Early Life
A member of the O'Higgins family, Ambrose was born at his family's ancestral seat in Ballynary, County Sligo, Ireland; the son of Charles O'Higgins and his wife (and kinswoman) Margaret O'Higgins, who having lost their lands in Sligo migrated and became tenant farmers at Clondoogan near Summerhill in County Meath ca. 1721. Along with other members of his family Ambrose worked in the service of the Rowley-Langford family. In fact Ambrose is said to have been employed by Lady Jane Rawley.
In 1751, O'Higgins arrived at Cádiz, where he dedicated himself to commerce as an employee of the Butler Trading House. As an Irishman and a Catholic, he was able to emigrate legally to Spanish America in 1756. Once there, and for some time, he was an itinerant trader in Venezuela, New Granada, and Peru, but, being persecuted by the Inquisition, he moved to La Plata Colony, in present day Argentina, where he tried some commercial ventures. From there, O'Higgins proposed to open easy communication between Chile and Mendoza by a way over the Andes, and, his proposition being accepted, he was employed to superintend the works.
Read more about this topic: Ambrosio O'Higgins, 1st Marquis Of Osorno
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“... goodness is of a modest nature, easily discouraged, and when much elbowed in early life by unabashed vices, is apt to retire into extreme privacy, so that it is more easily believed in by those who construct a selfish old gentleman theoretically, than by those who form the narrower judgments based on his personal acquaintance.”
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