Maltagenealogy.com presents
Looking for More Data Here.
- The Messinese Patricanship of Testaferrata.
The dignity
of Patrician of Messina (Testaferrata (1553)
Footnote: The “Dignity
of Patrician of Messina” was granted to Mariano Testaferrata
on the 20th December 1553 by the Jurats of the City of Messina.
In 1878, this dignity was
claimed by Pietro Paolo Testaferrata-Abela-Moroni, Augusto
Testaferrata Abela,
Monsignor Salvatore Grech-Delicata-Testaferrata
Cassia-De Piro, Emmanuele Testaferrata-Bonici-Asciack, Lorenzo Antonio Testaferrata,
Gio.
Paolo Testaferrata-Olivier
de Puget, Lorenzo Antonio Cassar-Desain,
ne’
Testaferrata, Ignazio Testaferrata
Bonici, Enrico Testaferrata, and Francesco Gauci Testaferrata.
However, in
this case, although it appears that the claimants presented various documents
in proof of their claim, the Royal Commissioners dismissed all the claims
because, the same Commissioners decided not only that the claimants did not
provide proof of the dignity ever being registered or recognized by the local
sovereign BUT ALSO because the same Commissioners held that this dignity was a
mere municipal honour and not one emanating from a
foreign sovereign, or fons
honorum. (“Correspondence and Report of the Commission
appointed to enquire into the claims and grievances of the Maltese Nobility”,
May 1878, presented to both Houses of Parliament by Command of Her Majesty
(C.-2033.) (See Report Paras. 237-238))
Thus, as far as the
Commissioners were concerned, once they regarded this dignity as a municipal
honour, it did not fall within the remit of the Commission because the
Commissioners were of the opinion that once it is a municipal honour it does
not qualify to be registered in accordance with the rules of 1739 and 1795 as
enacted by Grand Masters Despuig
and Rohan.
The actual report says the
following:
“Several gentlemen
belonging to the Testaferrata family, have moreover,
in the committee list, laid a claim to the dignity of Messinese patricians, and have in support of that
claim produced the following documents, viz 1st a
personal privilegium conferred on the
20th December 1553, by the Jurats of the city or
municipality of Messina, on the nobleman Mariano Testaferrata,
registered in the Royal Secretairerie
of Messina, on the 17th April 1554, and recorded in the Inquisitorial Office of
Malta, on the 27th August 1689. The said Mariano is the most distant ancestor
to whom the claimants have been able to trace the pedigree of the Testaferrata family. By the said privilegium,
Mariano obtained the citizenship of Messina, and he became thereby entitled to
all the rights of a Messinese
citizen, and to the exemption from certain taxes which
were payable by strangers”.
Now, independently of the
circumstance that the distinction of Messinese
Patrician is a municipal concession, and that it is not derived from the Crown
as the fountain of all honours, the said instruments
were never registered in the Court of the Castellania or in the Cancelleria of the Order; nor have the
claimants produced any proof of its having ever been recognized by the local
sovereigns
“For the reasons already
stated we refrain from making any inquiry in order to ascertain whether the
claimants descend or not from the said grantees.”
However, upon a more detailed
analysis about the nature of this dignity, it appears that contrary to what was
held by the Commissioners, that the 1553 dignity is in fact a conferral of
nobility because the city of Messina acted as a fons honorum (fountain of honour.
See also http://cilialacorte.com/Patriciates.htm.
It appears that the 1553
dignity in favour of Mariano Testaferrata is the
basis of a similar dignity granted on the 28 August 1792 by the Senate of
Messina to Marchese Don Mario Testaferrata
Castelletti, Don Daniele and Don Pandolfo
Testaferrata De Noto, and the Barone
Pietro Paolo Testaferrata Abela. The later
dignity is described elsewhere in this section.
It appears that the later 1792
dignity was only granted to four of Mariano Testaferrata’s agnatial descendants. This consideration therefore
raises the inevitable question whether this dignity is transmissible to the
non-agnatial descendants of Mariano Testaferrata.
It is to be noted that of the ten persons asserting a claim in 1878 to this
dignity, it appears that only two were descended in the female line.
Updated January 2007