A donatary captain was a Portuguese colonial official to whom the Crown granted jurisdiction, rights, and revenues over some colonial territory. The recipients of these grants were called donatários (donataries), because they had been given the grant as a doação (donation) by the king, often as a reward for service.[1]
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 Portuguese territorial militia that existed from the 16th to the 19th centuries.