Entrepreneurs in the North

Spain never had effective Protestant movements like those in England, Scandinavia, and parts of Germany and France. Ferdinand established the Spanish Inquisition in 1478 to unify the peninsula and deflect interference from the pope.

When he expelled the Jews in 1492 and the Moors in 1502, he exiled much of his educated class including his bankers and progressive farmers. Members of the nobility did not rush to fill the void, although men who entered trade in the far north were less likely to be denounced as conversos or convertos.

In Nuevo México, the men who developed the wool trade had ties either to the Protestants of France or to recent immigrants from the north of Spain. Santiago de Roybal, mentioned in the post for 9 March 2016 as the man most interested in opening trade through Pierre Mallet in 1740, was the son of an immigrant from Caldas de Reyes in Galicia near Compostela who enlisted with Diego de Vargas.

His father, Ignacio Roybal, had married Francisca Gómez Robledo. Her uncle, Francisco Gómez Robledo, was the encomendero and trader tried as a Jewish converso in the 1660s. One of their daughters married Jean l’Archevêque and another married his son, Miguel. As mentioned in the post for 7 July 2015, Jean was descended from Huguenots.

Jean groomed his son to be a trader. It’s likely the young man continued the business after his father died in 1720. When Miguel died, his widow, María, married a Cantabrian-born merchant. José de Reaño de Tagle’s parents were José de Reaño and Teresa de Tagle Bustamante.

When he died in 1743, Reaño’s inventory of trade goods included 90 fanegas of piñon, 300 buckskins, dressed buffalo hides, Navajo baskets, Mexican pack saddles, and bundles of carpet. He left 1,300 wethers and 1,000 pregnant ewes worth 4,300 pesos. His ranch was south of Santa Fé, but he also owned a league of pasture land in the Piedra Lumbre where he built corrals and a wooden shelter.

His employees included a foreman, Antonio de Sandoval, who had claim to some wethers, a mulato slave from México named Pedro, and "7 little Indian herders." Gerónimo Martín owed him fifty pesos "which he agreed to give the year of ‘forty’ 200 lambs with the assurance of herding them at his expense until the year forty-three."

Reaño had been using his livestock as venture capital since at least 1739, when he gave 600 ewes to Francisco Sáez on the understanding he would be given back 114 lambs every year for five years. He probably expected Sáez to graze them on his land at Piedra Lumbre, or perhaps farther south at Ojo Caliente.

The partidario was the son of Augustín Sáez of Parral and Antonia Márquez. His mother’s stepfather was Diego Arias de Quirós, a soldier from Asturias who enlisted with de Vargas. In 1714, while Francisco was still a child, he married María Gómez de Robledo. She was the great-aunt of Reaño’s wife through her mother, Francisca Gómez Robledo.

Another of Francisca’s sisters, Margarita, married Jacinto Peláez. Like Ignacio de Roybal, he came as a soldier with de Vargas. After the native of Asturias was granted land at Jacona, east of San Ildefonso, Ignacio requested the adjoining tract. Margarita’s daughter, María, was raised by Francisca and Ignacio. It was her daughter, María Francisca Fernández de la Pedrerea, who married the member of Mallet’s party who stayed in Santa Fé, Juan Bautista Alarí. Her father had come from Galicia.

Francisca’s third sister, Lucía, married a man from Ciudad de México. Their son, Felipe, married his second cousin, who was the sister of the woman who married Alarí. He died young, and Santiago took over rearing their son, Blas. In 1753, he donated a flour mill located on the river above the city to him.

The web of relationships built on kinship, shared cultural backgrounds, and military experience brought Santiago and his family into contact with the governors. In 1740, Gaspar de Mendoza let Pierre Mallet leave the kingdom. In 1744, Joaquín Codallos lifted the embargo on wool exports and intervened to protect the estate of Santiago’s sister María when Reaño died.

He returned the favors in 1745 when Mendoza’s fourteen-year-old daughter married Codallos. As the only secular clergyman in the kingdom, Santiago was able to shield the politicians from scrutiny by the Franciscans by performing the marriage himself.

