Berryessa family of California
A prominent Basque-heritage Californio family whose members held extensive Mexican-era land grants in Northern California.
Last updated August 26, 2026
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Overview
The Berryessa family of California, more often recorded in historical documents under spellings such as Berrelleza, Berreyesa, Berelleza, Berrellez, and Berrellesa, was a prominent Californio family associated with the settlement, ranching, landholding, and political life of Northern California. The family traced its ancestry to Basque-origin settlers who moved from Spain to New Spain. Two members of the family, Ana Isabel Berrelleza and Nicolás Antonio Berrelleza, joined the 1775 Anza expedition that brought colonists and soldiers from New Spain to Alta California. Their arrival connected the family to the early Spanish and Mexican colonial communities that developed around the missions and presidios of the region. Through marriage, military service, ranching, and government grants, later generations accumulated substantial property in the greater San Francisco Bay Area and the interior valleys of what is now Northern California. Nicolás Antonio Berrelleza and María Gertrudis Peralta had nine children. Their descendants became associated with several large ranchos, including Rancho San Pablo, Rancho San Vicente, Rancho Las Putas, and Rancho Milpitas. Members of the extended family also married into other important Californio families, including the Peraltas and Castros, further linking them to the landholding networks of Mexican-era California. The family's holdings were especially important in the Santa Clara Valley, the Bay Area, and the Napa region. José de los Reyes Berreyesa received Rancho San Vicente in the Almaden Valley in 1842. The property included land near the New Almaden mercury deposits, which became strategically valuable after the discovery of gold in California increased demand for mercury. The ownership of the mine and surrounding lands became the subject of prolonged disputes involving the Berreyesa family, rival private claimants, squatters, mining companies, and the United States government. The transition from Mexican to United States rule was devastating for the family and for many other Californio landowners. Although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided for recognition of existing property rights, the United States created a land-claim review process in 1851. Protracted litigation, uncertain boundaries, forged or disputed documents, legal expenses, debt, squatter occupation, and changing interpretations of Mexican land grants caused the Berryessas to lose most of their real estate. Violence compounded these losses. Several family members were killed during the political and social upheaval surrounding the Bear Flag Revolt and the American takeover of California, while other members were murdered or executed by vigilante groups in the 1850s. The family history also includes a serious record of exploitation of Native Californians. A 1854 report by the federal Superintendent of Indian Affairs described the discovery of Native people held in conditions of slavery in Berryessa Valley and accused members of the family of acquiring and selling Native American captives. This aspect of the family's history is essential to understanding the unequal colonial and ranching systems in which its wealth was created. The Berryessa name survives most visibly through geography. Berryessa Valley, the Berryessa district of San José, Lake Berryessa, and other regional references preserve the family's presence in the historical landscape. The family is therefore best understood not as a contemporary commercial brand, but as a historically prominent Californio lineage whose landholding, migration, violence, legal conflicts, and place-name legacy are documented in the history of Northern California.
History
The Berryessa family originated in a Basque-heritage Spanish-speaking community whose members moved from the Basque region to New Spain in the early eighteenth century. José de Jesús Cayetano Berrelleza was born in Sinaloa in 1717. His children Ana Isabel and Nicolás Antonio later joined the expedition organized by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1775 to strengthen Spain's settlement of Alta California. The colonists reached Mission San Gabriel in January 1776 and continued to Monterey later that year. Ana Isabel married Juan José Peralta in 1777. Nicolás Antonio married María Gertrudis Peralta at Mission Santa Clara in 1779. Their children became the central ancestral generation of the Northern California Berreyesa family. The descendants participated in the military, civil, agricultural, and landholding institutions of Spanish and Mexican California. María Gabriela Berrelleza married Francisco María Castro and became associated with Rancho San Pablo. José de los Reyes Berreyesa served at the Presidio of San Francisco and later received Rancho San Vicente in the Almaden Valley. Nazario Antonio Berrelleza received Rancho Las Putas, a large grant in the valley east of Napa that later became known as Berryessa Valley. Nicolás Antonio Berreyesa II received Rancho Milpitas near present-day Santa Clara County. These properties supported extensive livestock and agricultural operations. Nazario Antonio's ranching enterprise was described as holding thousands of cattle and horses and producing grain. José de los Reyes's Rancho San Vicente became entangled with the discovery of cinnabar and the development of the New Almaden mercury mine. Mercury was commercially important because it was used in processing precious-metal ores, and demand grew during the California Gold Rush. The American conquest of California brought political instability and direct violence. During the 1846 Bear Flag Revolt, three sons of José de los Reyes were imprisoned in Sonoma. Their father and two relatives traveled to investigate their treatment and were killed by members of an armed party associated with John C. Frémont. The