The Avero Story: An Early Saint Augustine Family with Many Daughters and Many Houses

By November 10, 1702, the English forces led by the ruthless James Moore, Governor of English Carolina, had occupied the town of St. Augustine. Over 1500 people took refuge in the Spanish fort which the English never were able to conquer. For two months Moore besieged the fort. The Spanish artillery was weak and ineffectual in driving away the enemy; the English artillery was inadequate against the massive walls of the fort. Moore tried to place his guns within closer range of the moat. The Spanish, afraid of this maneuver, dispatched a patrol with orders to burn all houses within a range of 750 feet from the fort. The houses of thirty-one St. Augustinians were devoured by the Spanish flames. Among them were the buildings that stood on northern St. George Street, today’s unofficial main street of St. Augustine