Neve, Felipe de (1728–1784)

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Neve, Felipe de (1728–1784)

Felipe De Neve (b. 1728; d. 21 August 1784), Spanish governor of California. Born in Bailén, Spain, Neve entered military service as a cadet in 1744, subsequently serving in Cantabria, Flanders, Milan, and Portugal. He came to New Spain in 1764, and saw duty in Querétaro and Zacatecas as a captain; he was promoted to lieutenant colonel in 1774. Neve assumed the governorship of the Californias 4 March 1775 at Loreto, and on 3 February 1777 he moved to establish a separate government for Alta California at Monterey. He founded the civilian towns of San José (29 November 1777) and Los Angeles (4 September 1781). He launched an attack against the Yuma Indians after they had massacred the party of Fernando de Rivera y Moncada at the Colorado River, 18 July 1781. In 1782 Neve was named inspector general of the Provincias Internas del Occidente, and commandant general in 1783. He died at the Hacienda Nuestra Señora del Carmen de Peña Blanca, Chihuahua.

See alsoRivera y Moncada, Fernando de .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Hubert H. Bancroft, History of California, vol. 1 (1884).

Edwin A. Beilharz, Felipe de Neve: First Governor of California (1971).

Additional Bibliography

Gutiérrez, Ramón A., and Richard J Orsi. Contested Eden: California before the Gold Rush. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998.

                                     W. Michael Mathes