House of Borda
The Borda family is a French-Navarrese family belonging to an ancient lineage of Basque nobility. Their ancestral palace is situated in the Spanish village of Maya, present day Amaiur, in the valley of Baztán, and there is also mention of an archaic castle in Labort in the Kingdom of Aquitaine, now France, from which the family is said to have originated from. History The Borda family rose to prominence in the 17th and 18th centuries and was connected to many of the old noble families of Navarre, such as the Escors, Goyeneche, Arrachea and Echenique. Various members of the family had their nobility proven and confirmed by the courts of Navarre, with letters patent from 1702, 1736, 1764, 1786, 1774. During the 18th century the Borda family enriched itself through trade with the South American colonies and several of its members obtained important posts in the colonial administration in the viceroyalty of Lima. As only the firstborn male was allowed to inherit entailed property, several members of the Borda family emigrated to the Spanish Americas during and after the colonial reign, and many descendants are still to be found in Argentina, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru. After the Napoleonic invasion in