Abogados en Nueva Granada

The Lawyers and New Granada's Late Colonial StateAuthor(s): Victor M. UribeSource: Journal of Latin American Studies, Vol. 27, No. 3 (Oct., 1995), pp. 517-549Published by: Cambridge University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/158482 .

Accessed: 15/04/2014 15:36

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at .http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range ofcontent in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new formsof scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

.

Cambridge University Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal ofLatin American Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 168.96.255.82 on Tue, 15 Apr 2014 15:36:13 PMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=cup

http://www.jstor.org/stable/158482?origin=JSTOR-pdf

http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp


The Lawyers and New Granada's Late Colonial State*

VICTOR M. URIBE

Abstract. This article presents a portrait of New Granada's colonial lawyers. Though it focuses primarily on individuals qualified to practise law before the Audiencia, it deals not just with practising lawyers as such but also with those who, despite being qualified to practise law, ended up choosing other

occupations; in particular, joining the bureaucracy. It examines the social characteristics, family strategies, and bureaucratic careers of these professionals to demonstrate how, as chief competitors for state jobs, lawyers complemented their clans' power in important ways. By providing a vital component of the colonial elite's survival kit - bureaucratic power - they increased their families' overall influence, honour, and social status. In doing so, some lawyers came to build true family-bureaucratic networks which proved resistant to the late colonial Bourbon reforms that sought to undo them.

The typical elite families of colonial Latin America were large clans whose members strengthened the clan's potential by entering diverse economic and political activities (the legal profession, the religious life, the

bureaucracy, the military, land ownership, mining, and eventually trade) and by establishing marriage alliances with members of similar elite families. The characteristics and survival strategies of these groups are

being demonstrated by an increasing body of literature concerning both the nature of gender roles and family life, and the economic, political, and social significance of elite trades and occupations. Much has been learned, for instance, about the families and activities of landowners, miners, merchants, bureaucrats and priests.1 * The author wishes to thank Harold D. Sims, John Markoff, Mark Burkholder, John

E. Kicza, Mark D. Szuchman, Noble David Cook and three anonymous reviewers for providing comments on earlier versions of this paper. He is also particularly indebted to George Reid Andrews and Susan M. Socolow who, in addition to judicious criticisms, provided generous assistance and encouragement. Support for this research was provided by the Tinke Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the Fundaci6n para la Promoci6n de la Investigaci6n, la Ciencia y la Tecnologia, Banco de la Repiblica, Colombia.

Examples of this literature include Diana Balmori et al., Notable Family Networks in Latin America (Chicago, 1984); Raymond T. Smith (ed.), Kinship, Ideology, and Practice in Latin America (Chapel Hill, 1984); Mark D. Szuchman, Order, Family, and Community in Buenos Aires, 181o-186o (Stanford, I988); Elizabeth Anne Kuznesof, 'The History of the Family in Latin America: A Critique of Recent Work', Latin American Research Review, vol. 24, no. 2 (I989), pp. I68-86; Asunci6n Lavrin, Sexuality and Marriage in

Victor M. Uribe is Assistant Professor of History at Florida International University.

J. Lat. Amer. Stud. 27, 517-549 Copyright ? 1995 Cambridge University Press 5 I7



5 i 8 Victor M. Uribe

Among these occupations, the legal profession - despite the number of

men from elite colonial families who embraced it - is the one we know

least about.2 The obscurity of the history of Latin America's colonial

lawyers and their families is surprising compared to the attention this

group has received in European and North American historiography. In those regions it has been demonstrated that, among other things

pertaining to their constant striving for honour, prestige, power and

wealth, lawyers played prominent public roles, having an overwhelming

presence in public office and revolutionary bodies.3 In Latin America, much as in Europe and North America, the legal profession traditionally dominated bureaucracy and politics. In fact, many official posts,

particularly some of the highest public offices (oidor and fiscal), required a

Colonial Latin America (Lincoln, I989); Muriel Nazzari, Disappearance of the Dowry: Women, Families, and Social Change in Sao Paulo, Brazil (60o0-I900) (Stanford, I991); Alida C. Metcalf, Family and Frontier in Colonial Brazil: Santana de Parnaiba, 1i80-I822

(Berkeley, 1992); David A. Brading, Miners and Merchants in Bourbon Mexico, I76}-I8io

(Cambridge, 197 ); Susan M. Socolow, Merchants of Buenos Aires, I778-I8So: Family and Commerce (Cambridge, 1978); idem, The Bureaucrats of Buenos Aires, I769-18I0: Amor al Real Servicio (Durham, I987); idem, and Louisa S. Hoberman, Cities and Society in Colonial Latin America (Albuquerque, I986); Ann Twinam, Miners, Merchants, and Farmers in Colonial Colombia (Austin, I982); John E. Kicza, Colonial Entrepreneurs: Families and Business in Bourbon Mexico City (Albuquerque, I983); Susan E. Ramirez, Provincial Patriarchs: Land Tenure and the Economics of Power in Colonial Peru

(Albuquerque, I986); Linda Arnold, Bureaucracy and Bureaucrats in Mexico City,

1742-18r3 (Tucson, I988). 2 Limited information can be found in Enrique Ruiz Guiniazd, La magistratura indiana

(Buenos Aires, 1916), ch. o; Hector Parra Mirquez, Historia del Colegio de Abogados de

Caracas, 2 vols. (Caracas, 195 2); Vicente 0. Cutolo, Abogadosy escribanos del siglo XVII

(La Plata, i963); Adolfo Rolando Padilla, La abogacia en Guatemala. Epoca colonial

(Thesis, Univ. de San Carlos, Guatemala, I964); Miguel Angel de Marco, Abogados, escribanos, jy obras de derecho en el Rosario del siglo XIX (Rosario, 1973); Rogelio Perez

Perdomo, Los abogados en Venezuela (Caracas, 198 i); Vicente Oddo, Abogados de Santiago del Estero durante elprimer siglo de existencia de la ciudad ( 1553-1653) (Santiago del Estero, 1981). See also notes 5 and 78.

3 Among several works see, e.g., Loretta A. Norris, American Colonial Courts and Lawyers: An Annotated Bibliography (Washington, I976); Samuel Haber, The Quest for Authority and Honor in the American Professions, i7fo-i9oo (Chicago, I991), ch. 3; J. Clay Smith,

Emancipation: The Making of the Black Lawyer, 1844-1944 (Philadelphia, 1993); John D. Eusden, Puritans, Lawyers, and Politics in Early Seventeenth-Century England (New

Haven, 1958); Robert Robson, The Attorney in Eighteenth-Century England (Cambridge,

1959); Wilfrid Prest, The Rise of the Barristers: A Social History of the English Bar,

19o0-1640 (Oxford, I986); C. W. Brooks, Pettifoggers and Vipers of the Commonwealth: The 'Lower Branch' of the Legal Profession in Early Modern England (Cambridge, I986); David Lemmings, Gentlemen and Barristers: The Inns of Court and the English Bar,

i680o-i70 (Oxford, i990); Lauro Martines, Lawyers and Statecraft in Renaissance Florence

(Princeton, I968); Leonard Berlanstein, The Barristers of Toulouse in the Eighteenth Century (i74o-I793) (Baltimore, I 975); Richard Kagan, Lawsuits and Litigants in Castile,

I7oo-i7yo (Baltimore, I98 ); Michael Fitzsimmons, The Parisian Order of Barristers and

the French Revolution (Cambridge, I987); David A. Bell, Lawyers and Citizens: The

Making of a Political Elite in Old Regime France (Oxford, 1994).



New Granada's Colonial Lavwyers 519

law degree as a condition of entry. In addition, because of their

upbringing and functions, lawyers were strategically located between state and key segments of society, whether it be their own family groups or their diverse clienteles. Lawyers can thus provide valuable information related to both state and family formation, their evolution and interaction.4

This article therefore presents a portrait of New Granada's lawyers, filling some of the gaps in current historical knowledge of this key group in colonial society. It focuses on those individuals qualified to practise law before the Audiencia. The article deals not only with practising lawyers but also with individuals who were qualified to practise law but chose other

occupations; in particular, the bureaucracy. Through coupling genealogical information on several elite clans with contemporary memoirs, various edited collections of documents, and notarial and government records, this study examines the social characteristics, family strategies, and bureaucratic careers of lawyers to demonstrate how, as chief

competitors for state jobs, lawyers complemented their clans' power in

important ways. By providing a vital component of the colonial elite's survival kit - bureaucratic power - they increased their families' overall

influence, honour, and social status. In doing so, some lawyers came to build true family-bureaucratic networks which proved resistant to the late colonial Bourbon reforms that tried to undo them. It is also possible that these networks, although disliked by the crown, may paradoxically have benefited the colonial state, because their members were quite con- servative. Yet lawyers eventually provided much energy for revolutionary mobilisation a few years later, helping to bring about the end of colonial rule. That turnabout poses interesting questions for further research.

Reception and Evolution of Colonial Lawyers The presence of lawyers in New Granada was noted and debated from the

early sixteenth century on, as it was in other Spanish colonies.5 Luis Martin Fernandez de Enciso was one of the first lawyers to settle in New Granada. Arriving sometime between I 500 and I 5 Io, he became alcalde of a village in the region of Darien, located in what is today Panama, and

4 Max Weber, 'Politics as a Vocation', in H. H. Gerth and C. Wright Mills (eds.), From Max Weber: Essays in Sociology (New York, 946), pp. 85, 94; William Taylor, 'Between Global Processes and Local Knowledge: An Inquiry into Early Latin American Social History, 1 500-1900', in Oliver Zunz (ed.), Reliving the Past: The Worlds of Social History (Chapel Hill, 1985), p. I47; Socolow, Bureaucrats of Buenos Aires, p. 59.

5 Ruiz Guifiazd, La magistratura indiana; Ricardo Levene, 'Notas para la historia de los abogados en Indias', Revista Chilena de Historia del Derecho, vol. I (I95 ). See other sources listed in Jaime del Arenal Fenochio, 'De abogados y leyes en las Indias hasta la Recopilaci6n de I680', in Recopilacidn de las leyes de los Reynos de las Indias, vol. 5 (Mexico, 1987), pp. I79-206; and Victor M. Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Young "Mandarins": Lawyers, Political Parties, and the State in Colombia, 1780-I850',

unpubl. PhD diss., University of Pittsburgh, 1993.



5 20 Victor M. Uribe

shortly thereafter, because of quarrels, was removed by other conquerors. Various sources mention at least ten more lawyers as having actively participated in the conquest of New Granada between 500 and I550.6 One, Gonzalo Jimenez de Quesada, in addition to serving as chief

magistrate of the Atlantic coast city of Santa Marta, set out to explore the headwaters of the Magdalena River, the area's Mississippi. He eventually sailed up the river itself and, after a long march, founded Bogota in 1 5 38, making it the capital of the newly conquered territory.7 Since he

converged on this place at the same time as other conquistadors, litigation followed to resolve their conflicting claims. Jimenez de Quesada also faced a legal suit posed by another lawyer, Licenciado Fernandez Gallego, who claimed rights to the booty collected in Bogota.8 These were but a few of the many lawyer-inspired conflicts that flared very early in the

Spanish colonies and prompted the king's concern. In 15 09 Charles V ordered the Spanish Casa de Contrataci6n (Board of

Trade) not to let any lawyers travel to the Indies without special licence; the crown feared that otherwise litigation would increase. In 521 Charles restricted the number of lawyers in Cuba. Following numerous petitions from the Viceroyalty of New Spain, in 1528 the king also ordered the local audiencias to regulate the legal profession and limit the number of

practitioners.9 The following year, 15 29, the king banned all lawyers from the colony of Peru.10 Nevertheless, probably because of their valuable skills in the rules of formal administration and government, by 542 no fewer than nine lawyers were performing bureaucratic jobs in New

Granada; and despite the opposition, they continued arriving in other colonies as well.1

Although lawyers were being trained locally in New Granada by the late seventeenth century, the various royal prohibitions were probably effective at curbing the presence of lawyers in the Spanish American

6 Antonio B. Cuervo, Coleccion de documentos ineditos sobre la geografia y la historia de Colombia, vol. 2 (Bogota, I892), p. 363; Jesis Antolines Wilches, 'Primeros abogados espafioles que vinieron al Nuevo Reino de Granada', Boletin de Historiay Antiguedades (hereafter BHA) vol. 22, no. 239-40 (I934), pp. 217-22; Parra Marquez, Historia del

Colegio de Abogados, pp. 66-7; Javier Malag6n Barce6l, 'The Role of the Letrado in the Colonization of America', The Americas, vol. i8, no. i (I96I), pp. 1-17.

7 David Bushnell, The Making of Modern Colombia: A Nation in Spite of Itself (Berkeley, I993), PP. 9-10.

8 'Pleito seguido por el licenciado Gallego y sus herederos contra el licenciado Jimenez de Quesada' [1539], BHA, vol. 23, no. 259-60 (1936), pp. 297-302.

