Thomas Benton Bishop (1840 – February 8, 1906) was a well-known and successful
San Francisco
San Francisco (; Spanish language, Spanish for "Francis of Assisi, Saint Francis"), officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the commercial, financial, and cultural center of Northern California. The city proper is the List of Ca ...
attorney.
Biography
Bishop practiced law as Garber, Thornton & Bishop; Garber,
Boalt & Bishop; Garber & Bishop; Bishop& Wheeler; Bishop, Wheeler & Hoefler; and as Bishop, Hoefler, Cook & Harwood.
In 1890, Bishop acquired one third of
Rancho Dos Pueblos Rancho Dos Pueblos was a Mexican land grant in present day Santa Barbara County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Nicolas A. Den. The rancho stretched along the Pacific coast to the northwest of today's city of Santa Barbar ...
in
Santa Barbara County
Santa Barbara County, California, officially the County of Santa Barbara, is located in Southern California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 448,229. The county seat is Santa Barbara, and the largest city is Santa Maria.
Santa Barba ...
as payment for a lawsuit by the heirs of
Nicolas A. Den against
Colonel W.W. Hollister (1818 - 1886). Bishop took title of the ranch and renamed it Corona del Mar. The balance of the ranch went to the Den heirs. Bishop did not spend much time at the ranch as he lived in his palatial home in Pacific Heights in San Francisco.
In 1892, Bishop acquired
Rancho Sisquoc in Santa Barbara County. In 1894, Bishop argued the
U.S. Supreme Court
The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...
case ''California Powder Works vs Isaac E. Davis'' over title to
Rancho Cañada del Rincon en el Rio San Lorenzo Rancho Cañada del Rincon en el Rio San Lorenzo was a Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Cruz County, California given in 1843 by Governor Manuel Micheltorena, and confirmed in 1846 by Governor Pío Pico, to Pedro Sainsevain. The name means ...
in
Santa Cruz County.
In 1895, Bishop acquired of
Norris land (after a divorce case in which Bishop's law firm represented Margaret Norris) in
San Ramon. The San Ramon Bishop Ranch raised cattle and sheep and was planted to hay, grain, diversified fruit crops and walnuts. Bishop's Shropshire purebred sheep earned numerous awards. The Ranch was partially irrigated from an underground aquifer and at one point possessed the world's largest single orchard of Bartlett pears.
Josephine Hall Bishop (1841 - 1917), wife of Thomas Benton Bishop, collected and maintained her own private museum on Washington Street in San Francisco.
Swift Family Collection
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References
1840 births
1906 deaths
Lawyers from San Francisco
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