Juan de Miralles y Tizner (July 23, 1713, in Petrer, Province of Alicante, Spain – April 28, 1780 in Morristown, New Jersey) was a Spanish arms dealer who became friends with George Washington during the American Revolutionary War.
[4] Miralles emigrated to Cuba still at a young age, and soon established himself as a merchant in Havana, then the center of Spanish maritime commerce in the Americas, and also of the intercolonial smuggling of contraband.
[6] Given the possible threat represented by the British Royal Navy to the maritime commerce of the Spanish colonies, Spain took an officially neutral position in the American War of Independence.
[10] Also while in Philadelphia, Miralles became affiliated with the prominent shipping-banking firm of Willing, Morris & Co. During the Seven Years' War, France had ceded Spain its Louisiana territory west of the Mississippi under the Treaty of Fontainebleau (1762).
In September 1779, the Governor of Spanish Louisiana, Bernardo de Gálvez launched a pre-emptive strike against the British and seized Fort Bute on the Bayou Manchac, thus opening a second front.
The French Minister Plenipotentiary, Anne-César, Chevalier de la Luzerne arranged for a requiem Mass to be celebrated for Miralles at St. Mary's Church in Philadelphia on 8 May 1780.