9 Arenal Fenochio, 'De abogados y leyes', pp. I84-8. 10 James Lockhart, Spanish Peru, IfJ2-Is6o (Madison, I968), pp. 61-2; Kagan, Litigants

and Law Suits, p. 90; Alexandra Parma Cook and Noble David Cook, Good Faith and

Truthful Ignorance: A Case of Transatlantic Bigamy (Durham, 199 ), p. 8i. 1 Ruiz Guifiazu, La magistratura indiana, pp. 33 -6; Antolines Wilches, 'Primeros

abogados', pp. 217-22.



New Granada's Colonial Lawyers 52

colonies. In the late i6oos, the Jesuits of the Colegio Mayor de San Bartolome- one of Bogota's two institutions of higher education-

argued that the lack of lawyers left the courts 'without direction' and the

litigants 'without advice'.12 The Jesuits were disputing the Dominican

University of San Tomas's monopoly on granting legal degrees in the

viceroyalty, so their protest could have been just a rhetorical device.13 In

I694, however, a royal cedula requested the Audiencia of Bogota to increase the number of courses in jurisprudence. The audiencia itself underlined the need to promote the study of law because, although some

lawyers had graduated, they were scarce in Bogota.'4 Most lawyers, it was

alleged, 'stay in the city of Cartagena'.15 Although Bogota was the capital of the then Presidencia of New Granada, and therefore the colony's main administrative centre, Cartagena was the major port through which other

regions sent their surplus to the transatlantic market, receiving a broad

variety of imports in return. Cartagena was thus the central commercial

entrepot for New Granada's economy; and this might have determined more abundant business for the small number of practising lawyers, who thus tended to cluster there.

Decades later the situation had substantially changed. Lawyers reportedly were numerous, and many could be found in Bogotai, the

capital of New Granada, which had been elevated to the condition of

viceroyalty in the late 1730s, thus expanding the bureaucratic opportunities available to all, even local aspirants. By 1771 Francisco Antonio Moreno y Escand6n (fiscal, or prosecutor, of the Royal Audiencia) as part of his challenge to the Dominicans' degree-granting monopoly which still

prevailed, demanded a reduction in the number of law graduates. Moreno

y Escand6n, a first-generation creole, was the son of a mid-level bureaucrat and mine-owner who had settled in the Mariquita region southwest of Bogota. Although he and his brothers Miguel and Santiago had graduated from one of Bogota's law schools, thereby benefiting from local training and related bureaucratic fortunes, he did not hesitate to

12 Francisco A. Moreno y Escand6n, 'Metodo provisional e interino de los estudios que han de observar los colegios de Santafe... I774', BHA, vol. 19, no. 222 (1932), pp. 644-5; John L. Young, 'University Reform in New Granada, I820-1850', unpubl. PhD diss., Columbia University, 1970, p. 21.

13 On the institutional history and evolution of legal education in New Granada see Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', ch. 6.

14 Up to I691, Bogota's Colegio del Rosario seems to have produced only three lawyers, two of whom were also priests. See Guillermo Hernandez de Alba, Crdnica del muy ilustre Colegio Mayor de Nuestra Sehora del Rosario, vol. i (Bogota, 1938), p. 223.

15 Renin Silva, 'Escolares y catedraticos en la sociedad colonial', unpubl. ms., Banco de la Reptblica de Colombia, Fundaci6n Para la Promoci6n de la Investigaci6n, la Ciencia y La Tecnologia, I985, p. 12; Guillermo Hernandez de Alba, 'Breve historia de la universidad en Colombia', BHA, vol. 28, no. 322 (I941), pp. 911-17.



522 Victor M. Uribe

Table i. Elite Male Occupations in Late Colonial New Granada

Year Occupation Number of members

8 o Priests 3,5 04 1784 Regular army officers 485 I8o6 Lawyers I30 to I50 806 Top bureaucrats 00oo

I768-1808 Medical doctors 27

Sources: 'Padr6n general de la poblaci6n de esta capital', La Bagatela, Santaf6 de

Bogota, I October I853, p. 79; Jos6 M. Restrepo, Historia de la revolucidn de la repuiblica de Colombia (Bogota, I942), p. xxxviii; Allan J. Kuethe, Military Reform and Society in New Granada (Gainesville, 1978), pp. 204-5; Renan Silva, 'Escolares y catedraticos en la

sociedad colonial', unpublished ms., Banco de la Republica de Colombia, Fundaci6n Para la Promoci6n de la Investigaci6n la Ciencia y La Tecnologfa, I985, p. 91; Antonio Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manualyguia deforasteros en Santa Fe de Bogota capital del Nuevo Reino de Granada para el ano de I8o6 (Bogota, 1988), pp. 57-72; Juan Marchena Fernandez, 'The Social World of the Military in Peru and New Granada', in Fisher et al. (eds.), Reform and Insurrection in Bourbon New Granada and Peru (Baton Rouge, 1990), pp. 84-7.

request that the Royal Audiencia limit the number of lawyers, and also

subject them to a four-year apprenticeship before graduation.16 It is unclear to what extent the fiscal's claim as to the abundance of

lawyers was true, although some historians have accepted it at face value.17 It, too, could have been a rhetorical strategy, this time to advance

some of the Bourbon policies aimed at curtailing the power of the church and increasing that of the civil authorities by secularising the content of legal education and creating, as the fiscal was requesting, a state-controlled or public university.18 The fiscal, in any case, argued that 'the multitude

of lawyers' in New Granada was a result of the Dominicans' failure to

enforce the graduation requirements, particularly the possession of a

16 Francisco A. Moreno y Escand6n, 'Documento sobre el exceso de abogados' [I77I], Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogota, Documentos, p. i; Jorge 0. Melo, 'Francisco A. Moreno y Escand6n: retrato de un bur6crata colonial', in Melo (ed.), Indios jy mestizos en la Nueva Granada a finales del siglo XVIII (Bogota, 1985); Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A; Anthony McFarlane, Colombia before Independence. Economy, Society and Politics under Bourbon Rule (Cambridge, 1993), pp. 205-7, 239.

17 Thomas Blossom, Narino: Hero of Colombian Independence (Tucson, I 967), p. xvii; Frank Safford, The Ideal of the Practical: Colombia's Struggle to Form a Technical Elite (Austin, I976), p. 88.

18 The teaching of Catholic philosophy, speculative and moral theology, and canon law had a disproportional weight in the training of lawyers. The more secular civil (Roman and Spanish) law courses were scarce, nor were there any public law courses until a brief interval in the I78os and early I790os. Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', ch. 6. Concerning some Bourbon policies see John L. Phelan, The People and the King: The Comunero Revolution in Colombia, r78I (Madison, I978); Luis Martinez Delgado, Noticia

biogrdfica delprocer Don Joaquin Camacho. Documentos (Bogota, n.d.), p. 290; John Fisher et al. (eds.), Reform and Insurrection in Bourbon New Granada and Peru (Baton Rouge, i990); Margarita Garrido, Reclamos y representaciones. Variaciones sobre la politica en el Nuevo Reino de Granada (Bogota, 1993), pp. 55-71.



New Granada's Colonial Lawyers 5 23

bachiller degree and subsequent practical training. The fiscal's dispute with the Dominicans generated litigation that continued from 1768 until at least I783. In the end, the religious order was allowed to continue its

monopoly; the alleged lack of state funds, disturbing tax riots indicative of other priorities and needs, and most of all the Dominicans' legal manoeuvres prevented the crown from creating the public university Moreno y Escandon so much wanted. Some changes in the duration of the

practical training were introduced, however. It was extended from two

years to four, and new courses were added to the curriculum.19 It seems, however, that these reforms did not ultimately reduce the

number of lawyers.20 A description of the viceroyalty of New Granada written in 1789 by Francisco Silvestre, a career bureaucrat, former

viceregal secretary, and governor of the province of Antioquia, was still

demanding 'not to allow the persistence of so many lawyers, and to establish the number of lawyers in proportion to the population of different regions; and to pay with public funds the few that should be allowed to continue'.21 Silvestre's complaints reiterated the colonial authorities' earlier concerns. This time, however, the motivation was different from the preoccupations of the early sixteenth century. Excessive

litigation and lawyer-inspired quarrels had not ceased to be a major problem; but lawyers' political demands and bureaucratic pretensions had turned out to be even greater ones.

Professional Activities and Career Paths

Along with the priesthood, the military, the bureaucracy, and medicine, law was one of the most common occupations among the colonial elites. In comparative terms, however, lawyers were outnumbered by all but

high-ranking bureaucrats and physicians (see Table i). Priests were more numerous than lawyers in the late eighteenth century and remained so

during much of the nineteenth. Bogota alone, a city of close to 30,oo0

19 Moreno y Escand6n, 'Documento sobre el exceso', p. 6; Jose A. Ricaurte,'Compendio de lo actuado sobre estudios pdblicos' [I783], BHA, vol. 24, no. 272 (I937), pp. 343-71; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', ch. 6; Renan Silva, La reforma de estudios en el Nuevo Reino de Granada, I767-I790 (Bogota, I981).

20 The memoirs and obituaries written by the descendants of the lawyers Joaquin Ortiz Tagle and Pedro Vicente Martinez claim that by the I78os and I790s there were some 'sixteen or twenty lawyers in Bogota', or a very 'scarce number' of legal professionals. Juan F. Ortiz, Reminiscencias de D. Juan Francisco Ortiz [i86I] (Bogota, 1907), p. I4; ' Relaci6n de las exequias hechas en la ciudad de Buga el 18 de agosto de 85 o' (Bogoti, n.d.). Both these accounts are impressionistic and inaccurate, judging by the observations of contemporaries and the quantitative data to be discussed in this article.

21 Francisco Silvestre, Descripcidn del Nuevo Reino de Santafe [I789] (Bogota, I968), p. I I6. See also his Relacidn de la Provincia de Antioquia [1786-97] (Medellin, 1988); and Jose M. Restrepo, Gobernadores de Antioquia (Bogota, i944), pp. 205-15.




according to a 1793 census, had seven monasteries housing 45 2 monks, in addition to at least 76 secular priests.22 A contemporary account refers to the existence of approximately 3,504 members of the secular and regular clergy by 18Io in the whole viceroyalty.23 Elite families supplied to the church 48.5 per cent of those members born in the period I65 0-I700 and

30 per cent of those born between 1700 and I750.24 This corresponded both to the society's strongly Catholic culture and to the high status and economic well-being derived, particularly, from the position of parish priest.25

In absolute terms, military men were as numerous as priests. The army had expanded by the end of the eighteenth century. In 1794 the regular army numbered 3,597 and the militia about 7,860.26 However, the officer class in both the regular army and the militia was relatively small and quite select. In the 1760-I 8 0 period the regular army of Cartagena and Bogota, where the most important garrisons were located, had 363 and 121 officers

respectively, a third of whom were creoles or American-born Spaniards.27 The creole army officers belonged to families of hacendados and merchants, most of them natives of Cartagena and Bogota. The militia officers, whose exact number is unknown, were recruited from similar prominent groups in their respective cities. Like the professional military, the militia officers

enjoyed great social prestige, authority, and crown-granted privileges. In both army and militia, a handful of pardos, or mestizos, came to integrate certain companies and, in the late colonial period, managed to reach high military ranks.28 22 'Padron general de la poblaci6n de esta capital', La Bagatela, Santafe de Bogota,

I October I853, p. 79. As this census indicates, there were also five convents with a population of about 472 nuns.

23 Jose M. Restrepo, Historia de la revolucion de la repziblica de Colombia (Bogota, I942), p. xxxviii.

24 Juan and Judith Villamarin, 'The Concept of Nobility in Colonial Santafe de Bogota', in Karen Spalding (ed.), Essays in the Political, Economic, and Social History of Colonial Latin America (Newark, i982), p. 138.

25 See Charles Harris, A Mexican Family Empire: El Latifundio of the Sdncheg Navarros, i76j-'-i87 (Austin, 1975), pp. 1I-I7; Paul Ganster, 'A Social History of the Secular

Clergy of Lima during the Middle Decades of the Eighteenth Century', unpubl. PhD

diss., University of California, Los Angeles, I974; Raymond P. Harrington, 'The Secular Clergy in the Diocese of Merida de Yucatan, 1780-I850: Their Origins, Careers, Wealth, and Activities', unpubl. PhD diss., Catholic University of America, 1982.

26 Allan J. Kuethe, Military Reform and Society in New Granada (Gainesville, 1978), pp. 205-6. The militia was a widely dispersed pseudo-army composed of volunteer units led by prominent local leaders; in most cases they had no arms or uniforms. See Juan Marchena Fernindez, 'The Social World of the Military in Peru and New Granada', in Fisher et al. (eds.), Reform and Insurrection, pp. 6i-2.

