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Felipe de Neve

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Felipe de Neve

Felipe de Neve y Padilla (1724 – 3 November 1784) was a Spanish soldier who served as the 4th Governor of the Californias, from 1775 to 1782. Neve is one of the founders of Los Angeles and was instrumental in the foundation of San Jose and Santa Barbara.

Born in Bailén, Spain, Neve was the son of Mary D. Padilla y Costilla and Felipe de Neve Noguera Castro y Figueroa and was born into one of the well-respected families of Andalucia. Neve entered the military in 1744 at about 16 years of age. Neve served as a soldier in Cantabria, Flanders, Milan, and Portugal before arriving in New Spain. During his time as a major he administered the colleges of Zacatecas, New Spain.

Neve was appointed as acting Governor of Las Californias on October 18, 1774 by Viceroy Antonio Maria de Buareli y Ursua. For the first two years of his appointment, Neve was based in Loreto, Baja California and later moved to Monterey.

It was during Neve's administration that Lieutenant José Joaquín Moraga is credited with building the Presidio of San Francisco, after the site was selected by Juan Bautista de Anza in 1776. Moraga is also known as the founder of El Pueblo de San José de Guadalupe, the present day city of San Jose, California. On November 29, 1777, Moraga founded San José on orders from Antonio María de Bucareli y Ursúa, the Spanish Viceroy of New Spain. It was the first Spanish colonial pueblo in the northern region of Las Californias Province, which became its own Alta California Province in 1804. The city served as a farming community to support the Presidio of San Francisco and the Presidio of Monterey.

In 1781, later in Neve's tenure, he founded the Pueblo de Los Ángeles. Governor Neve had applied to Viceroy Bucareli for permission to establish a settlement (pueblo) near the Los Angeles River (Río de Porciúncula), where Father Juan Crespí had met local Tongva Indians. With the viceroy's approval, de Neve was granted authority from The Crown, Charles III of Spain, to found and establish the second pueblo in upper Las Californias, El Pueblo de Nuestra Señora la Reina de los Ángeles del Río de Porciúncula (The Pueblo of Our Lady Queen of the Angels of the Porciúncula River), the present day city of Los Angeles, California. Neve is credited with being one of the first urban planners because he personally drew the plans for the pueblo.[citation needed] Neve traveled north to inspect the Presidio and mission of San Francisco and the mission of Santa Clara and issued several reports on recent happenings in the Californias and recommendations for establishments, including the recommendation for the site of the city of Los Angeles. "The site had been scheduled for a mission since 1769 when Franciscan Father Juan Crespi first saw it and named it Nuestra Señora de Los Angeles de la Porciuncula for the river on which it was located."

In 1781, Neve issued the "Reglamento para el gobierno de la provincia de Californias (Regulations for the Government of the Province of the Californias), the first rules regarding governance of secular pueblos like Los Angeles.

The location of the site was already inhabited by Native Americans who Father Crespi described as "very docile and friendly." The town was called Yabit and the attitude of the Natives towards the foreigners did not change over time. Neve arrived to the site in 1779 where he selected three dozen boys and girls for conversion to Christianity and acted as the godfather to twelve of the children. Neve also selected a young married couple, renamed them as Felipe de Neve and Phelipa Theresa de Neve and remarried them.

Governor de Neve had applied to Viceroy Bucareli for permission to establish a settlement (pueblo) near the Los Angeles River (Río de Porciúncula), where Father Juan Crespí had met local Tongva Indians. The area chosen is described below:

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