1779. Carta de Maria Helena Mexia Galvão de Sousa, recolhida num convento, para Sebastião Luís da Silveira, padre.

Private letter from Maria Helena Mexia Galvão de Sousa, secluded in a convent, to Sebastião Luís da Silveira, priest.

The author tells the addressee that she trusts him, and also that she is the solicitor for the inheritance of her brother Gaspar, now intending to use her powers of attorney and her brother's money to set him free from jail.

On January 23, 1779, Gaspar Francisco Mexia Galvão de Sousa was made a prisoner in the Tower of São Julião da Barra at the request of his brother, Lourenço Anastácio Mexia Galvão de Sousa. After a few months, also following a request of his brother, the communication between Gaspar and the priest Sebastião Luís da Silveira, his friend and solicitor, was interdicted. When he knew about this impediment, the priest directed a request to the Ministry of the Kingdom so that he could communicate again with Gaspar. The applicant includes in the process a number of documents, including certificates of witnesses who claim that father Sebastião is a person of trust, and also letters that he received from Gaspar and Maria Elena (a sister of the prisoner), and three letters sent to Gaspar by a cousin (Bartolomeu de Sousa Mexia). These documents are intended to prove that all these people consider that it was Lourenço who planned the detention of his brother, so as to take his share of the inheritance. Maria Elena, sister of both, was not a threat to Lourenço's plans to become the sole heir of their parents, since she lived in a convent as a recluse. Gaspar would be freed later that year, going to live at his brother Lourenço.