27 Juan Marchena Fernindez, 'The Social World', p. 84. 28 A good social profile of both New Granada's army and militia can be found in

ibid., pp. 83-95-



New Granada's Colonial Lawyers 5 z 5

In contrast to priests and military officers, the number of medical doctors was meagre. Medicine was not yet institutionalised as a

professional career, despite some efforts during the late eighteenth century, and many of the doctors in New Granada were foreigners. In 1796 Viceroy Ezpeleta alerted the crown to 'la falta de medicos que generalmente se padece en todo el Reino' and urged it to send some

physicians from Europe. In 1803, Viceroy Mendinueta also argued that 'la falta de medicos y la sobra de curanderos pide que se fomente el estudio de esta iltima ciencia [medicina]'.29 In 1802, only seven students were

registered for the scattered medical classes offered in Bogota; and between

1768 and I808, only 27 medical degrees had been granted.30 The shortage of physicians in the capital caused alarm in 1803 when a

smallpox epidemic attacked the city. In smaller cities, such as Rionegro in the northwestern region of Antioquia, the situation was even worse; people easily died of minor diseases for lack of medical care.31 At the same time, some locals seem to have practised medicine without a degree. The

profession also, notably, was seen as an oficio vil, or ignoble manual

occupation, and therefore was not highly regarded by local society. This

might partly have fostered the acceptance of practitioners without formal

training, and the authorisation of gambos and mulattoes to practise in

places like Cartegena - although, it should be noted, their presence made the whites of the city very unhappy.32

Finally, the total number of bureaucrats in New Granada was close to ,000o in the early nineteenth century. Much like those of the army, the

higher ranks of the state bureaucracy were smaller and select. They comprised more than oo00 individuals, several of whom were members of the local elites and the legal profession.33

As for the total number of letrados, as lawyers were also known, an almanac published in New Granada in I806 lists roughly 130, with some omissions; the real number could have been as high as 5o.34 Seventy-two 29 'Relaci6n de gobierno del Exmo Sor., D. Josef de Ezpeleta' [1796], in German

Colmenares (ed.), Relaciones e informes de los gobernantes de la Nueva Granada, vol. 2

(Bogota, I989), pp. 224-5; 'Relaci6n... Virrey Pedro Mendinueta' [1803], ibid., vol. 3, p. 92. 30 Silva, 'Escolares y catedraticos', p. 9I.

31 Jose M. Restrepo, Autobiografia. Apuntamientos sobre emigracidn de s186, e indices del Diario Politico [I816-I818] (Bogota, I957), p. 10.

32 Andres Soriano Lleras, La medicina en el Nuevo Reino de Granada durante la conquistay la colonia (Bogota, I975), pp. 260-87; Silva, 'Escolares y catedraticos', p. 164; Thomas Glick, 'Science and Independence in Latin America (with Special Reference to New Granada)', Hispanic American Historical Review (hereafter HAHR), vol. 7 , no. 2 (May 1991), p. 323.

33 Antonio Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manualy guia de forasteros en Santa Fe de Bogota capital del Nuevo Reino de Granada para el ano de o806 (Bogota, I988).

34 Ibid., pp. 57-72. This I8o6 list should be taken as a rough indicator, and it is

incomplete. It does not include prominent lawyers of New Granada, such as Jose Maria



526 Victor M. Uribe

of those listed, or more than half, were in Bogota, and the rest in other cities (19 in Cartagena; 9 in the southern and southwestern regions of

Neiva, Buga, Popayan, Cartago, and Choc6; i i in the eastern regions of

Socorro, Tunja, and San Gil, and 23 scattered in and out of the

viceroyalty). The total number of lawyers was small compared to the thousands of priests and hundreds of military officers; yet, as noted earlier, some contemporary observers seem to have considered it too large. Numerically, law was the third most important occupation.35 Because

many lawyers developed into career bureaucrats, their social and political importance was even greater.

Indeed, very few law graduates, probably no more than a third of the

total, became full-time practising lawyers. Many pursued other activities, such as livestock-raising, mining, and trade, or the priesthood and

teaching. The majority were, at least part-time, mid-level civil servants. Some tried slowly to climb the bureaucratic ladder or contented themselves with low-level clerical positions, where they could very likely spend the rest of their lives. A handful occupied high, full-time bureaucratic posts either in their native regions or in other colonial locales

(see Table 2).

The practising lawyers fulfilled a variety of professional functions:

preparing deeds and writing wills for wealthy families; designing commercial contracts between local merchants or local and foreign traders; conducting fiscal disputes, criminal cases, or litigation over

dowries, entails, inheritances, donations, land, mining and property rights, and affairs of honour - one of the overriding concerns of hispanic society.36 In addition, all lawyers had to spend time serving as abogados de

del Real (I767-I835), and oidores Joaquin Mosquera y Figueroa (I747-1830) and Manuel del Campo y Rivas (I750-i830), who had graduated in New Granada in the

early I770S and I790S and were still alive at the time the list was compiled. A few other

lawyers of the southern regions of Popayan, Cali, and Buga, who had graduated in and

belonged to Quito's royal audiencia, are not registered here either; and a couple of

Antioquefio lawyers are missing as well. Gustavo Arboleda, Diccionario biogrdfico y genealdgico del antiguo Departamento del Cauca (Bogota, I962); Beatriz Patino M., Criminalidad, ley penaly estructura social en la provincia de Antioquia, I7/0-1820 (Medellin, 1994), pp. I64-73. In spite of these omissions, it is unlikely that the total exceeded I 50.

35 Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manual; Moreno y Escand6n, 'Documento sobre el

exceso'; Silvestre, Descripcion del reyno. In absolute terms, as was indicated, priests outnumbered lawyers in the late eighteenth century and during a great part of the

nineteenth, but by the end of the colonial period the correlation was slowly shifting in favour of lawyers. Silva, 'Escolares y catedraticos', p. 79; Villamarin, 'Concept of

Nobility'. 36 Archivo Hist6rico Nacional, Bogota (hereafter AHN), Notaria Ia. Bogota, vol. I3;

Notaria za., vols. 9-1 I; Notaria 3a., vols. z, 4-5. In 1787 one resident of Medellin sued another who refused to address him with the honorific don, which implied noble




pobres, or pro bono attorneys, an obligation many deeply disliked - and tried to avoid, through excuses ranging from the lack of appropriate clothes to the need to handle only paid cases to support their poor families. The Royal Audiencia urged lawyers not to come up with 'ridiculous' excuses to avoid the regular visits to gaols that, as 'advocates of the poor', they were required to make.37

Not infrequently, lawyers like Jer6nimo Torres, member of a wealthy mining and landowning family from the southern region of Popayan, also

kept busy representing themselves in disputes over lands or mines and

doing favours for the cabildo of their city or for family and friends.38 Another main occupation of practising lawyers was handling the legal affairs of the Catholic church or individual clerics. The convents, monasteries, and church-administered colegios mayores owned properties, held mortgages, and constantly needed to request payment from their

many debtors or to engage in litigation over rights to land or other

property.39 Individual clergy needed lawyers when they sought to move

up in the church hierarchy or to negotiate their parish appointments.40 And priests relied on lawyers to help them administer their often substantial fortunes and frequent related litigation.41 Despite the variety of their activities and clients, most lawyers seem to have found it difficult to accumulate significant wealth through fees for litigation or other full-

descent. Twinam, Miners, Merchants, p. I 19. Litigation of this sort was common during the second half of the century. Jaime Jaramillo Uribe, 'Mestizaje y diferenciaci6n social en el Nuevo Reino de Granada en la segunda mitad del siglo XVIII', Anuario colombiano de historia socialy de la cultura, vol. 2 (I965), pp. 46-8; Alfonso Garcia Valdecasas, El

hidalgo y el honor (Madrid, 1948); Patinio, Criminalidad, ley penal y estructura social, pp. I97-247; Garrido, Reclamosy representaciones, pp. 217-26.

37 AHN, Medicos y Abogados, 2: 384, 235, 39I; Agustin Bermtidez, 'La abogacia de

pobres en Indias', Anuario de historia del derecho espanol, vol. 50 (1980). 38 Carta de Jer6nimo Torres a su hermano Camilo, Popaydn, 20 October, 1807, in 'Datos

para la biografia de Camilo Torres', Repertorio Colombiano, vol. 20, no. 3 (1899), pp. I83-210. See also 'Torres y Tenorio Jer6nimo', BHA, vol. 2, no. 5 (I903), pp. I35-48.

39 AHN, Notaria ia., fol. I42. On the activities and profits of lawyer Joaquin Ortiz Tagle, who served Bogota's local convents, see Ortfz, Reminiscencias, p. I4.

40 AHN, Notaria Ia., fols. 200, 281. It was also customary for lay members of society in

pursuit of a bureaucratic appointment to be represented by a lawyer. See ibid., fol. 2 I 3; and letters from Miguel Tadeo G6mez to Joaquin Camacho, in Martinez Delgado, Noticia biogrdfica, pp. 288-9.

41 Julio C. Vergara y Vergara, Don Antonio de Vergara Acdiratey sus descendientes, vol. I (Madrid, I952), p. I40; Adolfo L. G6mez, El tribuno de 181 (Bogota, 1910), p. 236; Francisco de P. Plazas, Genealogias de la provincia de Neiva (Bogota, 98 5), p. 1 2; Ram6n Correa, 'Jorge Ram6n de Posada', BHA, vol. 6, no. 61 (I909), pp. 11-29; Camilo Pardo Umafna, Haciendas de la Sabana (Bogota, 1988), pp. 77-8 1. For examples of priests' litigation, see AHN, Notaria ia., fols. 280, 360; Horacio Rodriguez Plata, Andres Maria Rosilloy Meruelo (Bogota, 1944), pp. 30-5, 38-9.




time legal practices. In 1809, Jer6nimo Torres expressed his agreement with his brother Camilo's complaints about their unproductive profession. Camilo, also a lawyer, was certainly not destitute, and could even lend

money to wealthy Bogota merchants.42 Yet he was bitter about 'the sterile

occupation of defending cases over leaking roofs'.43 Similar complaints were voiced by Tunja native Joaquin Camacho, who preferred the

increasing frustration of bureaucratic jobs to law practice.44 Other lawyers who tried to make a living practising in provinces remote from the capital also complained about the little money they earned, with even more reason.45

The profession's limited prospects for economic advancement resulted in part from the generally poor character of New Granada's colonial

economy.46 Yet they seem somewhat paradoxical given New Granadans'

high propensity to litigate. Patrician and antimonarchical activist Antonio Narifio Alvarez observed as much in I797, while in jail accused of

conspiracy.47 In the mid-I79os, the viceroy also reported to the crown on 'the huge number of legal cases... most of them concerning civil and

criminal disputes, filed by the inhabitants of the city of Tocaima', a little

village near Bogota.48 Cartagena-based merchant Jose Ignacio de Pombo

42 Camilo Torres loaned prominent merchant Jose Gonzalez Llorente, a Spaniard based in Bogota, more than 8,ooo pesos, a significant amount in the early nineteenth century. Rafael Abello Salcedo, 'La primera republica', BHA, vol. 37, no. 441-3 (95 i), pp.

423-53. See also Gonzales Llorente's i808 will, printed in Eduardo Posada (ed.), El 20 de Julio. Capitulos sobre la revolucidn de iSio (Bogota, I914), pp. 63-9.

43 To Camilo's bitter references to 'el oficio esteril de defender pleitos de goteras', Jer6nimo responded, 'You are very right to lament being a lawyer, and having to

perform so many partly if not wholly unproductive legal occupations in our poor [miserrimo] country'. 'Carta de Jer6nimo', p. 192.

44 Miguel Tadeo G6mez to Joaquin Camacho, 3 July I803, in Martinez Delgado, Noticia

biogrdfica, pp. 277-8; see also Horacio Rodriguez Plata, La antigua Provincia del Socorro y la independencia (Bogota, I963), p. 8 2; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A.

