Teixeira

Tristão Vaz Teixeira, the first captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) of Machico and Zarco’s companion in the colonisation of this archipelago, was married to Branca Teixeira, a noblewoman who, according to Frutuoso, came from the house of Vila Real. Their descendants adopted the mother’s surname, which became the surname of this family. They had four sons and eight daughters: Tristão Teixeira, who inherited the captaincy, Henrique Teixeira, João Teixeira, Lançarote Teixeira, Tristoa Teixeira, Isabel Teixeira, Branca Teixeira, Catarina Teixeira, Guiomar Teixeira Solanda Teixeira, Ana Teixeira and Catarina Teixeira.

Of João Teixeira, the third son of Tristão Vaz Teixeira, the annotator of the Saudades says that ‘he was a great huntsman and fond of the chase, and for that reason he had in the town (vila) of Machico a hunting reserve (coutada) of his own at Caniçal (‘reed bed’), with so much game – rabbits, partridges, peacocks and many wild boar – that it is affirmed to have been the best hunting reserve in Portugal. This is borne out by a letter which is still today in the Council chamber of Machico, written by King Manuel I to its officers, in which he earnestly charges them to keep strict watch over the hunting reserve of the sons of the first captain, and to let no one enter it, because he had been told and assured that, should he chance to come to the island, there were no other lands where he could hunt and chase game but this one at Caniçal and the fields of Santa Catarina’.

Lançarote Teixeira, in the words of the same chronicler, ‘was one of the finest horsemen of the island; for besides being by inclination a very good rider, he had a great hand at breaking horses and was much given to it, so much so that in his time sixty knights of the golden spurs gathered in the town of Machico, very well turned out and mounted through the efforts of this Lançarote Teixeira. When the feast of St John or of Corpus Christi came round, there were so many horsemen for the jousts with canes and the skirmishes that it looked more like an army at war than a festive entertainment. And although all were very skilled in this art, he nonetheless stood out so far among them that it may rightly be said that he was the light and ornament of Machico. This Lançarote Teixeira was married to Beatriz de Góes’.