II-English Texans
Early English Sailors
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David Ingram, Richard Twide, and Richard
Browne have the honor of being the first
Englishmen to arrive in the Texas area. In
1568 they were put ashore by the captain
of the Minion, along with 114 other sailors,
when their crowded ship had little hope of
making it back to England. They began walkWhat is the game that Englishman William Anson, on
ing. Only these three men completed the long
the for left, is playing with his friends in a field at
walk from Tampico, Mexico, through Texas, Valera, Texas?
and on to Nova Scotia, where they got a ship
back to England. David Ingram then made a ers and were angry about the lack of food,
report about the journey to the English min- the heat, and all the rattlesnakes. They soon
isters in 1582.
returned to England or moved to other
In the 1600s and 1700s, the English began to areas, where they blended with the Anglocolonize the East Coast of America, leaving Americans, American-born descendants of
the British and other European immigrants,
the Spanish to colonize the Gulf Coast area.
Between 1628 and 1642, 58,000 immigrants who came to Texas from the various states of
came to America from Great Britain, and by the United States.
the end of the 1700s, 60% of all Americans
were of English birth or descent.
English Settlers
The English colonizers in Texas were not very
successful. Regardless of when they came,
they had difficulty adapting to the conditions
they found; they were just not very flexible.
John Charles Beale (1804-1878) had claim to
70 million acres along the Rio Grande. He
brought 59 families to the town of Dolores
in 1833, but they scattered to other places
before the war for Texas independence from
Mexico.
Other settlements occurred in the Peters
Colony in North Texas and in Kent near
Waco. Most of the families were not farm-
The greatest impact on Texas by the English
came between 1865 and 1890, when wealthy
Englishmen spent $25 million to buy 20 million acres of Texas land in the Panhandle for
large-scale ranching. One British investment
company bought from the state government
3,000,000 acres, which became the XIT
Ranch. The money from the land sale was
used to build the state capitol in Austin.
Men of the English ruling class purchased
shares in many cattle and ranch investment
companies in the Panhandle, including the
famous Matador, LX, Rocking Chair, and
Frying Pan Ranches. Most were bad investments, and fortunes were lost. A few wealthy
Englishmen who came to Texas were the
source of many tall tales and jokes about fancy manners and riding the range in top hats.
The British introduced barbed wire, electric
fences, steel windmills, deep wells, dipping
vats, and better stock for breeding. It was
British money that helped Texas recover after
the Civil War.
English Cultural Folkways
Many of the early English settlers who came
to Texas returned to England because they
didn't like the wild and rough conditions.
But those who stayed, along with the AngloAmericans, gave us apple pie and many child.hood games: leap frog, tag, base, crack-thewhip, jump rope, and pitching horseshoes.
The bedtime stories of Hen ny-Pen ny, Little
Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, and The Three
Little Pigs also came with the English settlers.
The English in Texas are responsible for helping the arts and literature get started. English
actors and musicians brought a bit of culture
to the West with traveling theater and musical programs, including the actress Lillie
Langtry. The cowboys adored her, and Judge
Roy Bean named his Jersey Lilly Saloon and
a town, Langtry, Texas, in her honor. His pet
monkey he also named "The Lily."
English Common Law formed the basis for
much of Texas's legal system and replaced
many of the Spanish laws used to create law
and order. From William Travis, who began
as a lawyer in Austin's Colony, to Judge Roy
Bean, who represented "the law west of the
Pecos," lawyers in Texas adapted English
laws.
Amazing English Texans
Joseph Heneage Finch (1849-1885), the 7th
Earl of Aylesford, left England in 1883 to escape a divorce scandal. He had a ranch near
Big Springs, but he built a hotel so he could
always be sure of a good room in town and
purchased the butcher shop to get the best
cuts of meat. He also bought the town saloon
to get his daily supply of whiskey, and everyone who came to the saloon was his guest and
drank for free. Between foxhunts, he invested
$40,000 in cattle alone. At his death in 1885,
the estate and the cattle sold for only $750.
The Anson Brothers, Claud, Frank, and
William, were sons of the 2nd Earl of
Lichfield. Claud, after learning the cattle
business, invested in the Kickapoo Ranch
east of San Angelo. His brother Billy became
Texas's greatest breeder and promoter of
quarter horses. He bred English sires (males)
and Texas mares (females). During the Boer
War in South Africa in 1899, the British
there contracted with the Ansons to supply
horses. They shipped 20,000 Texas horses to
South Africa.
The Ansons also introduced polo, "the sport
of kings," to the cowboys of Texas. The quarter horse made an ideal horse for playing polo
as well as for working cattle at close quarters.
Ben Thompson (1843-1884) was born in
Yorkshire, England, and came to Austin with
his family in 1845. He became famous for his
silk hats, tailored suits, waxed mustache, and
deadly aim with a gun. He owned a gambling
game in Austin's Iron Front Saloon, where
he made a small fortune and increased his
reputation as a gunfighter. He was elected to
be Austin's marshal in 1880 and cleared the
town of outlaws, but then he began drinking.
He was killed at the San Antonio Vaudeville
Theatre in 1884.
Web site: www.texancultures.utsa.edu/texansoneandall