Antonia Paula Bonelly was the daughter of two original New Smyrna colonists–Josef Bonelly and Maria Moll–who survived the ordeal and walked to Saint Augustine only eight years before Antonia was born. During those eights years, however, East Florida underwent a significant political change. The end of the American Revolution in 1784 resulted in the British colonial government ceding authority, and the Bonelly's home fell back into the hands of Spain. Though most British citizens evacuated, the Minorcan community mainly stayed and pledged allegiance to the Spanish monarchy.
One Minorcan, Roque Leonardy, thrived as a wine merchant and orchard grower in Spanish Florida, living near the barracks with his wife, Aqueda Coll, and a large family. At the time of the regime change, his son Bartolome was two years old.
Seeking good fortune similar to Leonardy, Josef Bonelly was granted permission by the new government to settle and cultivate land abandoned in New Smyrna. It was there in 1802 that Miccosuckee warriors murdered Bonelly's eldest son and kidnapped his wife and children for ransom. After a two-year ordeal, Antonia Paula was returned to her family 18 years old and pregnant. (see Raid at Matanzas)
She married Bartolome Leonardy four years later–an act that may have demonstrated unusual grace from a prominent Catholic family toward the unwed mother of a non-white child (though it may have simply demonstrated the strength of community among Minorcan survivors). Though Antonia Paula's Indian daughter did not survive childhood, the Leonardys eventually produced a family of eleven. Their six youngest children crossed the Florida frontier together in 1855 and became some of the original settlers of Tampa on the gulf coast.
In April of 1854, Antonia Paula was the recipient of property in the Minorcan Quarter transferred by quit claim deed by five Pacetti brothers (Andrew, Joseph, Dennis, John, Thomas), who were her nephews by her sister Maria Catarina. This bay front property had once belonged to the Bonelly's parents, and may have been the family's in-town refuge after selling all their rural assets at Matanzas Bar. Bounded by Charlotte Street to the west, this parcel sat mid block between Hypolita and Baya Lane. Thirty years later—and after Antonia Paula's death—it became the site of the first Monson House, a tourist attraction operated by her grandson Vincent (Bossy) Monson, and Capo's Bath House, managed by her grandson-in-law,Adolphus Pacetty.
There is no reason to think Antonia Paula lived in the Minorcan Quarter after her husband's death, however. In fact, the Leonardy brothers (Bartolome and Juan) who inherited Roque's Saint Augustine holdings established a small dynasty in the neighborhood between Bridge and Saint Francis Streets near the original Leonardy ranch. Bartolome died in 1844, after which Antonia Paula lived with sons, daughters, and nieces at three different addresses on Marine Street. Leonardy descendants lived in the neighborhood through the 1970s.
Antonia Paula passed away in 1870 at the home of her daughter, Laureanna Leonardy, and her grand-daughter, Ameila Monson at 56 Marine.