Alvares
Family entry on the Alvares surname in Madeira, naming early bearers including a settler who founded the São Gil entail, the founder of Funchal's first Franciscan convent, and an ancestor of the grammarian Padre Manuel Alvares.
Several people bearing this surname are found, but one of the first settlers was Antão Alvares de Carvalho, who held a sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) in Santa Cruz (‘Holy Cross’) and later founded on it the entail (morgado) of São Gil. Luís Alvares da Costa founded the original convent of São Francisco (St Francis of Assisi) in Funchal in 1473. In 1523 Pedro Alvares was judge of the Council (juiz da câmara) of Funchal. In the last quarter of the 15th century João Alvares, an ancestor of the celebrated grammarian Father Manuel Álvares, was living in Ribeira Brava (‘wild river’).