In the midst of this lengthy legal process, most claimants went bankrupt. 

 Some who had received confirmation of their grants from the Board of Land 

 Commissioners had their titles invalidated in district courts. Presented with 

 financial difficulties and the pressing demand for land from growing numbers of 

 Americans in California, some sold off sections of then- land before receiving a 

 final American land title and patent. Consequently, clouds remained over many 

 coastal land titles for years after California became a state in 1850. 



With some 1,400 land claims before the Board of Land Commissioners, 

 California had a constant demand for lawyers. San Francisco's law bar included 

 some of the most skilled and knowledgeable attorneys in the state. Many of 

 these lawyers directed their energies towards acquiring property themselves, 

 often accepting rancho lands as payment for their services. By the close of 

 1866, vast tracts in Marin County had fallen into the hands of San Francisco 

 attorneys, while not one of the original rancho grantees remained to witness 

 the nearly completed American takeover of the land. 37 



\ 



"Becker, Designs on the Land. Introduction, n.p.; Marshall McDonald and Associates, Report 

 and Recommendations on Angel Island 1769-1966 Prepared for the Division of Beaches and Parks, 

 State of California, 1966, p. 60; Robinson, Land in California, p. 106; Mason, Early Marin, pp. xii 

 and 82; Becker, "Point Reyes," p. 43. 



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