Lopo Sarmento Carvalho

A merchant from the city of Bragança, he was the son of Lopo Rodrigues de Carvalho and Maria Luís Sarmento. After settling in Macau in 1615, he was the Commodore of the voyage to Japan in 1617 and 1622. He was married to Maria Cerqueira, daughter of Jorge Cerqueira and sister of Catarina Cerqueira, António Fialho Ferreira's wife. He fathered several children and his daughter became a Poor Clare in 1643, adopting the name of Luísa de Santo António (Louise of Saint Anthony), not only due to her devotion to the Portuguese saint, but certainly also as a tribute to her cousin Mother Leocarda de Santo António (Leocarda of Saint Anthony), who died prematurely at the same convent where she professed. Having never gained access to the Senate, he held the position of Superintendent of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia (charitable institution) and was also the Commodore of the voyage to Manila. He was part of the group of the Elected in the 1640s and was considered one of the "six people with a higher authority and practice" in the debate on the sending of an Embassy to Japan that took place in the city between 1645 and 1646. In 1642, after demonstrating, together with his brother-in-law, his little influence in the contradictions between the Governor of the Bishopric, Friar Bento de Cristo, and the Commissioners of the Holly Office, Fathers Gaspar Luís and Gaspar do Amaral, he signed the Term of 31 May when King Dom João IV was acclaimed. Despite being a member of the Elected and of the Assistants, he only got enlisted in a powerful group linked to Goa with the help of the Kingdom, which was exogenous to the merchant city's social hierarchy. At the end of the 1630s, he stated that his estate was valued at 600,000 cruzados, something which undeniably favoured him in 1645. Being 62 years old in that year and having lived in Macau for 28 years, he used these words to refer to himself: "… a fidalgo of the House of His Majesty, a Knight that twice became Governor of this city, Commodore of the voyages to Japan and Manila and Superintendent of the Santa Casa."

Bibliography:
BOXER, Charles, O Grande Navio de Amacau, Fundação Oriente e Museu e Centro de Estudos Marítimos de Macau, 1989. IDEM, Macau na Época da Restauração, Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, Vol. II, 1993. IDEM, Fidalgos in the Far East, 1550-1770, The Hague, 1948, reedição, Oxford 1968. IDEM, Portuguese Society in the Tropics, Madison, 1965, Elsa Penalva, A Companhia de Jesus em Macau (1615-1626), Universidade de Lisboa (dissertação de mestrado policopiada), 2000. IDEM, Lutas pelo Poder em Macau (c.1590-c.1660), Universidade de Lisboa (tese de doutoramento policopiada), 2005. IDEM, «Mulheres em Macau 1633-1644», Actas do Colóquio Internacional Macau no Período Ming, Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, I. P., (forthcoming), 2007. IDEM, «Elites Mercantis de Macau em 1642», Edição conjunta do Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau e Centro de História de Além - Mar da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, bulletin of Portuguese/Japanese Studies do Centro de História de Além-Mar da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, (forthcoming) 2008.

Translated by: John Silva