Donatary

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. While the donatário assumed expenses of the settlement and economic development, he also benefited from various judicial and fiscal privileges, while the King maintained certain unalienable rights to safeguard the territorial and political unity of the Kingdom. Except for private land grants, the territory administrated by the donatário was turned over to settlers and the bestowed was responsible for all the expenses of the Captaincy.

Almost dictatorial in their powers, the donatários were limited by the difficulties of the territories they governed. With the Brazilian territories, which were large, the donatários' obligations covered the governorship, expansion and settlement of the territory, necessitating a large labour force, security forces and administrators. Many of the new settlers were criminals, opportunists or political exiles who arrived in these territories to make their fortunes (commercially or politically). At the same time, the donatário promoted the faith by receiving and assisting the Catholic missionaries that trekked across the Portuguese Empire.

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