Mills
Original title: Moinhos
Account of the donatary captains' monopoly over building mills and watermills in Madeira, a major source of their revenue, and of the early mills of Funchal and Caniço.
Among the privileges granted to the donataries of this archipelago was the exclusive right to build mills or water mills; when they saw fit, they could license others to do so in return for a special levy. This privilege was one of the richest sources of the captain-donataries’ revenues, which were very large indeed. At the locality still called Moinhos (‘mills’) today, along the right bank of the Ribeira de Santa Luzia (‘St Lucy’), they owned a considerable number of water mills that have survived to our own day, many of which the Marquises of Castelo Melhor, at a time not very distant from ours, leased to various people. The square known as Largo dos Moinhos or Largo do Marquês keeps these names because there were several water mills there belonging to the house of Castelo Melhor, into which the entailed foundation (instituição vincular, a morgado or capela) of the donataries of Funchal was incorporated.
A letter or set of instructions sent by Prince Henry the Navigator to João Gonçalves Zarco states: ‘... to order João Afonso to fit another millstone and to build a water mill like the one at Tomar’. It is said that Caniço (‘reed’), outside Funchal, was the first lugar (settlement ranking between a town and a parish) where a mill was built, and there is still a locality there called Azenha (‘water mill’).
In this article
Place
Places mentioned · 07
Abroad
- Azenha
Santa Cruz. Locality in Caniço named after the first mill.
Azenha is a locality in Caniço whose name may recall what is said to have been the first mill in Madeira. It is the site of a ruined chapel of Nossa Senhora do Socorro.
- Caniço
Santa Cruz. Said to be where the first mill in Madeira was built.
Caniço is a parish in the municipality of Santa Cruz, lying on the boundary between the captaincies of Funchal and Machico. Its early settlers included Gaspar Rego, Vasco Fernandes Rego and Álvaro de Ornelas, whose family founded morgados there; its alcaide and judge were appointed by the Funchal senate. The parish includes the Garajau statue, the Jesuits' Socorro residence and the Quinta do Barão da Conceição.
- Funchal
Captaincy whose donatary entail passed to the Castelo Melhor house.
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.
- Largo do Marquês
Funchal. Square named after watermills owned by the Castelo Melhor house.
Largo do Marquês is a square in Funchal, also known as Moinhos, near the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Saúde. It is named after the marquesses of Castelo Melhor, whose watermills nearby were demolished in 1898. It lies at one end of the Rua das Mercês and marks one end of the old Rua dos Moinhos.
- Moinhos
Funchal. Locality by the Santa Luzia stream where the donataries owned many watermills.
Locality by the Santa Luzia stream where the donataries owned many watermills.
- Ribeira de Santa Luzia
Funchal. Stream on whose right bank the donataries' watermills stood.
The Ribeira de Santa Luzia is one of the three streams crossing Funchal, named after a chapel of Santa Luzia on its left bank. Its banks were probably the first land irrigated by levadas and had four sugar mills in the late 17th century. It feeds the Santa Luzia, Moinhos and D. Isabel levadas, and the Jesuits' Fundoa residence stood on its right bank.
- Tomar
Portugal. Portuguese town whose watermill served as model for Madeira's first.
A Portuguese town, seat of the Order of Christ, which held church jurisdiction over Madeira; D. Diogo Pinheiro was prior there, died and was buried there. It is a proposed birthplace of Zargo, whose family held property there. The Cortes met there in 1619, its watermill was the model for Madeira's first, and D. João Frederico da Câmara Leme died there in 1878.
People
People mentioned · 03- Henry the Navigator1394–1460
Portuguese prince (Henry the Navigator) who instructed Zarco to have a watermill built on the model of Tomar.
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Man named in Prince Henry's instructions as charged with preparing a millstone.
- João Gonçalves Zarcod. 1467
Discoverer and first captain-donatary of Funchal, recipient of Prince Henry's instructions on building a mill.