Francis Rule (1835 – 24 June 1925) was a Cornish miner who moved to Mexico and became immensely wealthy by using pumping equipment to explore previously flooded and abandoned mines.

He found and exploited rich seams of silver and use the funds to form various mining companies.

[2] He reached the port of Veracruz in 1854, aged 18, and went on to the Pachuca mining district of Hidalgo where he first worked as a guard on the carriages that took the minerals to Mexico City.

[2] In 1875 Rule joined with William Stoneman, also from Camborne, and Christopher Ludlow from Penzance to form the Cia.

The company imported a Harvey & Co. pumping engine and steam hoist from Cornwall in 1879, making it possible to mine down to 240 metres (790 ft).

Francisco moved to Mexico City, where he married María Cristina Cárdenas y Sánchez Hidalgo, with whom he had another six children.

When the Governor of Hidalgo told him he could not fly a Union Jack from his bank, he built a 1.75 metres (5.7 ft) parapet on the building with the flag in open masonry.

[9] The mansion was decorated in the finest European style, with fine wood and velvet furniture, lamps, mirrors, curtains, gold objects, ivory, porcelain and fireplaces with inlaid Carrara marble.

In 1944 Governor José Lugo Guerrero bought the house for 65,000 pesos as the seat of executive power.

The entrance shows neo-classical influences, with pilasters supporting an entablature with a pediment, cornices and corbels.

One of the leaded stained glass windows is in the office of the general secretary of the presidency, on the second floor, with a circular design of flowers and plant motifs.

[10] He helped finance the Reloj Monumental, a large clock in Pachuca designed in Spanish Baroque style that has a mechanism and chimes that imitate Big Ben of London.

[5] The 40 metres (130 ft) clock tower in French Neoclassical style was presented in 1910 on the centenary of Mexico's independence.