Juan Esteban de Benavidez

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ²⁵²
Juan Esteban Benavides, origin unknown, seems to have been a soldier, or colonist, of 1695 who came with his wife, María de Diezma. Or, as it happened in other instances, he died on the way from Zacatecas, and his wife reached New Mexico with her children. In 1695 she and Cristóbal de Arellano were sponsors for a wedding in Santa Fe.

~ Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, p. 147 (Kindle Locations 6304-6308)

Juan Esteban Benavides and wife María de Diezmos were natives of La Villa de Nombre de Dios and residents of Santa Fe in 1696 when their daughter María, born in Durango, married Diego González Bas (DM, 1696, no. 19).

~ Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, Kindle Locations 15396-15398

• Background Information. ²⁵⁰
Juan Esteban de Benavides, referred to as "el mozo" was very likely the son of a man of the same name. More often recorded simply as Juan Esteban, he was married with María de Biezma Esparza on 20 January 1681, El Sagrario Metropolitano, Durango, Nueva Vizcaya. Their parents were not named in the marriage record which reads:

Juan Estevan Benavides y Ma de Esparsa velaronse

En veinte de Enero de mill y seiscientos y ochenta y uños El Sr Ldo D. Joseph Lopes de Olivas Deán de esta Sta yglesia Cathl. estando en las puertas de esta sancta Yglesia pressdr yo el Cura prieto y con facultas despossó por palabras de presste y segun orden de Nra. Madre Yglesia a Juo estevan de benavides y Maria de esparsa fueron testigos Sebastan de Morja, Ygno de Mena y Ygno moreno.

Diego de Ezurrola

Their eldest child María de Benavides Viezma, identified as "castiza," was baptized at El Sagrario Metropolitano, Durango, on 25 September 1681.

By early 1683, this family was residing at Nombre de Dios, Nueva Vizcaya where their next child, Nicolás de Benavides Esparza, "español," was baptized on 26 January 1683, San Pedro Apóstol Church. In this record, María de Biezma's name was given as María de Esparza.

The next baptismal record located for this family is that of Francisco Xavier de Benavides Esparza, baptized 29 October 1688, San Pedro Apóstol Church, Nombre de Dios.

In the following year, Juan Esteban de Benavides was buried on 10 November 1689, San Pedro Apóstol Church, Nombre de Dios, Nueva Vizcaya.

María de Biezma Esparza remained a widow and she and her children were among the new colonists recruited by Governor Vargas in the spring of 1693 to help resettle New Mexico. Research by John B. Colligan reveals that she received a total of 70 pesos to buy supplies for the trip to New Mexico. According to her account given in 1698, she was recruited at Sombrerete with four children and the expedition to New Mexico left on 13 June 1693; her fourth child was Esteban de Benavides. She was identified as "española" and gave her age as thirty-six, indicating she was born circa 1657.

Researchers: Rosina LaSalle and José Antonio Esquibel

Sources: San Pedro Apóstol Church, Nombre de Dios, Durango, Mexico; Sagrario Metropolitano, Durango, Durango, Mexico; John B. Colligan, "Vargas' 1693 Recruits for the Resettlement of New Mexico," in Society of Hispanic Historical and Ancestral Research Genealogical Journal, Vol. II 1995: 177.

Juan married María de Diezma on 20 Jan 1681 in El Sagrario Metropolitana, Durango, Nueva España.²⁵⁰