Metadata: Gomes da Mata Family and Chief Postal Office
Collection
- Country:
- Portugal
- Holding institution:
- Elvas City Historic Archive
- Holding institution (official language):
- Arquivo Histórico Municipal de Elvas
- Postal address:
- Estrada da Calçadinha, 7350-466 Elvas
- Phone number:
- 00351 268009660
- Reference number:
- Ms 420
- Title:
- Gomes da Mata Family and Chief Postal Office
- Title (official language):
- Família Gomes da Mata e Correios-Mor
- Creator/accumulator:
- Gomes da Mata Family
- Date(s):
- 1583/1802
- Language:
- Portuguese
- Extent:
- 14 bundles
- Type of material:
- Textual Material
- Physical condition:
- Good
- Scope and content:
- The Família Gomes da Mata e Correios-mor fonds comprises documentation of several types related to the Gomes da Mata, a New Christian family that held the Correio-Mor office generation after generation. The collection is composed of documents pertaining to António Gomes da Mata, Correio-mor (Chief Postal Officer) of the kingdom from 1607 to 1641, as well as other documents concerning other elements of this family. It includes deeds, correspondence, wills, processes, accounts, certificates, and sentences, among other kinds of records.
- Archival history:
- This fonds was incorporated in the Arquivo Municipal de Elvas in the late 19th century or early 20th century by donation of António Tomás Pires (1850-1913), an ethnographer from Elvas who dedicated his career to the study of this region.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Correio-mor (Chief Postal Office) was created by King Manuel I in 1520. The office was granted through royal appointment until 1606 when King Filipe II of Portugal (Filipe III of Spain) sold it to New Christian merchant Luís Gomes for 70,000 cruzados (currency). Luís Gomes da Mata, previously Luís Gomes Elvas Coronel, was a New Christian merchant and banker from Elvas who lived in Lisbon. He was a descendant of Don Abraham Senior, alias Fernão Perez Coronel. In 1606, Luís Gomes received a letter from King Filipe II recognising him as a "fidalgo da Casa Real" (a nobleman) with a manor, the Quinta da Mata das Flores, a villa in Loures, near Lisbon. Then, he adopted the "da Mata" surname and left the Converso-related Coronel family name. In the same year of 1606, Luís Gomes da Mata was also awarded the exemption from the payment of the "finta" (tax) charged to New Christians.
After Luís Gomes da Mata died in the following year, his son António Gomes da Mata inherited the office. The office remained in the family until 1797, creating an authentic dynasty of "correios-mor". In 1797, the crown reclaimed the ownership and management of the postal office and extinguished the Correio-mor position.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Abraham Senior (Fernão Perez Coronel)
- António Gomes da Mata
- Gomes da Mata Family
- Luís Gomes da Mata (Luís Gomes Elvas Coronel)
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.cm-elvas.pt/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Catalogo-AHME.pdf
- Yerusha Network member:
- Universidade Nova de Lisboa - Western Sephardic Diaspora Roadmap
- Author of the description:
- Carla Vieira, 2021
