Cañada de Cochiti Land Grant (Part 1 of 4)

Origin and Settlement of the Cañada de Cochiti Land Grant (1728-1785)

My 8x-great-grandfather José Antonio Lucero de Godoy, the son of Captain Antonio Lucero de Godoy and Antonia Varela de Losada, was born in the New Mexican refugee settlement at El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez) around 1687. He was six years old when his parents returned to New Mexico in 1693 after the Vargas reconquest. The family settled in Santa Fe, but José Antonio relocated to Albuquerque where he married Francisca Varela Jaramillo on September 27, 1712. On August 2, 1728, José Antonio petitioned Governor Juan Domingo de Bustamante for a grant of land upon the mesa of Cochiti, stating that he had a family and no place to live. He requested a piece of land to cultivate ten fanegas of wheat and two of corn, and to pasture his livestock, describing the area as bounded on the north side by the old Pueblo of Cochiti, on the east by the Rio del Norte, on the south by the lands of the Cochiti natives and on the west by the Jemez mountains.

Governor Bustamante directed Captain Andrés Montoya, alcalde mayor of San Felipe, Santo Domingo and Cochiti, to examine the piece of land and authorized him to grant the request on condition that there were not any other claimants to the property. Once granted, José Antonio and his heirs were free to enjoy full rights of possession of the land as long as he settled it within the timeframe prescribed by royal ordinances. On August 6, 1728, Captain Montoya granted the land in the name of his Majesty to José Antonio, taking him by the hand and conducting him over the land in a sign of lawful possession, with José Santisteban as a witness.

Although it’s uncertain when the family relocated to Cochiti, the standard farming grant in the Viceroyalty of New Spain stipulated that all or most of the land had to be cultivated within one year.[i] The couple’s fifth child Martín was baptized in Albuquerque on February 5, 1729, so presumably they moved to Cochiti shortly thereafter. Although baptism records for their other children have not been located, their first four children, Antonio, Juan Cristóbal, María and Juan Ignacio, were likely baptized in Albuquerque while their last two children, Miguel and Laureano, were likely born in Cochiti and baptized either in Santa Fe or Albuquerque. The family joined other settler families in an area that came to be known as the Cañada de Cochiti (Cochiti Ravine). Church records of the pueblo’s mission church, San Buenaventura de Cochiti, attest to the presence of several Spanish families in the area.

The Cañada de Cochiti is a mesa at an elevation of approximately 7,000 feet that is split by canyons and an occasional peak. East of the divide created by the Jemez Mountains, the waters of the tributaries flow through the canyons south and east into the Rio Grande River. At the time that the Lucero de Godoy-Varela Jaramillo family settled there, the entire area was covered by timber, and the soil on the flat of the mesa was very good grazing country. The principal mesa was like a natural fortress on the middle of the steppe, with the entire face of the mesa to the north, south and southeast characterized by precipitous cliffs that would have been difficult to climb. The western boundary was a very sharp bluff coming over the steppe of the mesa enclosed by a continuous line of sheer cliffs. The land’ s terrain, consisting of mesas with abrupt cliffs, furnished natural corrals for colts and other livestock, or potreros (fenced pastures). Thus, it was ideal country for ranching and farming.

At the time of the 1750 Spanish Census, Francisca was recorded as the head of household with five adult children and five Indian servants. Since Antonio, Cristóbal and María were already married and enumerated with other households, the children living with her were likely Ignacio, Martín, Miguel, Laureano and an adopted daughter, Josefa. Francisca’s husband José Antonio must have passed away sometime before 1750. Less than five years later, Francisca made her last will and testament. She declared that her husband had received a grant of land in the Cañada de Cochiti and that she was leaving this tract to her heirs, except for one portion that had been sold among the following parties: Juan Pedro Archuleta, Diego Gallegos, Tomás Gallegos and Josefa Gutiérrez (wife of Diego Gallegos), all described according to their deeds except for the parcel owned by Diego Gallegos, known to her heirs.

