Don Francisco María Castro (1770–1831), nicknamed El Curioso, was a

Californio Californios (singular Californio) are Californians of Spaniards, Spanish descent, especially those descended from settlers of the 17th through 19th centuries before California was annexed by the United States. California's Spanish language in C ...

landowner in an area of

Alta California Alta California (, ), also known as Nueva California () among other names, was a province of New Spain formally established in 1804. Along with the Baja California peninsula, it had previously comprised the province of , but was made a separat ...

which later became part of

Contra Costa County, California Contra Costa County (; ''Contra Costa'', Spanish for 'Opposite Coast') is a county located in the U.S. state of California, in the East Bay of the San Francisco Bay Area. As of the 2020 United States census, the population was 1,165,927. Th ...

Biography

Francisco María Castro was the third son of Maria Marina Botiller ( – 1813), and Joaquin Ysidro de Castro (c. 1732 – 1801), one of the founding settlers of the Pueblo of San José. Winther, Oscar Osburn. ''California History Magazine'', Volume 14, 1935
"The Story of San Jose, 1777–1869, California's First Pueblo, Part I."
Hosted at SFGenealogy. Retrieved on August 16, 2009. He had come as a boy with his family to California from elsewhere in New Spain with the

De Anza Expedition Juan Bautista de Anza Bezerra Nieto (July 6 or 7, 1736 – December 19, 1788) was a Novohispanic/Mexican expeditionary leader, military officer, and politician primarily in California and New Mexico under the Spanish Empire. He is credited as on ...

in 1775. His brother José Mariano Castro (1765–1828) was the grantee of Rancho Las Animas; his brother Carlos Antonio Castro (1775–??) was the grantee of Rancho San Francisco de las Llagas; and his brother José Joaquín Castro (1768–1838) was the grantee of Rancho San Andrés. Castro was a corporal in the artillery company of

Presidio of San Francisco The Presidio of San Francisco (originally, El Presidio Real de San Francisco or The Royal Fortress of Saint Francis) is a park and former U.S. Army post on the northern tip of the San Francisco Peninsula in San Francisco, California, and is part ...

. He married María Gabriela Berreyesa (1780–1851) of the

Berreyesa family The Berreyesa family is a prominent Californio family of Northern California. Members of the family held extensive rancho grants across the Bay Area during 18th and 19th centuries. Numerous places are named after the family, including the Berr ...

on February 16, 1795.FamilyTreeMaker.com
''Descendants of Luis Cayetano (Berrelleza) Berreyesa''
. Retrieved on August 14, 2009. The two made their home in San José and produced thirteen offspring between 1796 and 1824. After serving as ''alcalde'' and in other public offices, Castro was granted

Rancho San Pablo Rancho San Pablo was a land grant in present-day Contra Costa County, California given in 1823 by Governor Luís Antonio Argüello to Francisco María Castro (1775–1831), a former soldier at the San Francisco Presidio and one-time ''alcalde' ...

in 1823 by Governor

Luís Antonio Argüello Luis is a given name. It is the Spanish form of the originally Germanic name or . Other Iberian Romance languages have comparable forms: (with an accent mark on the i) in Portuguese and Galician, in Aragonese and Catalan, while is archai ...

. The land had previously been used for grazing cattle belonging to the

Mission San Francisco de Asís The Mission San Francisco de Asís (), also known as Mission Dolores, is a historic Catholic Church, Catholic church complex in San Francisco, San Francisco, California. Operated by the Archdiocese of San Francisco, the complex was founded in ...

, but was secularized by the new Mexican republic. He and his family moved to the rancho after 1824. He died on December 21, 1831, at San Pablo, California. His sons Víctor Castro and Juan José Castro were the grantees of

Rancho El Sobrante Rancho El Sobrante was a Ranchos of California, Mexican land grant in present-day Contra Costa County, California given in 1841 by Governor Juan Bautista Alvarado, Juan Alvarado to Juan Jose Castro and Víctor Castro (landowner), Victor Castro ...

in 1841. Castro Street, Castro Creek, the Castro Rocks, Castro Point, Castro Cove and Castro Ranch Road in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, a city in the United States * Richmond, London, a town in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, England * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town ...

are named after his family.

References

People from Richmond, California People of Alta California People from San Pablo, California 1770 births 1831 deaths {{US-bio-stub