Gómez de Robledo Family
Francisco Gómez de Robledo
	Francisco Gómez de Robledo, tried by Inquisition
		Antonio Gómez de Robledo - [Juana Luján]
	Andrés Gómez de Robledo
		Margarita Gómez de Robledo marry Jacinto Peláez (Asturias)
			María Peláez marry Juan Fernández de la Pedrera (Galicia)
				Francisca Fernández de la Pedrera marry Juan Bautista Alarí (Québec)
				Teresa Fernández de la Pedrera marry son of Lucía Gómez Robledo
		María Gómez de Robledo marry Diego Arias de Quirós (Asturias)
			Stepdaugher Antonia Márquez marry Augustín Sáez
				Francisco Sáez contract with José de Reaño de Tagle
		Francesca Gómez de Robledo marry Ignacio de Roybal (Galicia)
			Manuela Roybal marry Jean l’Archevêque (France)
			María Roybal marry Miguel l’Archevêque
				Marry José de Reaño de Tagle (Cantabria)
			Santiago de Roybal
		Lucía Gómez Robledo marry Miguel de Dios Sandoval Martínez
			Felipe de Dios Sandoval Martínez marry Teresa Fernández de la Pedrera
				Blas Felipe de Sandoval Fernández de la Pedrera

Notes: Most of the details on the growth of the wool industry came from Baxter; most about the families came from Chávez. Francisco Gómez Robledo was discussed in 2014 posts for March 22, March 23 and March 24. A friar, Francisco de la Concepción González, in fact did try to prevent the Mendoza-Codallos wedding, according to Norris.

Baxter, John O. Las Carneradas, 1987.

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

Center for Land Grant Studies. "The Piedra Lumbre Grant," available online.

Christmas, Henrietta Martinez. 1598 New Mexico, blog.

Codallos y Rabal, Joachin. Estate proceedings, José Reaño, 17 April 1744, Santa Fé; translated by Christmas, entry for 23 April 2014.

Hendricks, Rick. "Gaspar Domingo de Mendoza," Office of State Historian New Mexico History website.

Norris, Jim. After "The Year Eighty," 2000.

Reaño de Tagle, José de. Will and inventory, 1743, in Twitchell.

_____. Will and inventory, 1743; published by Christmas, entry for 21 April 2014.

Twitchell, Ralph Emerson Twitchell. Spanish Archives of New Mexico, volume 1, 1914; on flour mill.

Regulating the Captive Trade

The entrepreneurial role in the captive trade was assumed by Apache bands who desired horses. They set the terms of trade, but families of captives enforced the norms that regulated it. Utes and Shoshone disciplined the Penxaye Apache in July of 1706.

The markets for horses and captives weren’t saturated. According to Hubert Bancroft, Francisco Cuervo was forced to abandon attempts to subdue the Moqui in April of 1707, because troops were needed in Santa Fé to recover horses stolen while he was in the west. No sooner were they recovered, than they disappeared again. In August, José Chacón issued orders prohibiting the sale of presidio horses, and repeated them in 1708.

The trade in captives continued. In 1712, Juan Flores Mogollón again prohibited settlers from visiting "ranches of the wild Indians for the purposes of barter and trade." Two years later, he surrendered authority. Instead of bans, he ordered captives be baptized as if they were African slaves.

The attempted transformation of captives into slaves accelerated under Félix Martínez. In 1716, he ordered an attack on Utes and their allies. Cristóbal de la Serna descended upon a peaceful encampment near Antonio mountain. Martínez sent the captives to Nueva Viscaya where they were sold. He divided the profits with his brother.

Sebastían Martín’s descendants told Ralph Twitchell in the early twentieth century, that he had been the one responsible, and that the raid had been led by two of this sons-in-laws, Juan Antonio de Padilla and Carlos Fernandéz. The latter wasn’t involved; he didn’t marry into the family until much later. However, Serna’s daughter had married Martín’s nephew, Nicolás Jacinto Martín, in 1712.

The sale of captives into slavery violated one of the unwritten rules of the captive trade. As long as captives were kept in Nuevo México, it was possible to see them, or at least hear about them. They, no doubt, were sources of information about colonial life, and maltreatment would have been known. It was even possible for captives to escape. Exile to distant lands was a death sentence.

Regulatory enforcement of Martínez’s misbehavior took awhile, but relatives of the 1716 victims raided Serna’s ranch at Embudo in 1719. They took four hoses and a captive boy. The same night they shot arrows at Diego Romero in Arroyo Hondo. He was able to flee to safety.

Something had changed. When not enough horses were available for trade, they were stolen. José López Naranjo noticed an increase in thefts around 1718. Perhaps there were, indeed, fewer horses available, perhaps there were more natives. Not only did native sons come of age, but more Shoshone may have been filtering south.

Shoshone attitudes toward the Apache, who were selling captives, hardened. Miguel de la Vega y Coca, alcalde of Taos and Picurís said they came "for the purpose of interfering with the little barter which this kingdom has with the nations which come in to ransom."

Santa Fé merchant Jean l'Archevêque added, "that for more than seven or eight years they have come to steal horses and rob herds and run away with the goods in the trade which this kingdom has with the Apaches of El Cuartelejo." He called the proposed expedition against the Utes a "just war." In fact, to him, it was a just trade war.

