The Forged Ramón Vigil (Pedro Sánchez) Land Grant (Part 1 of 2)

Forged copy of Pedro Sánchez grant

Origin of the Ramón Vigil Land Grant (1742)

The so-called Ramón Vigil Grant was actually granted to my 7x-great-grandfather Pedro Sánchez in 1742 by Governor Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza. Sánchez was the son of Pedro Sánchez de Iñigo and Leonor Baca, who had both escaped the Pueblo Revolt of 1680 as children and were married in the exile colony of El Paso del Norte before returning to New Mexico with the Vargas reconquest. Leonor Baca was killed at San Ildefonso during another Indian uprising in 1696, along with a daughter and son.

Pedro Sánchez, resident of Santa Cruz de la Cañada, stated in a petition to the governor that he was unable to maintain his twenty-person household (his wife Micaela Quintana, twelve children, three orphaned nephews and three female servants) on a small piece of land that he had purchased. He had even resorted to borrowing land from neighbors, but it was still insufficient for his needs. He therefore asked the governor to grant him a tract of land on the other side of the Rio del Norte bounded on the north by the lands of the Indians of San Ildefonso, on the south by the lands of Andres Montoya, on the east by the Rio del Norte and on the west by the Sierra Madre mountains.

On March 20, 1742, Governor Mendoza granted the lands and ordered the alcalde mayor of the Santa Cruz jurisdiction to conduct the official act of possession. On March 28th, Juan Joseph Lobato summoned the Indians of San Ildefonso and, finding that they did not hold any title to the land in question, placed the lands in Sánchez’s possession. To ensure that there would be no future disputes, he extended the Indian lands further than the area they had already cultivated, placing a cross demarcating the boundaries between Sánchez’s lands and theirs. The official act was signed by two witnesses, Juan García de Mora and Joseph Quintana.

On August 15, 1749, Pedro’s eldest son Francisco (A) bought out the interests of seven of his siblings in the grant. He gave his sisters Bárbara (J), María Teresa (E) and María (G) a piece of land measuring 40 varas in the Mesilla and a house. To buy out his brothers’ shares he paid Miguel (B) and Bernardo (H) eight sheep each, Julián (C) eight pesos in cash and Pedro (I) a bull.[i] The remaining siblings were Gertrudes (D), José Antonio (F), who was killed by Indians just a month after this transaction, Antonia Teresa (K) and perhaps one missing individual, assuming all twelve siblings were still alive. Pedro Sánchez and Micaela Quintana were also both still alive at this time.

Complaint of San Ildefonso Pueblo Against Spanish Settlers (1763)

In early 1763, the San Ildefonso Indians filed a complaint with Governor Tomás Vélez Cachupín alleging that the ranches of several Spanish families, including the Sánchez tract, encroached on their communal pasturing lands. The Indians objected to the damage this caused, particularly when the Spaniards went to collect their livestock that had wandered into their lands, killing the Indians’ horses and dispersing their cattle. They claimed that they had protested at the time of the original grant to Pedro Sánchez but had received no acknowledgment from the authorities. Furthermore, they had learned that Pedro Sánchez’s son-in-law Antonio Mestas intended to construct another ranch on a site that would obstruct access to the only watering area for their livestock. The Indians therefore asked the governor to properly measure and demarcate the pueblo’s lands as had originally been granted to them.

In response, the governor ordered the alcalde mayor of Santa Cruz de la Cañada, Carlos Fernández, to examine the grants and title papers of the settlers in the area, and measure the distance between the pueblo and the ranches to determine the extent to which they infringed on the pueblo’s land rights. When Fernández measured west from the western wall of the pueblo’s cemetery, he discovered that the Sánchez ranch was 1,800 varas within the pueblo’s territory. The ranches of other Spanish settlers were similarly found to be within the limits of the pueblo’s lands. Several of the Spanish families protested against the prospect of being forced to relocate, arguing that dispersing the Spanish settlers would make the kingdom less defensible. Moreover, it would set a bad precedent for all the other pueblos, as it was quite common for Spanish settlements to be technically within the pueblo limits. In their view, such laws should not be rigorously enforced when they were not practical to the New Mexican context.

The governor decided to seek guidance from the lawyer for the royal council and corregidor of Chihuahua, Licenciado Don Fernando de Torija y Leri. The opinion of Don Fernando was to offer a compromise, suggesting the Indians be given additional unoccupied lands to the north and west of the pueblo to make up the difference for the lands lost to Spanish settlements. He also recommended that the pueblo boundaries be properly marked and the Spanish families keep their livestock out of those areas or suffer strict penalties. The governor issued his final decision on April 12, 1765. He granted all the land necessary to the Indians to the west of the pueblo, including the Pedro Sánchez property, which he described as being unoccupied, situated in the valley of the little arroyo which they called Los Guajes. The alcalde mayor Antonio José Ortiz summoned the Spanish families, including the heirs of Pedro Sánchez (who were not named) and all agreed to abide by the order. However, they expressed that they wished to make further representations regarding the final boundaries. After hearing several more petitions, the governor issued a final ruling upholding the rights of the San Ildefonso Indians, which in effect revoked the Pedro Sánchez land grant.

Petition to the US Surveyor General (1852)

In spite of Governor Vélez’s decision to revoke the grant, more than 85 years later on August 28, 1851, a descendent of Francisco Sánchez, Antonio Sánchez, sold eight parts of the land grant on behalf of his siblings to José Ramón Vigil for the price of a yoke of oxen, 36 sheep, a ram and 20 pesos in cash. Three parts of the grant remained with three of Antonio’s siblings who did not wish to sell.[ii] On May 9, 1856, Vigil submitted a petition to the US Surveyor General William Pelham seeking confirmation of the grant by Congress. His petition included a reference to the original 1742 grant document, which had been filed with the Surveyor General by Manuel Álvarez on March 9, 1852, and the deeds of sale from 1749 and 1851.

As one of the earliest petitions to come before the surveyor general, well before the creation of the Court of Private Land Claims, the process was much less rigorous than for later cases. The case was set for trial on July 13, 1859 and was decided just two days later. It is unclear from the land grant case file if Mr. Pelham questioned any witnesses or reviewed evidence, as there are no records from the trial. The one-page decision briefly described the history of the grant and the claimant’s petition, recommending approval:

“The claimant, although he refers to other documents in his petition, has never filed them and consequently can show no transfer of title from the original grantee to himself. The grant referred to above and acted upon by this office is the original filed by the claimants, and is believed to be genuine.

The case has been advertised. The parties are and have been in quiet and peaceable possession of the land from time immemorial. It is therefore deemed to be a good and valid one and is approved to the legal representatives of Pedro Sánchez and is ordered to be transmitted to Congress for its action in the premises.”

On June 21, 1860 Congress approved the Ramón Vigil grant and it was surveyed in April 1877. The survey found the grant measured 31,802.92 acres.[iii] However, if the grant had been revoked by Governor Vélez in 1765, why was there no evidence of this action and why didn’t anybody object to the confirmation of the grant? All the evidence indicates that the 1742 grant papers submitted to the US Survey General were forged.

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, Survey General Report No. 38.

[i] New Mexico, U.S., Land Records of New Spain, 1692-1916, Registers of Land Titles, Serial 10296 Day Book C Register of Land Titles, (Image 188/203) available on Ancestry.com

[ii] Ibid, Image 189/203. It is not possible to determine the identity of Antonio Sánchez with the information in the land title register and his siblings are not named.

[iii] New Mexico, U.S., Land Records of New Spain, 1692-1916, Docket Book, Serial 10301 Court of PLC Docket Book, (Image 88/342) available on Ancestry.com