Jose Masot was Governor of West Florida from 8 March 1816 to 26 May 1818, succeeding Francisco San Maxent and preceding William King.
Biography[]
Jose Masot joined the Spanish Navy in his youth and rose to the rank of colonel, becoming Governor of West Florida in 1816. He dealt severely with a slave uprising, but he did not have the strength to take on the Seminole defenders of the Negro Fort. In 1816, US general Andrew Jackson informed Masot that if Spain did not destroy the fort, then he would; Masot did not have sufficient forces to take the fort, so Jackson sent Edmund P. Gaines to take the fort. On 11 November 1817, he discovered a plot against him by several Spanish Army soldiers, and he reported this to the Captain-General of Cuba; the Captain-General believed that the 4,000 American troops and the conspirators were working together. On 24 May 1818, the Americans occupied the square of the West Floridian capital of Pensacola, and Masot formally surrendered by handing over West Florida to the USA on 26 May; William King became the new governor.