Los Angeles County
Biographies
‘Conchita Sepulveda Pignatelli, of Los Angeles, is the wife of the distinguished nobleman, Prince Pignatelli. Her father, Judge Ygnacio Sepulveda, who served as the first superior court judge of Los Angeles, California, achieved a notable records not only in the legal world of California and Old Mexico, but in many other aspects of the life of his period in which he played so important a part. He was born in Los Angeles, then a part of Old Mexico, on July 1, 1842, and came of a most distinguished family. The following paragraphs concerning his father, Don Jose Andres Sepulveda, and the ancestry of his family in ‘Sixty Years in Southern California,’ by Harris Newmark, are here quoted:
“‘There were two large and important landowners, second cousins, known as Jose Sepulveda, the one Don Jose Andres and the other Don Jose Loreto. The father of Don Jose Andres was Don Francisco Sepulveda, a Spanish officer to whom the San Vicente ranch had been granted. Jose Andres, born in San Diego in 1804, was the oldest of eleven children. His brothers were Fernando, Jose del Carmen, Dolores and Juan Maria, and he also had six sisters. To Jose Andres, or Jose, as he was called, the San Joaquin ranch was given, an enormous tract of land lying between the present Tustin City, and San Juan Capistrano, and running from the hills to the sea; while on the death of Don Francisco the San Vincente ranch (later bought by Jones and Baker) was left to Jose del Carmen, Dolores and Juan Maria.
“‘Jose in addition bought eighteen hundred acres from Jose Antonio Yorba, and on this newly acquired property he built his ranch house, although he and his family may be said to have been more or less permanent residents of Los Angeles. Fernando Sepulveda married Miss Verdugo, and through her became proprietor of much of the Verdugo rancho. The fact that Jose was so well provided for and that Fernando had come into control of the Verdugo acres, made it mutually satisfactory that the San Vicente should have been willed to the other son.
“‘The children of Jose Andres included besides Judge Ygnacio, Miguel Bernabe; Joaquin Andronico; Francisco, wife of James Thompson; Tomaso, wife of Frank Rico; Ramona, wife of Captain Salisbury Haley, of the Sea Bird; Ascencion, wife of Thomas Mott; and Tranquilina.’”
“Ygnacio Sepulveda passed his boyhood years in Los Angeles but journeyed to Massachusetts for the completion of his higher educational training. He had decided meanwhile upon a legal career and in 1863 was admitted to the California bar. In the same year he was elected a member of the California state legislature, beginning his career in public life which was to continue over so long a period. His legal scholarship, breadth of outlook and recognized talents brought him to the county bench with General Volney Howard, when the new California constitution went into effect. In his high office he served with the greatest distinction until 1884, when he resigned to become a resident of Mexico City. Judge Sepulveda was received in his new home with the honor due one of his station and achievement. He expected to remain in Mexico City only a few years but instead lived there thirty years, from 1884 to 1914. He was recognized as one of the most erudite and brilliant attorneys of the Latin Republic. A man of sound scholarship, his services were greatly in demand and for many years, in addition to his other connections, he was chief counsel in Mexico for Wells Fargo & Company Express. During President Cleveland’s term Judge Sepulveda became first secretary of the American legation at Mexico City and charge d’affaires in the absence of the minister. In his service at the American Legation he rendered distinguished aid to his own country and won both the confidence and affection of the people of Mexico. He was a close friend and adviser of President Diaz and was honored by the Republic in his election to membership to the Academy of Jurisprudence and Legislation. Sepulveda avenue in the City of Mexico was also named in his honor.
“On returning to Los Angeles in 1914, Judge Sepulveda opened law offices and here devoted himself to the practice of his profession until his last illness. He was welcomed not only by the people of his native city, but also in San Francisco and elsewhere throughout the state, with every evidence of the affectionate regard in which he was universally held. The opinions of few other men in the state commanded such instant respect, and with the increasingly critical situation then existing between the United States and Mexico his views were widely consulted. On March 25, 1916, only a few months before his death, he delivered his last public address, before the Los Angeles City Club, touching on the various aspects of the Mexico-American crisis. Judge Sepulveda died in Los Angeles on December 3, 1916, being survived by his wife and by his two daughters, the Princess Pignatelli and Miss Ora Sepulveda, the latter now deceased. He was seventy-four when death closed his brilliant career, which was crowned both with years and honor and with the love of many friends.
“Mrs. Herlinda Sepulveda, wife of the late Judge Ygnacio Sepulveda, survived her distinguished husband about four years. She died in 1920, at the age of sixty-three. Born on the De la Guerra estates in Ventura county, California, on April 5, 1857, she was a daughter of Francisco and Concepcion Sepulveda De la Guerra, her family matching that of her husband in dignity and prominence. Her grandfather, Jose Noriega De la Guerra, a grandee of Spain, settled in Santa Barbara in the closing years of the eighteenth century. He was not only a large property owner in his own right, but for many years had direct supervision over all the missions in Southern California, and acted as the confidential agent of the king of Spain.
“Mrs. Sepulveda lived during her girlhood on the Tapo and Incisimi ranches near Ventura, California, two of the largest remaining in the state, each including eleven leagues of land. She was married to Judge Sepulveda at an early age [sic] and in 1884 took up her residence in Mexico City. During thirty years in the Mexican capital she was very prominent socially and became widely known both there and in Los Angeles for her great kindness and charity and her many practical philanthropies. She was especially interested in a large home for orphans at Mexico City which she founded and to a great extent supervised. At her death she was laid to rest at Santa Barbara, at the famous Santa Barbara Mission, and in the city founded by the De la Guerras. As one of the oldest communicants of the mission and as a representative of one of California’s fast disappearing first families, it was very appropriate that the bells of the old mission tolled in honor of her last obsequies. She was survived by her daughter (now Princess Pignatelli), by four sisters and three brothers.
“The Princess Pignatelli, daughter of Judge Ygnacio and Herlinda (De la Guerra) Sepulveda, was born in Mexico City and was educated there in the Medames School of the Sacred Heart. Subsequently she attended a similar school in New York city, and with her parents traveled widely in many parts of the world. She is a woman of the widest culture, well qualified for the high social position she has occupied. She was married first to Charles H. Chapman, who died on May 7, 1925, and they became the parents of two daughters, Conchita and Carmen. Later she married Prince Pignatelli and they have a daughter.”
Transcribed
by K.V. Bunker.
Source: California
of the South Vol. V,
by John Steven McGroarty, Pages 501-504,
Clarke Publ., Chicago, Los Angeles,
Indianapolis. 1933.
© 2012 K.V. Bunker.
GOLDEN NUGGET'S LOS ANGELES
BIOGRAPHIES