in western Italy. They managed to recruit 110 Italian men. Joseph Bonelli and Andres Paxeti were two of those men. While they were ensconced in Mahon waiting for Turnbull to make his rounds, a few of the Italian men married Minorcan women. Eventually, the Minorcans, Italians, a few Greeks and others sailed across the ocean in eight caravels, landing some three months later at Mosquito Inlet at New Smyrna. After arriving at New Smyrna, first priority was to clear the landscape of pines, cabbage palm, palmetto scrub and drain the swampy marsh. Conditions were wretched and never improved. Unbearable heat and humidity, scant time to gather food, inadequate clothing, palm-thatched huts for living quarters, disgusting stench of indigo culture, unending tending crops for export, miserable sanitation, hunger, disease, cruel treatment by overseers. Many people, particularly children, died due to food shortages, diseases and deplorable living conditions. After nine years of exploitation, deprivation and broken promises, the New Smyrna colony failed. They appealed to the English governor for help, and in 1777, the entire group dubbed (The Minorcans) walked the Kings Highway to freedom in St. Augustine. In 1784, Joseph Bonelli Sr., his wife and his family, lived in the city of St. Augustine. It was in 1784 during the Second Spanish Period in East Florida that their daughter, Maria (Mary) Catalina Antonia Bonelli was born. (Joseph Bonelli Sr. & Maria Moll had ten documented children! Bonelli Lineage, by Marguerite Marree Mathews, 2005). They lived in a wooden house on Lot No. 2 Block No. 3 located between Charlotte Street and Avenida Menendez (on the Bay) east and west and between Hypolita Street and Baya Lane north and south. Joseph Bonelli Sr. also cultivated plots outside the city limits and in 1787, he and his family lived near the St. Johns River. He received two 600 acre land grants and one for ten acres. In 1796, for 600 acres at Turnbull Bay and for ten acres at North Wharf, and, in 1799, for 600 acres at Matanzas Bar. The third week in January 1802, while Joseph Bonelli Sr. was away on business, without warning, the Bonelli plantation at Matanzas was raided, pillaged and burned by Miccosukee Indians. Maria Moll Bonelli witnessed something so excruciatingly horrendous, so unspeakably horrible, something no mother should ever have to endure. Before her very eyes, she saw her eldest son who was left in charge, Thomas Bonelli, scalped on the spot by the Indians. Later, the Indians danced over his scalp. Maria Moll Bonelli and the five younger Bonelli children were taken captive and for weeks made to travel via a circuitous route to the Miccosukee settlement in West Florida where they were held for ransom. Joseph Bonelli Sr. was forced to sell his Matanzas grant in order to generate the amount of money demanded by the Miccosukee Indians to release his family. The Indians deemed the sum insufficient. After seven months they released only Mrs. Maria Bonelli and the three youngest Bonelli children (Theresa Mary, Catherine, and John). The Indians detained his son, young Joseph Bonelli, and his daughter, Antonia Paula Bonelli. Meantime, young Joseph escaped. Antonia Paula became a ward of the Miccosukee Indian Medicine Doctor and was kept another fifteen months, until in November 1803, Joseph Bonelli Sr., mustered additional money and negotiated her release. In 1802, Mary and Thomas Pacetti had been married for one year and were living in St. Augustine when the Joseph Bonelli plantation at Matanzas was ravaged by the Miccosukee Indians. This entire ordeal with the Indians lasted nearly two years. When final negotiations were reached between the Miccosukees and the Indian agents, the Indians delivered Mary’s sister, Antonia Paula Bonelli, to Mary’s husband, Thomas Pacetti. He brought Antonia Paula back to St. Augustine. Mary and Thomas Pacetti had five sons (Pacetti History and Lineage, by Marguerite Marree Mathews). 1. Andrew Pacetti born 1802 in St. Augustine. Andrew married first Charlotte Smith in St. Marys, he married second Catalina Andreu. He and Catalina lived for a while in St. Marys then they moved to Savannah. 2. Joseph Pacetti born 1804 in St. Augustine. Joseph married Maria Baya in St. Augustine where they remained for the rest of their lives. 3. Thomas Pacetti born 1806 in St. Augustine. Thomas moved from St. Marys and lived in the Panhandle District of Taylor County, Georgia. 4. Dennis Pacetti born 1808 in St. Augustine. Dennis married Esperanza Capo and they lived in Fernandina and in St. Marys. 