Lamedo (António José de Jesus)

He was perhaps the most distinguished official the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal) had in former times, although he held only the modest post, now abolished, of doorkeeper and bookkeeper to the Council.

We do not know when Lamedo was born, nor whether he was a native of this island. What we do know is that ‘not only for his conduct, truthfulness, intelligence and good handwriting, but for his experience of old scripts, which few people can read’, he was appointed to this post by the Council on 3 June 1765, an appointment confirmed by a royal warrant (provisão) of 17 August 1766.

Lamedo never came to hold the post of Council usher (porteiro da câmara) of the Funchal Municipal Council as his own property: at first because the former holder, Pedro Luís Correia, was still alive, and later for other reasons unknown to us. This is why the municipal records contain various resolutions and instruments reappointing him to the post, which he held until May 1797.

In 1781 Lamedo was appointed official reweigher (repesador) of wheat and flour, a post he thereafter combined with that of Council usher, always to the satisfaction of the various council sessions under which he served. For some time he also served as representative (procurador) of the Senate (senado, the municipal council) in the court of the judicial district (comarca).

The most important service that António José de Jesus Lamedo rendered to the municipality was the compilation of an index, in two volumes, of the documents contained in the Council’s General Register; the first volume has 284 folios and the second 81. This most valuable work, which took ‘three years, working days’ to complete, as its author states, is in the Council’s archive and bears the following title: Índese & dos Tombos da Camara desta Cidade mandado copiar neste livro 1.°, e no 2.° pelos Senhores D.or Juis de Fora Bernardo José de Oliveira Perdigão, e Vereadores Francisco de Ornelas de Brito Tristão Joaquim Neto, e o Procurador do Conselho Manoel Jozé de Brito, e Misteres.

Referring to Lamedo’s work in his notes to the Saudades, Dr Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo says that ‘it is fundamental for the study of the history of the archipelago of Madeira’. Indeed, this work, in which all the documents scattered through the Council’s registers up to the year 1794 are clearly summarised, is an interesting and most valuable repository of immensely useful information on our history, administration and customs. The way in which the material has been arranged leaves nothing to be desired, and the whole work reveals uncommon method, patience and dedication.

António José de Jesus Lamedo died suddenly in the parish (freguesia) of the Sé, in this city, on 24 May 1797, and was buried in the now defunct convent of São Francisco (St Francis of Assisi). He was married to Antónia Rosa, who survived him, and we calculate that he would have been about 70 years old at the time of his death.