Rancho Novato
Rancho Novato was a 8,871-acre (35.90 km2) Mexican land grant in present day Marin County, California given in 1839 by Governor Juan Alvarado to Fernando Feliz (or Felix). The grant extended along San Pablo Bay, from Black Point to Rancho San Jose, and included the land that now encompasses the city of Novato.
Fernando De La Trinidad Feliz (May 30, 1795, Los Angeles, California – November 12, 1859, Hopland, California), who was a regidor (town councilman) at the Pueblo of San José in 1831, received the two square league grant in 1839.
In 1844, Feliz was grantee of Rancho Sanel in Mendocino County, California, and sold Rancho Novato to Jacob P. Leese, and moved to Rancho Sanel. In 1846, Leese sold Rancho Novato to Bezer Simmons, who erected a large wooden house on it in 1850. In 1846, Capt. Bezer Simmons also bought Rancho San Diego Island (now Coronado) from Pedro C. Carillo. Simmons assigned the rancho to his creditors: Bezer J. Simmons, Benjamin F[ranklin]. Simmons (Bezer Simmons’ brother), W. W. Parker, S. Needham, John H. Allen, Andrew McCabe, James Johnson, and Halleck, Peachy & Billings.
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 Novato was filed with the Public Land Commission in 1852, and the grant was patented to his creditors in 1866.
...
Wikipedia