User:Asiaticus/sandbox/Victor Pantaleon Linares

Victor Pantaleon Linares (1807-1853), Californio, soldier, ranchero, majordomo of Mission San Luis Obispo, vecino and Juez of San Luis Obispo. Grandson of some of the earliest Spanish settlers of California, his son Pio Linares was an infamous Californio leader of a bandit gang in San Luis Obispo County in the 1850's.

Victor Linares' Family and His Early Life
Victor Pantaleon Linares was a descendant of his grandfather Ygnacio Antonio Linares, a Spanish soldier from Sonora with a wife and four children that came to Alta California with the second Anza Expedition in 1776. He served as a soldier in the Presidio of San Francisco and died in San Jose in 1805.

Victor Linares' father, Salvador Linares, son of Ygnacio Antonio Linares, was born on December 25, 1775 as the second Anza Expedition was crossing the desert from Sonora to Mission San Gabriel. He followed his father as a soldier in the Monterey Presidio, marrying a widow with a daughter, Maria Bernarda Alvarez. Together they had four sons, three that reached adulthood. However Salvador died at the Monterey Presidio in August 1807, at age 31, soon after the birth of his twin sons Francisco and Victor on July 24, 1807. Both were christened the next day at Mission Nuestra Senora de la Soledad.

Salvador's widow with a daughter from her first marriage and the three young sons from the second, remarried for a third time on December 17, 1809 at Mission San Gabriel, to Jose Pedro Villalobos, a corporal of the garrison of San Diego Presidio. It was he or perhaps his father an old soldier and resident of San Diego, Juan Jose Miguel Villalobos, who raised the sons of Salvador Linares until his death March 7, 1825. That year the eldest Linares son, Jose Ynes de la Luz joined the garrison of San Diego Presidio followed the next year by one of the younger twin sons, Victor Linares. The other twin son of Salvador, Francisco "Santiago" Linares, did not join the military but followed another path that led to his execution for a robbery and murder at Los Angeles on April 7, 1841. He was buried in the La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles Cemetery.

At the San Diego Presidio Victor was married to a widow, Maria Micaela Villa, with two sons, Sebastian, age 5 and Francisco age 2 on January 8, 1826. That April, while serving as a sentry, Victor Lenaris killed Juan German, a vecino of San Diego. Linares was court-martialed but was acquitted because he had merely performed his duty as a sentry.

Within a year of the courtmartial Victor Linares had left San Diego and was living near Mission San Gabriel, where his first son Pedro was born on July 30, 1827 and christened the following day. Victor had become a vecino of Los Angeles by 1831, when his second son, Pio was born May 4 and the following day was christened in La Iglesia de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles in the town plaza. A census taken in Los Angeles in 1836 showed Victor living with his wife Micaela his two stepsons Sebastian Villa age 16 and Francisco Villa age 13, and his sons Pedro age 9, Pio age 5 and a third son Fernando age 1.

Ranchero
The following year in 1837 Victor Linares was granted the two leagues of Rancho Tinaquaic in what is now in Santa Barbara County, California. There three more of his children, two daughters Maria and Augustias and a son Raymundo were born, between 1838 and 1841. Located far from a church there are no surviving records known of birth or christening for these children, only later census data for their approximate age. In 1839, Victor Linares was appointed majordomo of the lands of the Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa from May to October when he was let go to save the $20 salary and cost of his large family.

However in on April 22, 1840, Victor Linares as an alférez in the Monterey company of auxillaries, was ordered by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to take charge of a Sargent and 11 men, under the command of Captain J. M. Covarrubias to be an escort of Prefect Castro during his mission to take 60 foreign prisoners including Isaac Graham, to Mexico City. They were accused with of plotting the overthrow of the government of Alta California. However his detachment was later replaced by a larger number of men under more experienced leaders.

About 1842, Rancho Tinaquaic came into the hands of William D. Foxen, son in law of the grantee of the rancho adjacent to Tinaquaic and later the claimant for Tinaquaic before the Land Commission in 1852. The date of the disceno in the Rancho Tinaquaic Land Cass dates from 1842, the probable year Foxen acquired the grant of Rancho Tinaquaic from Victor Linares. That was the same year, Linares was granted Rancho Cañada de los Osos in San Luis Obispo County, perhaps an exchange was made so Linares could have a rancho near his home in San Luis Obispo that he had also acquired.

In 1842 Victor Linares was granted a 1,000 vara square lot (165.76 acres) within the Pueblo lands of San Luis Obispo by Gov. Juan B. Alvarado. It was later confirmed to his widow in 1857.

Victor Linares was also granted the Rancho Cañada de los Osos on December 1, 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado. The rancho lay west of San Luis Obispo to Morro Bay in the Los Osos Valley, between the Irish Hills to the south and the Nine Sisters to the north.

