Teixeira (António)

He was the son of Lançarote Teixeira and Beatriz de Góis, and the grandson of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, first donatary (donatário) of Machico. He left his name in the old Madeiran books of nobility, where he was known as the Rei Pequeno (Little King). The following passages, taken from a piece by the learned genealogist Father Fernando de Meneses Vaz, are of interest:

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The chronicles say that the surname came to him from the magnanimity of his person, from the generosity with which he shared out his revenues, and from the freedom with which he distributed them, both among those of his intimate circle and among the destitute and needy of the lugar (settlement ranking between a town and a parish).

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Nevertheless, since there is no beauty without a flaw, proud of his noble birth and savouring the good he lavished, he let himself be somewhat clouded by human vanity and pride. ‘Held to be great by men, he believed himself great before God as well.

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He did not lack faith, it is true. He himself had built the chapel of Nossa Senhora da Piedade (Our Lady of Pity) at Porto da Cruz (‘harbour of the cross’), as the seat of the entail (morgado) founded by his father, Lançarote Teixeira. Yet, full of himself, he would hear Mass, according to tradition, on horseback beside the main door of the church of Faial, making his mount kneel at the elevation of the Host, so as not to stand shoulder to shoulder with his slaves and servants, whose master he was. ‘But how often must the poor slave have wished to unseat him and whisper in his ear: before God we are all equal; God does not look at colour, only virtue distinguishes us?!... ‘Mortal like all men, though rich and great, António Teixeira departed this present life one day at a great age, and they buried him – without the horse, of course – in his family vault in the chancel of the old church of Faial, where he was left sleeping his final sleep.

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The streams, however, did not wish him to hear the trumpets of the venite ad judicium there. They gathered there around 1699, entered the church and, with no other disrespect for the sanctuary, opened the family vault of the Rei Pequeno, carrying off his body as punishment for his arrogance in hearing Mass on horseback. And so down the stream went the holder of the entail (morgado), on foot, so many years after his death – he who in his lifetime had always gone about on horseback...

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And what of the entailed estate (vínculo) of João Teixeira de Vasconcelos? – the reader will ask. It passed down through his descendants to Álvaro Teixeira de Orneias Saavedra, the last male of that dynasty of little kings, who, having no heir, left it to his sister Dona Maria Teodolinda.

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The manor house of those noblemen stood at Banda dos Moinhos (‘side of the mills’), in Faial, and was swept into the sea in the flash flood (aluvião) of 1803. On that occasion the old holder of the entail, blind like old Aeneas, had left the house on a servant’s back, bound for Cruz, where he settled. That residence still exists, now without its entail holders, without the shade of the old oak trees, crumbling and falling down too...