Sanches de Castro (Dr José Pereira)
Original title: Sanches de Castro (Dr. José Pereira)
Judge in Madeira who in 1855 sentenced Manuel Joaquim Fernandes to death, possibly the last Madeiran so condemned, and who wrote on the colonia tenancy contract.
He served as a district judge (juiz de direito) in Madeira. In 1855, as judge of the western judicial district (comarca), he sentenced Manuel Joaquim Fernandes to death for murdering Gerardo Pedro, of the parish (freguesia) of Porto Moniz (‘Moniz’s harbour’). We believe that this Fernandes was the last Madeiran condemned to death by the courts, but we do not know whether he was actually executed.
Dr Sanches de Castro published a short work entitled observações sobre o contrato de colónia na Madeira (Funchal, 1857), on the colonia contract (Madeiran sharecropping tenancy; produce divided, improvements owned by the tenant). See Colonia.