45 AHN, Medicos y Abogados, 3: 235, 251. 46 See a comprehensive discussion of this region's economy, society and politics in

Mcfarlane, Colombia before Independence, esp. pp. 39-95. 47 Wrote Narifio: 'Una de las enfermedades mas destructoras de este Reino es la mania

de los pleitos... todos los dias vemos comenzar un pleito por los linderos de unas tierras, y acabar por la honra y la hacienda de los litigantes'. Antonio Narifio, 'Ensayo sobre un nuevo plan de administraci6n en el Nuevo Reino de Granada' [1797], in Vida

Jy escritos del General Narino (Bogota, I946), pp. 88-9. 48 The crown soon abolished the local cabildo and appointed a lawyer as teniente gobernador

letrado to settle the numerous legal disputes in the region. See Pedro M. Carrefio, 'Atavismo litigioso', BHA, vol. 3 , no. 355-6 (I944), pp. 556-62; Alejandro B. Carranza, Don Dionisio de los Caballeros de Tocaima (Bogota, I94I), p. 221. Some historical roots of New Granada's litigiousness can probably be found in early sixteenth-century Castile, also a very litigious society. Kagan, Lawsuits and Litigants, pp. 3-20.




noted and was equally concerned by the large number of trials dealing with land rights, which he attributed to the lack of accurate maps.49

Apparently, not all of these numerous legal conflicts provided income for law graduates. Many were handled instead by practicos or tinterillos,

legal practitioners who lacked formal training or law degrees. Others were carried out directly by the parties involved, for, as one lawyer argued, 'it is quite uncomfortable to practise law, especially in small cities, because the parties interested take care of their own defence. That is why this

profession is not profitable enough'.50 Still other legal affairs were handled by a variety of legal auxiliaries, among them the procuradores (solicitors) and the escribanos piblicos (scribes and clerks). The former were in charge of drafting representaciones (petitions, complaints, and other legal briefs) directed to the authorities, which sometimes, but not always, needed a lawyer's endorsement. The latter, not to be confused with the

prestigious honorific officials known as escribanos de cadmara, witnessed, recorded, and very likely prepared standard legal instruments, including contracts, without lawyers' participation.51 In addition, all these lay practitioners and auxiliaries could utilise the abundant help available in manuals originally designed to help lawyers in practice.52

Faced with this multilayered competition, lawyers ended up moving into other, apparently more lucrative activities. Many tended their lands or mines and engaged in commerce. By 1782, Pedro Romero Sarachaga had been escribano de cdmara of the Royal Audiencia for more than I 6 years, but had never received a salary; instead, he made a livelihood out of

49 Pombo scorned the 'muchos pleitos eternos entre las Provincias, entre los pueblos y entre los particulares sobre linderos, que son la ruina de muchos, y particularmente de los labradores'. Jose I. Pombo, 'Informe de don Jose Ignacio de Pombo del Consulado de Cartagena sobre asuntos econ6micos y fiscales, abril i8, 1807', in Sergio E. Ortiz (ed.), Escritos de dos economistas coloniales (Bogota, 1965), p. 3 2.

50 'Las incomodidades que experimentan los de este oficio en las poblaciones cortas y en donde cada interesado forma por si sus defensas. Por este motivo rinde poco la profesi6n'. These complaints, presented about 1807 by Antioquefio lawyer Pantale6n Arango, were followed by an i809 petition arguing that since he had practised medicine for a number of years, he wished to have a licence to devote himself entirely to this profession. The licence and a degree were granted in early 18 0. AHN, Medicos yAbogados, 3: 235, 251.

51 AHN, Anexo, Instrucci6n Pdblica, 4: 474. For the role of some of these functionaries in sixteenth-century Peru and Mexico, and in colonial Venezuela see Lockhart, Spanish Peru, chs. 4, 6; and Arenal Fenochio, 'De abogados y leyes', pp. 19I-3; Nieves Avellan de Tamayo, Los escribanos de Venezuela (Caracas, 1994).

52 AHN, Medicos y Abogados, 3: 235, 25 . The oldest example found in the Colombian archives is the 'Gufa para dirigir jueces' written in I764 by the priest Pedro de Moya. AHN, Ortega Ricaurte, caja 2. More than a century earlier, the Spanish had relied on manuals like the 161 8 'Prctica de procuradores para seguir pleitos civiles y criminales', written by Juan Mufi6z, which was very likely brought to the New World. Kagan, Lawsuits and Litigants, p. 46.



5 3 o Victor M. Uribe

providing the city of Bogota with 'beef fattened and seasoned in his own haciendas'.53 Jeronimo Torres spent most of his time in mining and commerce; he was in charge of administering his family's gold mine and also had two companzas de comercio, or business partnerships, with the

wealthy Spanish merchant Gonzalez de Llorente (to whom his brother Camilo had lent money). Trading was the major occupation of Jose Felix de Restrepo, from the northwestern mining region of Antioquia, who, besides teaching at the local seminary in Popayan and holding a minor bureaucratic position, had a partnership with his brother-in-law Miguel Maria Uribe Velez trading goods between Popayan and Antioquia.54 Another Antioquefio lawyer, Jose Manuel Restrepo, gratefully remem- bered his own mercantile experience: just after receiving his law degree in 1 808, he was able to do some trading with the help of money provided by his father. Otherwise, he recalled in dismay, he would have had to content himself with making a living as a lawyer.55

A large number of lawyers were also members of the clergy, and their

predominant occupation was often as parish priests. About one-third of a

sample of 65 priests whose careers are described elsewhere appear to have also been lawyers. Part of the training of both priests and lawyers, particularly the extensive study of canon law, was remarkably similar, which contributed to the affinity between these two occupations. In

addition, as we know, the priesthood presented economic incentives that

certainly must have overshadowed those of legal practice.56

53 'Relaci6n de los meritos y servicios del doctor Pedro Romero Sarachaga... I777'. Documentos Biblioteca Nacional de Colombia (hereafter DBNC), F. Pineda, 372. On Francisco Gaona de la Bastida, Francisco Sanz de Santamaria, Jose Maria Garcia de Toledo, and Jose Caicedo y F16rez, lawyers whose major activities revolved around

landownership and livestock raising, see Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A.

54 While in Popayan, Restrepo received from Uribe, who was in Antioquia, mules loaded with merchandise from Castile. Restrepo in turn sent Uribe muleloads of cacao and

ponchos made in the southern region of Pasto. The business was quite profitable; in a few years profits reached nearly I 50,000 pesos. See Guillermo Hernandez de Alba, Viday escritos del Doctor Jose F. Restrepo (Bogota, 1935); Estanislao G6mez Barrientos, Don Mariano Ospinay su epoca, vol. I (Medellin, 1913), p. 48; Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manual, p. i68; Gabriel Arango Mejia, Genealogias de Antioquia y Caldas

(Medellin, 1973). 55 In his memoirs he observed, 'el estudio practico de las leyes le... puso en aptitud para

desempefiar cualquier destino en la carrera de abogado, profesi6n que pensaba seguir, porque no ten/a patrimonio para emprender otro modo de mejorar su fortuna'. Restrepo, Autobiografia, pp. Io- i, emphasis added; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix C.

56 Ernesto Restrepo Tirado, 'Notas genealogicas sobre algunos individuos que honraron la Nueva Granada', BHA, vol. 3 I, no. 3 5 3-4 (1944), pp. 322-50; Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manual, pp. 57-72. A few examples are Ignacio Maria Tordecillas, Nicolas Mauricio Omafa, Andres Rosillo y Meruelo, Fray Jose Joaquin Escobar, Santiago Torres Pefia, Pedro Salgar, and Manuel B. Rebollo. Besides being parish priests or

occupying other positions in the church hierarchy, some of these men were rich




Teaching law at a university was also traditional employment for

lawyers. This was not a full-time occupation, but a complement to some of the other activities. A chair in law also served as a catapult to a bureaucratic career. Law professors had a greater chance of receiving a

high-ranking bureaucratic appointment; it is known that at least up to the late seventeenth century, they were included 'as a matter of course on lists of candidates assembled for the use of the Caimara of the Indies when it considered vacancies on the entry audiencias of South America'.57 University chairs therefore were a means to attain 'positions of political importance more lucrative than the chair', an indication of which is that the statement of academic activities and accomplishments was a major item in lawyers' relaciones de merito (curriculum vitae), an essential component of applications for bureaucratic jobs.58 As the relaciones attest, joining the bureaucracy was the golden dream of many letrados and also their greatest source of pride. As has been demonstrated, local lawyers, much like other creoles, wanted office for different reasons: 'as a career, an investment for the family, an opportunity to acquire capital, and a means of influencing policy in their own regions and to their own advantage', and also as a source of honour and prestige.60 But

joining the bureaucracy was not simple. In fact, lawyers regularly updated their relaciones de merito throughout their bureaucratic careers, displaying them as proof of services to the king and thus the basis of personal and familial virtue, honour and status.59

Lawyers and the Colonial Bureaucracy

Before entering the bureaucracy, it was customary for a recent law

graduate to serve a stint as an unpaid apprentice, or meritorio, often in the same agency where one of his relatives served. Subsequently he might pursue some teaching and also would try to lend his services to a cabildo

landowners. Rodriguez Plata, Andris Maria Rosillo; Pardo Umafia, Haciendas, pp. 77-8I; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A. See also references cited in note 25.

57 Mark A. Burkholder, Politics of a Colonial Career: Jose Baquijano and the Audiencia of Lima

(Albuquerque, 1980), p. 46. 58 Ibid., pp. 45-6. 59 DBNC, F. Pineda, io66, 238-589; Mark Burkholder, 'Relaciones de Meritos y

Servicios: A Source for Spanish-American Group Biography in the Eighteenth Century', Manuscripta, vol. 21 (1977), pp. 97-104; Garcia Valdecasas, El hidalgoy el

honor, pp. 8, I7, 57-60; Julian Pitt Rivers, 'Honor and Social Status', in J. G.

Peristiany (ed.), Honour and Shame: The Values of Mediterranean Society (Chicago, 1974), pp. 2I-77; Ann Twinam, 'Honor, Sexuality, and Illegitimacy in Colonial Spanish America', in Lavrin (ed.), Sexuality and Marriage, p. I23; Garrido, Reclamos y representaciones, p. 35; M'cFarlane, Colombia before Independence, pp. 238-245.

60 John Lynch, 'The Institutional Framework of Colonial Spanish America', Journal of Latin American Studies, Suppl. (1992), p. 74; Garrido, Reclamosy representaciones, pp. 35, 7 i-6.



5 3 2 Victor M. Uribe

or city council, not necessarily the one of his native region, as regidor (councilman), alcalde ordinario (mayor, sheriff, and justice of the peace), sindico procurador (city solicitor or general attorney), or asesor (council's legal adviser). These were mostly honorific jobs that generally carried no

salary and were considered somewhat of a burden.61 Then, while

continuing to teach law if possible, the young lawyer was ready to enter the colonial bureaucracy in the customary lower positions of oficial secondario; oficial mayor; asesor of a fiscal monopoly, such as the tobacco concession; or teniente asesor of a provincial governor. These jobs carried

yearly nominal salaries of 400 to i,ooo pesos. The lower salary was acceptable as long as the job could be performed

in a region not far from Bogota or another major urban centre like

Cartagena or Popayan. Otherwise a better payment was expected. It is

known, for instance, that around the late I79os, no lawyer wanted to

accept the job of governor jue. letrado of the northern city of Mompos when it was endowed with a yearly salary of just 5oo pesos. By August 1801, the viceroy was authorised to increase it to ,000o pesos. A similar

figure paid in an equivalent job apparently was attractive even for lawyers with a long bureaucratic trajectory, like Joaquin Camacho. Camacho, who had taught law and had served for several years as teniente gobernador and

corregidor in different regions, was encouraged by a fellow bureaucrat and friend to take the thousand-peso position of oficial mayor of the new caja real to be established in the north-eastern region of San Gil.62

At a later stage in his career, a letrado could expect to be appointed to

jobs such as that of teniente gobernador of a small province, corregidor of a

major town, provincial governor or auditor de guerra (war auditor) in an

important region, or accountant (contador) of the Tribunal de Cuentas or a fiscal monopoly like Bogota's Administraci6n Principal de Aguardiente, which carried a yearly salary of 2,000 pesos. A lawyer could also be

appointed to judicial posts like the much-coveted and highly competitive jobs of fiscal or oidor of the Royal Audiencia, which by I816 paid 3,300 pesos a year or, in regions other than New Granada, even up to 7,500 or 10,000 pesos.63 At least seven lawyers from New Granada held these high 61 Twinam, Miners, Merchants; Julian Vargas, La sociedad de Santafe colonial (Bogoti, 990),

p. 234; Patifio, Criminalidad, ley penaly estructura social, pp. I47-64. 62 Jose M. Ots y Capdequi, Las instituciones del Nuevo Reino de Granada al tiempo de la

independencia (Madrid, 1958), p. 23; Miguel T. G6mez to Joaquin Camacho, July I803, in Martfnez Delgado, Noticia biografica, p. 278; Carranza, San Dionisio, p. 222.

63 Guillermo Hernandez de Alba (comp.), Archivo Narino, vol. I (Bogoti, 1990), p. 44; Ots y Capdequi, Instituciones, pp. 23, 29, 90; Sergio E. Ortiz, 'Eusebio Maria Canabal', BHA, vol. 63 (197I), p. I5; Burkholder, Politics of a Colonial Career, p. 112; Jose Camacho Carrizosa, 'Hombres y partidos', Repertorio Historico, vol. 14, no. 4 (I896), p. 267. Judging by the scale of salaries in the Royal Mint of Bogota, it might be assumed that high bureaucrats were paid between 2,000 and 4,000 pesos a year, middle bureaucrats between 6oo and 2,000 pesos, and lower bureaucrats below 6o0 pesos. In




judicial positions in audiencias outside the viceroyalty in the late colonial

period.64 However, it certainly seems that almost any of the mid-level

bureaucratic positions could be tempting for most lawyers at any time.

