Crespi redirects here. For the artist, please see Giovanni Battista Crespi.

Juan Crespi (1721–1782), was a Spanish missionary and explorer in the Southwest, a Franciscan. He came to America in 1749, and in 1767 he went to the Baja California peninsula in charge of Mission Purísima Concepción. In 1769 he joined the expedition of Gaspar de Portolá to occupy San Diego and Monterey and continued up the coast with Portolá. The following year he founded the Mission San Carlos Borromeo de Carmelo, in the present-day Carmel, which became his headquarters. He was chaplain of the expedition to the North Pacific conducted by Juan Perez in 1774. His diaries, published in H. E. Bolton's Fray Juan Crespi (1927, repr. 1971), provided valuable records of these expeditions.

See also

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• Crespi Carmelite High School

Juan Crespi

Franciscans | Explorers of North America | Spanish explorers and conquistadores