[Fig. 1] Quinta da Torre (Caparica) in 1962.

Tomás de Noronha married Helena da Silva, whose deed of dowry was signed on March 23, 1558. The couple had thirteen children, including Marcos, the successor of the morgadio who, together with his brother Gil Eanes, fought in the Battle of Alcácer-Quibir. Tomás de Noronha fell seriously ill after falling from a horse and died shortly afterwards, on January 14, 1584. He is buried in the Chapter Room of the Convent of São Francisco in Alenquer, where he was joined in 1604 by his wife Helena da Silva.

The institution charter of morgadio and chapel of Quinta da Torre is a remarkable document, one of the most complete and exhaustive texts of its kind. It can be considered a true “entailing Constitution”, creating and regulating this type of organization as a corporate entity endowed with legal personality and autonomy. Composed of two parts – the institution of the morgadio and the institution and “Regiment” of the attached chapel – it provides exceptionally clear justifications for the acts carried out, and regulates in detail the succession, the assets, the “good heir” clauses and the pious suffrages.

[Fig. 2] Detail of the first folio of the institution charter of the morgadio and chapel of Quinta da Torre.

Right from the start, the reasons for the founding lapidary summarize the basis of aristocratic entailment institutions:  to commemorate the soul of the founders, maintaining a continuous remembrance of what had been received from them, to sustain “the expenses of their status and nobility” and service to the king and kingdom, and finally “to support the people who by blood or upbringing are close to the founders of the said morgados and their houses when they need to help their relatives in need” (ARCOS, 2008:17). The heir to the morgadio was thus constituted as a pole of organization for the functioning of the group of relatives, because of having certain qualities. The special clauses built up this figure. The institution charter obliged all its “possessors” to have Noronha as their main family name and to use the Noronhas´ coat of arms “straight and without any mixture of others”, and regulates all possible exceptions, almost constituting a “manual” on the subject (ARCOS, 2008:22); it contains some of the most extensive clauses known, relating to treason against the king, any physical or mental problems of the heir, the marriage of the heirs, the preparation and conservation of documents, the management of conflicts and relations with external authorities.

The concern with the management of the estate is also noteworthy, as is the importance given to the conservation of the “head of the morgadio“, the Quinta da Torre. Tomás de Noronha inherited Quinta da Torre from his aunt Brites de Menezes, widow of Tristão Coutinho, son of Gonçalo Coutinho. In addition to this property, the morgadio was made up of several other assets that Tomás de Noronha had inherited from his father and his uncles Tristão Coutinho and Brites de Menezes and from the aforementioned wedding dowry, including also several others that he acquired alone and together with his wife Helena da Silva. In the Archives of the House of the Counts of Arcos, there are several deeds for the purchase of rustic properties in Caparica by Tomás de Noronha in 1573, which were possibly acquired with money he had inherited from his father Leão de Noronha, who had died the previous year.

[Fig. 3] The Noronhas’ full coat of arms stone above the portal of the Palácio do Salvador, built by D. Tomás de Noronha in Alfama and which was once the manor house of the Counts of Arcos.