Expostos left at the roda of the churches
Maria Sousa
Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada
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John Raposo
JesseAndDeborah Mendonca
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Linda Jardin
Eloise Cadinha is my cousin. I have spoken with her regarding this subject as we have an exposta whom was left at the Matriz Sao Sebastiao. She has written articles regarding the abandonment of babies. Some of these may still be available on the internet. I do have copies if anyone is interested. I also have direct contact with Eloise. She is a lovely lady and sharp as a tack!
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Gordon soares
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JesseAndDeborah Mendonca
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Maria Sousa
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JesseAndDeborah Mendonca
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Margaret Vicente
There is study on the web that may be of interest as it contains rules and measures.
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/9653/a7f652a5ea79cf177f4aeda8ec474c17a34e.pdf
Margaret
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Rosemarie Capodicci
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Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada
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JesseAndDeborah Mendonca
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Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada
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Kathy Cardoza
Visit the Azores GenWeb Project:
http://www.worldgenweb.org/azrwgw/
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linda
Linda
Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada
Thank you, Mara! These papers are much appreciated.
Linda
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Liz Migliori
Last year, in Angra, we stayed across the street from a convent. They were doing some remodeling, but the lobby area was open. The roda was there. Here's a couple of pictures:
<image.png>
<image.png>I see now that I needed something (or someone) standing next to it so you can get a feel for how big it was. This one had a divider. It was big enough for a baby. Not a baby in a modern car seat/carrier, but if the baby was placed in a basket not much bigger than itself, it would fit.You can see on the right side where people would push on it to spin it around. It's worn there.Cheri
Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada
--On Thu, Oct 3, 2019 at 10:39 AM linda <menese...@gmail.com> wrote:Thank you, Mara! These papers are much appreciated.
Linda
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Linda Jardin
Hi,
I sent it to the group, Cheri is contacting Eloise for her permission to share.
Linda
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Gordon soares
Here is the Roda on Sao Miguel.To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/azores/CAKUUw_FuDRH_oYpuYP5ku%3DqAYzsDSAU3NxMEWSvQ8RWZ3fxs3A%40mail.gmail.com.
Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada
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Rosemarie Capodicci
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Cheri Mello
Listowner, Azores-Gen
Researching: São Miguel island: Vila Franca, Ponta Garca, Ribeira Quente, Ribeira das Tainhas, Achada
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John Raposo
Most of us as we
research our ancestors will find an exposto
or two. It is indeed miraculous that they were able to survive to
adulthood, to marry and to have children.
Expostos - a translation : A very sad situation.
Eloise Cadinha
(The following is my poor translation/distillation of part of an article written by Henrique Bras (1884-) in Boletim de Instituto Histórico da Ilha Terceira, 1947.)
In the last three centuries there is a long list of filhos da igreja (children of the church), also known at times in baptismal records in the parish registers of Terceira, as children of unknown fathers and mothers (filho(a) de pais incógnitos), who were often baptized with the most noble or notable or the very rich people of Terceira serving as godparents. In more recent times the number of children secretly abandoned at the rodas (wheels) had greatly increased, despite the many recently born innocents who died when abandoned, and the few for whom the fear of discovery, still did not keep them from being strangled before seeing the light of day. Providing support for these children who survived became one of the most difficult problems for the various city halls on the island, demanding a new special tax...which the people agreed was needed but not without grumbling and finding fault with the new tax.
The city council continued without resources to provide for these children and thought about creating a lottery for that purpose.
It needs to be said: with a population of about 10 to 12 thousand people, there were yearly on an average 97 newborn abandoned children of unknown parents, legally registered and of which 83 of these died -- naturally by affectionate handling, sheltered and well wrapped care.
[Translator’s note: the author mentions Carlota, a weaver of Angels, from the famous novel by Eça de Queiroz. I asked a cousin if he knew of this novel, O Crime do Padre Amaro, and he said that he had read it long ago, and it was about a woman who got rid of unwanted infants. She killed them by wrapping them up and drowning them in the river. She was referred to as something like the "maker of angels," (tecedeira de anjos) the idea being that she was creating angels by killing the babies.]
On October 20, 1782, the vicar of the diocese of Angra, Dr. João Vieira de Bettencourt, commissioned the rector of the Cathedral, Pedro da Cãmara Merens, to organize a separate book to register the baptisms and deaths of these abandoned children.
In the year of 1783 there were registered 120 baptisms and 81 deaths of expostos:
In 1784, 94 baptisms, 73 deaths;
In 1785, 97 baptisms, 86 deaths;
In 1786, 94 baptisms, 105 deaths;
In 1787, 86 baptisms, 100 deaths;
In 1788, 100 baptisms;
In 1789, 95 baptisms.
