Submitted by Descendant: Jeannette Marie Say HENRY
Roque Leonardy arrived as an indentured laborer under Dr. Andrew Turnbull and is considered the founding father of the Leonardy(I)s of Florida.
Born on 21 September 1782 in St. Augustine, Bartolome Josef Leonardy was a first-generation child born in the united States and the fifth child of Roque Leonardy and his second wife Aqueda Coll. According to Friar Doug Halsema who wrote We Passed This Way-The Leonardi-Halsema Family History, Volume 1, Bartolome (Bartholomew) is a generational family name for the Leonardy(I)s reaching back to ancestors in mid-1400s Italy where Emperor Frederick III conferred knighthood upon ancestor Bartholemew Leonardi.
Little is known of Bartolome’s childhood in St. Augustine, but Spanish land grant documents for Roque Leonardy indicate Bartolome was driven or ordered out of St. Augustine during the revolt/insurrection of 1800. Upon his return a few years later, he secured and farmed the lands of his father, Roque, comprising 1400 acres.
In July of 1808, Bartolome married Antonia Paula De La Resurreccion Bonelli, also a first-generation child of Minorcan descent born in the Andrew Turnbull colony. They married and resided in the vicinity of St. Augustine throughout their lives and together raised eleven children. Several of their children moved to Tampa, then to the area of Hillsborough County which later became Pinellas County.
As a resident of St. Augustine in 1827, Bartolome added his signature to a petition to Congress voicing concerns regarding protection and continuation of rights previously granted by the government. According to St. Augustine Parish records, Bartolome died in 1844.
Bartolome Josef Leonardy was first established as a Florida Pioneer in 2001