The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 56, July 1952 - April, 1953 Page: 543

HXotes ald DocumCHets
A Prospectus for the Wavell Coloy iH tZexas
Edited by ROBERT AMSLER
MAJOR GENERAL Arthur G. Wavell was an Englishman
who, as a general officer in the Mexican Army, became
interested in Texas through his association with
Stephen F. Austin. The two men became acquainted early in
1821 when Austin was having difficulties in securing validation
of his father's grant and its transfer to him. The general aided
Austin in the preparation and proper presentation of his claims
and supplied him with funds and a room in his own apartment.
Wavell later stated that Austin would not have been able to re-
main in Mexico had not he, Wavell, given him assistance.'
While in England as a diplomatic agent of Mexico, Wavell
spent some time trying to get financial backing for Austin's enter-
prise in which he considered himself a partner. Although the
company proposed by Wavell was never formed, he received
enough encouraging offers to lead him to believe that such a
colonizing plan might be successful if he were in a position to
direct its operation. It was with this in mind that General Wavell
made his application for an empresario grant in July, 1825, re-
questing permission to effect a settlement in an area bordering
the Red River between Sulphur Fork and Kiamicha River.2 He
was interested in this particular area on the advice of Ben Milam
with whom he was associated in some mining enterprises in
Mexico."
The grant was approved after considerable delay, several more
'Papers relative to Major General Arthur Goodall Wavell's claim in Texas
(MSS. in Texas State Archives).
2Petition of Arthur G. Wavell to the governor of the state of Coahuila and
Texas, July 30, 1825, in Translations of Empresario Contracts (typescript in Gen-
eral Land Office, Austin), 94.
sThe complete details of Milam's partnership with Wavell can be found in Lois
Garver, "Benjamin Rush Milam," Southwestern Historical Quarterly, XXXVIII,
98-120, or in the writer's own account, Life and Times of Arthur Goodall Wavell
(Ph.D. dissertation, typescript, University of Texas, 1950) .