The Administration of the Carvalhal Esmeraldo Family’s Chapels between 1796 and 1878: A Contribution to Madeira Island’s Entailment Institution in its Final Phase

Abstract

This essay aims to analyse the entailment administration of Carvalhal Esmeraldo’s family between 1796, when the organization of the entail processes inherited by Luís do
Carvalhal Esmeraldo started; and 1878, the ending of the payment of the pious legacies that remained in debt by the 2^nd Count of Carvalhal. The main objectives are: to provide a contribution to the knowledge of Madeira’s entailment phenomena in its late phase; and, likewise, to contribute to the diffusion of an unexplored documentary heritage, valuing the archival work developed by the Madeira Archive and Library. Therefore, the documentary corpus in question consists, essentially, of Carvalhal Esmeraldo’s family entailment processes, without neglecting an articulation with other documental typologies, namely, Notaries Records, the Kingdom Ministry’s fund, this one from the National Archive Torre do Tombo, and the contemporary legislation, which regulates the entailment organization in its later days and the fulfilment of pious legacies even after the extinction of “morgadios” and “capelas”. Given the vastness and poor conservation of the documentation, ten processes were methodologically chosen according to the following criteria: a reasonable conservation; full readability; a complete content, that is, with the document establishing the entail, the accountability process over time in front of competent authorities, as well as the orders and judgments handed down.
This essay is divided into two parts. In the first one, a general approach of Carvalhal Esmeraldo’s family entailment administration is made, as a chronology of the
entails’ foundation, with its annual charges and associated assets is established, for a characterization of the entails inherited by Luís Vicente do Carvalhal Esmeraldo in 1796. The selected ten entailments processes are the main subject of the second part, which, divided into two themes, comprises of: a comparative analysis of institution documents (such as wills); an analysis of the accountability process under the last three Carvalhal Esmeraldo’s entailment administrators, with an emphasis on the orders and sentences given by the competent authorities.

Keywords

Madeira Island; Entailment Organization; Carvalhal Esmeraldo Family.