José Joaquim de Sousa Reis was born in
Estômbar, in 1796 to Joaquim José dos Reis and Clara Maria do Carmo. He was given the surname "de Sousa" by his godfather
Reverend José Joaquim de Sousa, a priest. but it was
São Bartolomeu de Messines the place where he settled, married and traced his destiny. As a boy, he went to study for the
Catholic seminary in
Faro. There he took the minor orders but, given his talent for oratory, he soon aroused the admiration of the bishop who authorized him to go up to the pulpit and speak to the people. However, he abandoned the promising ecclesiastical career to marry Maria Clara Machado de Bastos, daughter of a distinguished wealthy family. Still, it took a lot of persistence and use of all the rhetoric he learned to overcome the reluctance of the girl's uncle, a wealthy man and landowner in the vicinity of São Bartolomeu de Messines and
São Marcos da Serra., a village where on its outskirts rests the so-called
Cabana do Remexido (Remexido's Hut), where it is said that the famous antiliberal
Miguelist, commander of legitimist guerrillas who spread fear and violence throughout the region of
Algarve, was captured. From this insistence, he received the nickname of Remexido from Maria Clara, which was forever stuck to his name. A literate young man, very talkative and in line with the
absolutist regime of the time, he quickly gained a prominent social position and public recognition. He made improvements for the village of São Bartolomeu de Messines, like a public elementary school, a community oven and a free fair in honour of
Nossa Senhora da Saúde (Our Lady of Health), which still takes place today. After the first
liberal revolution of 1820 he was appointed
juiz de vintena, an official
magistrate position which would be abolished on January 1, 1831, due to the liberal revolution's ideals, simultaneously managing the assets of his wife's wealthy uncle. As
juiz de vintena, he would personally collect the
tithes of the lands of São Bartolomeu de Messines and São Marcos da Serra. Some years later, as a guerrilla in the
Serra do Caldeirão (Mountain of the Cauldron), a territory he knew very well, he became a headache for the liberal troops loyal to king
Pedro V of Portugal in the
civil war that opposed him to the absolutists of his brother Miguel (1828–1834). Once peace was signed in the
Concession of Evoramonte on 26 May 1834, a return to normality was expected. However, the imprisonment of his wife and son, as well as the reprisals and political persecutions exercised by the liberals, winners of the fratricidal war, led the guerrilla to continue his military campaign with actions of violence all over the
Algarve and
Baixo Alentejo. The taking of
Albufeira on July 26, 1833, at the time a liberal settlement, is an example of the slaughter and looting perpetrated by the antiliberal absolutist faction under the leadership of Remexido, causing about seven dozen victims among its civil population. And if the excesses of war can always be pointed out on either side of the strife, in the narrative built over time, the liberals made Remexido a bloodthirsty and "big-time guerrilla". A man - they said - who developed particular ferocity, "stabbing the prisoners, burning them alive and dragging them all on the tail of his horse." And to compose the legend, Remexido even had the honour of appearing in a collection of
cordel literature, where history and fiction go hand in hand. As in all cases, however, some keep a different image of him as a romantic and idealistic hero, who sacrificed himself for the cause that seemed more just, although against the prevailing winds of liberal republican ideas that came from the
French Revolution. Of him,
Camilo Castelo Branco wrote: “The Remexido appears imbued with strong romantic tones, ending up exchanging a peaceful life as a farmer, for the plight of a struggle that earned him and his family, the harshest persecutions, against which he rebelled.” And the Algarve historian, Alberto Iria, extols Remexido by presenting him as “an intelligent person, endowed with a good and generous soul, with dignity and greatness at the service of his ideals.” Taken prisoner in 1838, he was tried in a war tribunal in the Misericórdia Hall in Faro and sentenced to death. In the final allegations, in his defence, he said: “The only crime I committed was the crime of disobedience”, in obedience to an ideal and a cause in which I believed. With no possibility of appeal, he was
executed by shooting, on August 2 of the same year, at 6 pm, in the Trindade field, where today is the Alameda João de Deus lane, in Faro, and buried in the Misericórdia cemetery. ==Marriage and issue==