page_title: Ricardo Lancaster-Jones y Verea
section_title: Major contributions
hierarchical_section_title: Ricardo Lancaster-Jones y Verea / Historian / Major contributions
caption_attribution_description: Pintura que representa al Niño Héroe Francisco de Borja Jesús Benito Márquez Paniagua (1834​-1847)
context_page_description: Ricardo Lancaster-Jones y Verea, MA BE KHS was a Mexican historian, diplomat, scholar, professor, art collector and sugarcane entrepreneur who made significant contributions toward the study of the haciendas of the State of Jalisco in the twentieth century. He spoke Spanish, English, French, Italian and Latin fluently. He authored and published numerous articles for newspapers and specialized magazines in Mexico, South America, Spain, United Kingdom and United States. His enthusiasm for History led him to become a professor of Regional History at the Faculty of Philosophy and Letters of Universidad Autónoma de Guadalajara in 1965. Later on, in 1973, he earned his MA degree in Latin American Studies at the University of New Mexico. He is especially mentioned by Mexican academics Mauricio Beuchot and José María Murià as an early historian of the haciendas in Western Mexico.
context_section_description: 1941 – Documents of Our Lady of Zapopan. According to a published speech given by Lancaster-Jones in 1970 for the unveiling ceremony of the sculpture of Friar Antonio de Segovia (1500–1570), he located the original documents which validate the authenticity of the image that is venerated at the Basilica of Our Lady of Zapopan (documents which date from 16th to 18th centuries). Those were secreted for safe keeping by Friar Luis de Palacio y Basave (1868–1941) in the early 20th century during the religious persecution that happened after the Mexican Revolution and caused the Cristero War. In 1941, the friar's heirs asked Lancaster-Jones to make an appraisal of the friar's library. He found those important documents and purchased them from Friar Palacio's heirs; later on, he gave those documents, as a gift, to Dr Jose Garibi y Rivera who was Archbishop of the Archdiocese of Guadalajara in those days. Lancaster-Jones was inspired by those documents to write his work Tríptico Mariano, first published in 1948.
  1947 – Francisco Márquez's Baptismal Certificate. The discovery of Francisco Márquez's Baptismal Certificate in Guadalajara helped to rewrite Márquez's biography. He was one of the Niños Heroes who died at the Battle of Chapultepec during the Mexican–American War. Márquez's early years remained a mystery until then. Through this fact, it can be proved that Márquez was actually born in Guadalajara and the real date of his birth was 8 October 1834. He was baptized nine days later, on 18 October, as Francisco de Borja Jesús Benito, his godparents were his maternal grandparents: Gerónimo Paniagua y María Prudencia Falcón. Through a Confirmation Certificate (also found by Lancaster-Jones), it can be proved that Márquez moved to Mexico City and the reason why he joined the army: his Confirmation's godparents where his mother Micaela Paniagua and the General Leonardo Márquez. His widowed mother remarried, to Francisco Ortiz, a cavalry captain, by the time Márquez joined the Heroico Colegio Militar on 14 January 1847. In 1970, Mexican historian Ricardo Covarrubias have credited to Lancaster-Jones for such discovery at his work Las Calles de Monterrey. Since 2005, Márquez has been listed among the Illustrious People (Personajes Ilustres) of the State of Jalisco at its official webpage.
  1949 – Domingo Lazaro de Arregui's papers of intestate. Two articles published by Lancaster-Jones in the newspaper El Informador (23 October 1949 and 5 March 1950) helped to form an accurate biography of Domingo Lazaro de Arregui, who wrote the earliest geographical description of former Kingdom of Nueva Galicia (Descripción de la Nueva Galicia, 1621). Guadalajaran academic José María Muriá claims this fact helped French historian François Chevalier to rewrite De Arregui's biography on his prominary study for the second edition (1980) of  his work Descripción de la Nueva Galicia, (the first one was published in Seville, 1946).
  1951 – Origin of the name of Los Altos region. In his published work La Hacienda de Santa Ana Apacueco (1951), Lancaster-Jones refers a land grant document  issued in 1606 naming Jalisco's high lands as Los Altos de Villanueva. Therefore, historians whose especial interest is the after mentioned region like Mariano González-Leal, have credited to Lancaster-Jones for the discovery of the origin of such name of Los Altos.
  1953 – Contributions with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. According to Genealogical Journal, Ricardo Lancaster-Jones y Verea had a vital part by contributing with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) and the Academia Mexicana de Genealogía y Heráldica, during the microfilming process of the complete and well preserved Archdiocese of Guadalajara's parochial records (1953–71). A copy of these microfilms are located in the Archivo General de la Nación (in Mexico City).
  1958 – Francisco Primo de Verdad y Ramos' Baptismal Certificate. The discovery of Francisco Primo de Verdad y Ramos' Baptismal Certificate in the hacienda of Ciénega del Rincón, located in the current Municip
caption: Francisco Márquez's name was inscribed among the Illustrious People of the State of Jalisco in 1947.
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