Secretaria do Conselho Ultramarino
Item
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Country
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PT
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Name of institution (English)
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Overseas Historical Archive
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Language of name of institution
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por
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Contact information: postal address
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Calçada da Boa-Hora 30, 1300-095 Lisbon
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Contact information: phone number
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00351 210 30 91 00
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Contact information: email
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ahu@ahu.dglab.gov.pt
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Reference number
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PT/CU/089
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Type of reference number
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Archival reference number
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Title (English)
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Overseas Council's Secretariat
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Title (official language of the state)
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Secretaria do Conselho Ultramarino
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Language of title
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por
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Creator / accumulator
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Conselho Ultramarino
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Date(s)
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1642/1833
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Language(s)
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por
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Extent
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22 boxes and 2,020 documents
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Type of material
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Textual Material
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Scope and content
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The Secretaria do Conselho Ultramarino (Overseas Council's Secretariat) is part of the Conselho Ultramarino (Overseas Council) fonds. This institution had jurisdiction over all overseas territories of the Portuguese Empire. Its fonds includes numerous letters, royal orders, and documentation exchanged between the Overseas Council and other institutions of the monarchy, including documents exchanged with the king and his close officials.
A few documents in this subfonds contain information regarding Portuguese New Christians and Sephardim. Some examples are the following:
CU/089/011/850, after 1796: Draft of a document produced by the Secretary of State for the Navy and Overseas, D. Rodrigo de Menezes, and addressed to the major official of that Secretariat, João Filipe da Fonseca, regarding the delivery of a letter to the Junta do Tabaco (Tobacco Board), mentioning, among other subjects, Jews from Suriname.
CU/089/026/2189, 1821: Documents produced by the Secretary concerning petitions sent by numerous military officers and royal officials. It includes a document produced by Abraão Bensaud, a Jew who arrived in Ponta Delgada, Azores, in 1819.
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Archival history
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The Conselho Ultramarino (Overseas Council) archive had different locations in Lisbon. The archive was moved to Campo Santana, near the city centre, in 1750. It was relocated to a building in Rua do Ouro in 1796 and later to another in Rua Augusta. Later, the archive was moved to Terreiro do Paço, where the Conselho Ultramarino was located. In 1834, still quite disorganised, the archive was placed in the Secretaria de Estado dos Negócios da Marinha e Ultramar (Secretariat of State for the Navy and Overseas). In 1842, Filipe Roberto Da Silva Stockler, former archivist of the Conselho Ultramarino, was charged with organising the archive.
In 1931, the documents of the Conselho Ultramarino fonds were transferred to the Arquivo Histórico Colonial (Colonial Historical Archive), later renamed Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino (Overseas Historical Archive). The archive was placed in Palácio da Eva in Junqueira, Belém (west of Lisbon). After that, some other fonds produced by the Conselho Ultramarino were added to the archive collection, namely some that were kept in the Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (National Archive of Torre do Tombo).
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(source: Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino database)
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Administrative / Biographical history
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The Conselho Ultramarino (Overseas Council) was regulated on July 14, 1642, and instituted one year later. This body was responsible for all affairs related to the Portuguese overseas territories. Its duties included the financial (with jurisdiction over all assets of Portuguese colonies, except the Azores, Madeira, and North African territories), judicial and military administration, the regulation of shipping, the appointment to overseas positions, and the attribution of benefits for services rendered in colonial territories. Later, some of these duties were transferred to the Junta do Comércio, Agricultura, Fábricas e Navegação (Board of Trade, Agriculture, Industry and Navigation) and the Conselho do Almirantado (Council of the Admiralty) after their creation in 1755 and 1795, respectively.
During the period in which the Portuguese court was settled in Brazil (1808-20), the activity of the Conselho Ultramarino was reduced to routine procedures, such as paying wages or issuing licenses. Then, the Mesa do Desembargo do Paço e da Consciência e Ordens, created in Rio de Janeiro in 1808, took on some of the functions of the Conselho Ultramarino and other state bodies. The Conselho Ultramarino was abolished on August 30, 1833.
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(source: Arquivo Histórico Ultramarino database)
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System of arrangement
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The collection is arranged chronologically.
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Author of the description
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Miguel Torres de Carvalho, 2023
