| 1725 |
Born in Ireland. At an early age he enlisted in the Spanish Navy and in the War of Austrian Succession served in Italy. He was then for a time with the armies of France and Austria but re-entered the Spanish service and was placed in command of a brigade. He was sent to Havana, where he improved the fortifications and was made inspector-general. |
| 1765 |
At Madrid O’Reilly is influential in saving the life of Charles III, with whom he became a favorite |
| 1769 April |
Carlos III appoints Lt. General Alejandro O’Reilly to proceed immediately to Havana where he would assume control of the forces that will quell the revolt in Louisiana. He leaves Cadiz in late April, arrives in Havana on June 24 and is prepared to sail to New Orleans by July 6 with a 2,000 man force. |
| 1769 |
O’Reilly’s force is met at the Balize by three men: Lafreniere, Pierre Marquis, and Joseph Milhet. They are sizing up the situation and O’Reilly assures them that he would sort out the facts before he would use force or decide punishment. |
| 1769 August 17 |
O’Reilly and his forces arrive in New Orleans. The next day he formally accepts surrender from Charles Philippe Aubry in the Place d’Armes. O’Reilly’s orders are to reduce the colonists to submission. |
| 1769 August 18 |
O’Reilly is also charged with forming the new government. He formally dissolves the Superior Council and the minutes of the Cabildo, from August 18, 1769, describes his assumption of power as Governor and Captain-General of Louisiana. Since the Cabildo does not yet exist the meeting consisted of O’Reilly and two escribanos (scribes): Francisco Xavier Rodriquez and Jose Fernandez. By late September Joseph Ducros is mentioned as regidore perpetuo and depositario general (court custodian). |
| 1769 August 19 |
O’Reilly and Charles Philippe Aubry discuss the rebel leadership. The next day ten individuals are arrested and O’Reilly issues a general pardon to the rest of the population, who are invited to take an oath to the Spanish crown, |
| 1769 September 17 |
Governor O’Reilly issues a tariff fixing the prices of most staples. Last month when he arrived the food supply of the province was in total disarray. After the Cabildo is formed the council will monitor the food supply and alter the tariffs. It also will be responsible for weights and measures, building and supervising the operation of public markets, guaranteeing a plentiful supply of staples and controlling their prices and quality, especially meat and bread. |
| 1769 October 8 |
A proclamation by O’Reilly allows twelve taverns, six billiard halls and one limonadier (lemonade seller) to dispense alcoholic drinks. He orders them closed at 8 PM., but these hours fluctuate through the years and for a small bribe the night watch could always look the other way. |
| 1769 October 20 |
O’Reilly receives the prosecutor’s recommendations and four days later he hands down the sentences with the advice of Auditor de Guerra (Judge Advocate) Manuel Jose de Urrutia. Felix del Rey presents the government’s case, the charges being treason, sedition, writing inflammatory documents and leading hostile troops, all aimed at expelling the Spanish authority. The defense states that Spanish law had never been instituted. The colonists were stricken with terror, but the new governor issues a proclamation, declaring that only those who had been the leaders of the revolt the year before would be punished and this eases their fears to some extent. |
| 1769 October 25 |
Alejandro O’Reilly, an Irishman in the service of the King of Spain and Spanish Governor of Louisiana executes five French patriots: Nicholas Chauvin LaFreniere, the Attorney-General of Louisiana; Pierre Marquis; Jean Baptiste de Noyan, Pierre Caresse and Joseph Milhet. Joseph Villere had already died in prison apparently in a struggle with guards. Other sentences were: Joseph Petit, life imprisonment (in Havana’s Morro Castle); Jean Milhet, Pierre Poupet and Pierre Hardy de Boisblanc, six years imprisonment and banishment from Louisiana forever. All of their property was seized except for the dowries of their wives. All prisoners served a year and a half before being pardoned. The commissary Foucault was deported, arrested in France and confined to the Bastille for 18 months. Twenty other individuals were also exiled, most of them for engaging in contraband. Denis Braud, the royal printer, was pardoned for following the orders of his superiors. For his prompt prosecution and execution of the ringleaders of the revolt, the Spanish Governor gained the sobriquet of Bloody O’Reilly. |
| 1769 October |
After the trial of the revolt’s leaders, O’Reilly sends away most of the Spanish troops. He retains only about 1,200 men and adopts a policy that is both friendly and impartial toward the French Creoles. French commandants are retained at nearly all the posts. He recommends free trade with Cuba, a friendly policy towards the Indians, and by various other means he tries to conciliate and win the confidence of the people he had been sent to govern. He had been ordered by the king of Spain to govern the colony by the same laws as the other Spanish provinces, so he dissolves the Superior Council and established the Cabildo in its place. |
| 1769 October |
O’Reilly also decrees a new, more lenient, black code in lieu of the one that had been in force since Bienville. |
| 1769 October |
Louisiana is made a dependency of Cuba, which displeases the French people and makes O’Reilly even more unpopular, although he is only carrying out the orders of the king. With the exception of his severity toward the revolutionists he is a mild and just governor. His appointment is a temporary one, to punish the insult to the Spanish crown and restore order. As soon as this task is accomplished he appoints Don Louis de Unzaga, colonel of the Havana Regiment, to the governorship. Under his commission as captain-general he continues his control of Louisiana until Oct. 29, 1770 when he returns to Spain. |
| 1769 November |
