Captain-major

Captain-major is the English rendering of the Portuguese Capitão-mor, or the Capitães dos Donatários (Captains of the Donataries), the colonial officials, placed in charge of a Captaincy (Portuguese: capitania), deemed not (yet) important enough to have its own colonial Governor.

The term also applied as the rank title of the field officer that was in charge of a captaincy (group of companies) of the Ordenanças. The Ordenanças being the Portuguese territorial militia that existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries.

Due to the impossibility of exercising direct control and sovereignty over overseas territories, the captain-major was the channel by which the monarch could delegate his powers, with certain restrictions, under the responsibility of peoples he felt he could confide. The Donatário could administer, in the sovereign's name, the lands for which he was assigned, with all the regalia, rights and obligations, with the exception of certain limits, including military authority over soldiers and detachments of the crown, or the administration of justice.

The Captains were agents named by the Dontário, and after 1495, by the Crown, to a lifetime title that was passed down by the "legitimate male heirs". As administrators, the Captains enjoyed various judicial and economic privileges that provided an incentive to settle and develop their captaincies. They had the authority to administer sentences, with the exception of those involving penalties of death or mutilation. Economically, they had the exclusive authority to mill, bake bread and sell salt, in addition to their entitlement to receive rent paid to the King for lands, fees and taxes due. In addition, they could receive a tithe (the tenth portion) paid to the captaincy directly. In addition to the regalia of office, the captains-major would hold title to the best parcels of lands and be able to contract renters to the donatárias (lands of the Donatários), in the name of the crown. Many of the donatários were hereditary, with a few exceptions, referred in the Salic Laws (Portuguese: Leis Sálicas) of the time; these laws regulated all aspects of life, including crime, taxation, indemnity, and female inheritance. The Captains were less restricted to these conditions.

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