Francisco Romero de Pedraza (ONMF: 388) was referred to as "an uncle of Lucía Gómez Robledo, daughter of Andrés Gómez Robledo." Actually, Andrés Gómez Robledo would have been first cousin of Francisco Romero de Pedraza if we follow Chávez's lead that Francisco was in all probability the son of Matías Romero (ONMF: 97) and Isabel de Pedraza. Matías Romero was a son of Bartolomé Romero and Luisa Robledo and the brother of Ana Robledo who was married with Francisco Gómez, the parents of Andrés Gómez Robledo (ONMF: 36-37, 95-97).
Note: This is an example of the Spanish custom to refer to the children of ones first cousin as niece or nephew.
Researcher: Virginia Sánchez
Source: Fray Angélico Chávez, Origins of New Mexico Families in the Spanish Colonial Period, Museum of New Mexico Press, Santa Fe, 1992.
The Family of Matías Romero and
Doña Isabel de Pedraza
José Antonio Esquibel
© 2003 and 2014
Excerpt from “The Romero Family of Seventeenth-Century New Mexico,” Part 2, published in Herencia, Vol. 11, Issue 3, July 2003 and updated and re-published in El Farolito, Vol. 18, No. 4, Winter 2015. Part 1 of the extensive study of the Romero family appeared in Herencia, Vol. 11, Issue 1, January 2003 and was updated and republished in El Farolito, Vol. 18, No. 3, Fall 2015.
The seventeenth-century extended family surname of Romero de Pedraza in New Mexico originated with the union of Matías Romero (son of Bartolomé Romero and doña Lucía Robledo) and doña Isabel de Pedraza. They were the progenitors of as many as forty-eight descendants born before the end of the seventeenth century. Although the Pueblo Indian uprising of August 1680 claimed the lives of approximately nine to eleven members of this particular branch of the Romero family, archival records confirm that the greater majority of individuals with the surname of Romero returning to New Mexico in December 1693 were grandchildren of Matías Romero and doña Isabel de Pedraza. In contrast, there is no documentation to confirm that any male descendants of the brothers of Matías Romero —Bartolomé Romero and Agustín Romero— returned to New Mexico in 1693 or soon after.
The names of twelve grandchildren of Matías Romero and doña Isabel de Pedraza are still unknown. As such, it is very probable that several of the Romero individuals accounted for in the records of late seventeenth-century New Mexico were members of the Romero de Pedraza branch of the Romero family. The exceptions are the few Romero people returning to New Mexico who were members of the family of Alonso Romero, a mestizo who lived and worked in the household family of Felipe Romero (son of Matías Romero).
The genealogical information provided by Diego Pérez Romero, son of Gaspar Pérez and María Romero (sister of Matías Romero), during his Inquisition trial in 1663 is very valuable for confirming the children of Matías Romero and doña Isabel de Pedraza, whose offspring at times used the extended surname of Romero de Pedraza. When Fray Angélico Chávez complied his research notes on the various Romero individuals of seventeenth-century New Mexico, he logically associated Bartolomé Romero de Pedraza and Francisco Romero de Pedraza as children of Matías and doña Isabel, and he eventually was able to provide confirmation through verifiable documentation from prenuptial investigation records (Fray Angélico Chávez, Origins of New Mexico Families, Museum of New Mexico Press, 1992, 97-98, 388).
Matías Romero and his wife, doña Isabel de Pedraza, were the parents of four sons and two daughters, as identified by Diego Pérez Romero in his statement about his family background in 1663. Pérez Romero named his cousins in the following order: Pedro Romero, Francisco Romero, Bartolomé Romero, Felipe Romero, Luisa Romero and Catalina López Robledo (AGN, Inquisición, t. 372, f. 71v; and José Antonio Esquibel, “The Romero Family of Seventeenth Century New Mexico,” Part 1, Herencia, Vol. 1, Issue 1, January 2003, 8-9, and 10).
In March 1631, Fray Esteban de Perea, Comisario del Santo Oficio de la Inquisición, sought testimony from Matías Romero in a case against his brother-in-law, Gaspar Pérez, but Romero only stated he knew nothing about the matter in question (AGN, Inquisición, t. 372, exp. 16, f. 4, March 26, 1631, Santa Fe). He gave his age as twenty-seven, indicating he was born circa 1604, and declared he was a vecino of Santa Fe. It is apparent he was literate since he was able to sign his name. By 1631 Romero already held prominent military and social positions, serving as alguacil mayor (chief constable or high sheriff) of Santa Fe and alférez real, royal standard bearer (AGN, Inquisición, t. 372, exp. 16, ff. 4-4v).
