[1760-1770]. Carta de [Gertrudes Maria da Conceição] para Francisco Pedro Vital.

Love letter from [Gertrudes Maria da Conceição] to Francisco Pedro Vital.

The author expresses her apprehension about the marriage arrangements with her fiancé, and discusses the inequality of resources between their two families.

The young Gertrudes Maria da Conceição, resident in Lisbon, got engaged to Francisco Pedro Vital, a soldier within the Prince's regiment. Later on, she wanted to become engaged to another youth, Epifânio José Barbosa, caulker. Francisco, however, legally tried to make her marry him, presenting as proof of their connection the love letters previously exchanged between them. Conversely, Epifânio decided that he no longer wanted to marry her, since she was committed to someone else. This legal process dragged on for 3 years and the court papers include the love letters that Gertrudes wrote to her first fiancé.

«My entire relief and my desolation,

I enjoyed your letters and I was sorry for not understanding what they said, since I keep saying if only you were a craftsman of your own carpenter trade and not a prisoner as you are. However, nothing forces me because I saw you clearly and, therefore, I intend to know what your true intention is, because I don’t want to kill time, and I am not waiting to get older and you aren’t waiting for dowries, since my father cannot give them. Therefore, you can trust my will and if we get married, being it your desire, it will be mine too, and then Go can help us. But you have father and mother like I do. You don’t know if they will want you to get married. I want to know, then, through which law I should live, so that my will matches yours. Not under my name. It can be found by your people, being so easy to fall of one’s pocket. That is the reason.

May God keep you many years. From the one who wants you dearly and is faithful until death. I wait for your answer.»