Last Will and Testament of Juan Montes Vigil, 1683

Steven Perez
Jan 30
2 min read

Juan Montes Vigil III made another will in Zacatecas on 25 April 1683, just over six months after his previous one. The second will is shorter and less detailed because Juan’s circumstances had changed. His son Francisco Montes Vigil was now married, so Juan no longer needed to name a guardian for him and could entrust him and María de Cantillana, Juan’s sister, as co-executors. In addition, Juan prepared the second will because he was getting ready to depart for a trip, not because he was gravely ill. The prospect of death was less likely now, so the second will was more of an administrative act of good housekeeping rather than a thorough declaration of last directives. Nicolás Díaz Caballero appears only as a debtor rather than an executor; Juan still owns slaves but does not name them; and Carlos Vigil, now about two-and-a-half years old, is still considered a member of the family. The only additional clue about Francisco’s mother is that she, like Juan, was not married.

Once again, I would like to thank Henrietta Martinez Christmas and Rob Martinez for helping track down copies of the wills, which were originally found in the Historical Archives of Zacatecas by Dr. Rick Hendricks. John B. Colligan published a short summary of the content of the wills and one page of the manuscript in the Journal Herencia, Volume 4, Issue 2, April 1996. Copies of the wills are at the New Mexico State Records Center and Archives Repository in Santa Fe, in the Stanley M. Hordes collection.