In the same case, Fray Esteban interviewed doña Isabel de Pedraza in Santa Fe on June 22, 1631. She was identified as being age twenty-five (born circa 1606) and the wife of Alférez Matías Romero. The remarks of doña Isabel came from the gossip she heard about Juana de la Cruz, who was accused of killing two men with potions and witchcraft and investigated by the Inquisition around this same time period.
From the testimony of doña Isabel de Pedraza, it is learned she was born circa 1606 and that she was a first cousin of doña María de Archuleta (born circa 1611), the wife of Juan Márquez and a daughter of Asencio de Archuleta and Ana Pérez de Bustillos (AGN, Inquisición, t. 372, exp. 16, ff. 11r and 18v, Testimony of doña María de Archuleta, March 25, 1631). In all likelihood, Pedraza and Archuleta were related through their mothers, who were apparently two of the seven daughters of Alférez Juan Pérez de Bustillos (native of Mexico City, b.ca. 1557) and María de la Cruz.
The Pérez de Bustillos family settled New Mexico in 1598 (Chávez, ONMF, 87). Since the names of only four of the seven Pérez de Bustillo daughters are known from historical records, it is likely that one of the unknown daughters was married with a Pedraza man, presumably Juan de Pedraza who came as a soldier to New Mexico in the army of don Juan de Oñate in 1598 (Chávez, ONMF, 89). Curiously, Juan de Pedraza, born circa 1568, was listed immediately before Bartlomé Romero in the January 1598 muster roll of soldiers of Oñate’s expedition recorded at Todos Santos (George P. Hammond, ed., and Agapito Rey, trans., Don Juan de Oñate and the Founding of New Mexico 1595-1628, University of Press, Albuquerque, 1953, 293). The other possibility, which is less likely, is that a Pedraza man was married with a sister of Asencio de Archuleta, a native of Eibar, Spain (Chávez, ONMF, 6).
As a member of the Santa Fe cabildo (town council) in 1639, Matías Romero and his compadre don Diego de Guadalajara, also a member of the cablido, took exception to fray Juan de Góngora’s declaration that he held “absolute power to introduce the Santa Cruzada without being presented to the cabildo or being received or accepted by it” (Adolph F.A. Bandelier and Fanny R. Bandelier, Historical Documents Relating to New Mexico, Nueva Vizcaya, and Approaches Thereto, to 1773, edited by Charles Wilson Hackett, Carnegie Institute of Washington, Washington, D.C., 1923, Vol. 3, 50-51). The cabildo contended they held authority to accept or reject the bulls of the Santa Cruzada, from which the alms of penitent individuals were used in defense of the New Mexico against hostile Indians (Bandelier and Bandelier, Historical Documents, Vol. 3, 57).
The political battle that ensued included the use of interdicts and excommunications on the part of Góngora against civil officials. In response, the Santa Fe cabildo sent a representative directly to Mexico City to seek recourse in their favor. This emissary was Gaspar Pérez, Romero’s brother-in-law, who served as procurador general of the kingdom of New Mexico and was sent to Mexico City with the written complaints of the cabildo.
Pérez returned to Santa Fe with approval from the royal tribunal of the Santa Cruzada in Mexico City to have the bull of the Santa Cruzada read publicly in the plaza mayor of Santa Fe “to the effect that his Majesty’s justices [Santa Fe cabildo] shall not permit the debts that are owing in any way to the ministers and officials of the Santa Cruzada [Fray Juan de Góngora] to be presented or claimed before the said secular judges, in order to prevent the excesses and troubles that have followed and do follow from the opposite course” (Bandelier and Bandelier, Historical Documents, Vol. 3, 51). In this case, Matías Romero and his fellow cabildo members gained a political victory by diminishing what they viewed as the excessive and overreaching ecclesiastical authority of Fray Juan de Góngora.
Matías Romero spent many hours and days in the Casas de Cabildo. Before his death in 1646 he served as a regidor (town councilman) and alcalde ordinaro of the Villa de Santa Fe (AGN, Inquisición, t. 372, f. 71v). The date of death of doña Isabel de Pedraza is not known. Together, Matías Romero and doña Isabel de Pedraza are among some of the most common ancestors of individuals with deep Hispano family roots in New Mexico.