She also declared that she and her son-in-law, Martín Gallegos, had purchased a piece of land from Felipe Silva for 200 pesos and that her portion should be partitioned in equal parts to her heirs. She also donated two more parcels of land—one to Diego Aragon and another measuring 100 varas to her Indian servant Rosa. Lastly, she appointed as her executors, in order of succession, José Jaramillo, Martín Gallegos and Cristóbal Lucero. She passed away before January 24, 1755, for on that day her three executors appeared before Miguel Tenorio de Alba, the teniente with jurisdiction over the Cochiti area, to oversee the partitioning of her property. The teniente proceeded to measure the farming lands from east to west, finding that they totaled 5,222 varas. The allotments were made as shown in Exhibit 1. Antonio and María each received 800 varas because earlier they had received 12 pesos more than their other siblings. Although Martín’s portion was not recorded, we can assume he inherited an equal amount.

Exhibit 1: Partition of Cañada de Cochiti land grant to heirs of Francisca Varela Jaramillo

Heir	Land inheritance (varas)	Total (varas)
Antonio (A)	800	800
Cristóbal (B)	800 plus 10 more	810
María (C)	800 plus 200 more donated by her brothers	1000
Ignacio (D)	800 plus 10 more	810
Martín (E)	800 plus 10 more	810
Miguel (F)	800 plus 10 more	810
Laureano (G)	800 plus 10 more	810
Grand Total		5,850

The grand total is greater than the total area of land measured by teniente de Alba, but perhaps portions of these parcels had been granted earlier. Or, once Martín’s omission was discovered, the portion of each heir was reduced accordingly.

The next historical record pertaining to the ownership of land in the Cañada de Cochiti is a petition from 1785 submitted by Cayetano Montaño on behalf of the heirs of Antonio Lucero de Godoy, residents of the place of our Lady of Guadalupe, in the jurisdiction of the Cañada de Cochiti. The petitioners claimed that the teniente Antonio Gallegos had endeavored to pasture the horses of the royal cavalry on the “Cañada de en Medio,” displacing them from their property. The alcalde mayor Antonio Armenta, upon consultation with his superior (presumably Governor Don Juan Bautista de Anza) reiterated the rights of the petitioners to the land, superseding the claims of teniente Gallegos, and reconfirmed the grant in an official document dated November 2, 1785 at the Pueblo of San Buenaventura de Cochiti. Exhibit 2 shows the list of petitioners in the order they were listed in the petition and their descent from José Antonio and Francisca. The group was made up of sons, grandsons and spouses of their granddaughters.

Exhibit 2: Petitioners of Cañada de Cochiti land grant, 1785

Antonio Lucero de Godoy (A)

José Antonio Lucero (B1)

Miguel Lucero (F)

Ignacio Lucero (D)

Francisco Lucero (B4)

Loreto Lucero (F1)

Xavier Lucero (E3)

Antonio José Lobato (B2(1))

Ramón Gallegos (C6)

Cayetano Montaño (C5(1))

Bernabé Gallegos (C3)

Juan Nepomuceno Lucero (B3) 

Since Cristóbal (B) and María (C) do not appear on the list, perhaps they were deceased and represented by their heirs. Martín (E) had passed away on August 5, 1785, so was represented by his son Xavier (E3).[ii] Laureano (G) did not appear on the list of petitioners, but he was still alive because he sold 407 varas of his share to his brother Antonio (A) according to a document dated October 18, 1789. Antonio in turn, on the same day, granted those lands to his two sons Benito (A5) and José (A1). The same document notes that Benito (A5) sold his share of the land to Benito Tafoya.

Continued in Part 2. Subscribe to the blog to receive email updates.

Note: the source of the information regarding the history of the grant can be found in the New Mexico State Archives, Land Grant Case Files, Court of Private Land Claims Case No. 205 and 240 and Survey General Report No. 135.

[i] William B. Taylor, “Land and Water Rights in the Viceroyalty of New Spain,” New Mexico Historical Review, vol. 50 No. 3, 1975, 195.

[ii] According to the land grant files, Francisco Xavier Lucero was his only heir at law, or the only one of his heirs who was of legal age (in colonial Spain, this was age 25). Although his elder sister María Francisca was already married and still living, for some reason she was not noted as an heir at law.