Felipe Enrique Neri

Felipe Enrique Neri (born Philip Hendrik Nering Bögel; November 23, 1759 in Paramaribo, Surinam – 23 February 1827) was a Dutch businessman and land owner known for his assistance in the Anglo-American settlement of Texas.

Early life and family Philip Hendrik Nering Bögel was the son of the lawyer Coenraed Laurens Nering Bögel from Terborg and Maria Jacoba Kraayvanger from Surinam who married in 1754. In 1764, the family moved to the Netherlands. He married Lady Georgine Wolfelina Françoise Lycklama à Nijeholt in Oldeboorn, on April 28, 1782. They settled in Leeuwarden, where Neri was appointed as a tax collector. The couple had five children.

Flight to North America In 1793 Nering was accused of using tax funds for personal gain. The province put a reward of 1,000 ducats on his head. Via Hamburg - using the pseudonym Bastrop - Philip arrived in Philadelphia with wife and children before the end of the year. In Spanish Louisiana Neri introduced himself as a Dutch nobleman, Baron de Bastrop who had fled the country because of the French invasion. People believed his false identity, and Bastrop was soon engaged in many land deals where he made a fortune but later went broke. According to the American Guide to Louisiana, the Baron de Bastrop grant "was later to associate the names Aaron Burr, Edward Livingston, and Stephen Girard with the region."

1860 survey of Louisiana showing "rejected claim of the Baron de Bastrop" He received permission from Spain to form a colony in the Ouachita River valley. Around 1800 they lived in Frederick County, Maryland; before 1804 his wife and daughters returned to the Netherlands. Around 1806 he lived in San Antonio, Texas.

Career in Texas When Louisiana's sale from France to the United States was finalized, he moved to Texas and received a permit to establish a colony between Bexar and the Trinity River. He moved to San Antonio in 1806, where he posed as a loyal subject who strongly opposed the sale of Louisiana to the USA. In 1810 he was appointed second alcalde, (mayor or chief judicial official), of the Spanish town.

In 1820, Neri met with Moses Austin, whose request to bring Anglo-American settlers into Texas had recently been rejected. He had been acquainted with Moses Austin, having formerly shared the hospitality of a roadhouse in then-Spanish Missouri with Moses 20 years before he came to Texas. Neri used his influence to help Moses Austin, and later Stephen F. Austin obtain grants to bring Anglo-American settlers into Texas, later to be called the Old Three Hundred.