1796. Carta de Domingo de la Azuela Velasco para Teresa Doncel.

Letter from Domingo de la Azuela Velasco to Teresa Doncel.

The author informs Teresa Doncel about the details of lineage of the Millet family. He confirms the suspect of the presence of mulatto blood in the lineage, and describes the attempts of the Millets to conceal this fact.

In 1797, Teresa Doncel asked the annulment of the official engagement between her daughter, Ramona Coello y Doncel, and Mateo José Millet. Teresa Doncel claimed that the difference of social status between the two fiancés made their marriage impossible. She eulogised the importance of her lineage, and tried to demonstrate the low social origins of Mateo José Millet. To prove her lineage, she presented detailed dynastic information, about both her maternal and paternal lineage, which she claimed to be part of the most illustrious lineages of Spain and Portugal. In contrast, the Millet family had humbler origins, and Teresa Doncel referred not only to the suspect that the ancestors of Mateo José Millet had practiced manual labours, but also to the possible mulatto origins of one of his grandmothers. To counteract these accusations, Mateo José Millet presented a document in which he affirmed that the witnesses presented by Teresa Doncel were scarcely reliable, and in which he presented the results of the tests of racial purity he had to pass in order to obtain his degree at the university and his position as a lawyer in Malaga and in the Reales Consejos. He also protested for the unorthodox way in which Teresa Doncel had presented to the tribunal two letters in which the results of the investigation about his family were described. This is the reason why the two letters have been kept in a sealed envelope since the beginning of the process. The proceedings are incomplete, but we know that in first instance the court ruled in favour of the marriage between Mateo José Millet and Ramona Coello y Doncel. However, Teresa Doncel appealed this sentence, and won the second instance. The couple appealed this sentence, but we do not know the final result of the lawsuit.