Year: 1967
Type: book-chapter
Abstract: I have not been able to find the exact date of Francisco Vieira de Figueiredo's birth, but it was, in all probability, sometime during the first decade of the 17th century.Ris birthplace was the hamIet of Azambujal, near the little town of Ourem in the Portuguese province of Estremadura.The family was clearly in modest circumstances, since the official investigation into his ancestry which was conducted in 1648-49, apropos of his admission into the Military Order of Christ showed that he was "of clean descent, without any taint of Jewish, Moorish, or other infected race, but that his matemal grandfather was a stone-mason".2This working-class origin automatically disqualified him from receiving the coveted knighthood, until af ter the Crown had granted him a special dispensation, which, as we shall see, took a long time to obtain.The exact date in which he left Lisbon for Goa is also uncertain; but since an official document of 1659 refers to him as having been resident in Asia for more than 35 years, it is probable that he sailed for the East in 1622 or 1623.3Like all unmarried Portuguese laymen who came out to India at this period, and who had not embarked with some specific government appointment, Vieira de Figueiredo presumably sailed as a simple soldier (soldado).Also like many of his comrades, he evidently soon exchanged the ill-paid rigours of a military life for the more profitable if no less adventurous career of a merchant.The earliest reference to his mercan• tile activities which I have been able to find, dates from the year 1634; but it indicates that he was already weIl established as a trader on the Coromandel Coast, where he had presumably been operating for several years.At any rate, the Viceroy Count of Linhares, in an entry in his official diary under the date of 28 May 1634, refers to him as being I" ••.ser natural da vila de Ourem e de hum lugar aly junto que chamio 0 Azambujal, e da diligencia que ally se fez constou ser 0 dito Francisco Vieyra limpo, sem raça de Moruro, nem Judeu, nem de outra infecta naçáo, mas que seu auo materno fora Pedreiro ... ". (consulta of the Tribunal da Mesa da Consciência e Ordens to the Crown dated 30 March 1649, kindly communicated by Senhor Frazio de Vasconcellos). 3 " ••• Francisco Vieira de Figueiredo, estante na India, em rezáo de haver maïs de trinta e cinco annos que se embarcou para aquelle Estado e onde me tem servido athé 0 presente ... " (Provisäo of King Dom Affonso VI, dated 5
Source: BRILL eBooks
Author: C.R. Boxer
Language: English
Subfield: Anthropology
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
OpenAlex ID: W4301936920