Rancho Encinal y Buena Esperanza was a 13392acres Mexican land grant in the Salinas Valley, in present-day Monterey County, California.
Two square leagues (Encinal) was given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to David Spence, and a one square league addition (Buena Esperanza) given in 1839 by Governor Juan B. Alvarado to Spence.[1]
The three square league grant extended along the north bank of the Salinas River, and encompassed present-day Spence.[2]
Scotsman David Spence (1798–1875) came to Monterey in 1824 from Lima, Peru to work for William Hartnell. In 1829, Spence married Maria Adelaida Altagracia Estrada (−1875), a daughter of José Mariano Estrada, grantee of Rancho Buena Vista. Spence was alcalde of Monterey in 1839 in Alta California, and later a member of the California state legislature.[3]
With the cession of California to the United States following the Mexican-American War, the 1848 Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo provided that the land grants would be honored. As required by the Land Act of 1851, a claim for Rancho Encinal y Buena Esperanza was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852,[4] [5] and the grant was patented to David Spence in 1862.[6]
His only son, David Steward Spence (1830–1868), who married Refugio Malarin, daughter of Juan Malarin, grantee of Rancho Chualar, died in 1868, leaving three sons and a daughter, who inherited their grandfather’s estate. [7]