Silva, José Aniceto da, 1788-1847

Rio de Mouro (Sintra), 17 April 1788 - Goa, 16 July 1847. José Aniceto da Silva was a military engineer, with particular drawing skills, who made his career in Goa where he arrived 29 November 1805. In 1812 he travelled to Rio de Janeiro where he lived for some years having married in 1814 with Maria Carolina Frias e Vasconcelos, a Brazilian lady with origin in an Azorean family. The couple left to Goa in an uncertain date and lived there for the rest of their lives. They had a vast descendance, part of which migrated to Mozambique. José Aniceto da Silva became a lieutenent in October 1820, captain in January 1824 and major in January 1845. He was the first Portuguese to make a career as a newspaper editor in the emerging Goan press, having edited the Gazeta de Goa (1822-1826) and the Chronica Constitucional de Goa (1835-1837) in the quality of director of the Governamental press. He also wrote the non-governmental periodicals O Observador (1840) and the A Voz dos Povos da India (1845-1846), published at the same press. In addition to being the the Treasurer of the Santa Casa da Misericórdia de Goa, he became the teacher of the Royal Class of French, having published the first French grammar in Goa (1845).

References: Forjaz, Jorge and Noronha, José Francisco de, Os Luso-descendentes da Índia Portuguesa. Volume III. N-Z. Lisboa: Fundação Oriente, 2003, pp. 511ss; Gomes, Paulo Varela, "Colégio do Espírito Santo e Igreja de Nossa Senhora da Conceição ou de São Paulo" HPIP: Património de Influência Portuguesa. https://hpip.org/pt/heritage/details/935; Vaz, Francisco Xavier (Cónego), "Cemitério de Velha Goa" O Oriente Portuguez, v. 12, nºs1-2 (Jan.-Fev. 1915), pp. 161-162 - Acessible at https://archive.org/details/dli.ernet.535662; Fundação Alexandre de Gusmão - FUNAG, Catálogo dos documentos sobre o Brasil no Arquivo de Goa Parte 02 [Monções do Reino] - https://www.gov.br/funag/pt-br/chdd/pesquisa/fontes-documentais-sobre-o-brasil/documentos-sobre-o-brasil-colonia-nos-arquivos-de-goa-india 

Form and biographic note: Sandra Ataíde Lobo