Entailed foundations

It has been asserted that the Madeiran archipelago, in proportion to its area and population, was the region of the country with the greatest number of entails (morgados), or entailed leaseholds. Judging by the number of chantries (capela), most of which were entailed foundations (instituição vincular, a morgado or capela), scattered across every parish of the island, it can safely be said that entails abounded in Madeira. Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) José Silvestre Ribeiro stated in an official document that two-thirds of the land in the whole archipelago was entailed. Madeira was a land of entails, although some of them dragged out a wretched existence that did little credit to their ancestral pretensions.

In the early days of colonisation many noblemen, both Portuguese and foreign, came to this island, together with an even larger number of merchants and adventurers. They came to seek their fortune, drawn by the fame of the remarkable fertility of the soil, by the spirit of adventure and also by the lack of resources in the lands they came from. These men were given large tracts of land in sesmaria (royal land grant to settlers on condition of cultivation), which they had cleared by Black and Moorish slaves imported from Africa and by free tenant farmers (colono, under the colonia contract) from mainland Portugal. Many of these sesmeiros (holder of a land grant, or sesmaria) built up fine houses with the large income that the exuberant fertility of the soil gave them, above all from the production of sugar, which was exported on a large scale. Then ‘the rich sesmeiro, in the words of the annotator of the ‘Longing for the Homeland’ (Saudades da Terra), grew weary of country life, took pride in his original nobility and craved a residence of greater display and bustle; he therefore scorned the land and entailed it, with the aim of securing its revenues; he contracted its cultivation to the free tenant farmers for a half-share (demidia) or, in some parts, a third of the produce, and, to maintain himself in idle enjoyment, abandoned his estates and came to set up a luxurious and wasteful residence in the towns, chiefly in Funchal, Machico, Santa Cruz, Calheta, Ponta do Sol and Ribeira Brava.’

Although Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo lays on the colours thickly, as he generally does when referring to monarchy, the nobility and the clergy, the passage we have transcribed above nonetheless contains great truths. It highlights some of the local causes behind the creation of entails on this island. These causes must be taken together with others that were common to the whole country, which Gama Barros identifies in his monumental work historia da Administração Publica em Portugal. We have already said elsewhere that the settler who came from the mainland became a sesmeiro, then lord of the land, and in many cases turned into the holder of an entail, leaving the cultivation and tending of his rural properties to slaves while he went to enjoy the income of his fields and estates in the city or at court.

It seems that some entailed estates (morgadio) were already being founded in Madeira in the second quarter of the 15th century. Gaspar Frutuoso implies as much, although he does not say so clearly and conclusively. Of entails created in the last quarter of the same century there is reliable record, such as that of Água de Mel (‘honey water’), in Santo António (‘St Anthony’), which was incorporated into the house of Carvalhal (‘oak grove’); that of Consolação (‘consolation’), in Caniço (‘reed’), whose last representative was Councillor (conselheiro, honorary title of the royal council) Aires de Ornelas; that of João Afonso in Câmara de Lobos (‘seals’ den’), which passed to the house of Torre Bela; that of Vasco Moniz, in Machico, whose last administrator was José de Betencourt e Freitas; those founded by João Gomes, beside the stream that took his name; that of Rodrigo Aires Furtado, in Ponta do Sol; and many others besides.

It was in the first half of the 16th century that many entails were founded, some of which later grew into important houses. Among them were the entailed estate of Lombada dos Esmeraldos (see that entry), in Ponta do Sol, founded in 1512 by the Flemish fidalgo (nobleman of the lesser nobility) João Esmeraldo (see that entry) on lands he held on lease from Luís Gonçalves da Câmara; that of the Lomelinos, in Santa Cruz, founded by Urbano Lomelino in 1518; that of the Franças, in Estreito da Calheta (‘the narrows of Calheta’), in 1503, by João de França; that of São João de Latrão, in Gaula, by Nuno Fernandes Cardoso, in 1511; that of Penha de Águia (‘eagle crag’), in Porto da Cruz (‘harbour of the cross’), by António Teixeira, in 1535; that of São Gil (‘St Giles’), in Santa Cruz, by Dona Brites Escórcio, daughter of João Drumond; that of Ribeira dos Melões (‘melons’ stream’), in the parish (freguesia) of Campanário, by Pedro Gonçalves de Clara; and that of Reis Magos (‘the Magi’), in Estreito da Calheta, in 1529, by Francisco Homem de Gouveia, besides others that we omit for the sake of brevity.

