Judges of the mechanical trades
Original title: Juízes dos Ofícios Mecânicos
Describes the judges of the mechanical trades, officers elected by the craft guilds in the Casa dos Vinte e Quatro of Funchal, and lists the trades known to have had them.
They were elected by the guilds of the working classes in the House of the Twenty-Four (Casa dos Vinte e Quatro, assembly of the craft guilds). The people's judge (juiz do povo, elected representative of the craft guilds) was required to inform the Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal) of the results of the elections, so that the Council could have the respective letters of appointment issued to them. Besides the senior judge, there was sometimes a second judge, or junior judge, and in addition to these officers each trade had a clerk (escrivão) and a banner steward (mordomo da bandeira). The shoemakers elected one judge for black work and one for white work, and it was customary for the clerk of the blacksmiths’ trade also to serve as clerk of the locksmiths’ trade.
We know that judges existed in Funchal for the trades of stonemason, carpenter, cabinetmaker, locksmith, blacksmith, shoemaker, bootmaker, tanner, barber, miller, tailor, axe carpenter, caulker and cooper.
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 01
- Funchal
City where the trade judges are known to have existed.
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.