Nearly half of the 46 lawyers employed by the late colonial state occupied positions at that level (Table 2).

Lawyers were also willing to accept jobs that carried no fixed salary, but instead depended on the so-called derechos de actuacion or fees proportional to the number and nature of legal services and the signatures endorsing legal documents, which the lawyer provided as asesor. Interim appointees to the position of asesor de gobernador typically performed these services. In

these cases the fees were assessed according to an official tariff, or arancel,

approved by the royal authorities, which spelled out in great detail the amount to be collected for different activities.65 Not infrequently, particular state agencies hired external lawyers to perform specific tasks

for a limited period.66 Another common situation was that of lawyers

working as tax farmers and administering, for a share of the profits, state

monopolies in alcohol, tobacco and the postal service. These posts were

normally sold in public auction, with the concessionaire given a percentage of the monies collected on behalf of the crown instead of a fixed salary.67

reality, a list of the salaries of this mint indicates that of the three highest officials - the superintendente, the contador, and the tesorero - the first earned 3,ooo pesos a year, and the other two earned 2,000 pesos. The oficial mayor had a salary of 680 pesos, and the so- called peones earned just 144 pesos a year. Only three manual labourers, the ensayadores and talladores (probably qualified technicians or even artists) had salaries of ,000o and even 1,600 a year. A. M. Barriga V., Historia de la Casa de la Moneda, vol. z (Bogota, 1969), pp. I I6- 7; see also Francisco J. Caro, 'Diario de todos los acontecimientos que van ocurriendo en esta camara y del Virreynato del Nuevo Reyno de Granada' [1788], in Alirio G6mez Pic6n, Francisco Javier Caro. Tronco hispano de los Caros en Colombia

(Bogota, I977), pp. 292, 296. Salaries seem to have been much higher in Mexico, where some fiscal jobs, such as the superintendencia of the local mint, were paid 6,ooo pesos, twice as much as in New Granada. Arnold, Bureaucrats and Bureaucracy, pp. 13I-52; Socolow, Bureaucrats of Buenos Aires, pp. i Io- , 166-7.

64 One of them, Nicolas Mesia Caicedo, was oidor in Manila; two more, Joaquin Mosquera y Figueroa and Manuel del Campo y Rivas, in Mexico; another, Luis de Robledo y Alvarez, in Santo Domingo; and three more, Francisco Xavier Moreno y Escand6n, Ignacio Tenorio and Andr6s Jose de Iriarte y Rojas, were in Quito, the first two as oidores, the third as fiscal. Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manual; Mark Burkholder and D. S. Chandler, From Impotence to Authority: The Spanish Crown and the American Audiencias, i687-I8o8 (Columbia, 1977); Jose M. Restrepo, Biografias de los mandatarios y ministros de la Real Audiencia (z67i-i8i9) (Bogota, I952); Arboleda, Diccionario biogrdfico, p. 426; Jose Antonio Torres Pena, Memorias sobre los orzgenes de la

independencia nacional (Bogota, 1960). 65 Restrepo, Autobiografia, p. I I. A copy of the late colonial 'Practico arancel de regular

costas procesales' can be found in AHN, Consejo de Estado, i: 28-35. 66 AHN, Notaria ia. Escr., 3 January i8io, pp. 1-2. 67 In the case of the Administraci6n de Aguardientes in Cartagena, for instance, it

seems that lawyer Eusebio Maria Canabal paid io,ooo pesos for the job in I808, and in exchange expected to receive around 6 per cent of the rents collected. Enrique




Table 2. New Granada Lawyers in the State Bureaucracy, 80o6, by rank

Rank of post*

High-ranking Middle Low-ranking

Political 5 4 Fiscal 7 I6

Judicial 5 Clerical 3 2

Other 4 Total 20 22 4

* High-ranking political jobs consisted of governors, corregidores and tenientes letrados. Middle-level jobs included tenientes asesores; high fiscal jobs include contadores and tesoreros of the Tribunal de Cuentas and the Casa de la Moneda; medium fiscal jobs consist of administradores, fiscales and asesores of the Rentas de Tabaco, Aguardientes, Correos, Bulas, etc.; high judicial jobs include agentes fiscales and relatores of the Audiencia; high clerical jobs include escribanos of the Real Audiencia and the Tribunal de Cuentas; medium clerical jobs consist of oficiales of the Contadurias of the Tribunal Mayor de Cuentas; and low-

ranking jobs were those of meritorios, agregados, and padres de menores. Sources: Antonio Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manualy guia deforasteros en Santa Fe de

Bogotd capital del Nuevo Reino de Granada para el ano de Io86 (Bogota, 1988), pp. 57-72; Jos6 M. Ots y Capdequi, Las instituciones del Nuevo Reino de Granada al tiempo de la independencia (Madrid, 1958).

Evidence of lawyers' social background enriches the understanding of

lawyers' access to bureaucratic careers and subsequent promotions.

Social Characteristics of Late Colonial Lawyers

Regardless of the exact number of its members or the bureaucratic

position they might occupy, the legal profession was a rather exclusive circle. Research on the social origins of the applicants to Bogota's Colegio Mayor del Rosario and other upper-level institutions shows that among 219 applicants in the period I66o-I800, 43 had fathers in the military; 24 and 21 were sons of officials in the Audiencia Real and the fiscal

bureaucracy, respectively; 5 were sons of alcaldes, alferez reales, or

procuradores generales of local cabildos; and 29 had fathers with unspecified tztulos honorzficos. Only six belonged to families of manual workers, such as escribanos (clerks), plateros (silversmiths), and boticarios (pharmacy owners).68 Comprehensive biographical information on New Granada's

Ortega Ricaurte, Proceso hist6rico del 20 de Julio (Bogota, I 960), p. I 2; Eustaquio Galavis, 'Relaci6n exacta y circunstanciada de todos los empleos polfticos... 1787', in Ulises

Rojas, Corregidoresy justicias mayores de Tunja y su provincia desde la fundacion de la ciudad hasta i8i7 (Tunja, I962), pp. 578-88; Archivo Hist6rico de Tunja, vol. 3I8, fols. 407-I3; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix C.

68 Silva, 'Escolares y catedraticos', p. I56; Twinam, Miners, Merchants; Vargas, Sociedad de Santafe; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A.



Neuw Granada's Colonial Lawyers 5 3 5

colonial lawyers indicates as well that, with but a few exceptions, they came from prominent social groups. By I8oo, the profession comprised first- to fifth-generation white male creoles who belonged to families of

mineowners, landowners, merchants, and incumbent or former military and bureaucrats. Finally, several of the profession's members were themselves sons of lawyers.69

The elitist character of the profession was guaranteed by the demanding standards needed for admission to one of the local colegios mayores, and

thereby to a university degree. Access was restricted to white, male, old Catholic Americans or Spaniards, who did not come from families who had practised manual trades (oficios viles). Candidates had to prove their

pureZa de sangre and their legitimate birth (legitimidad). Indeed, before admission, the colegios carried out a short trial-like procedure, the procesillo, aimed at determining, through the testimony of various witnesses, the

applicants' religious, ethnic, family, and economic background.70 Following the procesillo, the colegios could reject an applicant without

explanation. This privileged secrecy lent itself to additional and, not

rarely, capricious rejection of students. In 1808, for instance, Cartagena native Joaquin Jose Gori, a future lawyer and vice-president of the

republic, complained about the inexplicable reluctance of a colegio to admit him as a student. Gori feared the damage such unexplained rejection would cause to his honour and interests. Averring his preoccupation with his bureaucratic future and his social status, he scorned 'the offence caused to his family name, source of major obstacles to those who aspire to obtain honorific jobs or to marry into prominent families'. His anger was

aggravated by the fact that his procesillo had not even been completed when he was refused admission.71

During the early seventeenth century, the procesillo went back three

generations in reviewing an applicant's ancestors. By the middle of the

eighteenth century, investigation was apparently restricted largely to the 69 Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A. 70 A study of all the procesillos followed in the colegios mayores of New Granada mentions

various examples of students whose admission was questioned because of their fathers' economic activity. One of them was the son of a wealthy merchant trading in wax; another the son of a baker; another the son of a platero de oro, or goldsmith. As noted earlier, even medicine and surgery were considered oficios viles until the late eighteenth century. Silva, 'Escolares y catedraticos', pp. 163-4. See also 'Madrid, 14 de julio de

1768. Real orden sobre lo propuesto en cuanto a estatuto de legitimidad y limpieza de sangre para entrar en colegios y graduarse en las universidades y recibirse de

abogado', in Richard Konetzke (ed.), Coleccion de documentospara la historia de laformacidn social hispanoamericana, vol. 2 (Madrid, 1962), p. 340.

71 AHN, Anexo, Instruccion Publica, 4: 366-441; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix C. Some victims of the I78os exclusions complained about oidor Joaqufn Mosquera's capricious and unspecified influence in the decisions. Gori was denied admission without even having presented proof of his social background.




applicant's parents.72 There is also evidence that by this same period the

colegios' right of freely rejecting applicants was being curtailed.73 Some relaxation of the racial standards was also taking place. In New

Granada, Crist6bal Polo, a mulatto, had earned a law degree as early as

I755, but only after much opposition from the Cartagena elites, who

repudiated permitting members of the 'castes' to enter the legal profession, which they regarded as their exclusive domain.74 Overcoming new restrictions introduced in the mid-I76os to the admission of mulatto

lawyers, Jose Ponceano Ayarza finally received his law degree in 1798.75 In 1794 he had filed a petition to be recognised as a lawyer by the Audiencia. The petition stated that he had been born in the northwestern

region of Portovelo, his father's native city. Not exactly a typical mulatto, the father, Pedro Antonio Ayarza, was captain of Portovelo's pardo militia for twenty years, and was in charge of the administration of the city's church funds. Owner of a major cacao plantation, he had accumulated

enough wealth to send three of his sons - Antonio, Pedro, and Jose Ponceano - to study at the faraway Bogota colegios, and had also donated his salary to the crown to help pay for the war against England during the

I790S. After three years of litigation, his son Jose Ponceano was allowed to take his final law exams - although his admission to the local bar became effective only in 180 3.76 The crown decided to 'dar por extinguida la calidad de pardo del peticionario y dispensarle la gracia de admitirlo a

grados'. This case symbolises the changing attitudes towards mixed-race

individuals, in that prominent members of the local society backed Ayarza in his demand and provided him with letters of recommendation. They included the Pey brothers - an attorney and an influential priest - and the

lawyers Frutos Gutierrez, Pedro Groot, and Joaqufn Rivera. This was a

72 Silva, 'Escolares y catedraticos', pp. I45-79. 73 In July I804, a royal cedula abolished the Colegio de San Bartolom6's privilege of

keeping silent as to the reasons for rejecting an applicant. AHN, Anexo, Instrucci6n Publica, 4: 372.

74 Polo confronted opposition from some lawyers and the local cabildo. His case lasted at least ten years; he was finally allowed to retain the law degree he had already been granted. AHN, Colegios, z: 231-63; Jaramillo Uribe, 'Mestizaje y diferenciaci6n', pp. 35, 39-40. In New Spain during the late eighteenth century applicants with 'strains of black or Indian blood in their families' were also admitted to law school after some litigation; by the late i780s, Miguel Ger6nimo Cequo y Morales, an Indian from Cholula, was practising law in Puebla as an attorney for prisoners and fellow Indians. See John E. Kicza, 'The Legal Community of Late Colonial Mexico: Social Composition and Career Patterns', unpubl. ms., c. 1984, p. 5.

75 See 'Madrid, 23 de julio de 1765. Real cedula para que no se admita a ningun mulato a grado alguno en la Universidad de Santa Fe de Bogota', in Richard Konetzke (ed.), Coleccidn de documentos, vol. 2, p. 331.

76 Cuervo, Coleccidn de documentos, vol. 2, p. 372; AHN, Colegios, 2: 231-63; 'Aranjuez, I6 de marzo de 1797. Real c6dula dispensando a Pedro Antonio de Ayarza la calidad de Pardo', in Konetzke, Coleccidn de documentos, vol. 2, p. 757.



New Granada's Colonial Lawyers 5 3 7

period when economic fortunes, particularly those of merchants, were

becoming as much a source of prestige and power as noble titles, landholdings, legitimacy, and whiteness had been in the past. A wealthy pardo could gain a foothold in the upper segments of society, and even

illegitimate sons, if wealthy, could become prominent.77 Both Polo and

Ayarza, moreover, gained their right to a degree thanks partly to their fathers' military service to the crown. Still, both succeeded only after

protracted litigation, and both cases were exceptional. Most lawyers were white.

