Rancho Los Capitancillos
Mexican land grand in present-day Santa Clara County, California, United States
Rancho Los Capitancillos was a 3,360-acre (13.6 km2) Mexican land grant in present-day Santa Clara County, California given in 1842 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Justo Larios. Los Capitancillos means the Little Captains in Spanish.
The grant was south of present-day San Jose and was bounded on the south by José de los Reyes Berreyesa's Rancho San Vicente.
History
Justo Larios (1808–), son of Jose Larios, was a military artilleryman at the Presidio of San Francisco. Larios was granted the one square league Rancho Los Capitancillos in 1842. Larios sold the whole grant to Grove C. Cook (–1852) in 1845. In 1848, Cook sold the northern part of the grant (Rancho Cañada de los Capitancillos) to the Guadalupe Mining Company. Cook died in 1852, and Charles Fossat bought the three-quarters of the grant in a sheriff's sale.
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Los Capitancillos was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Rancho Los Capitancillos” as mexican land grand in present-day Santa Clara County, California, United States. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
Why this record matters
The subject matters to the places & architecture register because the source frames it as mexican land grand in present-day Santa Clara County, California, United States. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Maps, plans, fabric surveys and administrative records can establish how the site’s name, extent and function changed over time. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 3, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q7291086. Authority coordinates are 37.200, -121.880. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1842, 1808, 1852 and 1845.
A single description cannot reconcile every naming convention, rebuilding phase or administrative transfer associated with a place. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Treat names, boundaries and functions as historically changeable. Maps, plans, inventories and administrative records can clarify what the place meant at different dates.
- Historic place names
- Jurisdictional context
- Routes into maps and plans
Contemporary maps, plans, listed-building records, estate papers and the responsible local or national archive.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Rancho Los Capitancillos”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Rancho Los Capitancillos primary sources, Rancho Los Capitancillos archive and Rancho research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Rancho Los Capitancillos”?
- Which authority defined the place, boundary or structure at the relevant date?
- What physical evidence or contemporary plan supports the description?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Rancho Los Capitancillos” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.