Vasco Gil Sodré

Vasco Gil Sodré (Montemor-o-Novo, c. 1450 — Santa Cruz da Graciosa, c. 1500) was a Portuguese navigator and one of the first settlers of the island of Graciosa. Although he attempted to obtain the Donatary captaincy of the island, he and his progenitors were the origin of many of the families of the island.

Native of Montemor-o-Novo, son of Gil Sodré, nephew of English nobleman John de Sudley (transliterated to João de Sodré, where Sodré was corrupted from the English Sudeley or Sudley. John Sudley was a descendant of William le Boteler, which explains the commonality of his coat-of-arms in England and Portugal, between the Boteler (Butler) and Sodré families.

Vasco Gil Sodré was married twice: first to Iria Vaz do Couto, daughter of Duarte Barreto do Couto, the first Donatary captain of Graciosa; and the second to Beatriz Gonçalves da Silva, who accompanied him to the island. It is unclear what became of his first wife, or whether he had any descendants.

Beatriz Gonçalves da Silva was referred to, by Gaspar Frutuoso, as Beatriz Gonçalves de Bectaforte, native of the castle of Bectaforte in England, which is a confusion arising from later descendants of Vasco Gil Sodré. From this marriage, he had Diogo Vaz Sodré, Fernão Vaz Sodré, Mécia Vaz, Leonor Vaz and Inês Vaz, as well as others, comprising ten children, that were the progenitors of the island of Graciosa.

Duarte Barreto do Couto, brother of his first wife, was married to Antónia Sodré, making them double in-laws. Although there are few record, Duarte Barreto do Couto, more commonly known as Duarte Barreto, noble of the Algarve, was Donatary captain of the southern part of the island, which was later incorporated into the territory of the captaincy of Graciosa.

Vasco Gil Sodré came to Graciosa following the mysterious disappearance of Duarte Barreto do Couto, who died during a Castilian incursion into Graciosa (probably in 1475, during the War of the Castilian Succession). Becoming a widow, and alone on the island, Antónia Sodré wrote to her brother, so that he could come to stay with her.

Responding to her invitation, Vasco Gil Sodré came to Graciosa, after a stopping at several north African settlements, arriving at a time in which Portugal was at war with the Crown of Castile, owing to the pretensions Joanna la Beltraneja, between 1475 and 1479.

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