Bartolomé Morales

Bartolomé Morales
3rd Spanish Governor of East Florida
In office March 1796 – June 1796
Preceded by	Juan Nepomuceno de Quesada
Succeeded by	Enrique White
Personal details
Born	1737 Algeciras, Cádiz (Andalusia, Spain)
Died	unknown
Spouse(s)	María of Medina Barsaga Soledad
Profession	lieutenant colonel and Political

Bartolomé Félix Morales y Ramírez (1737 - date of death unknown) was a lieutenant colonel of the Spanish infantry who served as lieutenant governor in Holguín, Cuba, and briefly as an interim governor of East Florida (March 1796 - June 1796). As commandant of the third battalion of Cuba, he was appointed to posts in the Cuban cities of Bayamo, Cobre and Holguín (1763 to 1774), and commanded the Spanish garrison in St. Augustine, Florida.

Bartolomé Morales was born in 1737 in Algeciras in Andalusia, Spain, but grew up in Seville. He held a commission as staff assistant in the infantry Regiment of Navarre, which was integrated with the Córdoba Regiment. Sometime before 1763, Bartolomé fought against the Muslims in Ceuta.

Morales was promoted to captain in 1790. The following year he was promoted to colonel by King Charles IV of Spain, and made commandant of the Third Battalion Cuban Regiment garrisoned at the Castillo de San Marcos in St. Augustine, Florida, which was then a unit of the Captaincy General of Cuba. He arrived there with his daughter Rita Josefa and his grandson Félix Varela, aged two, whose mother, Maria Josefa Ignacia (daughter of Morales,) had died a few days after giving birth.

In March 1796, Morales, accompanied by royal auditor Gonzalo Zamorano, was appointed to the post of acting governor of East Florida while Governor Enrique White was recovering from an illness, and left it in June of that year, when White recovered and returned to office.

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