1753. Cópia de carta de Josefa Maria Marques para a tia [Inocência dos Santos].

Copy of a compliant letter sent by Josefa Maria Marques, the wife of a court clerk, to a wife, [Inocência dos Santos], married to a captain in the army.

The author complaints about her husband and the difficult situation he created for her. She speaks up for her honor and seems astonished by some remarks previously made by the addressee, her own aunt.

Josefa Maria Marques married Jacinto José dos Santos in 1742 in Tavarede, on the north of Portugal. Nevertheless, her husband remarried in the south, in Castro Marim, while his first wife was still alive. An uncle of hers, a captain in the army, alerted the Holy Office to the bigamy case. The proof, this very letter, was cunningly stolen to the captain's wife, Inocência dos Santos, and copied by a clerk. Jacinto José dos Santos was arrested by the Inquisition of Évora, but he stayed in prison only for a fortnight.