An enslaved girl of color in the household of Don Manuel Gonzalez. (There were three men by the name of Manuel Gonzalez in the 1820 Spanish census of Pensacola; only two were referred to as Don. Maria Juana was enslaved by the rancher who married Marie Louise Bonifay.)
Maria Juana was born 20 October 1819. She was baptized on 26 March 1820 by Father James Coleman at St. Michael’s Parish (Spanish Pensacola). Mother was Maria, a mulata woman enslaved in the same household. The father was listed as unknown in baptismal record (this usually meant the father was unwilling or unable to acknowledge the child).
She appears in the 1833 will of Manuel Gonzalez, as one of four children of her mother (called Mary); she is called Mary Jane; her sister, Louisa; and two other siblings whom I have not identified in the baptismal records of St. Michael named Andres or Andrea, and Lavenia. Don Manuel left all his property to his wife, Marie Louise Bonifay.
Mary Jane had at least three children: Mercy Stephany was born 3 August 1847 and baptized by J.M. Portier in December of the same year. In that record, Alexander Rubio is identified as the father of the child. Marie Rufine was born 30 July 1850 and baptized by C. Rampon on 8 October the same year. Mary Jane is called “Marie Jeanne” in that record, but no father is identified. Mary Louisa was born 11 May 1853 and baptized by C. Rampon on 4 September of that year. She was emancipated at the time of her baptism, and her parents were identified as Mary Jane Gonzalez and Alexander Ruby. Mary L. Gonzalez was listed as a sponsor of the child, but Mary Jane is not identified as enslaved, nor was Mary L. Gonzalez identified as her owner, as was typical in baptismal records for enslaved children.
All three girls’ freedom was purchased by Alexander Ruby, a free man of color, when Mercy Stephany was five, Mary Rufine was two, and Mary Louisa two months old. In the emancipation instruments the they are each identified as “a natural child of my quadroon girl, Mary Jane.” Mary Louisa was identified in her emancipation instrument as the child of Alexander Ruby.
Evidently Mary Jane was emancipated at some point between Mary Louisa’s emancipation and her baptism, but I have not yet found the instrument by which her freedom was effected.
In the 1860 census of Pensacola, Mary Jane Gonzalez is listed in the household of Marie Louise Gonzalez, 80 years old. Mary Jane was 40, identified as mulatto. There are three young women in the household with the surname Gonzalez, which may be Mary Jane’s daughters by Alexander Ruby: Fannie Gonzalez, 14 – who might be Mercy Stephany; Mattie Gonzalez, 10, who is the right age to be Marie Rufine; and Josephine, who was 8 and the right age to be Mary Louisa. It was not uncommon for enslaved children to be called something in their households that was completely different than the names given at their baptism; however, “Josephine” for Mary Louisa is a stretch and I will need to investigate this further.
I believe Alexander Ruby may be Alexandre Joseph who was enslaved in the household of Col. Jean Marcos Couloun de Villiers, and was among a lot of enslaved people purchased by Joseph S. Ruby and emancipated immediately thereafter. This occurred in 1842, when Alexandre Joseph was 17. As Joseph S. Ruby stipulated in the emancipation instrument that he would be acting in a parental role to those who were not yet 21 years olf age, it is possible Alexandre Joseph remained in the Ruby household for another few years. He has proven elusive, however, after 1854, the last time he appared as a sponsor in a baptismal record at St. Michael’s. I have a small suspicion he began to use the name Joseph, but I have yet to find conclusive evidence of this.
It is my personal belief, at this moment, that Mary Jane Gonzalez used the surname Ruby after her emancipation. A Mary Jane Ruby appears as godmother, along with the godfather, Alexander Ruby, in the baptismal record for Carmela Panquinet in 1852; as well as the baptismal record of Mary Jane Gonzalez’ granddaughter, Mary Emma Wells, in 1866. If this is the same person, she died on May 23, 1898 and is buried in St. Michael’s cemetery. Like Maria Juana/Mary Jane Gonzalez, who was always identified as mixed race, Mary Jane Ruby was identifed as Creole in her death notice. The main circumstance that gives me pause is that this Mary Jane claimed to have been born North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia, depending upon the record. While having been baptized in Pensacola certainly does not guarantee she was born there, this is a large discrepancy and I will need to resolve it before continuing with my hypothesis that Mary Jane Ruby was born Maria Juana Gonzalez.
FAMILY:
Mother: Maria Gonzalez*
Sister: Mary Louisa Ursula Gonzalez Durant
Children: Marie Rufine Ruby; Mercy Stephany (“Fannie”) Ruby, who may have used the surname Wells
Grandchildren: Mary Emma Wells, Fanny Ruby Wells, George S. Wells
SOURCES:
Records of St. Michael’s Parish, Pensacola, FL, Book III: Baptisms of People of Color, 1817 – 1882. University of West Florida Archives and West Florida History Center. 22 SEP 2021.
Will of Manuel Gonzalez, 19 JUN 1833. Ancestry.com. Florida, U.S., Wills and Probate Records, 1827-1950 [accessed 22 OCT 2023].
Escambia County Deed Records H/111 and H/112: 25 AUG 1842; L/18; L/19: 24 JUL 1852; and L/177: 2 AUG 1853
Household of Marie Louisa Gonzalez, Ancestry.com. 1860 United States Federal Census [database on-line]. Lehi, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2009. Images reproduced by FamilySearch. The National Archives in Washington D.C.; Record Group: Records of the Bureau of the Census; Record Group Number: 29; Series Number: M653; Residence Date: 1860; Home in 1860: The Country, Escambia, Florida; Roll: M653_106; Page: 403; Family History Library Film: 803106.
St. Joseph’s Catholic Church, Pensacola, Florida Burial Records, Book 1, December 16, 1892 – May 15, 1904; Book II, July 13, 1904-July 27, 1951. Copied by Martin DePorres Lewis, transcribed by Rita Humphreys Saunders, July 1981.
Death Record of Mary Jane Ruby, Pensacola births and deaths, 1891-1910, Escambia County (Florida) Health Department. Salt Lake City, Utah : Filmed by the Genealogical Society of Utah, 1973.
“Vital Statistics,” The Pensacola News, 30 MAY 1898, p. 2.