Maltese in Michigan

The Maltese as Early Patriots in America

7 TheMalteseasEarlyPatriotsinAmerica Maltese in the Colonial Americas Given the strategic location of Malta in the Mediterranean and the fact that it was tiny and overcrowded, it was natural that Maltese went with the Knights of Malta and other nations to find a new life and opportunity in the Americas. The first governor of New France, Chevalier de Montmagny (1636–1648) was a Knight of Malta and brought associate knights with him. It was at this time that a small Maltese population began to reside in Quebec. Under Montmagny , the Knights provided financial assistance to the first Jesuit missions to the Native Americans. Between 1651 and 1665 the Knights of Malta developed a small colonial enterprise consisting of a number of islands in the Caribbean. Their outspoken leader, French governor Phillipe de Longvilliers de Poincy, challenged the authority of King Louis XIV and extended their holdings. With the death of Poincy the Knights sold their colonial “empire” to the French West Indies Company. It is possible that during these years Maltese settlers moved to the Caribbean. In the early eighteenth century, a number of Maltese artillerymen were in rugged Baja California. During a Native American uprising, they distinguished themselves defending the Jesuit missionaries. Viceroy AntonioMaria de Bucareli (1771–1779) was a Knight of Malta who helped establish 8 Joseph M. Lubig Alta California and founded some hospitals in Mexico City in the tradition of the Knights of Malta. The Knights of Malta trained French nobles who entered the French navy during the prerevolutionary era. As a result, when the French navy came to the assistance of the thirteen colonies fighting for their independence against Great Britain, many of the officers were Knights of Malta, and there were Maltese serving aboard the ships. Unfortunately, few records are available to tell the complete Maltese story in the colonial Americas, but it is obvious that given their history, location, and island environment, it would be natural for some of the Maltese to emigrate to the Americas during these years. American Revolutionary War The U.S. embassy’s Malta webpage boasts the name of John Pass, a Maltese immigrant, who, along with John Stow, cast the Liberty Bell along with its inscription, “Proclaim LIBERTY throughout all the Land unto all the Inhabitants thereof Lev. XXV X.”13 The Liberty Bell was made in England in 1751 for the Assembly of the Province of Pennsylvania, to be used in the State House of the City of Philadelphia. Diane Andreassi writes that although “Pass is not a Maltese surname, there is no doubt about his heritage: the speaker of the Pennsylvania Assembly referred to him as hailing from Malta. It is likely that his name in Malta was Pace, and he either changed it, or it was misspelled in documents.”14 A 1990 article in the Maltese International15 recapped a ceremony Military Leadership in the Twentieth Century During Operation Desert Storm, a campaign during the Persian Gulf War of 1991, Brigadier General Patrick P. Caruana commanded the fifty B-52 bombers flying out of Saudi Arabia, England, Spain, and the Indian Ocean. General Caruana, a St. Louis resident, was also a KC-135 pilot in Vietnam and commanded the Seventeenth Air Division and its fleet of bombers refueling tankers and spy planes. MAL TESE IN MICHIGAN 9 commemorating Malta’s Twenty-fifth Independence Anniversary. This visit occurred during the December 1989 United States / Soviet Union Malta Summit . Here is a segment of the speech given by J. N. Tabone, president of the Maltese Chamber of Commerce: Malta’s links to the United States of America go back practically to the days of your Founding Fathers. In fact a Maltese craftsman, John Pace, featured in the saga of American Independence, his name being linked with the Liberty Bell that proclaimed American Independence from the Philadelphia State House in 1776. During the American revolutionary war, Malta was ruled by the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, the famous Knights of Malta. At that time the order opted for neutrality, but it is known that no less than 1,800 Maltese seamen went to Toulon in France to enlist in the French navy, contributing to the manpower of the French Squadron that was sent to help the American uprising. The first known diplomatic exchange between Malta and the United States goes back to 1783 when Benjamin Franklin, American Ambassador to Documented Maltese Immigration during the 1800s YEAR MEN WOMEN TOTAL 1825 1 1833 3 2 5 1836 2 2 1838...