Gil de Taboada y Lemos, Francisco (1733–1810)

Francisco Gil de Taboada y Lemos (b. 1733; d. 1810), viceroy of Peru (1790–1796). A native of Santa María de Sotolongo (Galicia), Gil pursued a naval career before serving briefly as viceroy, first, of New Granada (1789) and, soon thereafter, of Peru. Despite the increasing political confusion in Madrid in the early 1790s, Peru experienced considerable cultural development during his term of office: the progressive journal Mercurio Peruano appeared regularly, and the Society of Friends of the Country of Lima, which published the journal, sought, with viceregal support, to promote economic growth. Gil oversaw the production of a detailed census of the population in 1791, and a program of public works, and sought to restore the prestige of viceregal authority at the expense of the provincial intendants (first appointed in 1784).

On his return to Spain, Gil joined the Supreme Council of War, becoming commander of the navy in 1799, minister of marine in 1805, and a member of Ferdinand VII's Junta de Gobierno by means of which the latter forced his father to abdicate and assumed the throne in March 1808. Following Ferdinand's own abdication several months later, Gil refused to recognize Joseph Bonaparte as king of Spain and retired from office.

See alsoFerdinand VII .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Manuel A. Fuentes, ed., Memorias de los virreyes que han gobernado el Perú, vol. 6 (1859), pp. 1-353.

Carlos Deustúa Pimentel, Las intendencias en el Perú, 1790–1796 (1965).

Additional Bibliography

Marks, Patricia H. "Confronting a Mercantile Elite: Bourbon Reformers and the Merchants of Lima, 1765–1796." The Americas 60 (April 2004): 519-558.

                                             John R. Fisher