Among the entailed estates mentioned above, and others created over the course of time, some became very wealthy houses that have remained prosperous and opulent to our own day. We shall mention, among others, the house of the Count of Carvalhal, one of the richest in our country in landed property, which seventy years ago had an annual income of one hundred contos (one million réis) de réis; that of the Count of Calçada (‘paved way’); that of the Countess of Torre Bela; that of the holder of the entail Nuno de Freitas Lomelino; that of Councillor Agostinho de Ornelas; that of the Viscount of São João; and that of the holder of the entail Bettencourt e Freitas.

As we have already had occasion to say in the article Elementos para a historia madeirense, the books of the old Court of Residues and Chantries (Juízo dos Resíduos e Capellas) have been lost, or we do not know what became of them. They held the records of the old entails (instituições vinculares), with their pious obligations, foundations of chantries, descriptions of the entailed lands (terras vinculadas), etc. It is there that valuable data could have been gathered for an interesting and complete study of the entails and entailed properties that existed in this archipelago.

This large number of entails was reduced by the Marquis of Pombal’s law of 9 September 1769, which abolished many of the small entailed estates (morgadios), and further by the law of 3 August 1770, which reorganised the entails then in existence and, above all, restricted the creation of new ones.

Even so, many entailed houses survived here in Madeira, and they struggled with great economic difficulties. Some even went so far as to request the commutation of the pious obligations to which they were bound, on the grounds that the income from their lands was insufficient to meet those obligations; we have found this in documents from the early 19th century, and we do not know whether it happened even earlier. On 17 February 1849 the Madeiran peer of the realm Dr Daniel de Ornelas e Vasconcelos, 1st Baron of São Pedro (‘St Peter’), presented to the upper chamber a bill abolishing all the entails existing in this archipelago, considering them not only useless but actually harmful, above all because they were a great obstacle to agricultural progress. The bill caused a great stir in Madeira and gave rise to extensive debate in the press. Thirty-odd representatives of old entailed houses addressed a petition to parliament, refuting the principles of the bill and asking for its rejection. It is an exceptionally interesting document that still deserves to be read today. Besides this petition and the debate in the local press, the following pamphlets were published on the subject: Breves reflexões sobre a abolição dos morgados na Madeira, by António Correia Heredia; As contradições vinculadas, by the author of Breves reflexões sobre a abolição dos morgados na Madeira; and Resposta ao folheto «Breves reflexões sobre a abolição dos morgados na Madeira, pelo Sr. A. C. Heredia», whose author we do not know.

The Baron of São Pedro’s bill was not approved by the chambers, but the law of 11 May 1863, which decreed the complete abolition of entails throughout the country, dealt a heavy blow to Madeira’s entails and brought an end to old and wealthy houses of this island. Little by little they were divided and subdivided, and today not one of these houses remains intact.

In Alfredo Pimenta’s book Vínculos Portugueses we found some information about various entailed houses or estates based in Madeira. Particular mention should be made of the one whose last administrator was the 2nd Viscount of Torre Bela, João Correia Brandão Henriques de Noronha: it comprised 26 entails, and its first founder was João Afonso Correia, in 1490. Others were the house of the Counts of Calheta, incorporated into the marquisate of Castelo-Melhor and originally founded by João Gonçalves Zarco in 1450; that of the entailed lords of Ilha (‘island’) – a locality (sítio) in the parish of São Jorge –, founded by Jorge Pinto in 1559; and that of the Savage Islands (Selvagens), founded in 1717 by Manuel Ferreira Teixeira.

Fortunately, a considerable part of the documents that made up the important archive of the Court of Pious Bequests and Chantries (Juízo dos Resíduos e Capelas) mentioned above, which were held in the former department of the Municipal Administration (Administração do Concelho, the government’s local civil office) of Funchal, was incorporated into the Funchal District Archive (see Judge of Pious Bequests and Chantries).