José Ferreira Borges (1780-1838) was the son of a well-known shipowner from Porto. In 1808, he established himself in Porto as a lawyer specialized in commercial matters, one of the best in the city. In 1823 he was appointed Councilor of State. He had to emigrate twice, due to the political upheavals of the troubled liberal period, returning definitively to Porto in 1833.
In September 1835 he was appointed Supreme Magistrate of Commerce and judge of the Court of Commerce.
Ferreira Borges died on November 14th 1838, having the Commercial Association of Porto decreed mourning for three days, closing doors and windows.
Later, a group of representatives of the Association went to the widow's house to present condolences. The grieving family would end up attributing to the Commercial Association the possession of the key to the coffin.
On the date of his death the temporary Lapa Cemetry was already deactivated (it only functioned until the beginning of 1837). The first burial on the grounds of the new cemetery dates from August 1836, although it was not yet fully built. A second burial only took place in 1837, this time already with the indication of the grave number and the cemetery was already divided in sections.
On June 11th, 1837, the Administrative Board of the Lapa Brotherhood approved the conditions for the sale of the land intended for Ferreira Borges' perpetual tomb. On that date, the cemetery would already be minimally ready, although the entrance was not even built. The cemetery was only officially blessed in the summer of 1838.
The first monument that came to be erected in the Lapa Cemetery was the mausoleum in honour of José Ferreira Borges. Actually, the land purchase terms register the strong intention of building it. With the construction of this monument, not only did it pay homage to the jurist, but also contributed to the development of the Brotherhood's cemetery.
One of the people who was also part of of the Commission that came to build this monument was the founder of the Lapa Cemetery himself: João da Silva Ribeiro. It was him who presented the project for the cemetery and has always been noted for the zeal shown towards it. João da Silva Ribeiro must have been very committed in building this monument, which would set an important precedent for others to do the same and began to beautify the cemetery, in the image of the romantic model of Père Lachaise.
On this monument we can find symbols that refer to José Ferreira Borges' life and job, related to commerce and law. On the centre of this mausoleum we can also observe an hourglass with wings, that is meant to symbolize that time has stopped.