Hello,
Interesting question, not a simple answer.
I will talk about the general case :
- Titles in notarial records :
Depending on notary, people will have some "titles", like Maestro, Signore, ... The same person could have different "titles" depending which notary wrote the act.
Some notaries like add multiple "titles". These kind of sign are less more present in church registries.
Title like Baron, Count, ... are of course less present. But we can find them sometimes in notarial act.
- Adami transcription :
In a few Adami transcription, there are titles such Baron ("Bne" => Barone). And very of them have a specific title like "Barone of Djar el Bniet"
But Adami transcription is not the transcription of all notary records but mainly Marriage Contracts, Wills, ... Records concerning family in order to help for establish trees for legacy purpose.
So it represents less than 5% of all notarial records.
Especially a priest will not be very present in notarial record.
- Others notarial records :
There are many records concerning sell, lease, rent, working contracts, ...
People with titles like Baron would be fairly represent in these kind of records.
For example, we can find a certain Francesco GATTO who was a Baron (having the first title granted in Malta, very interesting story).
In 1431, in his will, we can read that he is a Baron, who owned the fief of Chimisia.
"Unfortunately" for him, he had only a daughter, Imperia GATTO. So he specified in his will that in order to keep the title, the descendants will have to add GATTO to their surname.
So the children of Antonio INGUANES and Imperia GATTO used the two surnames, like Francesco INGUANES GATTO.
But the "numbering" like "15th baron of " is not on Adami transcription.
Many times the title is lost after one or two generations.
It's so many years after, that some people would want to gain titles, so establishing trees in order to prove that they owned the titles.
But establishing the direct lineage for 15 generations could be very tricky. Who is the elder of each generations ?
So disputes could happens, like for legacies. I saw some of these "disputes" in tribunal archives. Proving that your are the illegitimate son of someone that owned lands coule be financially interesting.
I don't know if there are some cases in tribunal archives for titles dispute.
For your specific case :
This title really existed ?
It's not frequent to have a priest who have a title.
The title will go to the elder. And the elder will not become priest, he is the one who carry the legacy.
Priest could handle church legacy as rettore of such legacy.
Delimara is a well know territory, there are some records concerning sell of territory.
Conclusion :
With 15th generation, you will go to 1500 with a direct line, and many mistakes could be made.
Here, you have the 15th baron, and the line is indirect, so be sure it the right title holder will be quiet complex to determine.
Maybe, at first, just verify the links between each generation,
trying to have a correct trees of people, before trying to have a correct tree of titles.
A start of study :
On MaltaGenealogy, the first holder is Orlando D'ARAGONA, who he is not a nobody.
He was the Baron of Avola.
On Wikipedia : "Orlando married Maria de Stromoncourt, and had four children: Alfonso, Federigo, Juan, and Sybilla. All boys were Barons of Avola, Sicily only Juan had issue and their descendants,[1] while Sybilla married into Maltese nobility Michele de Bava, Baron de Djar-il-Bniet in Dingli, Rabat, on the island of Malta and had issue."
Interesting that a daughter will married Michele de Bava, a maltese.
On Italian wikipedia : "
Orlando d'Aragona fu sposato con la nobildonna Maria di Stromoncourt, figlia di Tommaso III, signore di Salona. Fu padre di quattro figli, Alfonso, Federico, Giovanni e Giovanna Rebecca.[8]"
The daughter is Giovanna Rebecca according to the book : "A. Marrone, Repertorio della feudalità siciliana (1282-1390), in Mediterranea : ricerche storiche. Quaderni vol. 1, Associazione Mediterranea, 2006."
I will give more credit, than the one trying to prove links with Malta.
So just for the first baron, there is opposite information and no trace of this barony.
This territory "Delimara" was owned by the DE GUEVARA family (we can find trace in maltese notarial records).
In G.F Abela book :
For Aragona family
"Donna Margherita, e Donna Sibilla habbiamo altresi ambidue di questa regia Casa in Malta, che vissero nel 1370 per avventura figliuole del nostro Conte Guglielmo d'Aragona, figlioul naturale del Re Federico Terzo"
"Donna Margherita fu' moglie di Giacomo Pellegrino di Malta, fondatrice del nostro Convento del Carmine, e signora molto ricca di beni stabili in quest' isole, havendosi particolarmente posseduto i territorij de' Marnisi, Baharia, Deyrlimara, il giardino, e terre delle due fontane, & altri, in modo, che per l’affluenza e dovizia delle se riccheze, era da’ Paesani cognominata la Fata, non lascio’ figliuoli maschi, ma solamente femmine cioe’ Leonora moglie di Matteo del Caretto, Cesarea d’un gentil huomo di casa Xabica, e Francia di Ludovico de Pluzasc nel primo matrimonio, e nel secondo di Simone d Mazara tutte famiglie nobilissime".
For him, it's Margarita ARAGONA, wife of Giacomo Pellegrino who had the territory of Marnisi, Bahria and Delimara. No trace of title, just land.
The information seems correct because Adami transcribe the will of Margarita, date in 1418-06-05 where she gave Marnisi and Bahria (no trace of Delimara).
This Margarita is the daughter of Guglielmo, son of King Federico III son of Pietro II, the brother of Orlando, the said first baron.
But maybe she was the daugther of Guglielmo, half brother of Orlando.
=>
https://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/index2...ikiwix.com
We had already doubts about the place in the family of Margarita, maybe she was the grandgrandgranddaughter, or the grandgranddautgher or the granddaughter of Federico II of Sicily (care, Federico II of Sicily is Federico III of Aragona).
So I have doubts about these titles, and if they even existed, they had to be hold by the right person.
N.
