News / Arts
Was Cervantes Bristolian?
On the 400th anniversary of Miguel de Cervantes’ death, a historian has claimed that the famous Spanish author is related to Bristol merchants.
Julio Mayo has uncovered documents that reveal Cervantes had ancestors with the surnames of Tintam and Herbert.
Spanish ex-pat newspaper The Olive Press reports that an Utrera Town Hall manuscript from 1593 identifies ‘Juan Titon de Servantes’ as possibly the father of the author.
Titon could be a Spanish language version of the Anglo Saxon surname Tintam, which Mayo has discovered to have been a family of Bristol merchants and slavers who settled in Cadiz in 1480.
Mayo believes that Tintam’s descendent Juan Titon de Cervantes was a direct predecessor of Miguel via his nun daughter Maria Titon.
Mayo told The Olive Press: “I truly believe I have proved Cervantes had English family and it’s only the beginning.”
Miguel de Cervantes; engraving by Mackenzie, c. 1600
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