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Baron de Pausier
This is a report (British) Royal Commissioners of 1878 :
Footnote: The title of
'Barone'
was granted by Empress Maria Theresa to the Maltese citizen Giorgio
Fournier de Pausier
(registered as a Foreign Title).
At Maltese Law this title is only a foreign title
and, as such, it can be considered for the purposes of precedence if
registration or Magistral recognition has been achieved in accordance
with the rules of 1739 and 1795 as enacted by Grand
Masters
Despuig and
Rohan.
VALUE OF REGISTRATION/MAGISTERIAL
RECOGNITION From the records of the Cancelleria it
appeared that the titles so granted were registered in virtue of a prescript
from the Grand Master, on an application by the party concerned. The
Royal Commissioners of 1878 remarked that they were prone to believe
that the Grand Master would not have given his assent to registration
without any investigation. From the start, however, the Commissioners
pointed out that the Despuig/Rohan Rules
on the matter did not deny nobility to a Titolato
who failed to duly register his title, but only assigned him no place
insofar as precedence was concerned. (See: '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. 101-102). It is also
noteworthy that the
Commissioners
did not consider all the titles which were registered in the Cancelleria:
For example the title of Conte granted to Baldassare Fenech Bonnici on
the 11 June 1798 by Pope Benedict XIV, which was duly registered under
Archives of the Order of Malta (554, f. 176) as well as the Archives of
the Inquisition of Malta (102m f. 32) was not considered by the Report.
It appears that no descendant of this grantee made any claim to the
Commissioners.
In
this case, this title granted to Fournier de Pausier was
never registered in Malta, nor does it appear to have received direct
recognition for the Grand Masters who ruled Malta. (See:'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.
205-208)
The actual report says the following:
By
letters patent bearing date the 31st March 1768, the above title was
conferred by Empress Maria Theresa on Giorgio Fournier de Pausier.
The patent issued, at the grantee's request, runs thus: 'Te supradictum Georgium Fournier
in numerum,consortium,
coetum, ordinem, atqueBaronum dignatatem assumimus, teque una cum filiis tuis atque posteris virilis sexus,
exlegitimo thoro natis atque nascituris in
infinitum, primogeniali ordine simper servato,Baronem ac Barones Regnorum et
Provinciarum nostrarum facimus, nominamus atquecreamus'.
The
original patent of creation has been produced by Lazzaro Sant Fournier,
who claims this title as the first-born descendant in the grantee’s primogenial line.
It is, however, to be observed that he descends through Luigia Fournier
his mother, wife of Baldassare Sant,
and grand-daughter of the first titled person.
This
patent is not among the records of the Government Cancelleria,
or of the High Courtdella Castellania; although
in the diploma whereby the title of Conte was granted by the same Empress
to the said Giorgio Fournier (see next Chapter IX), and duly registered
the present title is referred to as having been granted by that Empress to
the above-mentioned Fournier.
No
proof having been made of the recognition of this title on the part of the
Grand Masters, which might have supplied the want of its registration, the
claim of Lazzaro Sant to
the title of Barone had to be disallowed.
Thus
in accordance with the rule cited above, although the title is valid, it
does not enjoy precedence in Malta. It is to be remarked however, that the
aforesaid Giorgio Fournier de Pausier was
in receipt of another title discussed elsewhere, namely that of
'Count'.
For
other references and more information please see:- Kind permission from Comte
Charles Said Vassallo
www.maltagenealogy.com
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