Pedro Robledo

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information. ²⁵²
Pedro Robledo was a sixty- six year old Alférez (lieutenant) when he joined Oñate's party in 1598. He was a native of Maqueda (near Madrid and Toledo), the son of Alejo Robledo. He is described as of good stature and completely gray. In the muster-roll of 1597, he stated that he had been born at the place of El Carmen of "El Carneros," who had lived in Toledo. With him were his wife, daughters and five sons, four who were already soldiers.

Pedro died shortly after the Oñate party entered into New México. He is the first of New México's Spanish colonists to die in New México. He was buried on 21 May 1598 on the trail east of Rio del Norte and a great bluff that still carries his name, Robledo.

Pedro's family continued north with the colony to be among the founders of San Gabriel de los Caballeros. His widow, Catalina López, had journed with him from Toledo to New Spain over 22 years ealier (about 1597). The varied birthplaces of his sons show just how much the Robledo family wandered all over New Spain before they reached New México. These sons were Diego, Alonso, Pedro and Francisco. Two of their known daughters were already married when they arrived in New México. They were Luisa, wife of Bartolomé Romero and Francisca, wife of Juan de Tapia.

~ Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, p. 93

• Background Information. ²⁵⁰
On a trip to Spain, Charles Martínez y Vigil uncovered records pertaining to the request for license to travel to the New World relating to Pedro Robledo and Catalina López (ONMF: 93). These records consist of 19 pages and are dated 1574. In these records, Pedro Robledo is identified as a "vecino de lugar de Carmena." Carmena was in the jurisdiction of Maqueda. Robledo declared he was married and had children and that he was struggling in Spain to make a living. He wanted to take his family to Mexico City in New Spain where his "primos hermanos," Miguel de Sandoval and Catalina Sánchez, resided. Sandoval and Sánchez are repeatedly refered to as "personas muy ricas" who had written to him many times encouraging Robledo and his family to come live with them.

In a document dated 10 November 1574, Villa de Torrijos (about 20 miles from Maqueda), Pedro Robledo declared he was married legitimately within the Catholic Church with Catalina López and had these children: Ana, Diego, Luis and Lucía. Again he mentioned his cousins in Mexico City, Miguel de Sandoval and Catalina Sánchez. Robledo presented three witnesses on his behalf, Alexo Pérez and Luis Martín, vecinos del lugar de Carmena, and Sebastián López de Alcabon [?], vecino of Torrijos.

In the testimony of the witnesses, it is mentioned that the lugar de Carmena is located within the lands of the Duque de Maqueda. Alexo Pérez, age 30, confirmed that Pedro and his wife were legitimately married and named their children as Diego, Ana, Lucía and Luis. He decribed Robledo and his wife as "gente honrrada y principal." Pérez further stated that Miguel de Sandoval and Catalina Sánchez were natives of the same area of Maqueda and were cousins of Pedro Robledo. This document has two signatures. The first is difficult to read, but is presumably that of Pedro Robledo. The second signature clearly reads "Cata Lopez." The handwriting for both signatures is similar and may indicate that the document was a copy.

Luis Martín, age 25, declared that for all of his life he had known Pedro Robledo. The rest of his testimony corresponds with that of Alexo Pérez, as does the testimony of Sebastián López de Alcabon [?].

We learn from other related documents that Pedro Robledo had a nephew in his care. This nephew, named Luis, was orphaned as a child and became a ward of Robledo. In 1574, Luis was 16 years old. Pedro sought license to be granted for him to go to New Spain with his family. Testimony was collected from several people to confirm the relationship between Pedro and his ward. On 7 December 1574, in the lugar de Carmena, jurisduction of Maqueda, Pedro Robledo declared that his nephew, Luis, had lived with him for the past 10-12 year, and brought four witnesses to testify to this. The witnesses were Juan de la Cadena y Vega, Juan de la Casa, and Martín de Ysasaga, and Pedro López (son of Fancisco López de Sto [?- Santo?]), each of whom declared they were not related to Pedro Robledo.

Juan de la Cadena y Vega, age 28, vecino de Carmena, declared that he knew Pedro Robledo and his nephew Luis. He further stated that Luis was an orphan and had lived in the care of Robledo since he was a child.

Juan de la Casa, over 50 years old, also a vecino de Carmena, provided the same testimony, as did Martín de Ysasago, age 30.

Pedro López, 50 years old, son of Francisco López de Sto [?Santo?], vecino de Carmena, provided the same testimony and added that the nephew had been in Robledo's care for the past 10-11 years.

The testimonies were written by Alonso Durán, Public Scribe appointed by the Duque de Maqueda, don Bernardino de Cárdenas with approval from the King and his Royal Council.

The information above comes from documents found in the Archivo General de Indias, Seville, in a collection referred to as "Indiferente." It is likely that there are related documents still to be located in the AGI collection known as Contratación. It was at the Casa de Contratación that people with license to pass to the New World presented themselves and were accounted for before getting on a ship for the voyage across the Atlantic Ocean.

Beyond Origins, Vol. 4
Researchers: Charles Martínez y Vigil (extraction and photocopies) and José Antonio Esquibel (summary).
Source: AGI, Sevilla, Indiferente, 2055, N.7

• Death, 21 May 1598. ²⁷⁴
His death was the first recorded death of the colonists who were among the settle of the Oñate party. He died on the journey to New Mexico, leaving his widow and children behind to settle New Mexico.

His family were among the Loyalists who stayed on in New Mexico to raise their families.

• Background Information. ⁴⁹⁸
Stanley Hordes, in his fascinating and scholarly book titled To the End of the Earth, A History of the Crypto-Jews of New México, raises the possibility that Pedro Robledo may have come from a family of conversos. Robledo was born in Carmena, Maqueda, Spain, but spent much of his life in Toledo, Spain before moving to New Spain in 1574.

The records from the Church at Carmena, Maqueda, were destroyed in the Spanish Civil War, so little is known about his ancestry. There were a number of Robledo families living the old Jewish quarter of Toledo in the mid 1600's, but connecting Pedro to these families is close to impossible.

~To the Ends of the Earth, pp. 115-116

Pedro married Catalina López.²⁵² (Catalina López was born in 1542 in Maqueda (nearToledo), España and died in Nuevo Méjico, Nueva España.)