Anatomies of Spanish settlers in Malta between 1580 and 1648 : their family stories

Abstract

This paper will attempt to reconstruct the different identity kits of Spanish settlers in Malta between 1580 and 1648. The analysis shall use the Status Liberi documentation which is a series of Ecclesiastical Acts recording the assessment of foreigners by an ecclesiastical judge of those outsiders who wished to get married in Malta. This procedure was undertaken to verify whether the candidate was single or not, the former being and remains a sine qua non for marriage. The surviving documents recount the lives of these settlers before taking up permanent residence in Malta and highlight the reason behind their decision to settle down in Malta. The most fascinating aspect of these documents is that these stories are recounted by the protagonists themselves. They give insight to issues of identity and shared memory among the Spanish settlers. In the majority, they were simple folk without any pretensions or extraordinary expectations. Were it not for such a prerequisite their life histories would have been lost forever.