Juan Antonio Bustillo y Ceballos


Juan Antonio Bustillo y Ceballos was a soldier and politician who served as governor of Province of Texas and Coahuila, New Spain. He also served as alcalde ordinario in Mexico City.

Early life

Ceballos was born between the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries. He settled in Texas in 1723, living there for twelve years.

Governor in Texas

For seven of those years he served as captain of the Presidio of Our Lady of Loreto in La Bahia del Espiritu Santo. In 1730, he helped restore Querétaro missions in San Antonio. His success in this mission was such that the following year, in 1731, the viceroy of New Spain, Juan de Acuña, appointed him governor of Texas.
He arrived to Los Adaes, Texas' capital, in April 28, 1731, carrying several hundred of heads of livestock and many supplies.
He promoted the establishment of Spanish settlers from the Canary Islands in San Antonio in 1731 and the military campaign against the Apaches between the rivers of San Xavier and San Saba in 1732. The expedition consisted of 160 Spaniards and sixty Native Americans. However, the Apaches defeated them. A brief period of peace followed. Later, in 1734, Bustillo resigned as governor, replaced by Manuel de Sandoval, and he returned to Mexico.

Mexico

In Mexico, he won major political offices. He was appointed alcalde ordinaro of Mexico City. In 1751, he was a member of the Audiencia Real, the highest administrative court of New Spain. The Audiencia approved the founding of the San Xavier missions, although this had raised objections in 1746. Three years later, on December 21, 1754, Bustillo and Franciscan Alonso Giraldo de Terreros founded Mission San Lorenzo Apache, near San Fernando de Austria, Coahuila.

Legacy

The San Saba River was named by Bustillo y Ceballos in 1732. He called it Río de San Sabá de las Nueces, because he and his troops had arrived on the feast day of St. Sabbas, a 6th-century monk.