As with race, some exceptions were allowed for socio-economic status. To be sure, as noted above, the offspring of prominent colonial families of mineowners, landowners, merchants, lawyers, and incumbent or former military and bureaucrats dominated the legal profession of New Granada and other colonial regions, such as New Spain.78 Yet the Colegio del Rosario, for instance, had a few fellowships for poor applicants, making it possible for individuals of modest background to obtain law

degrees. Preference was also given to the sons of middle-level state officials. Antonio Martinez Recaman, son of an escribano in the fiscal

bureaucracy, and Fortunato Gamba Valencia, son of an oficial in a

provincial Caja Real, obtained law degrees in the 178os and early i8ios, respectively. Such individuals, however, were unlikely to achieve economic prosperity through legal practice or to gain access to high state

positions, the supreme aspiration of colonial lawyers.79 Those positions

77 Twinam, Miners, Merchants; Jose Escorcia, Sociedad y economia en el Valle el Cauca. Desarrollo politico, social, y economico, 1800-18z4 (Bogota, I983); Germin Colmenares, Sociedady economia en el Valle del Cauca. Cali: terratenientes, mineros, y comerciantes. Siglo XVIII (Bogota, I983); Maria T. Uribe and Jesds M. Alvarez, 'El parentesco y la formaci6n de las elites en la Provincia de Antioquia', Estudios Sociales, Fundaci6n Antioquefa para los Estudios Sociales (FAES), vol. 3 (1988), pp. 51-93. On the

upward social mobility ofpardos from the 76os and beyond see comparative comments by Robin Blackburn, The Overthrow of Colonial Slavery, I776-1848 (London, 1988), pp. 335-6.

78 Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A. The only other Spanish colony in America about whose lawyers' social history and background we have some professional information and analysis is Mexico. See Kicza, 'The Legal Community', pp. 5-7. Fragmentary evidence and analyses exist for Argentina. See Carlos A. Luque Colombres, Abogados en Cdrdoba del Tucumdn (C6rdoba, 1943); and Cutolo, Abogadosy escribanos. Finally, there are some edited collections of documents concerning Venezuelan lawyers. See Hector Garcia Chuecos, Abogados de la colonia (Caracas, 1958) and Los abogados de la colonia (Caracas, 1965). On other regions see also notes 2 and 5.

79 Martinez Recaman, through his father's modest connections, bought his way up to the middling job of asesor of the Bogota Cajas Reales by the late 178os. Gamba Valencia rose to high jobs after the revolution. See BNC, F. Pineda, io66: 127; Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manual, p. 172; Arboleda, Diccionario biogrdfico, p. 173; Manuel Uribe Angel, 'Recuerdos de un viaje a Medellin', BHA, vol. 2, no. 17 (I904); Benjamin Pereira Gamba, 'Miguel Gamba', BHA, vol. 3, no. 34 (1906), pp. 62I-5.




presupposed elite background, high economic resources, and good connections.

Bureaucratic Promotion, Family Formation and Family Networks

It was not wise for an ambitious lawyer to marry until he had secured a

good bureaucratic post. Otherwise he would not be attractive to the elite women of the city. Conversely, even wealthy, aspiring lawyers found it convenient to marry the daughters or sisters of a well-placed bureaucrat.80 The lawyer son of a relatively wealthy mineowner, for instance, could

thereby gain a foothold in the state bureaucracy. Eventually, helped by his own family's economic support and his bride's connections, he could travel to Spain to lobby for a better job. After waiting in Spain for an uncertain number of years, sometimes as many as ten or IS, he could return to his native or another colonial region as a fiscal or oidor of a Royal Audiencia.81

If, instead of marrying right after graduation or on entering the

bureaucracy, the dedicated lawyer-bureaucrat waited until he had risen to the position of, say, governor of an important province - which would take, with luck, approximately ten to I5 years - he could aspire to marry a more prestigious bride, particularly if his own family had enough wealth. The bride might be the daughter of a state official such as the

corregidor of an important region or a contador, and might also belong to a

family of landowners, mineowners, or wealthy merchants. The creole

Joaquin Mosquera y Figueroa, scion of a wealthy mineowning family, married into a powerful landowning clan of the region where, after ten

years as a bachelor in the middle-level bureaucracy, he was serving as

governor. Years later he became oidor in Bogota, an exceptional case in New Granada.82

In Mosquera's case and those of several other New Granada natives

80 The same seems to have been true for Buenos Aires's bureaucrats. Socolow, Bureaucrats

of Buenos Aires, pp. I96-9. 81 The cases of Francisco Antonio Moreno y Escand6n and Manuel del Campo y Rivas

roughly fit this description, except that the latter remained a bachelor his entire life. Others, like Francisco de Tordecillas, had less successful careers. Rojas, Corregidores, p. 597; Vergara y Vergara, Don Antonio de Vergara A4cdrate, vol. I, pp. I3 -80. The mechanics of some of the appointment processes are discussed by Burkholder, Politics

of a Colonial Career, pp. 30-43. 82 In I787, at a time when Bourbon policies were, paradoxically, supposedly trying to

prevent local society from influencing colonial bureaucracy, Mosquera y Figueroa became the only native creole appointed oidor to the Bogota audiencia in the entire

eighteenth century, with the exception of Juan Ricaurte, who served as interim oidor for a short period in April I718. Arcesio Arag6n, 'Un regente de Espafia, nacido en

Popayin, en el Nuevo Reino de Granada', Revista de Indias, vol. 36 (1949), pp. 307-II;

Restrepo, Biografias de los mandatarios, pp. 337-8; Burkholder and Chandler, From

Impotence to Authority; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A.




who becamefiscales, contadores, or oidores, being a criollo was not an absolute obstacle in rising to the highest bureaucratic ranks.83 Nonetheless, creoles had extra difficulty joining the bureaucracy, especially during the second half of the eighteenth century. Jose Caicedo y Florez graduated from law school in 1774. He belonged to the same generation as oidor Mosquera y Figueroa, but despite a similar elite background he never gained access to the bureaucratic world as Mosquera did. Caicedo was a fifth-generation creole. His grandfather had been an encomendero, governor of two

provinces, corregidor and superintendente of two other regions, and a large landholder. His father had also been a prosperous landowner who seems not to have occupied high bureaucratic positions. Caicedo's first wife was the niece of a former contador of the royal mint of Bogota, nearly the ideal match for someone in pursuit of a bureaucratic career.84 His second wife was the daughter of a lawyer of the Audiencia of Bogota, who was also a wealthy landowner but who does not appear to have had any bureaucratic trajectory.85 Lawyer Caicedo y Florez served, as was

customary, as alcalde ordinario and regidor of the Bogota cabildo during the

I770s and i780s; but except for a short stint as governor of an

unimportant province, he ostensibly never gained access to any bureaucratic jobs and instead devoted himself to practising law and

ranching.86 He neither taught law nor occupied even a middle-level

position that would accumulate meritos toward a bureaucratic appointment. Thus, twenty years after obtaining his law degree, he was unlikely to find major opportunities in the colonial bureaucracy and probably because of this he became bitter and rebellious. At least a few of his much

younger colleagues, anticipating the agony of a long wait to join the state's ranks, were also becoming so.87

83 See the example of the creole F16rez clan who, through positions in the cathedral, the fiscal bureaucracy and the audiencia, built a powerful network of power in the early eighteenth century. German Colmenares, 'Factores de la vida politica: el Nuevo Reino de Granada en el siglo XVIII (1730-1740)', in Manual de historia de Colombia, vol. I (Bogota, 1982), pp. 395-402.

84 One of his sisters was married to Pedro Romero Sarachaga, escribano de cdmara of the local audiencia from 1766 to at least I777, and a wealthy landowner. Caicedo's brother Fernando was the parish priest of the local cathedral from 1794 to I802 and later became a high ranking member of the church hierarchy. Another brother, Luis, was a wealthy landowner. Restrepo and Rivas, Genealogias; 'Relaci6n de los meritos... Pedro Romero Sarachaga'. DBNC, F. Pineda, 372; also Figure 2 in this article.

85 Francisco Gaona de la Bastida (I75 5-799), Caicedo's father-in-law, owned at least two major haciendas, one of which was valued in I779 at I2,300 patacones, a considerable amount. Pardo Umafia, Haciendas, pp. 164, 2I5-i6; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A.

86 Restrepo and Rivas, Genealogias, p. I65; Sandra Montgomery, 'The Bourbon Mining Reform in New Granada', in Fisher et al. (eds.), Reform and Insurrection, pp. 5I-3.

87 Caicedo was suspended from the legal profession as a suspect of conspiracy in the mid- I790s. See Germin Perez Sarmiento (ed.), Causas celebres a los precursores... copias fielesy



540 Victor M. Uribe

What is more, Europeans could easily outmanoeuvre creoles. Those

lawyers living and having close relatives in Spain, where most decisions were made and most jobs assigned, could move more quickly and with less expense up the bureaucratic ladder. This is demonstrated by the case of fiscal Alvarez.88

Manuel Bernardo Alvarez (maternal grandfather of Antonio Narifio, who would later bemoan New Granada's unending litigiousness) wasfiscal of the Royal Audiencia of Bogotai from I736 to 75 5. He was born in

Spain in the late seventeenth century, and in 1728, two years after

graduation and still single, he came to the New World as teniente de

gobernadory auditor de guerra in Caracas. In less than a decade, probably through patronage from friends and relatives in his homeland, he rose to the position of Bogoti fiscal. Not until then, in 1738, did he marry; his bride was Josefa Casal y Freiria, the daughter of a former corregidor y

justicia mayor of the neighbouring city of Tunja.89 They had I4 offspring, at least six of whom married important figures in the local economy and

politics (see Figure i), becoming, as John L. Phelan argued, the founders of a true 'bureaucratic dynasty'.90

Lawyers, creole and Spaniard alike, were, in any event, eager to pursue bureaucratic careers, and as the examples already offered indicate, that

goal determined even their family formation strategies. Still, it was not uncommon for lawyers to marry the daughters of local landowners, mineowners, and, in the late colonial period, merchants, a group that was

rising to the upper economic positions in regions like Cali, Antioquia, and Panama and presumably also in Bogota and Cartagena.91 Marrying into

exactas de los originales que se guardan en el Archivo General de Indias, vol. i (Bogota, 1939), p. 92; Victor M. Uribe, '"Kill all the Lawyers": Lawyers and the Independent Movement in New Granada, I809-1820', The Americas (forthcoming).

88 See also the case of the young lawyer Jose Valdes, who arrived in New Granada in early 1809 with the position of corregidor of the important region of Socorro and was

promoted to oidor of Guatemala in less than a decade. Rodriguez Plata, La antigua Provincia, pp. 190-3.

89 Antonio Benito del Casal y Freiria served in Tunja from I733 to at least I738. He was also appointed teniente capitan general during these years, and was finally transferred to Maracaibo in 1740 as gobernadory comandante general. Rojas, Corregidoresyjusticias, p. 507; Jose M. Restrepo and Raimundo Rivas, Genealogias de Santafe de Bogota (Bogota, 1928),

pp. 225-6; Hermes Tovar Pinz6n, 'El estado colonial frente al poder local y regional', Nova Americana, vol. 5 (1982), p. 5I.

90 John L. Phelan, 'El auge y la caida de los criollos en la Audiencia de la Nueva Granada', BHA, vol. 49, no. 697-8 (1972), p. 607; idem, People and the King, pp. 14, 21; Tovar Pinz6n, 'El estado colonial', p. 5 ; Restrepo and Rivas, Genealogias, pp. 17-23; Hernandez de Alba, Archivo Nariio, vol. I; McFarlane, Colombia before Independence, pp. 238-45.

91 Twinam, Miners, Merchants; Colmenares, Cali: terratenientes; Jose D. Moscote and

Enrique Arce, La vida ejemplar de Justo Arosemena (Panama, I956). In Cartagena, the

high status of merchants Jose Miguel Pombo and Jose Maria Garcia de Toledo



New Granada's Colonial Lawyers

Teniente de gobernador and auditor de guerra in Caracas, 1729-1735 Factor and director of the Compahfa de Asientos de Negros de Inglaterra, Caracas, 1733-1735

Manfuell Bernardo Alvarez*@ Fiscal of the Real Audiencia de Bogota, 1736-1755 Man1690-1774l = 1738

@ Retired with 2,000-peso salary, 1755

Maria Josefa del Casal y F. (1717-7) Daughter of capitan de infanterfa in garrison-prison of Guayana, 1725

Capitan de guerra and justicia mayor of Guayana, 1725-1731 Corregidor of Tunja, 1732-1737 Gobernador and comandante general of Maracaibo, 1749

Catalina Alvarez y Casal Contador oficial of the Cajas Matrices (1739-7) 1758 Bogota, 1751-1771

icente Narino* I Contador mayor of the Tribunal y Real Audiencia de Cuentas de Bogota, 1770-1778

\ ntonio Nariho Alvarez (and other offspring)

Petronila B. Alvarez y Casal Comandante of Riohacha II \ (1741-7) = 1760s Teniente de caballerfa of Viceroy Mesia de la; Jer6nimo de Mendoza y / guard Hurtado

Manuel B. Alvarez y Casal @ Contador interino of the Tribunal y Real Audit (1743-1816) = 1778 Cuentas, 1771 Josefa Maria Lozano Contador en propiedad, 1777-1779

Contador of the Casa de la Moneda, Popayan, 1779-1803

Cuentas, 1803-1810

Daughter of Marques de San Jorge 7 offspring, large landholder; the Alvarez Lozano niece of lawyer-bureaucrats (the Gonzalez Manrique brothers).

