Tom McCabes Genealogy 2022

Petition From Settlers of Santa Maria de Grado (Chimayo Area)

The Villa de Santa María de Grado struggled to obtain formal recognition as a town because the Villa Nueva de Santa Cruz, although nearly abandoned, still held royal sanction as the official villa and seat for local government in the area. That there were two sites contending as the municipal center of the jurisdiction is apparent in a petition of residents of the unofficial Villa de Santa María de Grado dated December 1706. The petition begins, “The taxpaying citizens of the Villa Nueva de Santa María de Grado appear before Your Very Reverend Father and we state that in this jurisdiction we find ourselves lacking spiritual pastors, a cause of deficiency.”12 The petition continued with an explanation for the need of a religious minister assigned to the new town and noted that the town was a visita of the Pueblo of San Juan de los Caballeros. The following twenty-nine residents of the Villa de Santa María de Grado signed the petition:

Roque de Madrid Juan de Medina Ortiz Bartolomé Lobato Miguel Tenorio de Alva Tomás Nuñez Domingo Martín [Serrano] Miguel Martín [Serrano] Juan Manuel Chirinos Sebastián Durán José Griego Diego Martín [Serrano] Blas Martín [Serrano] Juan de Mondragón Antonio Martín [Serrano] Matías Madrid Francisco de Rivera José Madrid Baltasar de Castro [Rodarte] Andrés de Cárdenas Andrés González Ambrosio Fresqui [Fresquis] José Naranjo Juan de Aragón Simón Fresqui [Fresquis] Antonio de Sandoval Juan de Guido José Fresqui [Fresquis] Antonio de Moya Don Tomás de Herrera y Sandoval

The spouses of the men who signed the petition deserve mention as being residents of the Chimayó area:

Juana Durán, wife of Tomás Núñez. Francisca de Gamboa, wife of Andrés González. Josefa de Herrera, wife of Domingo Martín Serrano. Juana de Ávalos, wife of Andrés de Cárdenas. María de Carvajal, wife of Antonio Martín Serrano. Agustina Romero, wife of Miguel Tenorio de Alba. Antonia de la Serna, wife of Matías Madrid. Teresa de Herrera, wife of Diego Martín. Catalina Luján, wife of José Naranjo. Juana Márquez, wife of Juan de Medina Ortiz. Franciscan Antonia Morales de Guijosa, wife of Antonio de Moya. Lucía Ana Negrete, wife of Bartolomé Lobato. Isabel de los Reyes, wife of Juan de Guido. Pascuala de la Concepción Rivera, wife of don Tomás de Herrera Sandoval. María Guadalupe Navarro, wife of Juan Manuel Chirinos. Rosa de Vargas Machuca, wife of Blas Martín Serrano. Sebastiana de la Vega, wife of Baltasar de Castro Rodarte. Sebastiana Trujillo, wife of Juan de Mondragón.

The petition was delivered to and reviewed on December 22, 1706, by fray Agustín de Colina, the Franciscan custodian of the kingdom and the ecclesiastic judge.