Unraveling some Irvine bunk

James Irvine (1827–1886)

We get letters. And sometimes we get a pip...

Mr. S_____ writes, "James Irvine lied about owning the land outside of his ranch property. Irvine only had grazing rights from the Yorba family and James Irvine tried to burn down the court house to destroy the documents. The Irvine’s never owned a blade of grass even after R.Yorba died. It is still owned by the heirs of Bernardo Yorba. The grants and patents are still under the Yorba’s name to this day as other patents of land. "

...To which, I responded,...

Mr. S_____,

While at least one of your points is accurate, you missed the mark on a couple others.

In 1864, Flint Bixby & Co. (in which James Irvine was a partner) bought the Rancho San Joaquin which had originally been the rancho of Jose Sepulveda. Two years later, they also bought the Rancho Lomas de Santiago, northeast of the San Joaquin, from pioneer trapper and rancher William Wolfskill (who had acquired it from Teodocio Yorba). 

In 1868 Flint Bixby & Co. largely completed their spread by acquiring an adjacent strip of the Yorba family’s Rancho Santiago de Santa Ana. (All these deeds should be on file with the L.A. County Registrar-Recorder/Clerk in Norwalk.) The company then applied the old Rancho San Joaquin name cumulatively to all their adjoining land holdings. Only later would it become known as the Irvine Ranch.

Soon, Flint Bixby & Co. petitioned the court with a claim that the boundaries of the Lomas de Santiago had been misinterpreted. This argument, although mostly bunk, was aided by the vagueness of diseño maps and pre-American-Era property records, combined with the company's large budget for good lawyers. 

The diseño map of Rancho Lomas de Santiago, 1846. (California State Archives)

In any case, the company won their legal battle on this issue and suddenly the ranch included an additional 89 square miles. This new addition conveniently reached the Santa Ana River, thereby ensuring riparian rights. So you're right in thinking that Irvine and his partners laid claim to *some* land that they had no business laying claim to.

In 1876, James Irvine bought out his partners and took sole ownership of the ranch. 

There is no record of, news coverage about, or appearant motive for Irvine attempting "to burn down the court house." And considering how much people like to gossip about the rich and famous (whether or not the gossip is true) it's worth noting that no such stories have been passed down as part of Orange County lore. If you have a solid source for this claim it would indeed be news and we'd be interested to hear about it. 

All the best,

Chris