Maria Gracia Dura Bin was the daughter of a wealthy Greek Smyrna merchant. She married Dr. Andrew Turnbull a former British Consul at Smyrna, who organized the largest attempt at British colonization in the New World by founding New Smyrna, Florida, named in honor of Gracia's birthplace. New Smyrna, Florida Colony, founded in 1768, encompassed some 101,400 acres and was nearly three times the size of the colony at Jamestown.

It was reported that besides the Greeks living in Greece, and in Asia Minor, that there were many Greeks settled in Minorca, and the English felt that the Turkish rulers of Greece would not object if the English enticed Greeks to leave their homeland for a new country and, hopefully, a better life.