Maria Paula Rosalia Vallejo del Leese was born into the Vallejo family, a wealthy, land owning Northern California family, in 1811. Daughter of Sergeant Ignacio Ferrer Vallejo and Maria Antonia Isabela Lugo and sister to military officers Mariano Guadalupe and Salvador Vallejo. Maria Paula Rosalia Vallejo married American merchant Jacob Leese in 1837. She died in 1889.