Fernando Durán y Chávez

  Noted events in his life were:

• Background Information: ²⁵²
Fernando Durán y Chaves, the "eldest son of his father," and named presumably after his grandfather, Hernán, inherited Don Pedro's encomienda and lost it later during a political fracas, during the term of Governor Pacheco. He is first mentioned in contemporary documents of 1638 when, as Lieutenant Governor of the Sandía or Río Abajo jurisdiction, he testified that he had accompanied Governor Rosas in an expedition to the Apotlapihuas. Testifying many years later, in 1660, he gave his age as forty-three, so that, if born in 1617, he was the son of Isabel de Bohórquez; nevertheless, he was older than his brother Pedro II. In 17 Aug 1644, he had testified that he was born in New Mexico and was thirty-five years old. His brother Pedro was thirty-three.

Fernando was embroiled in two major political crises, the first around the year 1640, and the second around 1660. The first was the Governor Rosas affair when he testified against him in favor of the friars, being a captain at the time. He got into Governor Pacheco's good graces by attending the execution of eight conspirators in Santa Fe, 21 Jul 1643, and was appointed an Alcalde by him; but when Pacheco turned against the friars, he took the friars' part. Pacheco then condemned him and thirteen others to be executed for sedition. It seems that he escaped execution by fleeing from New Mexico, thus losing his encomienda. For in 1646, he and his son, Agustín de Chaves, were in the soldier-escort that brought a new governor, Luis de Guzmán, from Mexico City to Santa Fe The next major issue, in 1660 and after, and for the same reasons, took place under the tenures of Governors López Mendizábal and Peñalosa. At this time he was a Sargento Mayor. The crowning incident took place in Aug 1663, when Peñalosa violated the right of sanctuary by removing Fernando's brother Pedro from the Mission at Santo Domingo Pueblo, and subsequently imprisoned him in the Palace of the Governors with Fernando and the latter's son Cristóbal. He died some years after, for in April, 1669, he is referred to as recently deceased. He might have died in an Indian expedition he led in 1668.

His land holdings, as can be inferred from those of his heirs, were those inherited from his father in the Sandía jurisdiction, from the boundaries of San Felipe Pueblo down through Bernalillo to Atrisco. His wife was a Carvajal, a sister of Agustín de Carvajal. Their known children were Agustín, Cristóbal, and Fernando II.

~ Origins of New Mexico Families: A Genealogy of the Spanish Colonial Period, p. 14 (Kindle Locations 1056-1087)

Fernando married Ana María de Carabajal, daughter of Juan de Victoria Carabajal Captain and Isabel Holguín, about 1629 in Nuevo Méjico, Nueva España.²⁵² (Ana María de Carabajal was born in 1610-1614 in Nuevo Méjico, Nueva España.)