Diego Romero was described as a coyote by the local alcalde, Miguel Tenorio de Alba. What he was doing so far north and west of Taos pueblo isn’t known. He may have used captive labor, he may have been a middleman, he may have been an unexpected witness.

Angélico Chávez said he was the great-grandson of Francisco Cadimo, who came as a soldier with Oñate. Francisco had two daughters. One must have had an illegitimate child, Alonso Cadimo, who lived with Felipe Romero in the Río Abajo before the revolt and took his last name. Chávez identified Alonso as a criado.

Diego had some ties to La Cañada. In 1661, Felipe Romero had been associated with Bartolomé Gómez Robledo. There was another Alonso Romero, who was the son of Miguel Romero de la Cruz. The Inquisition prosecuted him for bigamy after he married Bartolomé’s niece, María. Diego’s mother later married Mateo Trujillo. He himself "acquired considerable land at Taos," according to Chávez.

The attack on Romero frightened the pueblo priest into writing the governor. Juan de la Cruz said, "all the valley of Taos is harassed by a growing number of Utes" and "it is feared that they might attack the pueblo or do some injury."

Coincidentally, the priest at Cochití pueblo, Manuel de la Peña, said a Queres had been killed by Utes. When they went searching for them, they found evidence a great many had been in the area.

Antonio Valverde called a council of war in August. Each man repeated the same words, that they came as friends, but stole their horses. Serna added, with the murders, they "have declared themselves enemies, let war be made." Those who testified after him repeated his words.

The council authorized an expedition led by the governor. On the plains they were joined by warriors from Sierra Blanca under Carlana. Whenever they met Apache families, they were told of depredations. However, they never saw more than remains of camp sites.

The alliance between the Ute and the Shoshone frayed. Around 1719, the Ute began grouping them with the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Kiowa as Komántica. Marvin Opler was told, that meant "anyone who wants to fight with me all the time." Ernest Wallace said, they narrowed the term to refer only to Comanche around 1726.

The captives for horses trade continued, with little official interference. The identities of the captives and the sellers changed. In 1732, the governor, Gervasio Cruzat y Góngora, tried to assert some Apache were under the protection of the government, and weren’t to be sold. Five years later, the next governor condoned trades that were treated as ransoms. Enrique de Olavide only asked to be notified.

Notes: Mooney believed the first document to use Cumanche was the 1719 dairy of Valverde. It referred to "naciones Yutas y Cumanches." The meetings of the council of war held a month earlier used the term "los Yndios Yutas." I am using Shoshone until 1719. I suspect most translations of earlier documents used the common term, and not the historic one, especially when some of the historic terms were confusing.

Bancroft, Hubert Howe. History of Arizona and New Mexico, 1530-1888, 1889.

Chacón Medina Salazar y Villaseñor, José. Order, prohibiting the sale of horses from the horse herd, 11 August 1707; order, prohibiting the taking of horses or mules from the caballada. 6 May 1708; in Twitchell, Archives.

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

Cruz, Juan de la. Letter to the governor, Antonio Valverde Cosio, 12 August 1719; in Thomas.

Cruzat y Góngora, Gervasio. Bando, prohibiting the sale of Apache captives to the Pueblo Indians, 6 December 1732; in Twitchell, Archives.

Flores Magollón, Juan Ignacio. Order, prohibiting the settlers visiting the ranches of the wild Indians, 16 December 1712; bando, ordering the baptism of Apache captives in the same manner as Negro slaves, 26 September 1714; in Twitchell, Archives.

L'Archevêque, Jean. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.

Mooney, James. The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890, 1896.

Naranjo, José López. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.

Olavide y Michelena, Enrique. Bando, in relation to trade with the wild tribes, 7 January 1737; cited by Pekka Hämäläinen, The Comanche Empire, 2008.

Opler, Marvin K. "The Origins of Comanche and Ute," American Anthropologist 45:155-158:1943.

Peña, Manuel de la. Letter to Antonio Valverde quoted by Thomas.

Serna, Cristobal de la. Opinion on proposed expedition, 19 August 1719; in Thomas.

Thomas, Alfred B. After Coronado, 1935.

Twitchell, Ralph Emerson. The Leading Facts of New Mexico History, volume 1, 1911; on Martínez family legend.

_____. Spanish Archives of New Mexico: Compiled and Chronologically Arranged, volume 2, 1914.

Ulibarrí, Juan de. Diary of expedition to El Cuartelejo, 1706; in Thomas; on Penxaye Apache.

