Bernardo Peres da Silva was born in the village of Neura, Ilhas, Goa. His birth dateis estimated to be 15 of October 1775. His parents were the lawyer José Thomaz da Villa Nova Peres and D. Marianna Vellozo; he learnt his first letters with his uncle, the priest Fr Caetano Peres, parish priest of the church of Colvá de Salcete; He studied Latin and philosophy at the Rachol seminary with the Italian priests of the Rilhafoles congregation, successors of the Jesuits in the teaching profession. He then studied medicine in Goa at the medical school under the direction of Antonio Jose de Miranda at the military hospital which was then at Sao Pedro in Ihas, Goa. After Qualifying as a faculty and being licenced to practice, he left medical school and through a substitute exam he studied law and was for many years the presecutor of the senate of the city of Goa and five times he was elected deputy to the courts, the 1st.’ on January 14, 1822, on the 2nd on December 21, 1827, on the 3rd on September 2nd, 1838, on the 4th on April 27th, 1839, and on the 5th on October 9th, 1842.
In 1827, when he returned to Portugal as a deputy, and the constitution was once again abolished, he protested for the second time, and for this reason he had to remain in hiding in Lisbon, He then emigrated to Plymoutb in England, where he protested against friar Joaquim de Carvalho, who crowned procurator of the people of Goa had appointed himself in the seat of the three states in favor of D. Miguel.
From Plymouth he went to Rio de Janeiro, where he began to teach to pass his troubled times, and there he published in 1832 a pamphlet — The dialogue between a Doctor of Philosophy and the Portuguese in India on the political constitution. He was soon appointed by D Pedro de Braganca to represent the Portuguese Crown and serve as the Mayor in Goa.
Mayor Peres arrived in Goa on the 10th of January 1835, took office on the 14th of the same month, appointed his former colleague in the deputation as secretary of the city hall, as a person who deserved full trust, lawyer Constâncio Roque da Costa, born in Margao, Salcete, Goa and as councilors of the city hall, and to advise him in the sensitive crisis of implementing in his Land, the constitutional system abolishing the privileges of absolute government, the first educated nobles of Goa, Marshal Joaquim Manuel Corrêa da Silva e Gama, Brigadier António José de Mello Souto Maior usurper, who harmed the vested interests of many influential men in the country; he reorganized justice, extinguished the religious orders, relieved the tribute of part of their income to the agricultural communities, which, in gratitude, those of Salcete and the Islands a few years ago placed his portrait in the chambers.
However the unrests continued and on the night of February 1, a military revolt took place, and, in a few days, they stripped him of his power in government. The revolt was led by the army and some of the discontented people.
Mayor Peres died of an aneurysm in Lisbon on November 1, 1841, aged 69, and his ashes rest in one of the highest and most sumptuous monuments in the Prazeres region, consecrated to his memory by his father Thomaz José Peres.
The monument is 64 feet high by 11feet wide, – 4 Doric columns support the dome and form a peristyle in the center in which is a lacrimal urn covered in part by a towel.
On the body that serves as a base there is the following epitaph
The venerable ashes of a patriot
Advisor Bernardo Peres da Silva
Born in Neurá in the states of India.
Elected by that province 5 times and constantly
Deputing him to the nation’s courts from 1821 to 1844
Appointed by the immortal letter-giver mayor
From Portugal in 1834
Born on October 5, 1775 and died in Lisbon
On November 14, 1814,
Consecrate this crypt
On his 61st birthday
Thomaz José Peres.