Orphans Courts in the Ancient Regime and the State of the Question: Institutional History and Archives – Contributes to the Investigation of the Theme in Madeira Archipelago (15th Century-1834)

Abstract

This article aims to outline the current situation of the study about the orphan’s courts of the Ancient Regime (until 1834, a deadline which in this text should not be read in absolute terms), with particular emphasis on its institutional history and archives, in order to identify feasible research clues for further research on this matter in Madeira archipelago (since the15th century until 1834).
We intend to develop the present research relying on a selection of national and foreign bibliography, especially those published in the last 15 years. This documentation considers social assistance issues, such as childhood, poverty and orphanhood in Western Mediterranean countries (Portugal, Spain, France and Italy) and Brazil (colony, empire and republic). On the latest years, brazilians have made a substantial number of publications over this social problem (orphans’ courts, their institutional history and archives), including master’s and doctoral dissertations.
It is also our aim to present an analytic and comparative work risen from the examined bibliography, defining and centering the object of this investigation: different existing analysis; main theoretical and methodological approaches; researchers most questioned issues, their scientific contribution, as well as eventual limitations to the progress of knowledge on this matter; the evolution of the historiographic discourse; the meaning and epistemological value that this topic represents for the society. Therefore, possible clues are suggested in order to explore the theme, particularly in Madeira archipelago.
Concerning the internal structure of this paper, a historiographical contextualization is presented initially, attempting to connect the orphans and the History of Social Assistance attending their interconnection with the other categories of social support, followed by a perspective of the status quo of the Institutional History of Orphans’ Courts. Finally, we analyze the increasing use and value of orphans’ courts archives in thematical areas that extend beyond Institutional History and Archival Science, demonstrating how this judicial documentation has been allowing further dialogue and convergence in projects between archivists and historians.

Keywords

Orphans’ Courts; Madeira; Archives; Historical Archive Science; Social Assistance; Orphanhood; Childhood.