Ferrer Family

The legacy of the Ferrers is still visible in a set of elements that we will find in different parts of the town in relation to this great family of Pasaia.

Attached to the church of Pasai San Pedro, his descendants erected in 1865, for Joaquín María Ferrer and his family, a mausoleum-chapel with an inscription on the frontispiece: D. Joachim Ferrer progenitori. Pia Proles. Hoc monumentun erexit anno MDCCCLXV, and that, on the occasion of the works on the fishing pier, was moved in 1952 stone by stone from the Parish to the Cemetery of the Villa.

A blazon embedded in the Nautical School, the family pantheon in the Church of Pasai Donibane (San Juan) and the mausoleum of Pasai San Pedro are other elements that evoke the life of a saga of pasaitarras not for little known less relevant.

Some relatives in this family are:

• José Joaquín Ferrer Cafranga (Pasai Donibane 1763-1818), naval officer, carried out important scientific and mathematical works both in Europe and in America, among them referring to the measurement of the diameter of the moon or collaborating in the establishment of geographical coordinates in North America. His works were published in English and French in various magazines. Another relative, Juan Manuel Ferrer (1769) was a diplomat in Rome and a knight of the Order of Carlos III.
• Joaquín Mª Ferrer Cafranga (Pasai San Pedro 1777-1861) A progressive politician, he was a deputy to the Cortes of Gipuzkoa. As mayor of Madrid, he was president of the same and of the provisional government in 1840. Then minister of State and vice president of the provisional regency the same year, minister of State and Finance, and president of the Council of Ministers in the regency of the Duke of La Victoria in 1841.
• Juan Bautista Ferrer Cafranga (Pasai San Pedro 1775-1882) was the chief minister of the Río de la Plata station (naval administrative unit of the Spanish Crown during the viceregal era, founded in 1776 and extinguished in 1814).
• Juan Manuel Ferrer Cafranga (Pasai Donibane 1769-1834). Minister Plenipotentiary in Rome. Knight of Carlos III. Benefactor of the parish of Pasaia Donibane, where he is buried together with his brother José Joaquín.

Members of the Ferrer family were first-vote mayors of Pasaia: Joaquín María in 1817, José Joaquín in 1818, Juan Bautista in 1819 and Juan Manuel in 1820. This alternation in the mayor's office is due to the Royal Order of Carlos IV of 27 May in which it is established that the two neighborhoods divided by the port channel form the same and only council, and that this is composed of a Mayor, his Lieutenant and three Councilors, and that in the election of all there is an alternative so One year a neighbor of the Fuenterrabía gang is mayor, and the next one of the residents of the neighborhood to San Sebastián.