5. Their fifth son, John Pacetti, was born about 1811 in St. Marys, Camden County, Georgia. John married first Margaret Rebecca Campbell, had seven children, and after Margarets death he married second to Sarah Ann Andrews Hubbell. Sarah Ann was a school teacher who probably taught the children living out on Cherry Point. John Pacetti lived in St. Marys and at Cherry Point in Camden County. Mary and her husband, Thomas, lived in St. Augustine, Florida from the time they were married in 1801 until or through the year 1811. Sometime during 1811, they moved up to St. Marys, Camden County, Georgia. There is no definitive death date nor death place for Thomas Pacetti. According to the Journal of Archibald Clark, Camden County 1822-1840 (housed in the Bryan-Lang Historical Library, Woodbine, Georgia), Thomas Pacetti was a seafaring man. Various Pacetti family members say that Thomas earned his living as a fisherman and that he plied boats in and around the waterways from St. Marys, Georgia to Fernandina, Florida, traditions carried on by his direct descendants to this day. On the 1820 Camden County, Georgia Census for the City of St. Marys, Mary Persity was listed as head of household with five males in her household whose ages correspond to those of her five sons. Her younger brother, listed as John Bonel on the 1820 St. Marys Census, lived for a time in the city of St. Marys. Comparing early St. Marys maps, it looks as though Marys residence was one of those small places on River Street, facing the St. Marys River - in the blocks between Osborne Street and Norris Street. How she made her living, one can only imagine. Her son, Andrew, was an employee of the Revenue Service on board a Revenue Boat out of St. Marys. Her son, Joseph, was a carpenter. Thomas was a blacksmith. Dennis owned his own sailing vessel. John was a carpenter in St. Marys. Dennis and John lived in Marys household until their own marriages. Mary Pacetti, designated The widow Pacetti among the Arnow notes (housed in the Bryan-Lang Historical Library, Woodbine, Georgia) married second to Joseph S. Arnow (Jose Sebastian Montiano Arnau born 24 March 1798 in St. Augustine). They had two sons. 1. Columbus I. Arnow born 1823 in St. Marys. 2. George Joseph Arnow born 1825 in St. Marys. Joseph S. Arnow was a tailor in St. Marys where he earned a good living. His shop was on River Street within fifty feet of the St. Marys River. In 1834, he purchased a large lot in Block 26 in St. Marys and built a substantial two-story house. The house, at 206 Ready Street, is now on the St. Marys Historic Register. Mr. Arnow’s residence was on Ready Street and he had a very large lot there on which he planted vegetables and fruit. He had a good many pomegranates and there was the first place that I ever saw the Spanish guava growing. He was the first man to raise pecans in St. Marys and perhaps in Georgia. He had a long row of them growing on the street about six feet from his fence. (This statement was quoted from Early Reminiscence of Camden County, Georgia, Paper No. 19, by James S. Silva, Kingsland, Southeast Georgian, 1914-1915). Mary needed help with the household chores and with the children. Marys niece by marriage, Prudencia Capo, grew up in Fernandina on Amelia Island. Fernandina was not far from St. Marys by boat. Mary knew the Capo family who had moved from St. Augustine to Fernandina. Prudencia was the daughter of Gertrudis Rosa Pacetti and Pedro Capo. Gertrudis Rosa Pacetti Capo was Thomas Pacetti’s sister. It was decided that Prudencia would go to St. Marys and live with Mary and her second husband, Joseph S. Arnow. Her descendants described Prudencia as The Babysitter. However, after Mary died in 1835, Prudencia continued her stay. Joseph could not live without her, therefore, soon after Mary died, they were married. In her sworn deposition to authorities (American State Papers, Documents, Legislative and Executive of the Congress of the United States, Military Affairs, Vol. VI, No. 690, Washington, DC: Gales & Seaton, 1861, p. 500) given on 01 October 1835, Antonia Paula Bonelli Leonardy said, My sister MARY resides in St. Marys, Georgia. Maria (Mary) Catalina Antonia Bonelli Pacetti Arnow died after 01 October 1835 in St. Marys, Camden County, Georgia. She probably died in the house at 206 Ready Street. She is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in an unmarked grave. She was known throughout her life as simply, Mary Pacetti. Additional Comments: Bonelli Lineage, by Marguerite Marree Mathews, Library of Congress catalog card number, 2007373031. Pacetti History and Lineage, by Marguerite Marree Mathews, in St Augustine Historical Library, St Augustine, St Johns County, FL. 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