Santana e Vasconcelos (João de)
Funchal municipal clerk, journalist and long-time leader of the Regenerator party in Madeira (1825–1892), decorated for services in the 1856 cholera epidemic.
He was born in Funchal in 1825 and began his public life as a primary schoolteacher on Porto Santo (‘holy harbour’). In 1856 he was appointed interim clerk (escrivão) of the Funchal Municipal Council (Câmara Municipal do Funchal), and was confirmed in the post by royal letter (carta régia) of 3 January 1859. He contributed to the Madeiran newspapers A Discussão, A Madeira, O Semanário Official, etc., publishing some interesting articles in the last of these on the colonia (Madeiran tenancy in which the landlord owns the land and the tenant the improvements, the produce being shared). He was a knight of the Order of the Tower and Sword for services rendered in Funchal during the cholera epidemic of 1856, and for many years he led the now defunct Regenerator party in Madeira. He died in Funchal on 27 December 1892.
In this article
Time
Years mentioned · 02-
A cholera epidemic, brought by Infantry Regiment No. 1, ravaged Madeira from July to October 1856, killing about ten thousand people by tradition and leaving many orphans. Álvaro Rodrigues de Azevedo, Luiz Albino Gonçalves and others served during it.
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A royal letter confirmed João de Santana e Vasconcelos as clerk of the Funchal council.
Place
Places mentioned · 02
- Funchal
Place of his birth, work and death.
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.
- Porto Santo
Where he began as a primary teacher.
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.
People
People mentioned · 01- Jacinto de Santana e Vasconcelos1825–1892
Clerk of the Funchal council, journalist and head of the Regenerator party in Madeira.