There were no deaths recorded for the years 1788 and 1789 but resumed again the following year. One can see that in 10 years the births and deaths of the foundlings was astounding.
Painful emotions squeeze the soul when one looks through the pages, tiny tragedies sown through this separate book of the Cathedral. The records indicate the names of the amas (wet-nurses) nominated by city hall for each exposto. They were single women, 'loose' women, married women and widows.
In the Casa da Roda...in the city of Angra, there was the rodeiro (the man in charge of the wheel) who had at least one assistant, in order to rescue quickly any of the new guests secretly left at the door in the silence of the night. The newborn was left there, shivering in the cold until the door providentially was opened. It was rare to announce a visit to the Roda, for fear of the discovery of the mother’s identity which was of great importance to the municipality, in order to avoid the expense of providing a wet-nurse for the child -- and so that justice also intervened.
Sometimes a little one was carried there by a caring person saying he had found the abandoned child in some hidden place. Thus on 16 September 1782, Francisco da Silveira, gravedigger of São Pedro, Biscoitos, arrived at the Roda with a bundle. It was a baby girl who had been placed at the door of the home of the sexton of the church. She was soon baptized and given the name Delfina. This man delivered this baby to the Roda knowing that she would not cost the finder any money for finding the child. He also presumed that she would be cared for, but this child died and her death was not recorded in the church register.
The Casa da Roda was next to the residence of the pai dos engeitados (the father, i.e. guardian, of the abandoned ones) who was a councilman in the senate of the city hall, and who had the municipal duty to care for the expostos, and also the responsibility for the place elected by the municipality for the receiving of these abandoned ones.
This councilman had a most distressful mission. The city did not have money for the number of abandoned children, growing larger each year, and for the prompt payment of the wet-nurses, and for this and for other reasons, the milk from these women was not sufficient to fulfill the need for these babies.
The expostos arrived at the Casa da Roda
and there they waited two to fifteen days for a wet-nurse. The priest
noted the baptism of the children in the register: baptized in the Casa da Roda, with the name of
Francisco, found very young and had not been given a wet-nurse and he lasted a
few days; Jose, baptized in the Casa da
Roda, died without a wet-nurse; Manuel after being
baptized died in the Casa da Roda.
One particularly unhappy exposto to whom the godfather, Cosme de Mascarenhas, the bell ringer of the Cathedral (this man throughout the years became godfather to nearly all the newly baptized expostos), gave the name Abraão (Abraham), and none of the wet-nurses wished to care for him the priest wrote in the record of baptism (20 March 1783, p19, book number 1). The bell ringer had discovered that the newly born child was Jewish and had given him a suitable name. These wet-nurses ... they refused to nurse this newborn heretic. Sixteen days passed, with Abraham suffering and in pain, until he finally died.
These death records note the approximate age of the child. These unfortunate children said farewell to their miserable existence between three days and three months. Few of the expostos reached the age of 1 year and very few beyond one year.
The author does not know if the position of the city official in charge of the wet-nurses was lucrative -- but it was truly an industry. The wet-nurses naturally came from the poorest sections of the city and outlying areas, but it was the city that provided most of the wet-nurses. At times it was not enough and the city had to go to the peasants in villages such as Sao Bartolomeu and Santa Barbara. It was an industry that had wet-nurses who could kill off these charges with hideous rapidity. The wet-nurses received three expostos each year, one following the other after the death of the one before.
[The author listed three wet-nurses and the infants received. One of them in 1785 had 5 expostos. Inacio, April 5; Marilia, May 17; Violante, July 22; Antonio, Aug 20; Mateus, Sept 21.]
This separate book of the expostos from the Cathedral made it easy to study them. In previous times it was extremely difficult to learn about them because there were no statistics. But whoever turns the first pages of this register of the Cathedral rarely turns two pages.
There were many reasons why children were abandoned by their mothers and fathers. Some of the reasons being: an illegitimate child, extreme poverty and too many mouths to feed, perhaps the death of the father, or just simply an unwanted child.
One can research the smaller villages and not find a single exposto in the baptism records.. At least this has been my experience. In the larger towns and villages many expostos are found, certainly many abandoned from the smaller villages. In years of famine more children were left as foundlings. These abandoned children were left at churches, convents, and at the doors of many homes.
Many children were left at convents. In many of the convents through Europe there was what was called the Roda, or the Wheel which in antuality was in the form of a cylinder. It was a wheel that could spin from the outside of the building to the inside. Goods or other articles for the convent were left on the wheel, and usually there was some kind of a bell to let the nuns know that something had been left on the wheel. In time, desperate mothers and fathers left their children on the wheel.
