List of colonial governors of Florida
First Spanish period, 1565–1763

List of colonial governors of Florida

Section Title: First Spanish period, 1565–1763
Table Section Text: None

Name	Term	Notes

Pedro Menéndez de Avilés	1565 – 1574	founder of St. Augustine and Adelantado of the first Florida government

Diego de Velasco	1574 – 1576	acting

Hernando de Miranda	1576

Gutierre de Miranda	1576 – 1577	acting

Pedro Menéndez de Márquez and Rodrigo del Junco (the latter held the governorship between 1590 and 1592)	1577 – 1594	beginning of the Timucua missionizations

Domingo Martínez de Avendaño	1594 – 1595

Alonso de las Alas, Bartolomé de Argüelles, and Juan Menéndez Márquez	1595 – 1597	acting

Gonzalo Méndez de Canço	1597 – 1603

Pedro de Ibarra	1603 – 1610

Juan Fernández de Olivera	1610 – 1612

Juan de Arraçola and Joseph de Olivera	1612 – 1613	acting

Juan Treviño de Guillamas	1613 – 1618

Juan de Salinas	1618 – 1624

Luis de Rojas y Borja	1624 – 1630

Andrés Rodríguez de Villegas	1630 – 1631

Nicolás Ponce de León and Eugenio de Espinosa	1631 – 1633	acting

Luis de Horruytiner	1633 – 1638	Apalachee missions established

Damián de Vega Castro y Pardo	1639 – 1645

Benito Ruíz de Salazar Vallecilla	1645 – 1646

Francisco Menéndez Márquez and Pedro Benedit Horruytiner	1646 – 1648	acting

Benito Ruíz de Salazar Vallecilla	1648 – 1651

Nicolás Ponce de León	1651	acting

Pedro Horruytiner Benedit	1651 – 1654	acting

Diego de Rebolledo y Suárez de Aponte	1654 – 1659

Alonso de Aránguiz y Cortés	1659 – 1663

Nicolás Ponce de León II	1663 – 1664	acting

Francisco de la Guerra y de la Vega	1664 – 1671

Manuel de Çendoya	1671 – 1673

Nicolás Ponce de León II	1673 – 1675	acting

Pablo de Hita y Salazar	1675 – 1680

Juan Márquez Cabrera	1680 – 1687

Pedro de Aranda y Avellaneda	1687	acting

Diego de Quiroga y Losada	1687 – 1693

Laureano de Torres y Ayala, Marquis of Casa Torres	1693 – 1699	later served as royal governor of Cuba

José de Zúñiga y la Cerda	1699 – 1706	later served as governor of Cartagena de Indias

Francisco de Córcoles y Martínez	1706 – 1716

Pedro de Olivera y Fullana	1716

Juan de Ayala y Escobar	1716 – 1718	acting

Antonio de Benavides	1718 – 1734

Francisco del Moral y Sánchez	1734 – 1737

Manuel Joseph de Justís	1737	acting

Manuel de Montiano	1737 – 1749

Melchor de Navarrete	1749 – 1752

Fulgencio García de Solís	1752 – 1755	acting

Alonso Fernández de Heredia	1755 – 1758

Lucas Fernando de Palacio y Valenzuela	1758 – 1761

Alonso de Cárdenas	1761 – 1762	acting

Melchor Feliú	1762 – 1763	oversaw migration of many Floridanos to Cuba

Sentence(s)

Menéndez de Avilés was the first governor of Florida from 1565–74.

final_sentence: Menéndez de Avilés was the first governor of Florida from 1565–74.