Martins

Frutuoso refers to Cristóvão Martins de Grinão, nicknamed ‘the Turkey’ (o Peru), and to Vasco Martins Moniz, noblemen who lived in Funchal in the 15th century, and Dr Azevedo says that there was a Spaniard named Diogo Martins, to whom Queen Catherine granted arms in 1560. At the time the French sacked Funchal, Cristóvão Martins and João Martins, clerk (escrivão) of the royal exchequer, were living here. Among those who signed the record (auto) of the vow by which St James the Less was adopted as patron saint of the city appears Fernão Martins, of whom we do not know whether he belonged to the island’s nobility.