Valverde y Cosío, Antonio. Diary of the campaign against the Ute and Comanche Indians, 1719; in Thomas.

Wallace, Ernest and E. Adamson Hoebel. The Comanches, 1986 edition.

La Cañada - Francisco Gómez Robledo’s Mistress

When Francisco Gómez Robledo was being investigated by the Inquisition, neither his hacienda in La Cañada nor his illegitimate children were mentioned. All that was impounded in 1662 was his house in Santa Fé and his río abajo estancia, San Nicolás de las Barrancas.

He may have acquired the property after he returned from the Inquisition jail in México City in 1665. Luis Pérez Granillo had no doubts about the ownership in 1695. He said "the hacienda belonged to the maestre de campo, Francisco Gómez, follows. Only signs of the foundation the house had can be seen. Only one citizen can live comfortably in it."

His natural son, Antonio, however, was in existence when Francisco was being examined. When the family reached Guadalupe del Paso in 1680, he gave his age as 28. That means he would have been born around 1652, probably to a woman who called herself López del Castillo, according to Angélico Chávez.

The first man with that name in the colony, Matías López del Castillo was in Santa Fé in 1626 where he married Ana de Bustillo. Their daughter, Ana López del Castillo married Juan de Herrera who had the encomiendas of Santa Clara and Jémez. One of their daughters, Ana María, had several children out of wedlock who took the Herrera name.

Ana de Bustillo was the daughter of Asencio de Arechuleta and Ana Pérez de Bustillo. One of her sisters, Gregoria de Archuleta, married Diego de Santa Cruz. He was born in Zacatecas to Juan Pérez de Bustillo and María de la Cruz. In 1662, the Inquisition suggested Gregoria, in fact, was the daughter of his sister Ana. More likely, based on his mother’s name, Chávez thinks he was adopted or illegitimate.

Her other sister, Josefa, married Bartolomé Romero, grandson of the original Bartolomé.

One of Ana’s brothers, Juan de Archuleta, was executed for his role in the murder of Luis de Rosas. His son, also Juan de Archuleta, lived in La Cañada where he married María Luján, and worked for Bernardo López de Mendizábal and his successor, Diego Dionisio de Peñalosa Briceño y Berdugo.

After the reconquest, his grandson, Juan de Archuleta, received grants for land in Santa Fé and San Juan as a reward from Diego de Vargas’ successor, Pedro Rodríguez Cubero. He later bought land in the villa of Santa Cruz and married Isabel González, who was probably a descendant of Sebastián González and Isabel Bernal. After her husband died, she expanded his San Juan and Santa Cruz holdings.

His granddaughter, Antonia de Archuleta, married Miguel de Herrera.

Ana’s other brother, Melchor de Archuleta, is the one who had the land next to Juan Griego which Luis Pérez Granillo said had an "agricultural field" but that "only the ruins of his house exist and can be seen. These is almost the same amount of land for one family, and the pastures are in the same condition."

Chávez thinks the other man with the López del Castillo name, Diego, must have been a younger brother of Matías who arrived sometime around 1634. His first wife was María Barragán, the daughter of Juan Gómez Barragán, an Indian interpreter, and María Bernal, daughter of the first Juan Griego. After she died, he married María Griego, the daughter of Juan’s son Juan. Chávez says she was also known as María de la Cruz Alemán.

At the time of the reconquest, Diego was in his 80's with a wife and two daughters. In 1695, Granillo said "the torreón next to the house remains" at his hacienda. "There are only enough lands for one citizen with his family."

Torreóns were small, stone defensive towers. There were two in the settlement, one at each end of the settlement. One was on land of Francisco Javier. If this López del Castillo was the one whose daughter was involved with Francisco, then the other tower was also on land controlled by a military man.

Chávez didn’t hazard which of the daughters of Matías and Diego could have been the mother of Antonio Gómez, only noted that after the reconquest, several illegitimate children of Juana Luján conceived at Guadalupe del Paso were living near San Ildefonso and calling themselves Gómez del Castillo.

She was the daughter of Matías Luján and Francisca Romero. Chávez could only guess he was a son of Juan Luján, who lived in La Cañada. He made no mention of Francisca among the known, acknowledged Romero children. He couldn’t even decided if Juana was involved with Antonio or his cousin Bartolomé, the illegitimate son of Francisco’s brother Bartolomé.

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

Granillo, Luis. Report for 12 March 1695 describing the settlement of La Cañada, included in Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, volume 2, 1998, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, and Meredith D. Dodge.

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.

