José de los Santos Berreyesa

Life

José de los Santos Berreyesa was born in Yerba Buena (present day San Francisco) in northern Alta California of Mexico. He was the sixth child and fourth son of José de los Reyes Berreyesa.

Berreyesa served as the alcalde at the Mexican Presidio of Sonoma. In 1846, while alcalde and during the Bear Flag Revolt, he was jailed with two of his brothers by American John C. Frémont. When his father traveled up to see how his three sons were being treated in jail, the father and two cousins, twin sons of Francisco de Haro, were shot and killed in San Rafael by a group of three men, including Kit Carson, who was assigned the task by Frémont. The dead were stripped of their belongings, and left for Mission Indians to bury. Later, Carson told Jasper O'Farrell that he regretted killing the Californios, but that the act was only one such that Frémont ordered him to commit.

;Family Berreyesa married Francisca Ignacis Martínez (1824–1907), a twin daughter of Ygnacio Martínez. The couple had four sons and two daughters between 1848 and 1856.

;Rancho Mallacomes Berreyesa received the 17742 acre Mexican land grant of Rancho Mallacomes from Governor Manuel Micheltorena in 1843. It was located in the Napa Valley, within present day in Napa County, California. After the U.S. statehood of California (1850), as required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Mallacomes was filed by Berreyesa in 1852 with the Public Land Commission. 12540 acre was patented by the U.S. to his estate in 1873.

José de los Santos Berreyesa died in Martinez, California on October 30, 1864.

References

References

1. "Descendants of Luis Cayetano (Berrelleza) Berreyesa".
2. (1912). "The Beginnings of San Francisco".
3. [http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb109nb422&chunk.id=dsc-1.3.6&brand=oac United States. District Court (California : Northern District) Land Case 161 ND ]
4. "Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886".