The inheritance of the 2nd Viscount of Vila Maior

Abstract

The 2nd Viscount of Vila Maior, Júlio Máximo de Oliveira Pimentel (1809-1884), stood out for his public life dedicated to the promotion and defense of liberal ideals, to the advances of knowledge and the development of agriculture and industry sustained by technical and scientific progress. The probate inventory for minors that arises from his death, having as heirs his minor grandchildren, allows a better understanding of the conditions of material existence and the life options of an active and relevant personality in the Portuguese 1800s. This paper proposes to characterize the nature and value of the assets and liabilities in the inventory and link them to what we already know of Júlio Máximo de Oliveira Pimentel’s personal and family life. And, in this way, to contribute to the knowledge of his private and public biography. We identified the circumstances of the inventory organization, and the constitution of the Family Council, a body that supervised the overall process and guardianship of minors. We also identified assets and liabilities and traced both the general orientation on how the Viscount gathered his assets during his life; and the general financial situation of the family when he died. A fragile financial situation made it urgent to carry out cash through the sale of land assets, carried out by a subsequent mandatory public auction. It is possible to conclude that the Visconde’s public notoriety, based on the ideals of the common good and the civil service, corresponded to a material detachment that the inventory clearly shows and that the auspices of his birth and childhood did not anticipate. Most of the value of his legacy had to be used to satisfy previous responsibilities and to pay for the inventory process itself.