José Presas y Marull (?-1842) was a Spanish attorney, writer, politician, diplomat and historian of Catalan origin. He served as private secretary of

Carlota Joaquina of Spain Doña Don (; ; pt, Dom, links=no ; all from Latin ', roughly 'Lord'), abbreviated as D., is an honorific prefix primarily used in Spain and Hispanic America, and with different connotations also in Italy, Portugal and its former colonies, an ...

Biography

José Presas was born

Sant Feliu de Guíxols Sant Feliu de Guíxols () is a municipality in the ''comarca'' of the Baix Empordà in Catalonia, Spain. It is situated on the Costa Brava and is an important port and tourist centre. The district abuts to the north, the upmarket s'Agaró resort ...

(Province of Girona), son of Jerónimo Roselló y Presas and Margarita Morull. He settled in Buenos Aires near the year 1790, being a student of the College of San Carlos and probably got his doctorate in law at

University of Saint Francis Xavier The Royal and Pontifical Higher University of San Francisco Xavier of Chuquisaca ( es, Universidad Mayor, Real y Pontificia de San Francisco Xavier de Chuquisaca; USFX) is a public university in Sucre, Bolivia. It is one of the oldest universitie ...

. José Presas was nephew of Francisco Marull, owner of the Botica del Colegio, a pharmacy located in front of the Church of San Ignacio. In 1805, José Presas was arrested and then released, accused of wanting to destabilize the government of the viceroy Sobremonte. He supported the British during the invasions in the

Río de la Plata The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...

, taking refuge in 1808 in

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

, where he was appointed secretary of the Infanta Carlota, daughter of

Charles IV of Spain , house = Bourbon-Anjou , father = Charles III of Spain , mother =Maria Amalia of Saxony , birth_date =11 November 1748 , birth_place =Palace of Portici, Portici, Naples , death_date = , death_place = ...

. José Presas y Marull had maintained cordial relations with the American and English community, established in the Buenos Aires colonial. In 1804, he was godson of John Cook (born in

Boston Boston (), officially the City of Boston, is the state capital and most populous city of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, as well as the cultural and financial center of the New England region of the United States. It is the 24th- mo ...

), baptized in the Cathedral of Buenos Aires on 8 November of the same year.

References

External links

Derrotero de un espía (La Nación)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Presas Marull, Jose 1842 deaths Year of birth missing Lawyers from Catalonia People from Buenos Aires People from Rio de Janeiro (city)