Juízes de fora

In the entry Judicial Administration we stated that in 1767 the decree of 2 August 1766, which had created the offices of juiz de fora (crown-appointed judge from outside the district) and corregedor (royal district magistrate) in the Azores, was applied to Madeira. From then on these posts were held in the Madeiran archipelago by two magistrates, whereas before that date they had been filled by a single individual. The application of the decree of 2 August 1766 merely made the exercise of the two offices permanent, and they also came to be held definitively by two magistrates.

The two offices of juiz de fora and corregedor are very old here, but they were not permanent and were sometimes held together by the same individual. The archives of the Council of Funchal record many letters of appointment to one or the other office. The oldest are that of 1512, issued in favour of Rui Pires as juiz de fora, and that of 1466 in favour of Denis Anes de Aragão as corregedor. Thereafter, though with some interruptions in the exercise of the office, the following served as juiz de fora: Pedro Fernandes (1554), Lourenço Correia (1558), Pedro Anes (1566), Pedro Barbosa (1567), Lourenço da Cunha Macedo (1573), Francisco de Sousa (1645), António de Sousa Galvão (1649), Manuel de Sena Tenreiro (1657), António Freire Cardoso (1657), Manuel Soares Monteiro (1662), António Martins Machado (1681), Manuel de Sequeira e Gouveia (1685), Manuel Viegas (1689), Francisco Gomes de Góis (1691), Manuel de Sousa Teixeira (1695), Nuno de Afonseca Homem (1698), António de Macedo (1702), Vital Casado Rotier (1705), António da Costa Maciel (1709), António da Cunha Franco (1714), João de Andrade Albuquerque (1717), Feliciano Prestes de Gouveia (1722), Sebastião Mendes de Carvalho (1730), Manuel Vieira Cardoso (1733), José Barquette de Oliveira (1739), Miguel de Arriaga Brun Silveira (1747), Luís António de Sousa Tavares e Abreu (1763), António Felipe Bulhões (1766), Francisco Álvares de Andrade (1770), Bernardo José de Oliveira Perdigão (1779), António Rodrigues Veloso de Oliveira (1784), José Maria Cardoso Soeiro (1790), António Felipe Ferreira Cabral (1798), José Júlio Henriques Gordilho (1802), Manuel Caetano de Almeida Albuquerque (1808), José Joaquim Nabuco de Araújo (1812), Luís Ribeiro de Sousa Saraiva (1819), Joaquim de Assis Saldanha (1821), António Joaquim de Carvalho (1823), Manuel Ferreira Seabra da Mota (1826) and Manuel Cirilo Esperança Freire (1828), who was the last and served until 14 June 1834.

The juiz de fora was the ex officio president of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) and exercised his functions only within the termo (municipal jurisdictional district, a subdivision of the comarca), which was a subdivision of the judicial district (comarca). When he was unable to act, he was replaced by the eldest councillor (vereador), who was then called the judge by operation of law (juiz por bem da lei), and his lodging allowance was paid by the Council. Both he and the corregedor were required to hold a degree in law.