Rancho Los Carneros was a 4482acres Mexican land grant in present-day Monterey County, California given in 1834 by Governor José Figueroa to David Littlejohn.[1] The name means quite literally "Ranch of the Rams". The grant was east of Elkhorn Slough and encompassed present-day Elkhorn.[2]
The one square league grant was given to Scotsman David (Francisco Xavier) Littlejohn (1795–1847) who came to California in 1824 aboard a Hartnell ship from Peru. He married Francisca Antonia Higuera in 1826. Their daughter Maria Antonia Littlejohn (1827-) married Francisco Maria Castro 1851, and the other daughter Maria Elena Littlejohn (1833-) married Becinto Avila about 1852.
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 Los Carneros was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1853,[3] [4] and the grant was patented to David Littlejohn in 1866.[5]