Hola prim@s,

I have found some documents regarding some actions that Maria de las Ruelas took as guardian of her granddaughters - Victoria de las Ruelas, Luisa de Sotomayor, Elena de Sotomayor, Maria de Sotomayor and Ana de Santiago - all daughters of her daughter, Maria de Sotomayor, and of Juan Montañés, both deceased. These documents were all found in the archives of San Luis Potosi, since that is where Maria de las Ruelas lived, as early as July 1649.

If you recall, Juan Montañés had named Maria de las Ruelas as their guardian in his testamento of 29 Sep 1648. As for his male children - Juan, Bernabé and Manuel Montañés - they were initially placed under the guardianship of Montañés’ son-in-law, Juan de Salcedo (married to Petrona de Sotomayor), but in his codicil of 11 Oct 1648, Montañés changed this and named as their guardian Pedro de Salas, resident of Sierra de Pinos and owner of the hacienda called Santa Cruz. And his daughter, Juana Montañés - daughter of his third wife, Maria de Saldaña - was placed under the guardianship of the child’s maternal uncle, Juan de Saldaña.

The first document is dated 11 Jul 1649. In this one, Maria de las Ruelas granted power of attorney to Pedro de Salas, so that he could handle the estate sale. As Juan Montañés had named all of his minor children as his universal heirs, they were to receive an equal share of his estate. To facilitate distribution of the estate, everything would be put on the auction block, and then the proceeds divided among the children. On 4 Aug 1649, she again gives power to Pedro de Salas, it appears to consolidate the inheritance of the nine children. This one gives an inventory of some of Juan Montañés’ goods.

In 1654, Maria de las Ruelas was already in her early 70’s; as an elderly widow, she had little income, yet she was responsible for the upkeep of her 5 wards, and likely, of her spinster daughter, Josepha de las Ruelas. In their home, also lived the various slaves that belonged to the girls, as heirs of their father. Finding themselves in dire straits, it was decided that they’d sell two of the slaves. As the slaves belonged to the girls, Maria de las Ruelas only held them in trust, and she had to request permission of the judicial authorities to sell them, which she did on 7 Aug 1654. In her petition, she explained how they lived in abject poverty, and the only way to sustain themselves, was to sell the two slaves (which is odd, considering that they could’ve rented the slaves out, which I’ve seen others do, but I suppose they needed a “quick fix”). To establish her case, Maria de las Ruelas presented three witnesses: her son-in-law, Lucas de Santa Cruz (age 37), Alferez Bartolome de la Banda (age 50, more or less), and Don Andres de Estrada (age 50, more or less).

Other relevant documents:

In his testamento of 4 Aug 1653, Juan de Salcedo - husband of her granddaughter, Petrona de Sotomayor - recognized that he owed Maria de las Ruelas “100 pesos en reales, Los quales me prestó sobre la parte que me pertenece en las casas de morada en que al presente estoy”.

In 1654, Maria de las Ruelas negotiated the marriage and dowry of her granddaughter, Luisa Montañés de Sotomayor, to Juan Romero Gallardo. On 27 Nov 1654, he registered her carta de dote;in 1660, she negotiated the marriage and dowry of her granddaughter Maria Montañés de Sotomayor to Juan Diaz Melo, who registered reception of her dowry on 11 Sep 1660. Their dowries were relatively modest - under 600 pesos, when most of the dowries I’ve seen were well over 1000 pesos. Each included a slave - which was very common, from what I’ve seen.

Here is the bill of sale for a slave that Joseph de Avila sold on 21 Dec 1649, which belonged to his wife, Josepha de Sotomayor, another daughter of Juan Montañés and Maria de Sotomayor. She likely received the slave as part of her dowry, which would have been arranged by her father, since he was still alive when she married.

As I mentioned in another NR thread, Maria de las Ruelas appears in the 1668 San Luis Potosi padron, as head of household, living with daughters Josepha and Teresa de las Ruelas and some grandchildren. In that same thread, I share links to the folders containing documents regarding the inheritance that she received from her grandson, Antonio Diaz de la Guerta, as well as those regarding her children’s attempt to legally have her declared incompetent of handling her own affairs, in an apparent attempt to gain control of her newly acquired wealth.

Thank you to Mary Lou Montagna, for first bringing to light the existence of most of these documents and the events that they shed light on, and which also shed light on the character of our abuela, Maria de las Ruelas.

Saludos,
Manny Díez Hermosillo