Andrade, Gomes Freire de (1688–1763)

Gomes Freire de Andrade (b. 11 July 1688; d. 1 January 1763), governor and captain-general of southern and western Brazil. A member of a distinguished family whose roots trace back in Galicia before 711, the year of the Moorish invasion, and in Portugal since the fourteenth century. For centuries the Freire de Andrades contributed senior officials to Portugal's army, navy, church, and civil service. Andrade, named after an uncle who served as governor of Maranhão during the Beckman Revolt, was born in Jeromenha, situated between Vila Viçosa and Badajóz. He attended the University of Coimbra and became fluent in French and Spanish. Along with his father, he served in the War of the Spanish Succession, after which he retained an appointment in a cavalry unit stationed in the capital. In 1733 he was appointed governor and captain-general of the captaincy of Rio de Janeiro, a post he retained until his death. It was the first of many administrative units for which he became responsible. By 1748 he governed all of western and southern Brazil, including Minas Gerais, Goiás, Mato Grosso, São Paulo, Santa Catarina, and Rio Grande do Sul. Among his notable responsibilities were the settlement of coastal Rio Grande do Sul, the definition of Brazil's southern boundary in accordance with the Treaty of Madrid (1750), commander of Portuguese forces in Rio Grande do Sul during the Guaraní War (1752–1756), and the expulsion of the Jesuits (1760) from lands under his jurisdiction. Andrade never married; he died in Rio de Janeiro after an extended illness.

See alsoBrazil: The Colonial Era, 1500–1808 .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Charles R. Boxer, The Golden Age of Brazil, 1695–1750: Growing Pains of a Colonial Society (1962).

Robert Allan White, "Gomes Freire de Andrade: Life and Times of a Brazilian Colonial Governor, 1688–1763" (Ph.D. diss., University of Texas, 1972).

Additional Bibliography

Reagan, Mary Agneta. "The Role Played by Gomes Freire de Andrade in the Expulsion of the Jesuits from the Portuguese Empire." Ph.D. diss., Catholic University of America, 1978.

                                        Dauril Alden