Câmara (João Gonçalves da)

He was the 4th captain-donatary of Funchal. He was born in that city in 1489, the son of the third donatary, Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, and his first wife, Dona Joana Valente Castelo Branco. Like his parents and grandparents, João Gonçalves da Câmara distinguished himself remarkably in our campaigns in Morocco, in which so many Madeirans proved their valour and courage, and contributed, perhaps like no other Portuguese, to the expansion of our colonial dominion in North Africa. While his father was still alive he went to Africa several times, always giving proof of his bravery. Particular mention is due to the aid he gave to the expedition commanded by Jaime, Duke of Braganza, which, by order of King Manuel I, was bound for the taking of Azemmour. ‘And when four hundred sail were being fitted out in the Tagus for this expedition,’ says an old manuscript, ‘João Gonçalves da Câmara came in over the bar, sent by his father to take part in it with 800 men, 200 horse and 600 foot, in twenty-one ships. And because many retainers and kinsmen joined him in Lisbon to accompany him, the King, who had received him with great rejoicing and esteem, ordered him to be given two more ships and four caravels, with which he made up twenty-seven vessels of men at his own expense. Once the stronghold was taken, in which João Gonçalves da Câmara and the Madeiran noblemen Gaspar and Francisco Bettencourt, Pedro Gonçalves de Barros, Diogo de Barros and others performed prodigies of valour, the 4th captain-donatary of Funchal remained in Africa for some time, fighting the Moors and rendering to Dom

João de Meneses, commander of Azemmour, the most notable and distinguished services. In the following year, 1514, João Gonçalves returned once more to Africa with several hundred men, where he again proved his valour and gave important support to the attacks and raids that our men undertook against the Moors of Morocco. Besides the great services he rendered in person in our battles in Africa, he sent other aid there, such as the relief he dispatched to the stronghold of Mazagan in two ships commanded by Luís de Noronha, with fighting men, provisions and munitions, all fitted out and maintained at his own expense.

When Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, the 3rd captain-donatary (capitão-donatário) of Funchal, renounced the government of his captaincy in 1528 and withdrew to the lugar (settlement ranking between a town and a parish) of Matosinhos, where he died, his son João Gonçalves da Câmara took over its administration. He governed it through his ouvidor (judicial officer of the donatary or the Crown) and representative, Francisco Jorge, until 1530, when, on his father’s death, he assumed the government of the donatary captaincy (donataria) in person. He ruled it for only a brief six years.

João Gonçalves da Câmara married Dona Leonor de Vilhena, daughter of Dom João de Meneses, Count of Tarouca. From this marriage were born Simão Gonçalves da Câmara, who succeeded to the donatary captaincy of Funchal; Father Luís Gonçalves da Câmara, the celebrated tutor of King Sebastian; and Martim Gonçalves da Câmara, minister of the same king, who held such great sway in affairs of state. We deal with each of them in this Elucidário.

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Captain João Gonçalves da Câmara, says the manuscript already cited, was a man of sincere character, kindly, affable, charitable and most virtuous, and therefore much loved by all the people. He enjoyed the gentleness of his rule only briefly, for God took him at the age of 47, in the year 1536, and he died, as it was understood, of the plague, which was then raging most fiercely on the island.

As we say elsewhere, two tombstones were recently found in the chancel of the church of the Convent of St Clare (Santa Clara). The one in the middle of the chancel bears the epitaph of the 2nd captain-donatary of Funchal, and the one on the Epistle side carries two funerary inscriptions relating to the 3rd and 5th donataries (donatário), with some struck-through lines between them whose letters are completely illegible. It is very strange that, although the 4th captain-donatary died in Funchal and was buried in the church of the Convent of St Clare, the family vault of the captains-donatary, the stone that should cover his grave is not to be found there, nor can his epitaph be read on the tombstones of his father and grandfather.