A glance at the ninety households in 1667 provides a good idea of the country settlements existing at that time (ibid: 56r - 59v). There were almost 4.5 persons per household, quite higher than the 3.7 overall average. The largest household was made up of twelve (ibid: 57v), and there was only one, a widow, living on her own (ibid: 59r). Of the ninety heads of households, 59 or 65% are described as capo di casa povero; 10 or 11% were headed by widows and could not have fared much better; 5 or 6% are undefined; and only 16 or 18% had permanent employment.

Those heads who were identified aspovero or were widows, did not have a regular income - a staggering 76%. A large percentage of those scattered in the countryside fell in this category. These people were either gabillotti, tenants who worked in fields leased from the Govern-ment, the Church or the Maltese nobility, or labourers in the fields of others. They must have lived frugally during most of the year, and possibly next to starving during some months. The reason is that around three-fifths of their revenue was gobbled up in rent payments (Bezzina, 1985: 69). Besides, the fruit of their labour was dependent on many uncontrollable factors primarily amongst them the weather, disease and pests. Nonetheless there must have been more than one povero who had saved some money. Antonio Hagius, officially a pover~ had in 1637 requested permission to build a house on a piece of rocky public land at Xewkija (NAG 1/4: 1636-37: lOr-v).

According to the census only sixteen heads or 18~ had a regular income. Thirteen of them were massaro, that is a husbandman, an owner or custodian of a farm with labourers and a certain quantity of cattle. The others were a frrraio a blacksmith; a muratore, a mason; and a putere, possibly from Sicilian pute', a pork-butcher. The ferraio must have fared quite well, for his was the most numerous family in the Xewkija district: at the age of 51 and with a wife of 40, he had ten living children whose ages ranged from 23 to four years (Census, 1667: 57v).

The settlement of the Xewkija district had grown steadily over the years and its centre had by the passage of years shifted from the already mentioned tal-Hamrija area to another locality. Yet, as before, the dwellings had grown around a chapel, one dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. By 1678, the Assumption chapel had been dilapidated for some years (AEGVP, 1657: 17r) as the people of the settlement had turned their attention and care to the chapel of Saint John (AEGVP, 1678:89v).

However though the community continued to grow steadily, it was not an autonomous rahal, as it still formed part ofthe Matrice parish. The people scattered throughout the countryside were now closer to their places of work and enjoyed more spacious housing, but they were far removed from their parish church. It took quite a long time for the ecclesiastical authorities to recognize the new situation in seventeenth century Gozo - another reason that must have slowed down the formation of villages.

This hesitation by the church to come to terms with the changing pattern is due to two factors. Gozo was at the time far removed from the centre of ecclesiastical authority, the bishop, who resided far away in Valletta and very rarely travelled to Gozo. Truly enough he was represented on the island by a Provicar, but the bishop was not himself in touch with the people. Besides, current canon law required the fulfilment of four conditions before a parish could be established, and it was not easy to fulfil them all. There had to be a causa iusta, a just pastoral reason; a locus congruus, a worthy place for worship; the consensus Parochi, that is the bishop had to hear the opinion of the parish priest from whose territory the parish was going to be dismembered, though eventually he could proceed without it; and, finally, a dos congrua, the bishop had to find some income for the subsistence of the new parish priest.

Bishop Michael de Molina came face to face with the growing countryside communities during his pastoral visit to Gozo between 18 and 27 November 1678. (AEGVP 1678: SSr.105v). Four public-spirited residents of the con trada ofXewkija, Giovanni Maria Azzoppardo, Giovanni Maria Mercieca, Domenico Xuereb and Giovanni Maria Pisano, grasped the occasion to present a petition to the bishop in which they emphasized the changes that had taken place in the population distribution (ibid: 102r). They claimed that the contrada residents had by then risen to 650. Enlightened by whoever was directing them of the conditions that had to be fulfilled for the establishment of a parish, they promised the bishop that they would guarantee two tori every year from ever household for the parish priest as well as to amass a capital to guarantee an annual income for the parish church.

A note on the people's income is apt at this point. The above mentioned school master Chaber was, at the height of his career, receiving 30 Scudi annually (NAG 1/41636-37: 16r; 1637-38: 26v; 1641-42: 117v.20v.27v)-which sum can be considered an income in the higher bracket. Thus two and a half Scudi or 30 Tan per month - 21 cents in present currency -must have been enough for an individual with a dependent or two to achieve a good standard of living. Most people never earned that much, but as most were engaged in husbandry they had a large measure ofself-sufficiency and some must have fared quite well.

Bishop de Molina judged the establishment of the district of Xewkija into a separate parish an extremely urgent matter and the offer of the residents for their parish priest sufficient. On the last day of his visit, on 27 November 1678, he issued the decree Habita matura consideratione establishing Xewkija the first parish of the countryside (AEGVP 1678:1 105r-v). Xewkija became also the first official village of Gozo.

 

THE NEXT FIVE VILLAGES

"Xewkija was by itself but Gharb included the districts of Dwejra and ta' Cangura; ta' Sannat included Munxar and Xlendi; Xaghra included Marsalforn; Nadur and Qala included Mgarr, together with the island of Comino; and Zebbug included Ghasri. The other districts, Fontana, Santa Chatarina, Ghajn Ghabdun, Ghar Ilma, ta' Kercem, and Wied Sara remained within the Matrice parish."

 
It was a matter of time before the larger communities would claim the dismemberment of their district from the Matrice. Within a few months Bishop de Molina acted again. On 29 August 1679, he established the parish of Gharb (ACM, Misc. 11: 229r-v), which, according to the 1667 census, was the second largest settlement.:3 As in Xewkija, the centre of the district was also shifting slowly from an area at Birhuba to higher grounds known as tal-Blata. This shifting must have been dictated by a rising population in search of more space. It is also worth noting that the first two villages were one to the east and another to the west of Gozo.

Other parish establishments would have followed suit were it not for the transfer of the bishop from Malta in May 1682. Bishop David Cocco Palmeri, his successor, was elected on 15 May of two years later. He paid his first visit to Gozo between 20 April and 5 May 1687 (AAM, 1687B: 603v) - a visit of paramount importance for the consolidation of the village units on the island. During his rather long stay he had ample time to tour the whole island and get first-hand information on the pastoral situation of the countryside settlements. Fully conscious of their precarious spiritual situation, he would have acted there and then were it not for some obstacles in fulfilling the aforementioned conditions. However by the end of his visit, he had circumscribed the districts that were shortly to be established parishes (ibid).

On 28 April 1688, after having overcome all difficulties, he issued the decree Cum in prima establishing four more countryside parishes: ta' Sannat, Xaghra, Qala-Nadur, and Zebbug (AAM, Benefica, 1685-1711, 96v-102v). According to the 1667 census those were the next most populated districts of the island. These six villages of Gozo comprised the majority of the twenty countryside districts enumerated in 1667. Xewkija was by itself but Gharb included the districts of Dwejra and ta' Cangura; ta' Sannat included Munxar and Xlendi; Xaghra included Marsalforn; Nadur and Qala included Mgarr, together with the island of Comino; and Zebbug included Ghasri. The other districts, Fontana, Santa Chatarina, Ghajn Ghabdun, Ghar Ilma, ta' Kercem, and Wied Sara remained within the Matrice parish.

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