O’Reilly chooses regidores perpetuos, five of which are planters who sided against last year’s rebellion. The sixth is Denis Braud, the colony’s printer, who had been jailed briefly. Other members of the Cabildo include alcaldes ordinarios, a mayordomo de propios, a sindico procurador general and an escribano. The Cabildo is to meet each Friday to deliberate on all that may concern the public welfare of the city. Its purview includes police, taxation, market supervision, public works, health and building regulations, distribution of lands, and organization of holiday festivities. The office of the regidore is permanent, inheritable and salable. |
| 1769 November 25 |
O’Reilly releases two proclamations known as the Code O’Reilly: Ordinances and Instructions of Alexander O’Reilly (this contains the only evidence of a charter for the Cabildo); and Instructions as to the Manner of Instituting Suits, Civil and Criminal, and Pronouncing Judgments in General, in Conformity to the laws of the Nueva Recopilacion de Castilla, and the The Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de las Indias This part of the Code O’Reilly is for the courts of the alcaldes ordinarios. The Recopilacion de leyes de los reynos de las Indias was issued by the Spanish crown in 1680 to correct the ambiguous and conflicting colonial laws that had existed for nearly 200 years. This law will go through further revisions, but will guide Alejandro O’Reilly when he assumes the governorship of Louisiana. |
| 1769 December 1 |
Luis de Unzaga y Amezaga assumes the office of Governor of Louisiana from O’Reilly. O’Reilly remains in Louisiana as captain-general with authority outside New Orleans until he leaves. |
| 1769 December 7 |
O’Reilly declares that it is against Spanish law to enslave and hold Indians captive. |
| 1769 December |
O’Reilly authorizes construction of the first casa capitular, a government building that is built on the same site as today’s Cabildo. |
| 1769 |
O’Reilly commissions a census of all settlements and posts in Louisiana. It reports about 100 settlers, including slaves & Apache Indians near the Post du Rapide. Etienne Layssard is appointed the post commandant. |
| 1769 |
O’Reilly appoints Juan Bautiste Garic as the first Cabildo escribano. Garic is the former clerk of the French Superior Council and his knowledge of Louisiana’s laws and customs is important to a smooth transition from French to Spanish rule. He had begun a notorial practice in New Orleans in 1739 and was already a trained lawyer and a doctor of civil and canon law. The post of Notary Public was remunerative and as a consequence was valued greater than a regidore. It was not a salaried post and enjoyed only the modest fees proscribed by law. Tips, bribes and peculation probably added to the income of the notaries. Andres Almonester is an additional escribano. |
| 1770 February 12 |
O’Reilly publishes additional measures governing the medical establishment, land ordinances, and instructions to post commandants. |
| 1770 February 18 |
O’Reilly’s land ordinances forbid the Cabildo from using municipal funds to construct and care for levees, bridges and the street gutters. This is largely disregarded for the good of the community. According to the Code O’Reilly the council has the right but not always the means to force owners to keep such facilities on private land in good condition. The Cabildo took it upon itself to build these vital facilities. Public works constituted the largest expenditure of city funds during the Spanish period other than the lighting system. The Cabildo’s authority extends only to bienes municipales (municipal property) that produced revenue for the city and the bienes comunales (commons or ejidos for city residents.) The Cabildo receives only minor responsibilities for land grants, but because it is the only Cabildo in Louisiana its authority extends over the whole territory of Louisiana and after 1783, into West Florida. O’Reilly gives power for granting land to the governor because an intendency does not exist in the colony at this time. Previously the French had depended on the governor and the commissaire-ordinateur to agree on all land grants, but since they rarely agreed, concessions were often disputed. |
| 1770 February 12 |
O’Reilly’s medical decree divides the profession into physicians and surgeons. University-trained physicians were preferred over surgeons who were often charlatans. Surgeons could be licensed after being examined for competence. Medical practitioners are expected to share their knowledge. He had to be Roman Catholic and present to the king’s army physician his knowledge, books and instruments. After passing the exam a six month service at Charity Hospital is required gratis. Medical doctors were required to be married or marry within six months after being licensed and could not be engaged in other businesses. They were required to donate time to Charity Hospital and report any knife or gunshot wounds they treated. Surgeons had to itemize bills, which could be contested in court and permission was required to treat minors or slaves. Surgeons were to meet each Monday, with a Physician, in a conference to spread medical and public health knowledge and were encouraged to train midwives. |
| 1770 October 29 |
Alejandro O’Reilly leaves for Spain. |
| 1771 January 28 |
The Spanish King grants an earlier request by Alejandro O’Reilly that a tribunal of appeals in Havana be created to hear appeals from the new Louisiana colony. It consists of the Captain-General, the army and navy judge advocates and the attorney (fiscal) of the Royal Treasury and is under the nominal authority of the Audiencia of Santo Domingo. It will review all death sentences, appeals in criminal cases and civil cases over 330 pesos. |
| 1775 |
O’Reilly participates in an unsuccessful expedition at Algiers, after which he serves for some time as commandant-general of Andulusia and governor of Cadiz. |
| 1794 |
O’Reilly dies while on his way to assume command of the army of the eastern Pyrenees. |