Donatário

Portuguese private colonial land governor

A donatário (Portuguese for "donated" or "endowed [one]"), sometimes anglicized as donatary, was a private person — often a noble — who was granted a considerable piece of land (a donataria) by the Kingdom of Portugal. The king exempted these titleholders from normal colonial administration; the donatários were comparable to a royal governor or a British Lord Proprietor. As the donataria were often captaincies, the position is also translated as captain.

Normally, the donatário was the recipient of a captaincy, a territorial division and land grant, within Portuguese colonies. It was an effective administrative system that ceded certain rights and responsibilities to the donatário, facilitating the settlement of unpopulated places with little cost to the Crown. The donatário was obligated to govern his territories under specific terms: in exchange for the grant, he received tax immunity, but was also responsible for promoting and settling new residents to his territory, establishing churches (following the Catholic faith), protecting them from frequent pirate attacks, and promoting agriculture and commerce. This was the same period as the death of King Duarte, and his successor King Afonso V exempted fees and taxes for five years at his request, suggesting Henry's compliance with the duties of a donatário. King Manuel I of Portugal, for his part, was a micro manager and was involved in judicial affairs and exercised his duties as lord of the islands. These new posts showed the importance of the Crown's representatives in the regions over their control, and men like Cipriano de Figueiredo e Vasconcelos (Corregador of Terceira) would play important roles in coexistence between local and national administration. After the 16th century the figure of the donatary captain lost its effective governorship in most of the islands of the Azores, with the exception of São Miguel, which was transformed into an honorific post, conferred by the King to people and noble families who he wished to honour. It was through this system that the majority of donatary captaincies fell into the hands of the high nobility of Portugal, who never lived on the islands or had little economic interest in their development.