incident illustrated the vulnerability of Californio families during the transfer of power from Mexico to the United States. The New Almaden property dispute became the family's longest-running legal conflict. Squatters and mining interests occupied or worked portions of the land, while rival claimants and the federal government questioned the scope and validity of the Mexican-era grants. The Berreyesas attempted to defend the property through litigation and physical resistance. Several family members were killed in incidents connected to the conflict or to the broader lawlessness of the period, including Joseph Zenobia Nemesio Berreyesa, Francisco Antonio Berreyesa, and José de la Encarnación Ramón Antonio Berreyesa. Other relatives left Northern California for safer areas. The family also experienced the broader structural loss of Californio landownership after 1851. The United States Public Land Commission reviewed Mexican and Spanish land claims, and the resulting proceedings were frequently lengthy and expensive. Even where claims were eventually recognized, litigation costs, debt, ambiguous boundaries, fraudulent documents, and occupation by Anglo-American settlers weakened the original owners' position. In the Berreyesa case, later decisions distinguished between agricultural land and the mineral-bearing hills around New Almaden. A 1863 decision enabled the family to sell rights associated with the mine, while an 1868 United States Supreme Court patent confirmed ownership of the arable land but not the rocky mining area. The historical record additionally documents the family's participation in systems of coercion against Native Californians. A 1854 federal report described Native people held in slavery in Berryessa Valley and alleged that members of the family had violently acquired and sold captives. This evidence complicates older portrayals of the Berryessas solely as victims of American dispossession: they were themselves vulnerable to racialized violence and legal expropriation, while also participating in colonial practices that harmed Indigenous communities. Although the family's estates largely disappeared, the name remained embedded in Northern California geography. Berryessa Valley, Lake Berryessa, and the Berryessa district of San José are among the best-known surviving references. The family is consequently remembered through a combination of genealogical descent, Californio history, ranching and land-grant history, the New Almaden mining controversy, Indigenous enslavement, and the place names that continue to mark the region.
- 1868
Supreme Court patent recognizes agricultural land
[1]The patent confirmed the family's title to the arable land of the rancho while excluding the mineral-bearing hills.
- 1863
Court ruling concerning New Almaden rights
[1]A court decision enabled the family to sell rights connected to working the mine.
- 1854
Federal report on Native enslavement in Berryessa Valley
[1]A federal report described Native people held in slavery and accused the family of involvement in capture and sale of Indigenous captives.
- 1851
United States land-claim review begins
[1]The federal land-claim process created the legal environment in which the family's Mexican-era grants were contested and progressively weakened.
- 1847
New Almaden occupation and document dispute
[1]Mining interests occupied the New Almaden works using a grant document whose authenticity and legal effect were challenged.
- 1846
Deaths during the Bear Flag Revolt
[1]José de los Reyes Berreyesa and two relatives were killed while traveling to visit imprisoned family members.
- 1842
Rancho San Vicente grant
[1]José de los Reyes Berreyesa received a grant of approximately one square league in the Almaden Valley.
- 1779
Nicolás Antonio Berrelleza marries María Gertrudis Peralta
[1]Their marriage established the principal family line from which several major Californio landholders descended.
- 1775
Ana Isabel and Nicolás Antonio join the Anza expedition
[1]The siblings joined Juan Bautista de Anza's colonizing expedition from New Spain to Alta California.
- 1717
Birth of José de Jesús Cayetano Berrelleza in New Spain
[1]The ancestor later connected to the California branch of the family was born in Sinaloa after his parents migrated from the Basque region of Spain to New Spain.
Controversies
1854
Allegations of Native American enslavement
A federal Indian-affairs report described approximately 150 Native Americans in conditions of slavery in Berryessa Valley and alleged that members of the family had violently acquired and illegally sold Native captives.
1847
Disputed document used in New Almaden occupation
The New Almaden Mining Company took possession of the mine using a grant document that the historical account describes as forged or otherwise suspect, contributing to a prolonged conflict over ownership.
Brand decisions
1868
Recognition of arable Rancho San Vicente landOtherBackground
The family's land claim had been divided by litigation over the scope of the Mexican-era grant and the ownership of the New Almaden mineral deposits.
Action taken
The United States Supreme Court issued a patent recognizing the family's ownership of the rancho's cultivable land but excluding the rocky hills containing the mine.
Aftermath
The decision provided formal recognition of part of the claim but did not restore the family's control over the principal mining area.
1863
Settlement and sale of New Almaden mining rightsOtherBackground
After years of litigation involving the family, rival claimants, mining companies, and the federal government, a court decision favored the family's position sufficiently to permit a transfer of mining rights.
Action taken
The family sold rights to work the mine, while later proceedings continued to separate the agricultural grant from the mineral-bearing hills.
Aftermath
The United States ultimately asserted control over the mining area, while the family's title to the arable land was recognized in a later patent.
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