Mayport Village

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In 1562 the French Huguenot Admiral Gaspard de Coligny sent an expedition to establish a claim in America. The first expedition was led by Admiral Jean Ribault. Ribault entered what we know as the St. Johns River on May 1, 1562, and believing he was the discoverer, named it Riviere de Mai. The river had previously been discovered by a pilot, Juan Bono Quexo, in 1520, who piloted some earlier explorers. Under the Spanish Corrientes, Rio de San Mateo, etc., and finally Rio de San Juan. Under the English the river became the St. Johns. Ribault placed a monument on the south shore of the river, near the present site of Mayport, claiming the land for France. Later, in 1564 , a French expedition established what we know as Fort Caroline, but the French were routed by the Spanish.

The Spanish ceded East Florida to the English by Treaty in 1763. After only twenty years the land was again under Spanish control. After 1790, during the Spanish occupation, Andrew Dewees received a land grant which included the Orange Grove plantation.

In 1821 the Spanish ceded Florida to the United States. On September 26, 1828, the heirs of Andrew Dewees were granted the land by United States commissioners. On January 20, 1827, an act by the Legislative Council of the Territory of Florida setting the rate of pilotage at the bar of the St. Johns River was established . In order to be near the mouth of the river, pilots and fishermen lived on the land which later became Mayport. Old maps at one time referred to the area as Hazard and the old lighthouse was called the Hazard Light.

A Major Cornelius Taylor came to Florida to fight the Seminoles and married Katherine Floyd, an heir to the Dewees grant. In 1841 they sold some property to David L. Palmer and Darius Ferris. Palmer and Ferris laid out the town of Mayport.

The present Mayport lighthouse, erected in 1859, still stands in the United States Naval Station, Mayport. It is now an historical site listed on the National Register.

The extension of the Florida East Coast Railway System to Mayport in late 1900 helped the growth and economy of the town. But, primarily, the extension helped the railway. Trains were then able to load coal needed to fuel the railway system's engines directly from the ships bringing the coal to Mayport docks. Today Mayport is a thriving, picturesque fishing village with ferry transport across the river.