Early Maltese migration to Corfu (1815-1830)

Abstract

The origins of Maltese migration to Corfu go back to the first half of the 19th century, when Sir Thomas Maitland was appointed Governor of Malta on July 23, 1813. A couple of years later, in 1815, the Greek Ionian Islands were declared a British protectorate, and consequently, Maitland was appointed Lord High Commissioner for the Ionian Islands, which included Corfu, Paxos, Cephalonia, Lefkas, Ithaca, Zakynthos, and Cythera. Maitland continued to serve as Governor of Malta until January 17, 1824. Corfu, on the other hand, remained under the protection of the British Crown until 1864. Since Corfu was quite poorly developed, Maitland encouraged Maltese inhabitants to migrate to Ionian Islands and help build the infrastructure there. The scope of this paper is to identify, through the documentation contained in the Corfu Archives, the first Maltese people whose presence was recorded on the Greek island, how they got there from Malta, and other relevant information. According to the certificates of clean bill of health in possession of the Historical Archive of Corfu, in the 1816-1830 period, the number of people leaving Malta for Corfu included 81 men, 18 women, 23 boys under the age of 14, 5 girls under the age of 14, and 9 infants, whose age was not specified. The paper will also show that, unlike in Sicily or Tunisia, where Maltese typically normally married amongst themselves in the first years of migration, in Corfu, it was much more common for Maltese to marry foreigners.