Who founded the first significant Anglo colony in Spanish Texas?

Stephen Austin, an empresario, founded the first Anglo colony in Spanish Texas in 1821, the year Mexico became independent from Spain. Austin is generally known as "the Father of Texas." In 1820, his father, Moses Austin, began preparations for settling the colony but died before he could do so. In 1821, Stephen Austin received permission from the Spanish authorities to settle 300 colonists in Texas. The colonists were supposed to be loyal to the Spanish throne and to Catholicism. The first settlers, known as the "Old 300," settled between the Colorado and Brazo Rivers. Later, land grants were made to other empresarios. Most of the settlers came from the American south, including Kentucky, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, Louisiana, and Mississippi, to claim inexpensive land that cost one tenth of what it would've cost in the U.S. Many of these new settlers turned to raising cotton and began importing slaves into Texas, which was against Mexican law. As a result, the authorities began to stop immigration into the area in 1830.