Reed

In 1834 John Reed obtained a Mexican grant of a tract of land known as the Rancho Corte Madera del Presidio, and situate in what is now Marin County, in this state. In 1844 he died intestate, leaving a widow and four minor children, one of whom died in 1853.

In 1852 the widow and children presented their petition to the hoard of land commissioners created by the act of Congress approved March 3, 1851, for the confirmation to them of the said grant, and such proceedings were afterwards had that the same was duly confirmed, and a patent therefor issued to the surviving children on the 25th of February, 1885.

On the 14th of August, 1850, letters of administration on the estate of Reed and of guardianship of his children *101 were granted to John S. Gibbs by the probate court of Marin County.

On the 16th of September, 1850, the same court, on petition of Gibbs, made an order authorizing him, as administrator of the estate and guardian of the minor children of Reed, to sell the said rancho with other property, after giving notice of the sale by posting and publication, for a sum not less than thirty thousand dollars; and in pursuance of this order he sold the property to Benjamin R.…