Pedro José de Zulueta y Madariaga, 2nd Count of Torre Díaz (18 October 1809 – 3 March 1882) was a Spanish politician and aristocrat who became a banker in London.
Early life
Zulueta was born in
Cádiz,
Andalucía on 18 October 1809. He was the eldest son of Josefa Madariaga Ceballos (a daughter of Juana Josefa Ceballos) and Spanish merchant and deputy in the
Spanish Cortes, Don Pedro Juan de Zulueta (1784–1855), who was created the 1st Count of Torre Díaz by Queen
Isabella II of Spain in 1846.[1][2] Among his siblings was brother Antonio de Zulueta.[3]
The de Zulueta family was an ancient
CatholicBasque family from the
Pamplona region of
Northern Spain, who trace their genealogical ancestry back at the least by 700 years including participating in the
Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa in 1212, an important turning point in the Reconquista and the
medieval history of Spain.[4] When the government collapsed in
1823, the Zulueta family was among liberal exiles who went to London where his father established the trading house of Zulueta & Co. in 1823, becoming an agent of rthe
Spanish Government.[3]
Career
After the slaves in
Haiti were freed in 1794 following the
French Revolution, the slave owners settled in
Cuba where slavery boomed at the beginning of the 19th century. His father's firm, Zulueta & Co., was involved along with his cousin,
Julián de Zulueta, 1st Marquis of Álava, before the
slave trade was abolished there as well in 1825.[5]
In 1836, de Zulueta was married to Sophie Anne Willcox, a daughter of
Brodie McGhie Willcox, MP for
Southampton. Together, they lived at 21 Devonshire Place, London and were the parents of:
Sofía Josefa de Zulueta (1839–1925), who married
Rafael Carlos Merry del Val, Marquess of Merry del Val, secretary to the Spanish legation in London, who was a monarchist supporter of
Alfonso XII.[9]
^Lynn Hunt describes the battle as a "major turning point in the reconquista..." See Lynn Hunt, R. Po-chia Hsia, Thomas R. Martin, Barbara H. Rosenwein, and Bonnie Smith, The Making of the West: Peoples and Cultures: A Concise History: Volume I: To 1740, Second Edition (New York: Bedford/St. Martin's 2007), 391.
^Thomas, Hugh (1999). The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440-1870 (1. Touchstone ed.). New York, NY:
Simon & Schuster.
ISBN0-684-83565-7.
The Trial of Pedro Jose de Zulueta in London for Trading in Slaves In: Hugh Thomas: The Slave Trade: The Story of the Atlantic Slave Trade: 1440 - 1870.Simon & Schuster, 1999, ISBN 0-684-83565-7.