Judges of orphans

There was a judge of orphans (juiz dos órfãos) in Funchal, another in Calheta and a third in São Vicente, who ‘had jurisdiction in all civil cases in which orphans were plaintiffs or defendants, until their emancipation’. As early as the time of Manuel I there was a judge of orphans in Madeira, and the first to hold this office on the island was Fernão de Perada, appointed in 1493.

In 1835 the powers that under the old laws had belonged to the judges of orphans passed to the justices of the peace. In Funchal a commission was appointed to make an inventory of the orphans’ registries, which were handed over to the court of the juiz de fora under a royal decree (alvará) of the President of the Province.

The orphans’ inventories, after being kept in the archive of the Council, passed to the archives of the justices of the peace. At present it is the deputies of the Public Prosecutors who hold the powers that belonged to the former judges.