Research and Narrative by José Antonio Esquibel
There were three men with the surname of Lobato that came to New Mexico between 1693 and 1702. In later year, Lovato became a variation of the Lobato surname
Matías Lobato
Matías Lobato was a soldier who came to New Mexico to assist with the restoration of New Mexico to the Spanish crown under the leadership of Governor don Diego de Vargas. He was part of the company of soldiers that travelled from El Paso del Río del Norte to Santa Fe in the fall of 1693 with Vargas and the older New Mexico families who were returning to northern New Mexico after 13 years of exile.
In December of 1693 at Santo Domingo Pueblo on the way to the Villa de Santa Fe, Matías Lobato was a witness in a prenuptial investigation for a soldier named Miguel Gutierrez. Matías gave his age as 25, indicating he was born around 1668, but he did not state his place of birth (AASF DM 1693, Dec 8, no. 4a, on the way Santo Domingo; Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.”, 798). He testified that he had known Gutiérrez, a native of San Luis Potosí in Nueva España, since his first years, suggesting that Matías may have been born in that same city.
Matías was the first individual with the Lobato surname to arrive in New Mexico. It is not clear what familial relations existed between him and the other Lonato men who came later to New Mexico. Matías apparently was married and had children in New Mexico, but the names of is wife and children remain unknown (Chávez, ONMF, 206).
Bartolomé Lobato
Bartolomé Lobato, his wife Lucia Ana Negrete, also known as Lucía Chirinos, and a son, Juan Lobato, came to New Mexico in early 1695 having been recruited at Zacatecas by Juan Paez Hurtado (Colligan,The Juan Páez Hurtado Expedition of 1693, 35).
Bartolomé Lobato, español, and “Luisana Negrete,” española, were accounted for on a list of families recruited by Captain Juan Páez Hurtado in Zacatecas, Nueva Galicia. O December 29, 1694, Bartolomé was described as “a native of the real and mines of Sombrerete, twenty-nine [b.ca.1665], healthy, long, black hair, married to Luisana Negrete (Kessel, Hendricks, and Didge, Blood on the Boulders, I: 495). In their household was their one-year-old son, Juan.
Based on several records, Bartolomé was born circa 1663 to 1666. In January 1696 he declared he was age 30, a native of Zacatecas, Nueva Galicia, and a soldier of the Villa de Santa Fe, and then in April 1696 he declared he was 33 years old and a native of Sombrerete, Nueva Galicia (AASF, DM, 1696, January, no. 11, Santa Fe; and AASF, DM 1696, April 28, no. 9, Santa Fe). In December 1709, Bartolomé held the rank of captain and declared he was age 44, indicating he was born 1665 (AASF, DM 1709, no, 9, Santa Cruz).
In August 1701, Sargento Bartolomé Lobato bought from Juana Domínguez, the widow of Juan Luján and then of Lorenzo de Madrid, a parcel of land with a house and orchard in the Villa de Santa Fe along the Río Chiquito (modern-day Water Street) for the sum of 90 pesos and immediately sold it for 200 pesos to Pedro Sandoval, turning an excellent profit (SANM I, nos. 425 and 821).
In 1716, it was noted that Bartolomé was a Franciscan Tertiary, a member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. Those members were allowed to wear in public the habit of the Third Order and were referred to as hermano (AASF, DM 1716, February 11, no. 10, Santa Fe; Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 908). These hermanos were early predecessors of the penitentes in New Mexico.
