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The Names of the California Missions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

J. N. Bowman
J. N. Bowman*
Affiliation:
Berkeley, California
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Extract

The names of most of the 21 California missions as they appear in the founding reports and on the title pages of the parochial books of baptisms, deaths, and marriages are not the same as the names by which they are known at present; names have been shortened for convenience, and changes have been made as the result of changed conditions, especially in the spelling and accentuation. At the time that the names were written and during the sixty-five years of the existence of the missions, there was no uniformity in spelling or punctuation. This problem of uniformity did not arise until after the publication of A. Bello’s Gramática in 1847.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Americas , Volume 21 , Issue 4 , April 1965 , pp. 363 - 374
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1965

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References

1 Twenty-one dictionaries published between 1673 and 1908 show no uniformity in accentuation of the words used in the names of the missions (with one exception), and even the dictionary of 1908 shows slight variations. Of the mission names only Inés was found accentuated in all the volumes; Santa Bárbara was found only once without the accent, Seráfico twice, purísima and mártir thrice each, Alcalá four times and príncipe five times. In 23 legal and governmental books published in Spain and Mexico between 1715 and 1903, a general lack of accentuation was also found. D. de Mofras in 1842 in copying the list of mission names wrote Diégo, San, Bárbara, Santa, Rey, San Luíz, Inés, Santa, Purísima, , Obispo, San Luís, Baútista, San, Crúz, Santa, José, San Exploration de I’Oregon (Paris, 1844), I, 320.Google Scholar

2 The parochial books of baptisms, marriages and deaths for the mission period are now in the missions, diocesan chanceries or the Bancroft Library, except those of San Luis Rey which were reported lost in early 1847. The mission reports and correspondence are in the Santa Barbara Mission Archives and in the collections and abstracts in the Bancroft Library.

3 Geiger, Maynard, Palou’s Life of Serra (Washington, 1955), pp. 107, 115.Google Scholar

4 Bolton, H. E., Palou’s Historical Memoirs of New California (Berkeley, 1926), II, 294Google Scholar. Bancroft, H. H. in his History of California (San Francisco, 1884)Google Scholar, used Borromeo three times as a formal name, but otherwise it was San Carlos or Carmel. Hittell, T. in his History of California (San Francisco, 1885)Google Scholar, did not use Borromeo at all. Engelhardt, in the same way, used it only as a formal name but without explanation of the difference between the ordered and the title-book names—San Carlos (Santa Barbara, 1934), pp. 26, 225, 241. No doubt Borromeo was to have been part of the mission name, but in general use it was understood and not actually employed. D. de Mofras in 1842 wrote it “Mission de Nuestra Señora del Carmelo.” Exploration, I, 391.

5 Russell’s, T. C. edition of volume II of Langsdorf’s Narrative of the Rezanov Voyages (San Francisco, 1927), pp. 47, 93Google Scholar, wrote it “Mission San Francisco de Asis” but the “de Asis’ does not appear in either the German or English editions. The protest of pueblo Dolores of 1850, is in the State Archives, Sacramento. Mofras, Exploration, I, 421, wrote it “Mission de los Dolores de San Francisco de Asis.”

6 Simpson, Sir George, Overland Journey Round the World (Philadelphia, 1843), I, 169Google Scholar. Letter from Father John Leal. Recollections of Gallegos, Robert, Mrs. Whiteside, , and Perriera, Jose F., all of Mission Jose, San. James, G. W., In and Out of the California Missions (Boston, 1905)Google Scholar. Local newspapers from 1910 to 1929. Knowland, J. R., California Landmarks (Oakland, 1941), p. 39 Google Scholar. Grizzly Bear (1915), p. 7; (1916), p. 9; (1917), p. 207; (1918), p. 237. Oakland Tribune, August 21, 1921, Mag. 6.

7 Engelhardt, in his Missions and Missionaries (San Francisco, 1912), III, 181, 184Google Scholar, implies that it was a mission in 1822 or at least entitled to that status. Bancroft in his History, I, 294, also implies that it was a mission in the early days of the establishment; also Cal. A., 50: 294, in the Bancroft Library.

8 Russell, (ed.), Langsdorf, pp. 47, 93; the German edition (Frankfurt-am-Main, 1812), II, 156, 163Google Scholar; the English edition (London, 1813–1814), II, 157, 187. McRockey, R., Missions of California (San Francisco, 1914)Google Scholar. Letter from Father A. D. Spearman of the University of Santa Clara. Colligan, F. A., The Three Churches of Santa Clara Mission (San Francisco, 1921).Google Scholar

9 Mofras, Exploration, I, 446.