JOSEPH BONELLI/BONELLY, son of TOMAS BONELLI & MARIA MARIANO, was born about 1757 in Livorno, a port city on the western coast of Italy. He was one of those 110 Italians, husbandmen, recruited by the Scots physician-land developer, Andrew Turnbull, to work on an indigo plantation project at New Smyrna, Florida. In the spring of 1768, the indentured Minorcans, Italians and Greeks sailed in eight caravels from Mahon, Minorca to New Smyrna, Florida. After arriving at Mosquito Inlet, first priority was to clear the landscape of pines, cabbage palm, palmetto scrub and drain the swampy marsh. Conditions were wretched and never improved: Unbearable heat and humidity, scant time to gather food, inadequate clothing, palm-thatched huts for living quarters, disgusting stench of indigo culture, unending tending crops for export, miserable sanitation, hunger, disease, cruel treatment by overseers. Amid oppression and suffering, life goes on and in 1776 in New Smyrna, JOSEPH BONELLI married MARIA MOLL, a girl from Ciudadela, Minorca. Their first child, a son named THOMAS BONELLI, was born in New Smyrna that same year. (JOSEPH BONELLI & MARIA MOLL had ten documented children!). After nine years of broken promises and exploitation the New Smyrna colony failed. They appealed to the English governor for help, the entire group, dubbed The Minorcans, walked the King's Highway to freedom in St. Augustine.

In 1784, JOSEPH BONELLI, his wife and his family, lived in St. Augustine proper but he cultivated plots outside the city limits. In 1778 a daughter named MARIA CATARINA was born but she did not live long. Two more children were born, ANTONIO "Anthony" FRANCISCO in 1780 and ANTONIA TERESA in 1782. It was in 1784 in St. Augustine that another daughter, MARIA "Mary" CATALINA ANTONIA BONELLI, was born. Her sister, ANTONIA PAULA was born in 1786.

In 1787, JOSEPH BONELLI and his family lived near the St. Johns River. He received two 600 acre land grants and one for ten acres: In 1796, for 600 acres at Turnbull Bay and for ten acres at North Wharf; and, in 1799, for 600 acres at Matanzas Bar.

Another son, JOSE "Joseph" FRANCISCO JUAN was born in 1788; three more children followed: TERESA MARIA "Teresa" or "Mary" ROSA in 1790, CATARINA MARTHA in 1792 & JUAN "John" JOSEF in 1800.

In January 1802, while JOSEPH BONELLY was away on business, the Bonelli plantation at Matanzas was raided, pillaged and burned by Miccosukee Indians. His eldest son, THOMAS, was scalped on the spot - later, the Indians danced over his scalp. His wife, MARIA, and the five younger Bonelli children were captured and taken to the Indian Village in West Florida, where they were held for ransom. JOSEPH BONELLI was forced to sell his Matanzas land grant in order to generate the amount of money demanded by the Miccosukee Indians to release his family. The Indians deemed the sum insufficient; after seven months they released only Mrs. MARIA BONELLI and the three youngest Bonelli children: THERESA MARY, CATHERINE, and JOHN. The Indians detained his son, young JOSEPH BONELLI, and his daughter, ANTONIA PAULA BONELLI. Meantime, young JOSEPH escaped. ANTONIA PAULA became a ward of the Miccosukee Indian Medicine Doctor and was kept another fifteen months, until in November 1803, JOSEPH BONELLI mustered additional money and negotiated her release.

JOSEPH BONELLI owned property in St. Augustine - a wooden house in Block No. 3, Lot No. 2, located north and south between Hypolita Street and Baya Lane and east and west between the Bay (Avenida Menendez along the Bay) and Charlotte Street.

JOSEPH BONELLI died at age fifty-four in 1811 in St. Augustine and was buried in the Catholic Parish Church Cemetery.

At a much later date, in 1893, the Bonelli heirs once again had to fight for their rights by filing a claim to receive proper title for the property at Turnbull Bay and North Wharf granted in 1796 to JOSEPH BONELLI. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~