Andrade

The brothers João Fernandes de Andrade and Diogo Fernandes de Andrade, noblemen of Galicia, were the first to come to this island bearing this surname. They obtained many lands as a sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) at Arco da Calheta (‘arc of Calheta’) and settled there. John II, by royal decree (alvará) of 20 February 1485, granted the first of the two the use of the following arms: ‘on a field of gold a sagittarius, half man and half horse, the man naked in his natural colour, the horse between bay and dark chestnut, with a bow drawn in its hands, of red, and the string of silver, the arrow fletched with green; a closed helm of silver, mantling of gold and green, and for crest the demi-sagittarius with its bow’.

Diogo Fernandes de Andrade sold the lands he held at Arco to his brother and went to Galicia to claim an inheritance that had belonged to his mother. He could not obtain it, because it had been incorporated into the Crown estates.

João Fernandes de Andrade, later known as João Fernandes do Arco because he lived in this parish (freguesia) and owned much land there, founded an entailed estate whose seat was the chapel of Our Lady of Consolation (Nossa Senhora da Consolação). He died on 9 April 1527 and was buried there; his tomb bore the following epitaph: ‘Here lie João Fernandes and Beatriz de Abreu, his wife, who were the first founders of this Arco’. To his nephew, Fernão Dias de Andrade, son of his brother Diogo, John III confirmed by royal decree of 17 April 1528 the coat of arms granted to his uncle. It is transcribed in full in the Nobiliario of Henriques de Noronha, of which a copy exists in the Funchal library.