John Gilroy (who had changed his surname from Cameron) was the first non-Hispanic settler in California. He came to Monterey aboard the Isaac Todd, an armed merchant ship, during the War of 1812. The ship’s destination was Fort Astoria (present day Oregon), at the mouth of the Columbia River, but Gilroy never made it there. Instead – depending on the historical account – he either abandoned his post or was left behind to recover from scurvy.

Gilroy worked for several years as a cooper (barrel maker) among various missions (religious settlements run by Catholic Franciscan friars), pueblos (secular towns) or ranchos (ranches, usually run by Spanish settlers). The barrels would be useful in the burgeoning talo (beef fat) trade.

He ended up at Rancho San Ysidro in present day Santa Clara county. Gilroy converted to Roman Catholicism, which was a necessary step in becoming an official settler permitted to own land in Spanish Alta California. In 1821 Gilroy married Maria Clara, who was the daughter of his employer Ygnacio Ortega. Upon Ortega’s death in 1833, Maria Clara (and later Gilroy, under US law) inherited one third of the property.

If you are familiar with the area, you may have correctly guessed that the rancho land eventually became the city of Gilroy, CA, which is today known for prolific exports of garlic (which you can even smell while driving through town). I wonder if Gilroy himself enjoyed such Alliums.

Update (02 Jun 2020): while reading about Juana Briones (new post coming!) I found out that in the end John Gilroy lost the family rancho and died penniless (1). Under what circumstances, the book didn’t say. But that was a not uncommon result when California changed hands from Spanish to Mexican to United States. Although the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo assured that Spanish land grants would be respected, it often times took years (sometimes decades) of legal battles to keep one’s land.

References:

1. “Juana Briones of 19th Century California” by Jeanne Farr McDonnell, p. 188.