Cayetano Rey Villamarín · hidalguía, 1743

The copied 1643 baptism calls Pedro the son of Bartholomé Rey and María Rodríguez.

The copied 1643 baptism names María Rodríguez as Pedro’s mother.

The copied 1679 baptism calls Bartholomé the son of Don Pedro Rey de Santa María and his lawful wife Isabel Fernández; 1743 witnesses repeat it.

The copied 1679 baptism names Isabel Fernández as Bartholomé’s mother.

The 1679 baptism calls Isabel Pedro’s lawful wife and witnesses say they were married and blessed. The parish priest found no marriage entry and reported a lost book.

Bartholomé and Francisca Rey received the nuptial blessing at Arnoia on 3 September 1702, having married earlier at Allariz.

The copied 1711 baptism says Cayetano Alonso was born of Don Bartholomé Rey and his lawful wife Doña Francisca Rey.

The copied 1711 baptism names Doña Francisca Rey as Cayetano’s mother.

The 1743 notification calls Josepha Rey a daughter of Pedro Rey Santa María and Isabel Fernández de Lama, and Cayetano’s aunt.

The 1743 notification names Isabel Fernández de Lama as Josepha’s mother.

Josepha Rey is called the widow of Don Benito Bernardo de Noboa.

One witness calls Francisca the daughter of Doña Inés Suárez de Villamarín; no other source names her mother.

Witnesses call Don Diego Rey Villamarín Cayetano’s uncle, whose entailed estate Cayetano inherited. Whether he was a paternal or maternal uncle is not stated.

Witnesses say, repeating what their elders told them, that Isabel Fernández de Lama descended from the house of Verea in the valley of Celanova, Pedro from the house of Villanueva de los Infantes and Francisca from the house of Seixas. This is hearsay recorded under oath.

The petition claims notorious hidalgo status for Cayetano, his father and grandfather; the tax rolls of 1711, 1727 and 1736 omit them; and the Ribadavia council recognised the status on 3 April 1743, approved by royal provision “for now and without prejudice to the royal patrimony”.

Isabel Fernández de Lama, of the house of Verea according to witnesses, and Isabel Álvarez de Verea, a widow litigating at Arnoia in 1713, may be one woman: Pedro died about 1703. The surnames differ and no source joins them.

The blog makes Pedro Rey Santa María’s wife Isabel a daughter of Jacinto Álvarez of Verea. The 1743 file does not contain this parentage.

The 1752 census of San Salvador de Arnoia lists Doña Josefa Rey, aged sixty, a widow at Nogueiredo. Name, place and status fit Cayetano’s aunt of 1743, but the census gives no parentage.