Peter Francisco - Biography

Biography

Francisco's origins are shrouded in mystery. It is believed he was born on July 9, 1760 at Porto Judeu on the island of Terceira, in the Azores. According to the traditional version of his biography, he was found at about age five on the docks at City Point, Virginia, in 1765. Peter was taken to the Prince George County Poorhouse. Not speaking English, he repeated the name "Pedro Francisco". The locals called him Peter. The locals discovered the boy spoke Portuguese and noted his clothing was of good quality.

When able to communicate, Pedro said that he had lived in a mansion near the ocean. His mother spoke French and his father spoke another language which he did not know. He and his sister were kidnapped from the grounds, but his sister escaped, while Francisco was bound and taken to a ship. Historians believe it is possible that the kidnappers intended to hold the children for ransom or that they had intended to sell them as indentured servants at their destination port in North America, but changed their minds. The Azorean legend says the Francisco family had many political enemies and set up Peter's abduction to protect him from accident or death by his parents' foes.

Peter was soon taken in by the judge Anthony Winston of Buckingham County, Virginia, an uncle of Patrick Henry. Francisco lived with Winston and his family until the beginning of the American Revolution and was tutored by them. When he was old enough to work, he was apprenticed as a blacksmith, a profession chosen because of his massive size and strength (he grew to be well over six feet six inches tall, or 198 centimeters, and weigh some 260 pounds, or 118 kilograms, especially large at the time). Francisco became part of the movement for American independence; he attended Patrick Henry's famous "Liberty or Death" speech outside St. John's Church in Richmond.