Abstract

One of the many windows from which - still today - we can look at and study the society of the Spanish Island in the long colonial era is the documentation of the lawsuits judicial proceedings of that time that have been preserved. Individuals, families or groups tried in these trials to settle their disputes before the judges of the Royal Court of Santo Domingo, who it operated based in the colonial city as what today would be a court of first instance. The papers that those involved or their lawyers presented to the judges of the Court included, among others: witness statements, inventories of assets, sales certificates, wills, laws issued by the monarchs of Spain, requests made to the authorities, accounts of business, and evidence of tax payments.