[1739]. Carta de Manuel Carmena, albañil, y Manuela Rodríguez (La Riosela) para Manuel López de Aguirre, párroco.

Letter from Manuel Carmena, a bricklayer, and Manuela Rodríguez (La Riosela) to Manuel López de Aguirre, a parish priest.

The authors ask to the parish priest to intercede on their behalf in order to finance the dispatches of their marriage.

In 1745, a process was opened for bigamy against Manuela Rodríguez, alias "La Riosela", a native to Daimiel (Ciudad Real). Manuela Rodríguez got married in Daimiel for the first time on May the 17th 1739 to Juan Armán; then in Madrid she got married a second time, on February the 17th 174?, to Manuel Carmena, a native to Añover de Tajo (Toledo). In order to get married a second time, the defendant swore she did not have any impairment to remarry and she provided witnesses that supported her statement. Besides, despite the fact that her first husband passed away in 1744, she provided a false certificate to give prove of his burial. This letter is a formal petition addressed to Don Manuel López de Aguirre, a priest of San Justo y Pastor Parish in Madrid. The letter is dated on December 1739 and it was used as proof that Manuela Rodríguez had the intention to marry Manuel Carmena on the said date whilst her first husband was still alive. The defendant was accused of bigamy. At the end of the letter (fl.54v), the addressee added the following information: "I am aware that the senders, who are from my Parish, are extremely poor. On December the 10th 1639. Don Manuel López de Aguirre". "The groom works as a bricklayer or as a labourer in the fields when he finds a job as such [...] and on December the 12th 1739 ".