Administrador of the Renta de Joaquina Alvarez y Casal Aguardiente, Mompos, 1760-1770 (1744-1796) = Administrador of the Renta del Tabaco, Manuel Garcia Olano* Socorro, 1776-1778

Director of the Renta de Correos, Bogota, 1781-1783

Antonia Alvarez y Casal 1 17457) = 1761 Benito del Casal y Oidor of the Real Audiencia de Bogota, Montenegro @ 1747-1781

uan de Dios Mariano Alvarez Casal I Parish priest, Moniquira (1746-7)

Maria Josefa Alvarez y Casal Teniente de alabarderos of Viceroy Mesla de (1747-7) - 1767 Contador ordenador of the Tribunal de Guerr Jos6 L6pez Duro Tesorero general of the Montepfo

Oficial of the Cajas Reales

Ignacio A. Alvarez y Casal (1747-7) Teniente gobernador, Pamplona,

\ \1775

Rita Alvarez y Casal Consultor general of the Viceroyalty, 1776-17 rConventions: . \ (1756-) = 1778 oidor and fiscal del crimen of Audiencia C onventilons. Francisco Robledo*@ Their son became oidor in 1810

Spouses \ Son ordaughter

* Spaniard Barbara Alvarez y Casal Oficial real of the Cajas de Bogota (1758-1832) = 1774 I Contador mayor of the Tribunal y Real Audiel

@

Lawyer Manuel de la Revilla* de Cuentas

Fig. i. The Alvarez Bureaucratic Dynasty (i73os-ISios).

541

Zerda's

mncia de

icia de

la Zerda a

79;

ncia



542 Victor M. Uribe

elite but nonbureaucratic families placed lawyers in the upper economic ranks of society but, as in the case of Caicedo y Florez, delayed or

endangered their bureaucratic changes. Families of fellow bureaucrats therefore were always preferable.

Although government bureaucrats were prohibited by law from

marrying women kin of fellow bureaucrats or having kindred ties with each other, the truth is that, after obtaining permission from the crown or sometimes in secret, they customarily did just that - married the daughters and sisters of fellow 'mandarins'. The highest-ranking bureaucrats were related to each other by marriage, and that seems to have been considered the best way to consolidate and advance their own careers and those of their family members.92

The existence of a small group of high-ranking, interrelated civil

servants, tied together through marriage across clans, contradicted the Bourbon theory of government. In addition to many other reforms, the Bourbons strove to reduce bureaucratic corruption and nepotism. They prohibited bureaucrats from marrying women from their jurisdiction so as to maintain a neutral or impartial bureaucracy. But that policy was thwarted by the flexibility with which marriage permits were issued, or else was circumvented by bureaucrats in different viceroyalties where

family networks flourished in spite of the official antiseptic measures.93 The formidable task of effecting those reforms in the face of such

ingrown resistance is exemplified by the lawyer Juan Francisco Gutierrez

underscores the increasing power of this economic group. See Gabriel Jimenez Molinares, Linajes cartageneros, vol. 2 (Cartagena, 95 8), pp. 3-69; Jorge O. Melo, 'Jose Ignacio de Pombo', in Comercioy contrabando en Cartagena de Indias. 2 de junio de 80oo

(Bogota, I986), pp. 7-10; Anthony J. McFarlane, 'Economic and Political Change in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, with Special Reference to Overseas Trade, 1739-I810', unpubl. PhD diss., London School of Economics and Political Science, I977.

92 Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', appendix A; Restrepo, Biografias de los mandatarios. On marriage licences and restrictions see Richard Konetzke, Coleccion de documentos, docs. 73, 134-5, I85, 193, 213, 252, 262, 271, 310, 335, 357. On the participation of the montepios (agencies providing pensions for the survival of civil functionaries in the

Spanish Empire) in the enforcement of royal marriage policy in the late eighteenth century see Dewitt S. Chandler, Social Assistance and Bureaucratic Politics: The Montepios of Colonial Mexico, r767-i82s (Albuquerque, I99 ), ch. 3.

93 Stanley J. Stein, 'Bureaucracy and Business in the Spanish Empire, 1759-1804: Failure of Bourbon Reform in Mexico and Peru', HAHR, vol. 6I, no. I (i98i); Jacques A. Barbier, Reform and Politics in Bourbon Chile, s7f-I7'66 (Ottawa, I980), chs. 8-9; Linda K. Salvucci, 'Costumbres viejas, hombres nuevos: Jose de Galvis y la burocracia fiscal novohispana (I754-I800)', Historia Mexicana, vol. 33, no. 2 (1983), pp. 224-64; Socolow, Bureaucrats of Buenos Aires, pp. 193-228; Arnold, Bureaucracy and Bureaucrats; Susan Deans-Smith, Bureaucrats, Planters, and Workers: The Making of the Tobacco

Monopoly in Bourbon Mexico (Austin, 1992).




de Pinieres, who arrived in Bogotai in 1778 as both the crown's special visitador and the appointed regente, or senior chief of the audiencia. He had the mission of enforcing all the Bourbon reforms being promoted during these years; but with few exceptions, such as the partial dismantling of the Alvarez bureaucratic dynasty, the results of his visit show that local elites had enough material power to frustrate the crown's attempts to dispossess them of the privileges they had traditionally enjoyed and valued.94

Furthermore, the hapless visitador was run out of Bogota in 1781 by a tax

riot, the Comunero revolt. The continuing importance of the colonial state as a source of jobs for

local lawyers and their clans up until the end of the colonial period was underscored by the presence of at least one important family network

years after Gutierrez's visitation: that of Francisco Vergara y Vela Patifio.95 Throughout his nearly 40 years presiding over Bogota's Tribunal de Cuentas, lawyer Francisco had established another 'bureaucratic dynasty' that by the I79os had come to dominate segments of the state and society in New Granada. Vergara's story confirms some of the

patterns I have been referring to. At the age of 15, and after having submitted proof of his 'legitimate

birth and purity of blood', Francisco Vergara y Vela Patifo started

studying law in Bogotai, capital of the soon-to-be Viceroyalty of New Granada. It was the year I727. His father, Jose Vergara Azcarate y Davila, a 35-year-old widower, had recently become a Catholic priest and was

serving in a little parish not far from Bogota. Don Jose, two of whose brothers and two sisters had also embraced religious life, had decided that 'after having lost his Gertrudis - his wife killed along with several of his

offspring by a ravaging epidemic in 1719 - there was no other refuge but the church'. Numerous other widowers customarily did likewise.96

94 The most recent evaluation of such reforms has been offered by Allan Kuethe, who has pointed out that in contrast to New Spain and Peru, the Bourbon reforms had a relatively minor impact in New Granada. Kuethe, 'The Early Reforms of Charles III in the Viceroyalty of New Granada, I759-I776', in Fisher et al. (eds.), Reform and Insurrection, pp. 19-53. See also Phelan, 'El auge y la caida'; idem, People and the King, p. 17; McFarlane, 'Economic and Political Change'; Kuethe, Military Reform; Stein, 'Bureaucracy and Business'; Tovar Pinz6n, 'El estado colonial'; Salvucci, 'Cos- tumbres viejas'.

95 On elite families and the late colonial bureaucracy see also Phelan, 'El auge y la caida'; Jose M. Uricoechea, 'Noticias geneal6gicas', BHA, vol. 58, no. 675-7 (I971), pp. 33-IOI; Tovar Pinz6n, 'El estado colonial'; McFarlane, 'Economic and Political

Change'; Jorge O. Melo, 'Retrato de un bur6crata colonial'. 96 One of Don Jose's early nineteenth-century descendants left a detailed genealogical

description of his family, titled 'Relaci6n geneal6gica de Felipe de Vergara Azcarate de Avila, Caicedo, Velez, Ladr6n de Guevara. Contiene una serie ordenada de los matrimonios que sus ascendientes paternos y maternos han celebrado en Indias desde el tiempo en que vinieron a este Nuevo Reyno de Granada sus primeros conquistadores



544 Victor M. Uribe

On being ordained a priest in 1723, Don Jose gave up an encomienda, or

royal grant of Indian tribute and labour, which he had inherited from his father. He also relinquished his bureaucratic post as teniente corregidor, or

provincial administrative chief, which he had performed in various towns, a position that might have led to higher state commissions as well as

wealth, power, and prestige.97 Instead of climbing up the bureaucratic ladder he started on the ecclesiastical one; but there, besides some spiritual consolation, one could also find significant material comfort.

Meanwhile Francisco, the only son Don Jose had left, completed his

legal studies in Bogota. In 1734, the year the still-adolescent Francisco was admitted as a lawyer by the Real Audiencia his father received the last of a series of clergy assignments: the parish of Socorro, a town of 3,000 inhabitants northwest of Bogotai. In Socorro, a region of small cultivators of sugar cane and tobacco and of artisanal spinning and weaving, the

priest accumulated some economic wealth.98 In such middle-sized

parishes, priests benefited from the fees charged for baptisms, burials,

weddings, and, more important, from the rent of tithes. The priests had

only to hand over a small portion of the tithes to the bishop - a portion they further reduced by conveniently misrepresenting the collection records.99 In time, parish priests converted this wealth and tended to become large landholders and owners of livestock and slaves.100

Priest Don Jose died in Socorro about 1743, and he must have rested in peace knowing that his son Francisco was by then married and well established in the capital, Santafe de Bogota. Fortunately, in 1736 Francisco had married the daughter of Jose de Caicedo y Pastrana, a

wealthy landowner who counted among his other offspring at least two nuns and two priests. The Caicedo family owned extensive lands near

Bogota, along with numerous livestock and even some slaves. In addition

hasta el presente. La escribo para el uso y noticia de mis sobrinos'. See printed version in Felipe de Vergara, Relacidn genealogica [I8io] (Bogota, 1962), p. 102.

97 On Don Jose's encomienda see Juan Villamarin, 'Encomenderos and Indians in the Formation of Colonial Society in the Sabana de Bogoti, 537 to 1740', unpubl. PhD diss., Brandeis University, 1972, p. 389. For corregidores' typical careers see Ulises Rojas, Corregidores; for general comments and references see Stein, 'Bureaucracy and Business'.

98 Richard Stoller, 'Liberalism and Conflict in Socorro, Colombia, I830-I870', unpubl. PhD diss., Duke University, 1991, p. 31; Phelan, The People and the King, p. 39.

99 Francisco A. Moreno y Escand6n,' Estado del Virreynato de Santaf6, Nuevo Reino de

Granada, y relaci6n de su gobierno y mando... I772', BHA, vol. 23, no. 264-5 (1936), pp. 547-616; Narino, 'Ensayo sobre administraci6n', pp. 75-6.

100 G6mez, El tribuno, p. 236; Charles Harris, A Mexican Family Empire; Correa, 'Jorge Ram6n de Posada', pp. I I-29; Plazas, Genealogias de Neiva, p. 1 12; Umaia, Haciendas de la Sabana, pp. 77-8 .




to tending to their lands and pursuing careers as nuns and priests, several of them were encomenderos, and at least a few became lawyers and state officials.101 The Caicedos' power, however, was more economic than bureaucratic. Indeed, their lack of bureaucratic influence hindered Francisco's own bureaucratic aspirations. Francisco hoped for success, moreover, to continue a highly valued familial tradition of service to the colonial state - despite his father's disengagement from the bureaucracy.

Francisco's ancestors included an encomendero great-grandfather, who also served the bureaucracy as tesorero, or treasurer, and provincial governor; and a high-ranking bureaucrat grandfather, who, after buying the position in the mid-seventeenth century, had become contador at

Bogota's Tribunal de Cuentas, the central accounting office.102 The bureaucratic continuity of Francisco's family was, however, interrupted by his uncles' and his father's choice of religious careers. This weakened the clan's political power. To be sure, the Vergaras' economic well-being was strengthened by the income of parish priest Don Jose and further consolidated when Francisco joined the Caicedo clan. But as Francisco's

subsequent career demonstrates, economic power was not enough; bureaucratic influence was also vital to promote and maintain elite status.

