Editing Gilroy, California (section)

===Mexican era===
During the [[War of 1812]], the armed [[Merchant ship|merchantman]] ''Isaac Todd''<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |title=Isaac Todd |encyclopedia=[[The Canadian Encyclopedia]] |url=https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/isaac-todd |access-date=February 23, 2014 |archive-date=August 3, 2014 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140803113715/http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/isaac-todd/ |url-status=live }}</ref> was sent by the [[North West Company]] to seize [[Fort Astoria]], an American trading post at the mouth of the [[Columbia River]]. The ship, with a Royal Navy escort, departed from [[Portsmouth, England]], made its way around [[Cape Horn]] and proceeded up the Pacific coast of the Americas, stopping at Spanish ports for supplies along the way.

In January 1814, having fallen behind its escort, the ''Isaac Todd'' arrived at [[Monterey, California]], the Spanish colonial capital of [[Alta California]]. During the visit, ordinary seaman John Gilroy (a [[Scotland|Scotsman]] who had changed his name from John Cameron when he went to sea to avoid recognition) either (depending on the historical source) jumped ship<ref>{{cite web |title=Historical plaque |publisher=E Clampus Vitus Chapter 1850 |url=http://www.mountaincharlie1850.org/pl_gilroy_john.html |access-date=January 14, 2007}}</ref> or was left ashore to recover from [[scurvy]].<ref>{{cite web |title=San Francisco History - The Beginning |publisher=San Francisco Genealogy |url=http://www.sfgenealogy.com/sf/history/hbbeg12.htm |access-date=January 14, 2007}}</ref>

John Gilroy (1794–1869), also known as Juan Bautista Gilroy,<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://oac.cdlib.org/search?style=oac4;Institution=UC+Berkeley::Bancroft+Library;titlesAZ=J;idT=UCb112229852|title=John Gilroy papers, 1846-1853.|website=oac.cdlib.org}}</ref> spent the next few years moving around among the [[Spanish missions of California|missions]], pueblos and ranchos, plying his trade as a cooper (barrel maker). At first, by his own account in an 1856 letter to [[Thomas O. Larkin]], Gilroy was one of only two English-speakers resident in Alta California.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Everett Thomas Oliver Larkin |author2=Gordon Hager |author3=Anna Marie Hager |date=1951 |title=The Larkin Papers |location=Berkeley, California |publisher=University of California Press |pages=286–87 }}</ref> Eventually, he found his way to [[Rancho San Ysidro]], converted to [[Roman Catholic Church|Roman Catholicism]] and became the first naturalized English-speaking settler in Alta California. In 1821, the same year [[Mexico]] won its independence from Spain, Gilroy married a daughter of his employer, ranchero Ygnacio Ortega. Upon Ygnacio's death in 1833, the rancho was divided among his three children—including Gilroy's wife Maria Clara. In 1867, under U.S. property law, the Rancho San Ysidro (Gilroy) was patented to John Gilroy.

The settlement now known as "Old Gilroy" grew up around Gilroy's rancho complex and, after the end of the [[Mexican–American War]] in 1848, Gilroy served as [[alcalde]] of the village.<ref>{{cite web |title=South County towns' names rich in history |publisher=Gilroy Dispatch |url=http://www.gilroydispatch.com/printer/article.asp?c=4764 |access-date=January 14, 2007}}</ref> It served as a [[stagecoach]] station of the [[Butterfield Overland Mail]] and other stage lines in the late 19th century.