Vecino and Juez of San Luis Obispo
In 1844, Victor Linares sold his rancho to James Scott and John Wilson who also bought the adjacent Rancho Pecho y Islay a strip of Pacific coastal terrace and the Irish Hills bordering the terrace from Pecho Creek to the east and Islay Creek to the north. Scott and Willson added it to their Los Osos rancho and combined them in a new 32,431 acre grant, Rancho Cañada de los Osos y Pecho y Islay from Governor Pio Pico in 1845.

In January 1846 Victor Linares was appointed Juez of the Second Instance for San Luis Obispo. On March 7th, Linares ordered Padre Jose Nicolas Gomez, curate of the Mission San Luis, to turn over Mission property to Juez Jesus Pico for James Scott and John Wilson its purchasers. Padre Gomez appealed to the bishop, who asked the Governor to reserve certain storerooms and the mills of the Mission. The Governor promised to investigate. March 10th, Padre Gomez wrote to the Governor, complaining of lack of means of support, also of his mortifications and insults. March 29th, possession given to Jesus Pico. April 18th, Linares, was reprimanded by the subprefect for insubordination.

The 1850 California census showed Victor Linares living in his home in the town, with his wife, sons Pedro 23, Pio 18, and Fernando 16, and daughters Maria Antonia, 14, Augustias, 12, Maria Olivia, 5, and Teresa, 3. The 1852 California census showed Victor Linares living in his home in the town, with his wife and younger children, [Fernando, 18, Raymundo, 9, Maria Olivia, 7. Pedro and Pio had been married and moved out. Pedro had been married to Maria Antonia Figueroa, in August 16, 1846, but only had his first child in May 1851. Pio had moved out after marrying a widow, Maria Antonia Ortega, May 17 1851.

On June 6, 1853, Victor Linares was buried at Mission San Luis Obispo de Tolosa, having died of a fever.

Rancho Tinaquaic

 * in '37 grantee of Tinaquaic. iii. 655-656,n.5 557; 1837 Tinaquaic, 2L, Victor Linares; William D. Foxen claimant (Tinaquaic disceno dates from 1842, same year Linares was granted Los Osos)


 * The original grant of the two leagues of Rancho Tinaquaic was made in 1837, the grantee was Victor Linares a Mexican soldier who had come to California in 1820's. It subsequently came into the hands of William B. Foxen, the claimant before the Land Commission in 1852.


 * William Benjamin (Guillermo Domingo) Foxen (1798–1874), a native of Norwich, England was a seaman who came to Santa Barbara in 1828, in the ship Courier. Foxen left the ship and later after converting to the Catholic religion, was baptized as Guillermo Domingo Foxen.  He married Eduarda Osuna, the stepdaughter of Tomás Olivera of Rancho Tepusquet in 1831.  He had three children with his wife, and was engaged in trade in Santa Barbara.  In 1837, at the age of 38 he became a naturalized Mexican citizen.  Foxen probably acquired the the two square league grant of Rancho Tinaquaic in 1842.  The map of the Tinaquaic rancho, Diseño del Rancho Tinaquaic for the grant dates from 1842. Interestingly 1842 is the same year that Victor Linares the original grantee of Rancho Tinaquaic, was granted Rancho Cañada de los Osos nearby San Luis Obispo where Linares had moved in 1839 and settled in the town as the Mission majordomo and alférez in the local militia.


 * in 39 maj. at S. Luis Ob., iii. 683;


 * and 1840 militia alferez. iv. 13;n.17


 * in '42 grantee of Ca¤ada de los Osos. iv. 655


 * in '46 juez at S. Luis, v. 638, where he still lived in '51.]

In 1837 Victor Linares was granted the two leagues of Tinaquaic in Santa Barbara County, California. It subsequently came into the hands of William D. Foxen, the claimant before the Land Commission in 1852. The date of the disceno in the Rancho Tinaquaic Land Cass dates from 1842, the probable year Foxen acquired the grant of Rancho Tinaquaic. That was the same year, Linares was granted Rancho Cañada de los Osos] in San Luis Obispo County, perhaps an exchange was made so Linares could have a rancho near his home in San Luis Obispo.

In 1839 Victor Linares came to San Luis Obispo where he was majordomo of the Mission lands from May to October when he was let go to save the $20 salary and cost of his large family. He was also an alférez in the local militia.

In 1842 Victor Linares was granted a 1,000 vara square lot (165.76 acres) within the Pueblo lands of San Luis Obispo by Gov. Juan B. Alvarado. It was later confirmed to his widow in 1857.

Victor Linares was also granted the Rancho Cañada de los Osos on December 1, 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado. The rancho lay west of San Luis Obispo in the Los Osos Valley. In 1844, Victor Linares sold his rancho to James Scott and John Wilson who also bought the adjacent Rancho Pecho y Islay a strip of Pacific coastal plain and the Irish Hills bordering the plain to the east and north. Scott and Willson added it to their Los Osos rancho and combined them in a new 32,431 acre grant, Rancho Cañada de los Osos y Pecho y Islay from Governor Pio Pico in 1845.