MINORCAN LIFE AT THE TURNBULL COLONY 1768–1777
A Personal Journey into an Overlooked Chapter of American History
When Robert P. Jones—a bricklayer, U.S. Marine Corps veteran, and longtime association executive—met and married Malinda Louise Usina, a Minorcan lady, he gained more than a partner for the next 72 years. He inherited a legacy. After her death in 2022, that legacy led him on a years-long journey into the past, tracing the footsteps of his wife’s ancestors—especially one: her great-great-great, great-grandmother, Catarina Moll Alzina (Usina), buried among the 964 unnamed Minorcans somewhere beneath the soil of New Smyrna Beach, Florida.
This book tells the story of the Turnbull Colony through a lens rarely applied: not from the view of its founders or governors, but through the silences in the letters they left behind. Drawing exclusively from the James Grant Papers—correspondence between Dr. Andrew Turnbull, Governor Grant and GovernorTonyn and British colonial officials—Jones offers an original perspective on a colony built mostly on the backs of Mediterranean Catholics who were never meant to be there, according to the Crown’s own rules.
What emerges is a story of resilience, erasure, and identity. Of how 1,225 people were brought to the hammocks and swamps of East Florida under promises of land and freedom, only to find years of hardship and suffering. And how, despite all that, their descendants remain—living proof of survival where history failed to give them voice.
With the insight of a devoted researcher and the heart of someone with skin in the game, Minorcan Life at the Turnbull Colony 1768-1777 shines new light on the largest single group of immigrants brought to America during the colonial era—and the enduring strength of those who lived it.
