Between public and private, between Portugal and the Empire: testaments in the Portuguese Misericórdias (16th-17th centuries)

Abstract

This article aims to broaden our understanding of the ways in which the Misericórdias connected the Portuguese who had emigrated overseas to their families that had remained in Portugal. Even if they could write to them for other matters, their utmost concern was the transfer of property, which occurred mainly after death. Last wills were thus the main vehicle for such transfers. The first step to understand this subject is to study the legal framework that ruled the elaboration of testaments, especially in what concerns their typology and casuistic. Although the act of testing was private in nature, the number and diversity of institutions involved contributed to give it a public character, since in addition to notaries, appointed by the king, other institutional instances interfered on the processes that wills gave rise to. Also concerning the legal framework, it is important to know the role played by the provedor dos defuntos e ausentes– a royal official that supervised the execution of testaments and the safeguard of the assets of the dead. The Misericórdias also collaborated in those procedures, by creating a correspondence network that connected the different parts of the Portuguese Empire, and also acting as proxy to the dead.