Pero Rodrigues Teixeira

A merchant that settled in Macau in the first half of the 17th century, he was married to Maria Cadena, the sister of Jacinto Guterres de Brito's wife, Isabel Cadena. Like Jacinto de Brito, he was certainly a relative of Mother Maria de S. Joseph, Francisco Cadena's widow. The father of five Poor Clares, namely Mothers Joana Baptista, Maria da Ascensão, Ana de Cristo, Clara de S. Francisco and Hyeronima de S. Boaventura, he was favourable to make the voyage to Manila official in 1621. He was listed in the 1625 "Lista De La gente Efetiua que Ay Em esta Ciudad Assy Visinos Como Estrauagantes forasteros E gente De lla tierra," as a resident of the village of S. Lourenço. Having been a member of the circle of the Elected and of the Assistants in the 1630s and 40s, he was part of the wealthy, ruling and educated elite rooted in the 1620s. He took part in the debate held between 1631 and 1637 on the new type of election for the travel administrator of the voyage to Japan, imposed by the Viceroy, the Count of Linhares, following a proposal of Chief Judge Sebastião Soares Pais, and he was also a Councillor in 1636. Having lived in the city for some 26 years by the 1640s, he was one of the social actors that got involved in the 1642 contradictions between the Governor of the Bishopric, Friar Bento de Cristo, and the Jesuit Commissioners of the Holly Office, Fathers Gaspar Luís and Gaspar do Amaral. He was equally among the signatories of the Term of 31 May 1642, when King Dom João IV was acclaimed. An influent neighbour in the city, he took part in the 1641 municipal meeting in which the "twenty eldest citizens, authorities in prudence and governance" were present, as well as in the 1643 meeting in which the "Associate procurators of the people" were elected in an autonomous move in relation to the Portuguese India. Between 1645 and 1646, he was among the group of citizens that were called to give their opinion on the sending of an Embassy to Japan.

Bibliography:
BOXER, Charles, Macau na Época da Restauração, Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, Vol.II, 1993. PENALVA, Elsa, 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, 2007 (forthcoming). IDEM, «Elites Mercantis de Macau em 1642», Edição conjunta do Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau e do Centro de História de Além-Mar da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, bulletin of Portuguese/Japanese Studies, Centro de História da Universidade Nova de Lisboa da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2008 (forthcoming).

Translated by: John Silva