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The Patricanship of Messina 1792. The dignity of
Patrician of Messina (Testaferrata (1792)
Footnote: The “Dignity
of Patrician of Messina” was granted to Marchese
Don Mario Testaferrata Castelletti, Don Daniele
and Don Pandolfo Testaferrata De Noto,
and the Barone Pietro Paolo Testaferrata
Abela on the 28th August 1792 by the Senate of
Messina with reference to an earlier dignity granted in 1553 to their common
ancestor, Mariano Testaferrata.
In 1878, this dignity was
claimed by Pietro Paolo Testaferrata-Abela-Moroni, Augusto
Testaferrata Abela, 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” “2nd
another privilegium of the Senate of Messina, bearing
date the 28th August 1792, stating, with reference to that of 1553, that
Mariano Testaferrata had been elected into the ‘Senatorium Messinensium Ordinem inter que Nobiles Cives
Mamertinos’. By
the same instrument, the Marchese Don Mario Testaferrata Castelletti,
Don Daniele and Don Pandolfo Testaferrata De Noto, and the Barone P.P. Testaferrata Avela, all descendents of the
said Mariano, were recognized as noble citizens and patricians of Messina, and
their nobility was traced so far back as the year in which the Privilegium was granted to Mariano, being thus reinstated
in the possession of that dignity, together with their children and
descendants. This instrument was recorded in the Acts of Notary Vincenzo Farrugiia, on the 20th February last.”
“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 1792 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 1792
dignity was only granted to four of Mariano Testaferrata’s agnatial descendants. It is therefore debateable
whether the dignity is transmissible to the non-agnatial descendants of the Marchese
Don Mario Testaferrata Castelletti, Don Daniele
and Don Pandolfo Testaferrata De Noto,
and the Barone P.P. Testaferrata Abela. Of the eight
persons asserting a claim in 1878 to this dignity, it appears that only one was
descended in the female line.
Updated January 2007