Pedro de Chavez ~ 1735 Estate

Dowries are considered inheritance and part of the estate calculations when a parent passes away.  Such is the case with Pedro Chavez; his daughter’s dowries are the first items recognized in the estate filings and so inventories, testimonies and witnesses are all dealt with first.
 

To the Captain and Alcalde Mayor, Juan Gonzales:  I, Manuela Chavez, come before you that my father, Pedro de Chaves, is completely insane and so declared and on this account, he is deprived and incapable to teach manners and the Christian doctrine and the holy fear of God to my brothers and sisters as well as to care for the inheritance that by right belongs to them and they being minors and unable to care for it; and the person who should care for it is my brother, Francisco Javier de Chavez, but who has not done it, nor does he care for it…  I beg your honor that you remove them from my brother as injurious to the aid inheritance and that he not is allowed to have any action or right whatever to deal or contract regarding said inheritance. A person/tutor should be appointed for them.  In truth, I sign this on March 1, 1735 – Manuela Chavez.
 

At the villa of Albuquerque on March 3, 1735, before me the Alcalde Mayor Juan Gonzales, the above petition was presented and having been read and considered it as filed, I suggest that Sebastian Marcelino so that he might take the part of guardian and holder of chattels.  He will assign the proper salary for his work on the said estate.  Signed Geronimo Jaramillo, Francisco Antonio Gonzales and Juan Gonzales Bas.
 

Jacinto Sanchez, resident of this villa of Albuquerque, appears before you that having about four years ago married Efigenia de Chaves, legitimate daughter of Captain don Pedro Chaves and doña Juana Montoya, with her full will and consent and not having received during that time what she was legally entitled to as dowry on her becoming emancipated, as it is permitted by law, that all parents must endow their children.  There is another law, the custom, and my father-in-law having observed it with the other daughters he has married off afterwards, for not only had he delivered them well dressed, he delivered to them what they were entitled to.  My wife did not receive a thing; and as I have learned, for the first and second place.  Having been informed that my said father-in-law is complaining and sick from an illness, which while it gives him intervals, yet he does not improve much for which reason they have petitioned you to appoint a mayordomo to take care of the property.  I would like the dowry delivered to me of my said wife…at least a third part of the products during each year, for though I could have, I did not take care of them at the proper time, the principal, and what he has given the others is 50 ewes, 10 cows and one bull as well as the others that I have before stated.  I swear in due form this is not done from malice, but of necessity – Jacinto Sanchez.

-Pedro de Chaves married Juana Montoya on January 27, 1803 at Bernalillo, NM.  

-Within this first part of the document, we identify two daughters, Manuela (Sebastian Marcelino Ladron de Guevera) and Efigenia (Jacinto Sanchez) their spouses and parts of their dowries. 

References:  Spanish Archives of New Mexico, Series I, Roll 1, Twitchell #177

©Henrietta M. Christmas