Porto Santo (town and municipality)
Original title: Porto Santo (Vila e Muncipio)
Entry on the town of Porto Santo (also called Baleira) as seat of a captaincy and a municipality, covering its lost foral and its nineteenth-century administrative reorganisation.
The town (vila) of Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’) is also known by the name of Baleira, and we have already given an account of it on p. 117 of the 1st volume of this work, to which we refer the reader. As the seat of a captaincy, its donataries held the almost discretionary powers conferred on them by the letters of grant (carta de doação). But as it was also the seat of a municipality, the municipality, through its charters (foral), granted the people certain rights and privileges that tempered the powers of the captain-donataries. The letter of grant given to Bartolomeu Perestrelo on 1 November 1446, as donatary of Porto Santo, makes express reference to the charter that was to be given to the future town, which was created a few years after that date. We have found no trace of this charter, however, although one generally accompanied the establishment of new municipalities. It must nevertheless be supposed that it was modelled on the same lines as those of the other towns and municipalities of this archipelago.
In 1834 Porto Santo was treated as a Crown Revenue Office (Provedoria) for administrative purposes, and João de Santana de Vasconcelos was its first superintendent (provedor), appointed by royal decree (alvará) of the prefect (prefeito) of the province dated 9 August of that year. With the administrative reform of 1835, the island of Porto Santo became a municipality (concelho), its first administrator (administrador do concelho, government-appointed head of the municipality) being João José de Alencastre, appointed on 25 November of the same year.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 03-
Prince Henry granted the captaincy of Porto Santo to Bartolomeu Perestrelo by charter.
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Porto Santo was made a provedoria, with João de Santana e Vasconcelos Moniz de Bettencourt as its first provedor.
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Under the 1835 administrative reform Porto Santo became a concelho, with João José de Alencastre as its first administrator.
Place
Places mentioned · 03- Porto Santo · Subject
Porto Santo, also called Baleira, is the town and municipality of the island of Porto Santo and was the seat of a captaincy. The Elucidário covers its lost foral and its nineteenth-century administrative reorganisation.
- Porto Santo
The island that became a provedoria in 1834 and a concelho in 1835.
An island of the archipelago, settled alongside Madeira and forming one of the three captaincies. It has always constituted a single parish, dedicated to Nossa Senhora da Piedade, whose church was repeatedly sacked. The Elucidário records the Moorish pirate raid of 1617, its own Misericórdia and a rainwater channel built on this drought-prone island.
- Vila Baleira
Porto Santo. The town discussed in the entry, also known as Baleira.
Vila Baleira, the town of Porto Santo, lies on one of the island's two small plains, not far from the Pico do Castelo, and its port is about 41 miles from Funchal. It was the capital of the Porto Santo captaincy founded by Bartolomeu Perestrelo, who died there. It contains the Misericórdia chapel and the Fontinha locality, and Noronha made weather observations there in 1900–1902.
People
People mentioned · 03- Bartolomeu Perestrelod. 1457
First captain-donatary of Porto Santo, whose 1446 letter of grant referred to a future foral for the town.
- Jacinto de Santana e Vasconcelos1825–1892
First provedor of Porto Santo, appointed on 9 August 1834.
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First administrator of the concelho of Porto Santo, appointed on 25 November 1835.