João Duarte de Sousa

João Duarte de Sousa, some refer to J. Duarte de Sousa, (Velas, October 23, 1862 – Angra do Heroísmo, May 29, 1909), was an Azorean politician and a historian. He was a pioneer on the island history of São Jorge.

João Duarte de Sousa served as a writer in the Velas town hall, where he remained for 24 years (in 1886). For his elevation in Terceira with Maria Carlota Rebelo. He was a member of the Partido Regeneredor and was a convite, he was involved in several political battles, one of them in 1895, he was dismmissed later on and exercised his functions of the administrator of the town hall of Praia da Vitória. He became a secretary of the Polícia Repressiva da Emigração Clandestina (Repressive Police of the Clandestine Emigration) commissioner and he lost his fame.

He was very interested in the insular history, studied investigations on municipal archives in which resulted his creation on "Apontamentos Históricos e Descrição Topográfica", divided published articles on the islands of São Jorge and Terceira. The publication of his historic work in 1879, where he had a polemical access with his political adversary and his successor on trade with the municipality and he was an investigador of the island's history, José Cândido da Silveira Avelar. Silveira Avelar published in 1902 a rival work, in what he corrected the works of J. Duarte de Sousa and demonstrated the superiority of his investigation on that.

He died in Angra do Heroísmo in May 29, 1909 at the age of 46.

Literature

*"Ilha de São Jorge - Apontamentos Históricos e Descrição Topográfica" (São Jorge Island), Angra do Heroísmo, 1897 (reedited by the municipal chamber of Velas in 2003).
*"Reminiscências velenses (Na Vila das Velas do século XIX)" ("Velense Remniscenses (On The Town Of Velas In The 19th Century)", posthumous edition of the Town Hall of Velas (1992) with preface and updated texts by João Afonso.