ASPECTS OF THE SOCIAL HISTORY OF MOSTA (1630-1650)

Carmel Calleja

Dissertation submitted to the Department of History at the Royal University of Malta, Malta 1973

The digital version of this unpublished dissertation may have some differences from original introduced during the scanning process which due to the limited resources didn't have time to completely verify and is another reason why one has to seek the original version (located at UOM) when needs to quote references from it.

CHAPTER SIX

CONCLUSION

(p.102) Despite the limitations imposed by the relatively short period of twenty years (1630-1650) which has been covered in this study, a good picture of some social aspects of Mosta in the first half of the seventeenth century may be formed. Mosta appears to be a relatively prosperous agricultural community which was experiencing a considerable increase in population, mainly, as a result of its strategic position. The parish church, especially following its separation from the matrice of Naxxar in 1610, became the focus of the religious, social and economic life of the village.

The importance of such studies could not be underestimated. Up till now, the social aspects of Maltese life under the Order has been largely neglected and historians have depended heavily on the works of Duzina, Abela and Abela-Ciantar. However, these works are proving inadequate, and a careful study of the Birth, Marriage and Death Registers, which are kept in the parishes’ archives, goes a long way to help us understand better the social, religious and economic condition of the Maltese under the Knights.

Other Chapters from this Dissertation

• Chapter 1 - Background
• Chapter 2 - Population Growth
• Chapter 3 - Economy
• Chapter 4 - Socio-Religious Life
• Chapter 5 - Names / Surnames Analysis
• Chapter 6 - Conclusion
• Bibliography