donatary captaincy

plural donatary captaincies

1. historicalA hereditary land grant in colonial Brazil, held by a donatary captain.

   Donatary captaincies were the political, territorial, and administrative units of colonial Brazil.

   2006, John Michael Francis, Iberia and the Americas, page 412

   2 more examples

   The main feature was the hereditary seigneury or donatary captaincy, under which lordship over extensive territories on the Brazilian coast was granted out between 1533 and 1535.

   1983, James Lockhart, Stuart B. Schwartz, Early Latin America

   Pernambuco proved to be the most successful of the donatary captaincies established in Brazil, largely owing to the donatary Duarte Coelho.

   1994, Otto Solbrig, Dorothy J. Solbrig, So Shall You Reap: Farming And Crops In Human Affairs, page 155