In reading some of the exposto baptism records in certain villages, the priest notes to which mother in the village the child was given. The child had to have a nursing mother, and usually one can check back and find that nursing mother in the record. And sometimes the priest noted where the child had been found.
When an exposto (male) married he already had a surname or perhaps was given one at the time of the marriage. I wish I knew more about this. As for surnames of the exposto, they run the gamut from Azevedo to Xavier. As for the exposta (female) I don’t think she was ever given a surname, or at least I can’t remember seeing one on her marriage record or on the baptism records of her children.
Many parents when abandoning their children believed it would only be for a certain period of time. When the child was left at the convent or at church or at the doorstep some clues were left so that the parents could later claim their child. Notes sometimes were left with the name of the child, or perhaps a certain type of clothing, some colored ribbons or an embroidered blanket. These were the clues and apparently the church did keep a record of these identifying clues.
The following comes from a baptism record on Sao Miguel in 1861. A copy of the record was given to me by a fellow researcher. It touched her heart as she read it; it also touched mine.
A baby girl had been left at the home of a proprietor. The lady of the house with her servant took the child to the public roda of the Vila. The child was number 312.
The baby was dressed in a cotton white shirt, a rose colored dress, with two ribbons, one white and the other yellow.
In all the baptisms of expostos that I have seen as I researched I never saw anything such as this. I have often wondered what happened to this baby. There was no notation in the margin. The baby must have come from a family of means.
Eloise Cadinha
______________________________
The abandoned child brought forth a new statute, that of the Exposto and, with the foundling emerged
the Roda or foundling hospital.
In the 16th century the protection of the foundlings was handed over to the
municipal councils and then to the charity hospitals as soon as they were
founded.
Eventually, the children were abandoned at the "Roda dos Expostos” (next to convents) which reached their peak of operation at the end of the 18th century.
"The foundling turn box was a revolving mechanism situated vertically at the main doors of the convents where the children are place and abandoned. Roda was the name which was commonly given to the institution which took the foundling into custody. D. Maria I recognized it officially in a proclamation on 24 May 1783. She decided that in all cities and villages in the reign there should be a "Casa de Roda," situated in a discreet location, so those who gave up the children could do it without risk of being recognized." (Source: Translated by L. Polsky from Atlântico Revista de Temas Culturais No.20 Winter 1989).
In practical terms, I think that the convents were therefore set up to receive these expostos better than smaller churches. The women having unwanted babies in the other parishes would arrange for someone to take the newborn and put them on the "roda" which is a wheel that spins from outside to inside a convent. The wheel spins between a wall so you spin the wheel and what is outside the convent is now inside it and thus these babies enter the convent. My description is based on what those records say and what I've heard from others. So I might be a bit off in accuracy, but that's the general thing.
I just found a better example of the Roda. The revolving door of an Hotel in which the floor would also go with it. The differences is that the revolving door is divided in FOUR parts and the Roda only in TWO and about 80 cms high.
Another interesting thing I now recall:.
The mothers or fathers when abandoning a children did have their reasons. Unwanted pregnancy, an illegitimate child, lack of resources to feed the child and so on. (How many Portuguese soldiers and sailor died during the Portuguese age of discoveries leaving their families without resources of any kind? Portugal at that time had somewhere between 2 and 3 million inhabitants and at one given time half of the known world was under the Portuguese flag. It has been a tremendous effort and so no wonder the importance of the abandoned children and the Kingdom’s protection of them. The strain went to the point that a saying stated that ALL Portuguese homes had something in common: either a Sailor, a Widow or a Priest !)
Some abandoned their children believing that the abandonment was temporary, until conditions improved, or for whatever reason they thought they could come and claim the child sometime later. So it was a custom to leave something to identify the child, a medal, a ribbon and sometimes a note saying the first name of the child.
The Institutions receiving the Expostos kept those identifying materials to identified the children and to give them back to its family. Most of them never came for them so, the Institutions kept the identifying material.
The Santa Casa da Misericordia de Lisboa is one of those Institutions and, by far, has the biggest known collection of those identifying objects and messages, some centuries old, lovingly guarded in books and boxes, a pungent collection of souvenirs of unwanted children, or wanted children but abandoned for lack of whatever reason, that well deserves being seen. (Luis,C. L. Porto / Portugal)
Susan Murphy
On Oct 6, 2019, at 6:22 AM, 'John Raposo' via Azores Genealogy <azo...@googlegroups.com> wrote:
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John Raposo
Maria Sousa
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Kenneth Monis
linda
:)
Linda