Manuel de Arriaga - Biography

Biography

Of his early life details are brief: Arriaga was born to an aristocratic family; son of Sebastião José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira (c. 1810 – Setúbal, 18 October 1881) and his wife, whom he married on 24 December 1834, Maria Cristina Pardal Ramos Caldeira (c. 1815 – ?). Arriaga's father was a rich merchant in the city, only son, and property-owner, whose heritage traced his lineage to the Fleming Joss van Aard, one of the original settlers of the island of Faial (of the male line to a Basque family of small nobility) and whose second cousin was Bernardo de Sá Nogueira de Figueiredo, 1st Marquess of Sá da Bandeira. The young Manuel was also the grandson of General Sebastião José de Arriaga Brum da Silveira, who distinguished himself in the Peninsular Wars, and grand-nephew of the Judge of the Supreme Court, who between 1821 and 1822 was also a representative for the Azores in the Constituent Courts.

The Arriaga family included six children, of these the following siblings: Maria Cristina, the oldest (a poet, referred by Vitorino Nemésio in his obra-prima Mau Tempo no Canal); José de Arriaga, a historian (known for História da Revolução Portuguesa de 1820, published in 1889 and Os Últimos 60 anos da Monarquia, published in 1911); Sebastião Arriaga Brum da Silveira Júnior, agricultural engineer (after studying abroad, he worked on land recuperation projects in the Alentejo); and Manuel, the fourth in line of succession (who decided early on to concentrate on politics).