Braga

Around the year 1460, João de Braga moved from the mainland of the kingdom to the island of Madeira, a wealthy and noble man, to whom lands were granted in the parish of S. Antonio, in a place called Laranjal. He was the father of the famous Marcos de Braga, who is highly praised in the ancient Madeiran chronicles for the acts of bravery and courage he performed. João de Braga married a daughter of Nuno Gonçalves, and from this union was born Domingos de Braga, who established the entail of Laranjal on the lands that his grandfather had obtained as a grant.

This entail passed to a great-grandson of his sister D. Maria Gonçalves de Braga, named Manuel Ferreira Drumond de Vasconcelos, and from him to his son João Drumond de Vasconcelos, and successively, from parents to children, to Manuel Ferreira Drumond, Rafael Drumond de Vasconcelos, Francisco Moniz Drumond, João Ferreira Drumond Henriques, D. Maria Hilaria Ferreira Drumond, Antonio Sebastião Spinola Ferreira de Carvalho, D. Matilde Augusta Spinola, and Antonio Sebastião Spinola Ferreira de Carvalho Barreto, who was the last administrator of this entail, in accordance with the law that abolished the entails, and of whom his male offspring, Dr. Remigio Antonio Gil de Spinola Barreto, is the representative.

The introduction of this surname on the island comes from João de Braga.