La Cañada - Francisco Gómez Robledo’s Family

Francisco Gómez Robledo came from a family of five boys and two girls. The only ones who left records of marriages were Andrés, husband of Juana Ortiz, and Francisca, second wife of Pedro Lucero de Godoy.

Two brothers, Juan and José, simply disappeared from the record, and Angélico Chávez thinks they may have returned to México sometime after Francisco was released by the Inquisition.

Francisco and his brother Bartolomé weren’t celibate military men. The one had a son called Antonio, the other a son named Bartolomé. When he appeared at Guadalupe el Paso, Francisco claimed another natural child, María. At the time he said he was married with six other young children.

The reasons Ana María and Bartolomé never married, and Francisco married a woman whose name wasn’t reported are unknown. The whiff of Jewishness may have been a factor, especially after Francisco’s trial.

Francisca’s husband’s name first appeared as a military escort for the supply train in 1616. Donald Lucero believes her father was responsible for Pedro coming north, and that he may have acted as a family representative. Angélico Chávez says he also worked the wagon trains in 1621 and 1631, which would have put him in a position to keep an eye on anything of special import in the return wagons.

He probably didn’t marry for another eight years. LaDeane Miller thinks his first wife, Petronilia de Zamora, gave birth in 1625, 1627 and 1628. She thinks Francisca had children in 1642, 1643, 1644, 1645, 1647, 1648, 1650, 1656 and 1665.

Petronilia’s son, Francisco Lucero de Godoy, became an armorer who married the daughter of Andrés López Sambrano, Josefa López de Grijalva, and inherited his property in Santa Fé. He made it to Guadalupe del Paso with a party of 22 that included his wife, children and servants. The couple returned with Diego de Vargas, but Josefa died soon after and he remarried.

After his marriage to Francisca, Pedro may have continued as a family agent. He had a share in Francisco’s tribute from Pecos in 1662, but lived in the Taos valley where Francisco had a share in encomienda of the local pueblo and an estancia. When the pueblo rebelled in 1680, Francisca, her mother Ana Robledo, and three of her daughters were killed there.

That land may be the same 61,000 acres Francisca’s son, Diego Lucero de Godoy, had north and west of the Pueblo between Arroyo Hondo and Ranchito. He was in Guadalupe del Paso on business when Taos Indians killed 32 people there. He didn’t return with the reconquest, and the grant was transferred to Antonio Martínez in 1716.

Francisco’s brother Andrés married Juana Ortiz. She was the granddaughter of Diego de Vera, a Canary Islander who had an encomienda before he was prosecuted by the Inquisition for a bigamous marriage to María de Abendaño. Her parents were Simón de Abendaño and María Ortiz, who, in turn, was the daughter of Cristóbal Baca and Ana Ortiz.

Chávez says the grandmother was also called María de Villanueva, which probably makes her a native of one of the encomiendas, dependencies or estancias granted to Alonso de Villanueva (Ocelotepec), Fernando and Pedro de Villanueva (parts of Quechula and Tecamachalco), or Juan de Villanueva (Tanzuy) in México.

After Vera was deported and the marriage annulled, María married Antonio de Salas, who, in fact, was described as the stepson of Pedro Lucero de Godoy. Chávez says the identity of his mother was a mystery. Petronilia de Zamora liked to say she had married when she was 11, which may have been less a statement of fact, that a covert way of disowning the boy who was raised with her children.

While Francisco was in jail in México City, Antonio was accused by the Inquisition of improper relations with María’s daughter, Petronila de Salas, who was married to Pedro Romero. He must have been elsewhere in 1680 when María and eight to ten of her children were killed at Pojoaque where he was the encomendero. He registered at Guadalupe del Paso, then disappeared from the record.

María’s other daughter, María Ortiz de Vera, married blacksmith Manuel Jorge, son of Juan Jorge Griego. He became the official armorer of the colony after his marriage. When she later married Diego Montoya, who was encomendero of San Pedro pueblo, she had three daughters using the Ortiz name. It was her daughter Juana who married Andrés Gómez Robledo.

Notes:
Chávez, Angélico. Origins of New Mexico Families, revised 1992 edition.

Himmerich y Valencia, Robert. The Encomenderos of New Spain, 1521-1555, 1991.

Lucero, Donald L. The Adobe Kingdom: New Mexico, 1598-1958, as Experienced by the Families Lucero de Godoy y Baca, 2009 edition.

Miller, LaDeane. "Descendants of Juan de Leon," 2002, available on line.