La Cañada - Francisco Gómez Robledo

Francisco Gómez Robledo’s encounter with the Inquisition arose from the feud between the Franciscans and Bernardo López de Mendizábal. Not content with having the governor removed from office in 1660, Alonso de Posada began collecting information on him and his wife, mainly from disgruntled servants and political allies of the friars.

In 1662 the Inquisition ordered the arrest of López, his wife, and his four closest aides: Gómez, Nicholas de Aguilar, Cristóbal de Anaya Almazán, and Diego Romero. The last three were accused of heresy, but charges against Gómez escalated for reasons far removed from the squabbles for power in Santa Fé.

He had the misfortune of being Portuguese at a time when anyone Portuguese was suspect. Spain had taken control of the country in 1580 and Portugal had successfully rebelled in 1640.

After some years of uneasy truce, the Spanish began attacking Portugal in 1659 and lost each time. In 1661, Charles the II of England married the sister of the Portugese king, reopening that conflict. Anxieties ran high among those attuned to the interests of the royal court until 1665, when Spain lost to Portugal one final time.

In 1662, Francisco’s sister’s husband, Pedro Lucero de Godoy, wrote his brother, Diego Lucero de Godoy in Mexico City, that one of the Franciscans, Juan Ramírez "was supported by royal provisions from the viceroy of New Spain, hinting at political connections within the viceregal court." Diego was a lay priest there.

Gómez’s father, Francisco Gómez, was born about 1587 near Lisbon and orphaned at an early age. Angélico Chávez says his brother, a Franciscan friar, placed him with the family of Alonso de Oñate y Salazar, who brought him to México around 1604 when he was about 17.

Alonso was the son of Cristóbal Pérez de Oñate, who had gone to México City when he was 20, and later married Catalina de Salazar, daughter of México’s treasury officer. There is some consensus that Catalina was the descendant of a prominent Burgos Jewish family.

Whether Juan or Alonso knew anything about their mother’s family or that of Gómez is speculation, but Juan apparently wasn’t concerned about excluding potential conversos or marranos when he recruited men to go north with him. Indeed that may have been implicit in his demand that he be able to enlist man from any part of the kingdom of Spain.

Young Gómez may have been brought north by Juan de Oñate’s son, Cristóbal de Oñate, on one of his many trips between the México and the colony before he took over as governor in 1608. The names of people in the Oñates’ personal entourages weren’t included in official manifests.


He maintained close ties with the governors and México City. He was the military leader of the supply train escorts in 1616 and 1625, and was the designated governor when Luis de Rosas’ replacement died in 1641. By then, Francisco had married Ana Robledo, the daughter of Bartolomé Romero and Luisa López Robledo.

The evidence against Francisco junior came from Tomás Pérez Granillo, a servant of Juan Manso de Contreras, who once heard his father was a Jew. Diego de Melgarego, a servant of López de Mendizábal, claimed he’d heard López say his dad had "died with his face turned to the wall."

Many of the charges against Francisco himself came from Franciscans. Antonio de Ybargaray, report a suspected Jew, Manuel Gómez, had stayed with him 28 years before, while Nicolas de Chaves claimed he’d been called a Jewish dog for years.

The most serious charge came from Domingo López de Ocanto, who said the boys with whom he’d bathed as a teenager all knew Francisco and his brothers had been circumcised. He added Goméz had a little tail protruding from his buttocks.

López de Ocanto bore a particular grudge against López de Mendizábal: the ex-governor had revoked the encomiendas for Nambé and Jémez he’d inherited from his father, on the grounds they should have gone to his older sister.

The inquisition ordered a medical examination of Francisco which confirmed the circumcision. He claimed the scar came from some small ulcers and requested a second examination in better light. That also suggested deliberate incision.

Meantime, his brother, Bartolomé Gómez Robledo was in México with Francisco’s horses and mules, as well as tribute from Ácoma, to provide necessary help. The accused brothers, Juan and Andrés, weren’t examined. For reasons unknown, Gómez was released in 1664. For whatever reason, the Inquisition in México had lost interest.

At the time of the Pueblo Revolt, he was still on active military duty, and involved in the response by the governor, Antonio de Otermin. He died in exile at Guadalupe del Paso.

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

Esquibel. José Antonio Esquibel. "Esta Gran Familia: The Genealogy of the Lucero de Godoy Family of Mexico City," El Farolito, winter 2003, paraphrase from a genealogical website.

Granillo, Luis. Report for 12 March 1695 describing the settlement of La Cañada, included in Blood on the Boulders: The Journals of Don Diego De Vargas, New Mexico, 1694-97, volume 2, 1998, edited by John L. Kessell, Rick Hendricks, and Meredith D. Dodge.

Hordes, Stanley M. To the End of the Earth, 2005.