Capital executions
Original title: Execuções Capitais
Short account of the few recorded capital executions in Madeira, from slaves hanged at Calheta and a friar hanged in 1582 to an English soldier hanged in 1813 during the British occupation. It also mentions an execution in effigy in the early seventeenth century.
Recorded capital executions
We have scant information about capital executions carried out in this archipelago by public sentence. It has been suggested that the locality (sítio) known as Forca (‘gallows’), in the parish (freguesia) of Santa Maria Maior (‘St Mary Major’), was the place where a death sentence was once carried out, with the gallows as the instrument of punishment applied to the criminal. We do not know, and we are even inclined to believe that the explanation given for the name of that locality has no serious foundation.
Speaking of João Rodrigues Castelhano, who held lands by sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation) in the parish of Estreito da Calheta (‘the narrows of Calheta’), Dr Gaspar Frutuoso says the following: ‘he had many slaves, five of whom killed a factor (feitor) of his; he handed them over to justice and they were hanged in the town of Calheta’.
Under Philippine rule, around 1582, according to Rebêlo da Silva, the friar João do Espírito Santo was hanged in Funchal, accused of inciting the people to take the side of Dom António, Prior of Crato.
In December 1813, when this island was occupied by British troops, an English soldier was hanged in this city for murdering a sergeant, a fellow countryman of his. Luís Beltrão, then governor and captain-general of the archipelago, protested against this execution as an offence against the rights of Portuguese sovereignty, but General Gordon, commander of the English forces, did not heed his complaint.
At the dawn of the 17th century a man named Francisco Rodrigues Jardim, of plebeian origin, was hanged in effigy in the Largo do Pelourinho (‘pillory’) of this city for abducting a lady named Dona Maria de Ornelas, who belonged to old and noble Madeiran families. Had he not escaped the reach of justice by flight, he would have paid for the audacity of his crime on the gallows.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02Place
Places mentioned · 06
- Calheta
Town where five slaves were hanged for killing an overseer.
Calheta is a town, parish and municipality on Madeira's south-west coast and one of the island's oldest settlements. The Elucidário covers its name, early settlers such as Pedro Berenguer, its church and many chapels, including one of a former Franciscan convent, and the 1834 riot.
- Estreito da Calheta
Calheta. Parish where João Rodrigues Castelhano held sesmaria lands.
Estreito da Calheta is a parish of Calheta municipality in western Madeira, bounded by the Ribeira de São Bartolomeu and the Ribeira Funda. Its parish church of Nossa Senhora da Graça was founded by the França family, and the entry covers its landholding settlers, chapels, localities, schools and irrigation by the Levada Nova do Rabaçal; Prazeres was separated from it in 1733.
- Forca
Funchal. Locality whose name was thought to recall an execution, an explanation the Elucidário doubts.
Locality whose name was thought to recall an execution, an explanation the Elucidário doubts.
- Funchal
City where the friar in 1582 and the English soldier in 1813 were hanged.
The capital of the archipelago and seat of the principal captaincy, where settlement began; it was made a vila c.1451–52. Its bay, the widest in the archipelago, lies between Ponta do Garajau and Ponta da Cruz and offers sheltered anchorage, though its harbour had never been studied oceanographically. The Elucidário discusses it as a health resort with climate data and records the January 1906 disturbances, the Danish prince's visit in May 1846 and recent volcanic cones in the area.
- Largo do Pelourinho
Funchal. Square in Funchal where Francisco Rodrigues Jardim was hanged in effigy.
Largo do Pelourinho is a Funchal square, already tree-planted in 1508, through which the Forte de São Filipe was entered. The council occupied a house there from 1838 that was damaged by the 1842 flood; it also held a passo of the Procissão dos Passos, the Talia society's premises, and was where Francisco Rodrigues Jardim was hanged in effigy.
- Santa Maria Maior
Funchal. Parish containing the Forca locality.
A partly urban parish in the eastern part of Funchal, the oldest of the archipelago, also known as Nossa Senhora do Calhau or Socorro. Its church is the former St James church, and it is noted for embroiderers producing the finest work. It became a julgado of the Funchal comarca in 1927.
People
People mentioned · 09-
Claimant to the Portuguese throne against Philip II, whose cause the hanged friar supported.
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Noblewoman abducted by Francisco Rodrigues Jardim.
- Fr. João do Espírito Santod. c. 1582
Friar hanged in Funchal about 1582 for urging the people to support D. António, Prior of Crato.
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Commoner hanged in effigy in Funchal in the early seventeenth century for abducting D. Maria de Ornelas, having fled justice.
- Gaspar Frutuoso1522–1591
Chronicler cited as the source for the hanging of slaves at Calheta.
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Commander of the British forces occupying Madeira who ignored the governor's protest over the 1813 execution.
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Holder of sesmaria lands in Estreito da Calheta whose slaves killed his overseer and were hanged at Calheta.
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Governor and captain-general of Madeira who protested in 1813 against the British hanging of an English soldier.
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Historian cited as the source for the hanging of Fr. João do Espírito Santo in 1582.