Fifteen years after graduating from law school, Francisco was weary of

tending to his hacienda, Casablanca, on the outskirts of Bogota and of serving in a series of honorific but usually unpaid jobs (regidor, procurador, sindico general, alcalde ordinario) in Bogota's cabildo. He may have been frustrated at not having yet recaptured his clan's control over a key bureaucratic appointment. Such a position, in addition to its material rewards, would have strengthened his family situation through political power, the means to dispense patronage, meritos, or qualities to obtain future jobs for other family members, honorific treatment, and status. By the late 740s Francisco was preparing to sail for Spain to lobby personally for a bureaucratic appointment, as many American-born Spaniards were

obliged to do. By making the journey themselves they avoided the onerous and sluggish brokerage of the Iberian agentes de negocios, intermediaries between the crown and job seekers. Just before he embarked, however, Francisco obtained - through as-yet undetermined means, probably protracted lobbying and large sums of money - an

important commission as regente contador of the Tribunal de Cuentas, chief of the viceroyalty's central accounting office, the same agency where 101 See Restrepo and Rivas, Genealogias, pp. I6I-2; Pardo Umafia, Haciendas de la Sabana;

Villamarin, 'Encomenderos and Indians', pp. 33 8-47, 403-6; 'Documento Hist6rico', BHA, vol. 6, no. 6 (1909), pp. 3 , 36.

102 Ivan Fl6rez de Ocariz, Genealogias del Nuevo Reyno de Granada [I674], vol. 2 (Bogota, 95 5), P. o03; vol. 3, pp. I86-7; Vergara y Vergara, Don Antonio de Vergara Azcdrate,

vol. I, p. 63; Villamarin, 'Encomenderos and Indians', pp. 388-9, 402, 4I0.



546 Victor M. Uribe

his grandfather had served decades earlier. Over the following years, lawyer Francisco would use his office to promote not only the state's interests but also those of his large family.

Unlike his father, whose marriage and family were cut short by a

plague, Francisco's marriage would last for 52 years, and produced nineteen offspring. Two of his children became priests, three became nuns, and seven more died before reaching adolescence, a not-uncommon occurrence. Several of the rest, including four lawyers, were promoted by their father and became links in a family network within the bureaucracy (Figure 2).103

At the time of New Granada's I78I Comunero revolt that Francisco

helped in pacifying, two of the four lawyers among his sons, Felipe and Francisco, Jr., held high-ranking jobs in the fiscal and judicial segments of the bureaucracy. Felipe had spent at least seven years in Spain and, with the help of the Marques de los Castillejos, his grandfather's former

acquaintance, had finally procured jobs for himself and his brother in

1779. He became contador in Panama, and his brother Francisco was agente fiscal, or prosecuting attorney, of the Real Audiencia. Jose Manuel had died years earlier, soon after arriving in Spain in a similar pursuit. Another

lawyer son, Juan, married the daughter of a local noble, the Marques de San Jorge, and secured a position administering the estate of a wealthy parish priest in a large village. Later he received a high-ranking fiscal job, contador de hacienda, but died in 1804, soon after travelling to Spain in

pursuit of yet a higher one.104 To compensate, one of Francisco's

daughters, Josefa, married the head of the central treasury office, Don Antonio de Ayala, and two of her offspring became officials in the fiscal

bureaucracy. Francisco eventually married a member of the influential Sanz de Santamaria family and became part of its network. The Sanz de

Santamarias, much like the Vergaras, were active in the administration of the colonial state (e.g., they held a monopoly over the position of tesorero in the local mint) from which they derived part of their status, prestige, and power.105

These clans were still exerting significant clout in the i8ios, when Iberia was undergoing French attacks and a major political crisis. Felipe

103 Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins', ch. 2. 104 He married a daughter of Jorge Miguel Lozano de Peralta, a large landholder who

held the title Marques de San Jorge. Francisco de P. Plazas, 'Los Marqueses de San

Jorge', BHA, vol. 58, no. 678-80 (1971), pp. 261-8; Vergara y Vergara, Don Antonio

Vergara A.cdrate, vol. I, p. 139. 105 Vergara, Relacidn, p. 239; 'Sanz de Santamaria', BHA, vol. 57, no. 666-8 (1970), pp.

261-82; Vergara y Vergara, Antonio Vergara A4cdrate, vol. I, pp. 223, 226; Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manual, p. 203.




Francisco Javier de Vergara y Vela Patiio @ (Son of priest Don Jose Vergara Azcarate) (1712-1788) 1736 o n of

pit Don o gaa caat

Petronila Caicedo y Velez Ladr6n de Guevara S(ndico del cabildo in Bogota, 1741 (1717-1796) Alcalde ordinario in Bogota, 1742

LRegente contador of the Tribunal de Cuentas, 1749-1787

Daughter of capitan de guardia real, teniente coronel, governor of a province, encomendero, corregidor de indios, etc.

/ \\\ Josefa Vergara y Caicedo | F Tesorero oficial of the Cajas Reales, Josefa Vergara y Caicedo 1751-1777 (1737-1795) = 1760 1751-177 Antonio de Ayala y Tamayo* 7 offspring: the Ayala Vrgara

/ II \ \ \ . -1777) 22 of whom (Pantale6n and Luis) l/ ~ II~ i~ \ \^~ ~ had jobs in the fiscal bureaucracy.

~// ~ I l \ \ 1 |5~ I ~F~ IProcurador of Colegio Major del Rosario / I I \ | IJose Manuel Vergara y Caicedo Teacher of moral theology, 1762-1766

/ I (1738-1767) Vice-rectorof Colegio del Rosario, 1764 Went to Spain in search of a job and died 8 days after

/ I \ \ arrival in 1767

Teacher of canon law in Colegio del Rosario Felipe do Vergara y Caicedo : Vice-rector of Colegio del Rosario, 1768

/ I \ | F1_e .d(1745-1818) Ca o @ Travelled to Spain in 1772, returned as Contador 114-88 \ | ( 0180 T oficial of the Cajas de Panama, 1779-1784

!~~/~~~ ~~ I I i\ | |!~ Teniente-asesor of the governor of Cartagena, I~~/~ ~~ ~~~Ig~ I \ '1785-1789 Contador ordenador of the Tribunal y Real Audiencia

/ f I I k| I. ^of Cuentas, 1790-1816

/f I j \ | (17481810) Jesuit priest

\ Fernando de Vergara yAugustine monk Caicedo @ (1763-1804)

Francisco J. de Vergara y C. @ Sindico procurador of Cabildo, 1778 \ \ I\ |~ (1750-1816) = 1788 Agente fiscal en lo criminal of the Real Audiencia,

\ \ \ | Francisca Sanz de Santamarfa I 1779-1810 \ \ \ ||I I| I Agente fiscal en lo civil, 1810

I "^ Daughter of lawyer, landowner, 7 offspring: alcalde ordinario of Bogota in 1762. the Vergara Sanz de Santamarla, 2 brothers in the bureaucracy 3 of whom (Tadeo, Isidro and Francisco

Gregorio) obtained fiscal jobs from 1800 to 1810.

Practising lawyer, Juan de Vergara y Caicedo @ contador general in 1804, (1760-1804) - 1792 1 died in 1804 while travelling to Spain in Manuela Lozano search of a promotion

~I ^^~~I'3Their only son was one of ~~~~~~~I ~~Bolivar's revolutionary generals, Jose Maria Vergara y Lozano Daughter of Marques de San Jorge, Jos Mara ergara Lozano

large landowner. Niece of lawyer-bureaucrats, the Gonzalez-Manrique brothers

Conventions: = Spouses

* Son ordaughter *

Spaniard

@ Lawyer

Vice-rectorof Colegio del Rosario, 1788. Crist6bal de Vergara y Caicedo Administrador lentes, Popayin, Cristo6bal de Vergara y Caicedo IContador interventor of Alcabalas, Popayan, 1791 (1766-1831) = 1796 l"A/dministrador principal of Aguardientes, Popayan, (1766-1831)1 1796 Francisca Nates y Rebolledo Returned795 to contdo, 1807. (m17751842) j Returned to contador, 1807.

Daughter of employee of Popayan's Casa de la Moneda

Gertrudis 11741-1787), Petronila (1751-1792) and Lucia (1752-1808) were nuns. Juan Manuel (1742-7), Ignacia (1744-7), Ignacio (1747-7), Antonio (1753-?), Manuela (1754-1770), Genoveva (1757-?) and Domingo (1758-1770) died during childhood or before reaching adolescence.

Fig. 2. The Vergara Bureaucratic Network (i74os-z8sos).

I

I III I-- I?IU,5!



548 Victor M. Uribe

Vergara was a high accountant in the Tribunal de Cuentas, the same fiscal

agency where his father had served for four decades. One more of Francisco's sons, Crist6bal, was the main administrator and accountant of the tobacco monopoly in the important city of Popayan.106 Francisco's sons Tadeo, Isidro, and Francisco Gregorio held jobs in the fiscal

bureaucracy.107 And Francisco's Sanz de Santamaria brothers-in-law were still high-ranking bureaucrats in Bogota's royal mint and tobacco

monopoly.108 Clearly, none of these representatives of the creole elite was ever dislodged from his bureaucratic nest.

Furthermore, even though the crown took a dim view of these networks, in practical terms they contributed to a high degree of political stability in the colony. The symbiotic relationship that developed between the state and some groups of the local elite made the latter generally unsympathetic to anti-state activities.109

Conclusions

Along with the priesthood and the military, and in spite of initial

opposition, law became one of the main careers for New Granada's colonial elites, as well as a stepping-stone to more coveted bureaucratic

positions. Although most lawyers belonged to the upper economic

segments of society, not all had equal chances to climb the bureaucratic ladder, and many had to content themselves with middle-level positions, nonbureaucratic legal practice, or other pursuits. Nevertheless, local law

graduates were eager to continue attempting the somewhat hazardous and uncertain bureaucratic path. This had traditionally symbolised a stable career, a family investment, an opportunity to acquire steady income and wealth, and a source of power, honour and prestige. It was not, therefore, a bureaucratic career in the modern sense of the term.

The Spanish colonial state was not made up of a modern professional bureaucratic set of institutions. It was instead an example of what, following Weber, one could term a 'patrimonial bureaucratic' state. The

king bestowed on his subjects the honour to serve the crown and himself. The colonial state's management was placed in the hands of the king's personal servants, who were maintained as part of the royal household and rewarded at the king's discretion for their meritos and those of their

106 Vergara, Relacidn, p. 242. 107 In 1807 Tadeo, a lawyer, was asesor of Reales Rentas in Honda, a neighbouring town

to Bogota; Isidro was meritorio in the Contadurfa General after I 804, and by 8 i 5 was tesorero of the royal mint; Francisco Gregorio was oficial in the Reales Cajas during the

early I8ios. Vergara y Vergara, Don Antonio Vergara A<cdrate, vol. 2, pp. 3, I7, 40. 108 Garcia de la Guardia, Kalendario manual; Uribe, 'Rebellion of the Mandarins',

appendix A. 109 Uribe, '"Kill all the Lawyers"'.




families. In addition to hundreds of partly professionalised bureaucratic

jobs, the king dispensed prebends and prerogatives, like the one enjoyed by the Santamarias in the royal mint. These prerogatives also included the educational and taxing powers given to the local church, and, more

important, an abundant number of tax-farming positions in small and

large towns and cities.110 Local elite families traditionally perpetuated and increased their

presence, power, and status not solely through economic endeavours such as ranching, mining or trade, but more importantly through ecclesiastical and bureaucratic jobs and governmental privileges. They therefore

deliberately prepared some of their members to join the priesthood and the bureaucracy, the latter through the legal profession and appropriate marriage. In addition, elite clans also strove to display a family history of service to the king, and in so doing developed a symbiotic relationship with the colonial state that gained them patronage, which they in turn

reciprocated with as much loyalty as circumstances dictated. Indeed, lawyers were generally unwilling to oppose the colonial state and risk their chances for a prosperous career. However, some radical changes in the relationship between lawyers and the colonial state took place during the interregnum of the 1790S to the i8ios, forcing lawyers to opt for

extraordinary subversive measures. Those changes and measures are the

subject of ongoing research.

110 Reinhard Bendix, National Building and Citizenship (Berkeley, 1964), p. 39; Richard Morse, 'The Heritage of Latin America', in Louis Hartz (ed.), The Founding of New Societies (New York, i964), pp. I23-77; Magali Sarfatti, Spanish Bureaucratic Patrimonialism in America (Berkeley, I966); Spalding, Essays; Lynch, 'Institutional Framework'.



Abogados en Nueva Granada

Documents

conditionsthe lawyers

jstor terms

practising lawyers

jstor archive

late colonial bourbon

terms conditions of

clans power

family life