Selling Benicia
Alta California
San Francisco, California
July 10, 1849
DEED FOR BENICIA CITY, FROM M.G. VALLEJO, TO SEMPLE AND LARKIN.
(TRANSLATION)
In the Town of Sonoma, Upper California, this nineteenth day of the Month of May, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven.
When the Army Inspector visited Benicia in 1854, the place was five years old. He found that there was Benicia Barracks, which was headquarters for the 3rd Artillery, “in a good state of discipline . . . well quartered, a good hospital and bakery . . . and all public property in a good state of preservation.” When the Civil War broke out, it rushed 30,000 muskets by ship to the East via Panama, then had to supply a company of troops to guard the ships when the Navy did not have enough Marines to go around. It had to send another Army company to guard the powder magazine at Mare Island Navy Yard for six months until a Marine detachment from the USS Lancaster could relieve them. |
I Mariano G. Vallejo, resident of this jurisdiction and lawful owner of the estate known by the name of Soscol in this district, by these presents do declare in my own name, and in the name of my heirs, administrators and others, who through them may have any voice and cause voice and cause, that I cede and transfer freely, and spontaneously in favor of Don Thomas O. Larkin and Don Robert Semple, for them, their heirs and successors, and whoever through them may have title, voice and cause, for ever and ever, five miles of land in the said estate of Soscol, in the Straits of Carquinez Bay of San Francisco, according to the measurement made by Don Jasper O’Farrell, which is as follows:
Beginning at a stone marked R.S., and running North seventy-six degrees West to a corner or angle, five English miles; from thence in the direction of South fourteen degrees West to another angle; one mile, thence South seventy-six degrees East to the Bay of the Straits, three quarters of a mile, or one mile in a little more or less; thence following the sinuosities of the Bay of the Straits to the place where the measurement commenced, which altogether makes extent of the English miles, following the turns of the Bay and its sinuosities of the land according to the measurement made by Don Jasper O’Farrell, Surveyor.
The said place with all its entrances and land rights, I cede, transfer and bestow to the before-mentioned Don Thomas O. Larkin and Don Robert Semple by way of (missing words) hereditary, that they may enjoy it freely, by virtue of the rights granted to them by these presents, guaranteeing to them the ownership thereof for ever, against whatever reclamation may occur they agreeing to, and strictly fulfilling the following conditions.
1st.—The said Don Thomas O. Larkin and Don Robert Semple, oblige and bind themselves, in the most solemn manner, and under the legal guarantees to found a city; which shall be called Francisca, or Benicia on the said land, and divide it into lots for houses, to be disposed of by (sale or otherwise as soon as they can obtain purchasers, land in the course of the present year they shall establish at said place, means of conveyance (ferry boats) to pass from one side of the strait to the other, passengers, carriages, &c.
2nd.—As Soon as the city contains one hundred families, a magistrate or municipal authority shall be named for the administration of justice, and the ferry boats, together with the landing, places shall belong to the town, and their products destined for the establishment of public schools for the benefit of the families who colonize said city.
3rd.—Until the hundred families and the municipal authorities mentioned in the proceeding article be established, the ferry boats and their products shall belong to Don Robert Semple.
In proof said testimony of the mutual agreement of all and each of the contracting parties, they signed these presents in triplicate in the said town, day, month and year, in presence of the Alcades of the jurisdiction, Don L. W. Boggs, and the undersigned witnesses.
M.G. VALLEJO
R. SEMPLE
T.O. LARKIN
(Witnesses,) J.P. LEESE. VOR PRUDON
Territory of California, District of Sonoma:
Personally appeared before me, the undersigned, Alcades of the District of Sonoma, Don Mariano G. Vallejo, Thomas O. Larkin and R. Semple, all being personally known to me to be the persons whose names are subscribed to the above instrument of writing and acknowledged the same to be their act and deed for the purposes therein mentioned.
Given under my hand and private seal, at the office in Sonoma, this 19th day of May, 1847.
(Signed,) LILBURN W. BOGGS, [Seal.]!
The foregoing as far as thus mark / is a correct translation, and the remainder, a true and faithful copy of the original document, presented to me by T. O. Larkin,
Government Translator.
