Gonçalves (Joaquim Melchior)
Ardent Funchal liberal, member of the first constitutional council, exiled to Cape Verde in 1823 and later pursued in 1828, who famously punched Governor José Maria Monteiro.
He was a member of the first Constitutional Council of Funchal, a captain of the territorial militia (ordenanças) and a corresponding member of the Sociedade dos Amigos das Sciencias e Artes. Sentenced by the special judicial commission (alçada) that came to Madeira in 1823 to four years of penal exile (degredo) in the Cape Verde islands, he went there, but returned home in 1826. A most ardent constitutionalist, he was indicted by the special judicial commission sent to Madeira in 1828, but this time he escaped arrest by going into hiding.
It is said that one night, when Melchior Gonçalves had gone out to visit some friends, he met in the Largo da Sé (‘cathedral square’) a band of constables (quadrilheiros) led by Governor José Maria Monteiro. Realising that he could not escape, he resolved to approach the governor. Declaring that he had been looking for him to make a communication that only he should hear, he asked him to have the constables withdraw some distance so that they could speak freely.
The request was granted, and the governor was preparing to hear what Melchior Gonçalves had to tell him when the latter swiftly dealt him several punches that knocked him down. He then fled, and the constables, who at once ran after him, failed to catch him.
We do not know the dates of birth and death of Francisco Melchior Gonçalves, but a member of his family tells us that he was a native of Campanário (‘bell tower’) and that before 1834 he emigrated to Brazil, where he died.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 04-
An absolutist royal tribunal (alçada) came to Funchal to investigate the 1821 constitutional events, holding its inquiry at the town hall until early November 1823; it dispersed the freemasons and sentenced many liberals to exile, including Joaquim Melchior Gonçalves to Cape Verde and others to Angola.
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Joaquim Melchior Gonçalves returned from exile.
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D. Miguel's judicial commission (alçada) came to Madeira, indicting 216 liberals and freemasons and imprisoning 101; some, like Nery and Agrela, were sent to Lisbon, while others fled or hid.
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Joaquim Melchior Gonçalves emigrated to Brazil before 1834.
Place
Places mentioned · 05
Abroad
- Brazil
Where he emigrated and died.
Brazil is recorded in the Elucidário as a chief destination of Madeiran emigrants, including several clergy and writers. It was also a market for Madeira wine and brandy and a maker of wickerwork from Madeiran osiers. It was linked to Madeira by the 1874 telegraph cable and is the native country of the araçá.
- Campanário
Ribeira Brava. His native parish per his family.
Campanário is a parish in Madeira, formerly part of Câmara de Lobos and later joined to the municipality of Ribeira Brava, drained by the Ribeira do Campanário (or da Lapa). The Elucidário records its landing, its band, its capitania-mor, its tithes paid to the Jesuits, a former chapel of St John founded in 1728, and the vicar sentenced by the Alçada of 1823. It was also the birthplace of Bishop D. Manuel Joaquim Gonçalves de Andrade and the jurist Francisco Justino Gonçalves de Andrade.
- Cape Verde
Place of his exile, 1823–26.
Cape Verde is an archipelago and Portuguese colony that served as a place of exile and deportation for Madeirans, including liberals in the 1820s, protesters against the dairy decrees and the 1936 rioters. Lowe visited it in 1864 and 1866. It shares one flowering-plant species with Madeira.
- Funchal
Seat of the council he served on.
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 da Sé
Funchal. Square where he met the governor's patrol.
A square in Funchal where D. Guiomar's house stood, used by the council from 1802 and later as the jail. The Misericórdia's hospital was built there from 1686, a liberal monument's foundation stone was laid there in 1822, and constitutional documents were burned there.
People
People mentioned · 02-
Liberal councillor of Funchal and militia captain exiled in 1823, who later emigrated to Brazil.
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Governor whom Melchior Gonçalves struck and escaped from in the Largo da Sé.