The threat of death with the arrival of the Ottoman fleet 450 years ago sent the Maltese scurrying to their notaries to ensure their last wishes were fulfilled.

Luckily for the next generations, their deeds shed light on the daily life of civilians, including Anna Gallega, who was injured in battle.

The woman, from Vittoriosa, called on her Notary Giuseppe Deguevara on her deathbed, to draw up a donation agreement.

She was “lying in bed injured and wounded in the thigh struck by a shot fired by the fleet of Turks on the first attack on the Post of the venerable langue of Castile,” her notary wrote.

The document was penned just two days after the attack by the Ottomans on Birgu and Isla, which after the siege became known as Vittoriosa and Senglea. During the attack, Jean de Valette urged women and boys to do their utmost and Gallega was probably one of those brave women who joined forces with the soldiers.

She is one of the women mentioned in a new paper by historian Joan Abela, called The Great Siege of 1565 – Untold stories of daily life, which is going to be published next month in a volume of essays about the Great Siege.

The essay focuses on the somewhat neglected aspect of the siege. Departing from the traditional military account and chivalric heroism, it sheds light on everyday life in Vittoriosa and Mdina.

The D'Aleccio fresco showing Birgu.

Dr Abela tapped into notarial deeds which are not usually consulted as a primary source for historical research. She took a sample of the documents that survived the test of time, focusing mostly on the acts of Notary Deguevara, who worked from Vittoriosa.

The series of agreements, wills and donations draws a picture of how a besieged community tried to get on with life despite great difficulties.

Rumours of the arming of a Turkish fleet to target the west started making the rounds two years before the Ottomans reached Maltese shores.

On May 18 before sunrise, a Turkish fleet off Marsaxlokk was spotted sending the residents into a frenzy to evacuate the countryside. The raid of 1551, which saw the almost total enslavement of Gozitans was still etched in people’s minds.

When the Ottomans anchored off Mġarr, some people were reluctant to take refuge in Mdina as it seemed to be the direct target of the enemy.

Instead, they headed to Vittoriosa. The fortified city provided shelter to people from as far as Gozo, Naxxar and Siġġiewi.

Deguevara seems to have been the most prolific notary, compiling 181 deeds during the 117 days of the siege, while fellow Gozitan notary Tommaso Gauci drew up a mere four acts.

“It is evident that the onslaught of the Great Siege changed behavioural patterns and caused a good number of people to reflect on a possible imminent death and ensure that their last wishes were given legally binding strength,” Dr Abela says in her essay.

In fact, an analysis of the contracts that Deguevara drew during the siege shows that the majority were wills and donations. Out of the 89 donations he documented, 62 opted for the causa mortis type, in other words a deathbed gift.

The threat of being killed pushed many into leaving specific instructions to safeguard their souls. Margerita Bigeni from Qormi made sure that after her death one of her beneficiaries commissioned the work of an altar frontal for the chapel of Santa Maria tal-Ħlas in the same locality.

Hoping for a faster ticket to heaven, she commissioned a second pallium for the church of St Andrew, also in Qormi.

Notary Giuseppe Deguevara documents how Anna Gallega, from Birgu, was injured in battle.

Others took precautionary steps in case they were caught as a slave. Petrus Cumbo from Mdina left a donation of 160 scudi to his wife Margerite on condition, however, that the money had to be used to bail one of them out if they were taken captive.

Despite the desperate conditions, life for others went on as usual. Some of the acts show the sale of various commodities, especially donkeys and mules. In one act, the Knight Aloisio de Godoy sold a teenage Turkish boy aged 17 for 50 scudi.

Meanwhile, some agreements were time bound to the ongoing siege. The registers of Bartolomeo Axisa include an agreement on July 22, where six men from Dingli had to watch over a herd of cattle grazing in Mdina’s ditch during the “dangerous time of the siege”, and would only be paid once the war ended.

Guarinus Platamone from Gozo also promised to repay for some black cloth he bought within eight days from the “withdrawal of the infidel army”.

As with any social activity, the number of casualties growing with each passing day increased the workload of aromatorio Jacobo Veron, whose role was similar to that of a chemist, who in August employed the son of Cataldus Calleja from Birkirkara. The boy, aged 15, was to serve Giacobo in his home for two years, be fed and paid 18 tari.

Benefactors can help preserve thousands of historic documents by adopting centuries-old manu-scripts and sponsoring their conservation by donating anything from €100 to €50,000. Dr Abela, from the Notarial Archives Resources Council can be contacted on joanchabela@gmail.com.

Did the locals feel this was their battle?

Nothing was more certain than death and nothing more uncertain than the hour of death, according to Olivieri Felici from Vittoriosa in a spontaneous addition to the usual wording of a causa mortis donation.

“Most especially,” it continues, “when there threatens a most dreadful war of enemies [and] of the fleet of the infidels, which, with the greatest diligence and by continuous hostile encounters, has encircled these Maltese islands.”

Dr Abela notes that the use of a word generally referring to personal enemies, rather than the common enemy, the notary seemed to describe the Turks and knights as personal enemies collectively.

This gave the impression he was caught in a quarrel which he did not start.

“There is no us versus them, but they – the Turks and the Knights – and us – the natives – in the crossfire and suffering the consequences.”