António de Oliveira Aranha

A merchant that settled in Macau in the first half of the 17th century, he is listed in the 1625 "Lista De La gente Efetiua que Ay Em esta Ciudade Assy Visinos Como Estrauagantes forasteros E gente De lla tierra" as a resident of the village of S. Lourenço. Married with Isabel Roza, born in Pedrógão o Grande, he was the son of Manuel Nunes de Oliveira and Ana Pires. He was part of the wealthy and ruling elite that had access to the Senate, which opposed the Society of Jesus during the so-called "dispute of the Green Island" in 1621. In that year, he was also favourable to make the voyage to Manila official. Being part of the inner circle of the Commodores and Factors from the voyage to Japan, he was the city's Ambassador to that country in 1626. Father of four Poor Clares, Coleta de Vera Cruz, Maria de Jesus, Gracia de S. João Baptista and Ana da Trindade, he was part of the wealthy, ruling and educated elite of the 1630s and 40s. Having been a member of the Elected and of the Assistants in those years, he was a Councillor in 1637. Peter Mundy mentions him in his Travels. He took part in the debate held between 1631 and 1637 on the new type of election for the travel administrator of Japan, imposed by the Viceroy, the Count of Linhares, following a proposal of Chief Judge Sebastião Soares Pais. In 1642, he signed, together with Governor-general Dom Sebastião Lobo da Silveira, the "Capitulações da Concórdia" ("Capitulations of Concord") of the conflict 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 also among the signatories of the Term of 31 May, when King Dom João IV was acclaimed in 1642. He took part in the 1643 municipal meeting in which the "Associate procurators of the people" were elected in an autonomous move in relation to the Portuguese India, and was equally involved in the 1645-46 debate that took place in the city on the sending of an embassy to Japan. By the 1640s, he had already lived in Macau for some twenty six years.

Bibliography:
ALVES, Jorge Manuel dos Santos, Estudos de História do Relacionamento Luso-Chinês (Séculos XVI-XVIII), Macau, Instituto Português do Oriente, 1996. The Travels of Peter Mundy in Europe and Asia (1608-1667), Londres, Hakluyt Society, 1907-1936, vol. III, parte II e Earl H. Pritchard - Anglo - Chinese Relations During the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries, N. Iorque, Octagon Books, 1970, pp. 54 e seg. BOXER, Charles, Macau na Época da Restauração, Lisboa, Fundação Oriente, Vol. II, 1993. PENALVA, Elsa, 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, 2007, (forthcoming). IDEM, «Elites Mercantis de Macau em 1642», Edição conjunta do bulletim of Portuguese/Japanese studies, Centro de História de Além-Mar da Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2008 (forthcoming).

Translated by: John Silva