Register of Proceedings: On Charity

Under the Syndicate of Mr. Samuel Gradis, in the Year 1730

We the undersigned have agreed that, seeing the difficulty that there is to collect what every particular member of our Nation must contribute to sustain our poor, we will have recourse to the authority of the governors of our country to give us the power to force eligible donors to donate the sums that have been or will be imposed by us, the syndics [trustees],¹ or our deputies. Thus decided at Bordeaux on March 22, 1729. And to give even more strength to the present deliberation, we have convened, for this time only, without implying consequences, all the eligible donors of the Nation.

Under the Syndicate Mr. Abraham Fereyra

The assembled Nation, as above, to prevent abuses that slide from syndic to syndic regarding the list of our poor, and they have agreed that in the future the number of the aforementioned poor will not exceed eighty families and that no single syndic can increase the aforesaid number or replace any without the consent of the elders. In assembly, at Bordeaux, the day and year mentioned above [March 20, 1735].

During the Syndicate of Mr. David Lameyre

We who have gathered in the home of Mr. David Lameyre our syndic, who represented to us that the poor fund is strongly in arrears because of the failure to pay on the part of several individuals of the Nation, who have refused until the present to pay their contributions, since it was necessary to provide for this, we have decided that Mr. [Henrique] Ibarra, [parnas,] our former syndic, will execute the ordinance of Monseigneur l’Intendant [a French government official], which permits the trustees of our Nation to garnish those who do not pay what they owe to the poor fund, and after the diligent efforts made by the aforementioned Mr. Ibarra, that he will make apparent to us, it will be provided for payment what remains owed to Mr. Ibarra for the year of his trusteeship. At Bordeaux, this 28 of April 1743.

From Sept. 20, 1744

We, being assembled in the home of Mr. David Lameyre, adjutant, in the absence of our syndic, have decided that it was proper to send out of Bordeaux a number of Tudesques [Germans] and Italians, who have introduced themselves, and who cause great prejudice to our poor Portuguese; that furthermore most of these Germans and Italians are not known, they can commit reproachable actions, we have resolved unanimously the following, be it known:

That our syndic and adjutants will present to Monseigneur l’Intendant the following list of people who should be made to leave the city, to ask his authority to do so.

We have agreed further that three livres will be given by our syndic per person for their travels.

And as for the Portuguese who are accustomed to sell and buy old clothes, they will be forbidden to continue this business, and if they wish to persist, we will similarly ask the protection of Monsieur l’Intendant to force them.

[List of German and Italian individuals and families.]

All the names of the thirty-five families. As deliberated in Bordeaux on September 20, 1744.