There is a prenuptial investigation record for Agustín Lobato, son of Bartolomé, that was not presented by Fray Angélico Chávez in Origins of New Mexico Families. In the Villa de Santa Fe, on February 16, 1728, Agustín Lobato, a soldier of the presidio in the villa, gave his age as 25, indicating he was born circa 1703, and identified his parents as Bartolome Lobato and Luciana Negrete, natives of Zacatecas (Fray Angélico Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd,: An Addendum,” Part III, New Mexico Genealogist, September 2010, 49:3, 147). His prospective bride was with Juana Tafoya, age 17, daughter of Antonio Tafoya and Maria Luisa Godines, residents of the Villa de Santa Fe. The witnesses were Juan Truxillo, 25, soldier of the presidio, Diego González, 35, soldier of the presidio, Domingo Valdes, 31, resident of the villa, and José Luján, 27, soldier. The couple was married on March 3, 1728, and veiled on April 9, 1728. The marriage witnesses were Felipe Tafoya and Barbara Tafoya.
Blas Lobato
Next came Blas Lobato, also a native of Sombrerete, Nueva Galicia, who came to New Mexico sometime after 1695 and in February 1702 declared he was a son of Blas Lobato and Magdalena Cardenas when he married Juana Flores in the Villa de Santa Fe (AASF, DM 1702, Feb 2, Santa Fe). One of the witnesses for the prenuptial investigation was Matías Lobato, which suggests a family relationship.
Although Fray Angélico Chávez speculated that Blas may have been a son of Bartolomé Lobato, that was not the case.
Blas Lobato came to New Mexico sometime after 1695 and by 1702. In September 1714, Blas declared he was a native of Sombrerete, age 30, indicating he was born circa 1684 (AASF, D 1714, September 28, no. 20, Santa Cruz; Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 1100). Four years later in September 1718, Blas Lobato, a soldier of the Santa Fe presidio gave his age as 35, indicating 1683 as an estimated year of his birth (AASF, DM 1718, September no. 6, Santa Fe; Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, Ltd.,” 2135).
Lobato Family Research, Sombrerete
It has long been suspected that Matías Lobato, Bartolomé Lobato and Blas Lobato were related, but research conducted by historians at the Archives of Sombrerete and Zacatecas were not able to locate any records to identity and confirm a familial relationship.
In 1992, Rick Hendricks, the former historian of the State of New Mexico, travelled to Mexico to consult the archives of Sombrerete. He noted that the Sombrerete archival records had not fared well with the passage of time and there were very few sacramental records remaining for local churches. Although those archival records were closed to researchers at the time, Hendricks was allowed access to the records.
On that same trip, Hendricks visited the Archivo Historical del Estado de Zacatecas and he located a baptismal record dated March 27, 1684, Sombrerete, for a brother of Blas Lobato named Tomas, also a son of Blas Lobato and Magdalena Cardenas.
Hendricks did find a couple of records regarding the elder Blas Lobato. In one record dated August 18, 1679, Lobato agreed to repay a loan of 300 pesos within 6 months. As a guarantee he put up his mulatto slave, Felipa, as collateral in the event of non-payment. Apparently, he paid the loan because six months later he sold Felipa for 375 pesos. He had bought her for that same amount from a man named Juan de Heredia who had bought her from Baltasar Moronte, a scribe in Mexico City.
Rick Hendricks published his findings in a brief article titled "Lobato Family Origins in Sombrerete, Mexico," published in Herencia, Volume 2, Issue 2, April 1994, pages 4-8.
Since the publication of that article, there has not been any other research to extend the genealogy of the Lobato genealogy further than the information published in Origins in New Mexico Families' and the information published in the Hendricks article, as well as the information above.
New findings on the Lobato genealogy based on documentation will be very welcome!
Summary by José Antonio Esquibel
Researchers: Fray Angélico Chávez, Rick Hendricks, and José Antonio Esquibel
Sources:
Archives of the Archdiocese of New Mexico (AASF), Roll #59, Diligencias Matrimoniales (DM) 1693, Dec. 8, no. 4a, on the way Santo Domingo, for Miguel Gutiérrez, español, and María de Tapia, española; see also Fray Angélico Chávez, “New Mexico Roots, LTD,” 798.
John B. Colligan, The Juan Páez Hurtado Expedition of 1693, (University of New Mexico Press, 1995), 35.