Braga (family)

Around 1460 João de Braga, a rich nobleman, came from the Kingdom (reino, i.e. mainland Portugal) to this island of Madeira, and was given lands as a sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) in the parish of Santo António, at the locality (sítio) called Laranjal (‘orange grove’). He was the father of the celebrated Marcos de Braga, whom the old Madeiran chronicles praise highly for his deeds of bravery and courage. João de Braga married a daughter of Nuno Gonçalves, and from this union was born Domingos de Braga, who founded the entail (morgado) of Laranjal on the lands his grandfather had obtained as a sesmaria.

This entailed estate (morgadio) passed to a great-grandson of his sister Dona Maria Gonçalves de Braga, named Manuel Ferreira Drumond de Vasconcelos, and from him to his son João Drumond de Vasconcelos, and then successively, by inheritance from parents to children, to Manuel Ferreira Drumond, Rafael Drumond de Vasconcelos, Francisco Moniz Drumond, João Ferreira Drumond Henriques, Dona Maria Hilaria Ferreira Drumond, António Sebastião Spinola Ferreira de Carvalho, Dona Matilde Augusta Spinola and António Sebastião Spinola Ferreira de Carvalho Barreto. The last was the final administrator (administrador do concelho, government-appointed head of the municipality) of this entailed estate, owing to the law abolishing entails, and his representative is his son, Dr Remígio António Gil de Spinola Barreto.

The introduction of this surname to the island is owed to João de Braga.