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mbrose O'Higgins (1721-1801), is perhaps best known as the father of Bernardo O'Higgins, the South American-born hero of Chile's independence. It is after Bernardo, the Liberator of Chile, that Avenida O'Higgins in the capital city of Santiago is named. However, Ambrose might well be also called Chile's postal hero, or the Irishman who brought the Mail to Chile. On his first harrowing journey over the Andes Mountains separating Argentina and Chile during the winter of 1763-64, Ambrose conceived the idea of a chain of weatherproof shelters. By 1766, thanks to O'Higgins' efficient execution of this plan, Chile enjoyed all-year overland postal service with Argentina, which had previously been cut off for several months each winter.
Don Ambrosio O'Higgins became Viceroy of Peru and Governor of Chile in 1796. In recognition of his success as an administrator in the Spanish colonies he was created Barón de Ballinar by the King Carlos III of Spain in 1788 and Marquis de Osorno by King Carlos IV of Spain in 1792. He usually styled himself as The O'Higgins of Ballinar, though the prefix O appears to have been resumed by him officially only in 1788. He founded, among other towns in Peru, San Ambrosio de Ballenar and was based in the City of Osorno in Chile.
The Arms, Crest and Motto of the City of Osorno where Ambrose was Governor.
Above is the Coat of Arms for the City of Osorno in Chile which was the capital of the region Governed by Don Ambrosio O'Higgins. It incorporates the family Arms of Ambrose's ancestors, (clockwise) O'Higgins, Brehan, O'Conor and O'Fallon. The Griffin on top is the O'Higgins Crest and the O'Higgins motto, Pro Patria (for my country) is also incorporated into the City's Arms.
It has been frequently incorrectly stated that he was born near Summerhill Co. Meath, in which vicinity there is a townland called Ballina; however, Vicuna McKenna[1] and other writers, including the author of the article in the Dictionary of National Biography,[2] give no authority for this claim. In fact none of his earlier biographers appears to have been aware of the existence of further and more conclusive evidence that Don Ambrosio was in fact born in Ballynary, Co. Sligo, of a family of standing long established there. In the Genealogical Office, Dublin Castle, which is the Irish Office of Arms, established in 1552, there is an original contemporary sworn affidavit (not made by an O'Higgins) to that effect corroborating it are prosaic documents free from the pretentious and verbose language which characterizes some of the other eighteenth century claims to "nobility".[3]
The above Arms and Crest were allowed to Ambrose as a descedent of the O'Higgins Sept of Sligo in 1788.
Consequently, as Mehagan states correctly in his book the truth is rather that Ambrosio’s father Charles O’Higgins, the Baron of Ballynary, rather migrated from Co. Sligo to Co. Meath, where he became a tenant farmer, thus accounting for this family’s connection with both Ballynary and Summerhill. [4] The O'Higgins family remained in Summerhill until 1947 when Bridget Higgins, the last of the direct line to remain in Summerhill, died and was buried in the family grave in Agher Church cemetery.
A section of the O'Higgins Monument in O'Higgins Memorial Park, Ballynary, Co. Sligo
It has also been reported that Don Ambrose O'Higgins sent money to a Father Kellett, P.P. of Summerhill, for his impoverished relatives there. There was, in fact, never a parish priest of Summerhill of that name and this has again caused some people to doubt if there was any connection between Don Ambrose and the O’Higgins of Summerhill, Co. Meath. However, there was a Protestant Rector of Agher (which includes Summerhill) named Rev. John Kellett, but he was not appointed until 1808, seven years after the death of Ambrosio O'Higgins. Furthermore, there were members of the O’Higgins family living in Agher at that time and there is a tombstone in Agher Church cemetery marking the O’Higgins family grave. So it seems more likely that the remittance was actually made by Ambrose’s son Bernardo sometime after his father’s death. Either way, the statement, which presumably has some foundations, bears out the belief that Don Ambrose O'Higgins’ family were the O’Higgins of Summerhill, Co. Meath.
Presumably also the tradition that he was employed as a Page by the Countess of Bective has some factual basis, though that lady was not so called till long after Ambrosio had gone to Spain. The Summerhill estate belonged to Sir Hercules Langford, whose daughter and heiress married Sir John Rowley in 1671. In 1754 Jane Rowley (Langford) married Sir Thomas Taylor, M.P. of Kells, who was created Baron Headfort in 1760 and Earl of Bective in 1766. This explains the anomaly in the tradition that O'Higgins was in the employment of Lady Becitve of Summerhill although she was not so called until after his departure for Spain.
His emigration to Spain was due to a relative of his being a prominent ecclesiastic there (confessor to King Carlos III) and for a time he studied for the priesthood in that country. Thence certainly he went to South America at the age of 41. The most recent and most scholarly of his biographers, Ricardo Donoso, says that in 1761 Don Ambrosio obtained a certificate of nationality in which he was stated to be a Roman Catholic, resident in Cadiz, son of Don Carlos O'Higgins and Margaret O'Higgins of Ballynary, in the Diocese of Elphin, Ireland.[5]
Though not necessarily relevant it is perhaps of interest to mention that Sir Hercules Langford of Summerhill, Co. Meath, acquired much land in north Connacht in the seventeenth century as the Mayo Book of Survey & Distribution testifies. His name does not appear, however, in the S. & D. Books for Sligo and Roscommon. Ballynary is on the Roscommon border of Co. Sligo. There is no doubt that a branch of the O'Higgins family of Connacht was established at Kilbeg, Co. Westmeath, at least as early as 1550, as we know from a Funeral Entry of 1638. Their connection with the midland counties in the sixteenth century is corroborated by the Fiants; and in the next century Petty's "census" of 1659 lists the name O’Higgins as numerous both in King's and Queen's Counties (Offaly and Laois). In 1788, the Chief Herald of Ireland accepted Don Ambrose’s pedigree as The O’Higgins of Ballynary and confirmed on him the O’Higgins Arms, Crest and Motto[6], which have been passed on through the O’Higgins of Summerhill to the present day to the Hon. C.T. O’Higgins, Lord of Ballynary and Honoury Chief of the O'Higgins.
A sample of Ambrose O'Higgins' writing on a letter from 1789.
Ambrose was quite senior in age and society when his son Bernardo O'Higgins (1780-1846) was born to him and a much younger woman called Maria Isabel Riquelme.(7) For this reason and the fact that he was forbidden from marrying a member of the Spanish colonial aristocracy, Ambrose never publically acknowledged his son while he was alive. He did however provide for him financially and sent him to be educated in Peru, Spain and England. He also left him all of his lands and titles when he died. However, Bernardo was denied his father’s titles by the King of Spain probably due to the fact that Bernardo was already known for his nationalistic and republican ideas. Bernardo went on to infact replace his father as Vice-Roy by becoming Chile’s first Head of State and today he is recognised as the Liberator of Chile, in which country a province is called O'Higgins in memory of both Ambrose and Bernardo O’Higgins.
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7. Murray, Edmundo, 'Ambrose [Ambrosio] O'Higgins (c. 1721-1801)' in "Irish Migration Studies in Latin America" 4:4 October 2006
