Rancho San Benito was a Mexican land grant in the Salinas Valley, in present-day Monterey County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Francisco Garcia.Ogden Hoffman, 1862, Reports of Land Cases Determined in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, Numa Hubert, San Francisco The grant extended along the Salinas River south of Rancho San Bernardo. Present day San Lucas is within the boundaries of the grant.Diseño del Rancho San Benito
History Francisco Garcia received one and half square leagues, and built an adobe house.
James Watson (1800–1863), born in Scotland, arrived by ship from the Sandwich Islands in Santa Barbara in 1824, and went to Monterey. He established a hide and tallow business, and married Mariana Escamilla (1805–1871) in 1830. In 1850, Garcia sold Rancho San Benito to James Watson.A Memorial and biographical history of the coast counties of central California, Lewis Publishing Co. 1893 With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho San Benito was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853,United States. District Court (California : Southern District) Land Case 68 SDFinding Aid to the Documents Pertaining to the Adjudication of Private Land Claims in California, circa 1852-1892 and the grant was patented to James Watson in 1869.Report of the Surveyor General 1844 - 1886
Watson sold Rancho San Benito to Alberto Trescony of the adjacent Rancho San Lucas in 1885.
See also Ranchos of California List of Ranchos of California
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