This thesis contains an in-depth experimental investigation of trivalent rare-earth titanates. Titanates are a model system for exploring intricate interactions between spin, orbital, and lattice degrees of freedom. These compounds belong to a broader family of transition metal oxides. Their ground state can be easily manipulated by strain, chemical, and charge doping, offering a unique opportunity to explore the Mott insulator phase and metal-insulator transitions. One of the foremost open questions is the orbital state of titanates which we try to resolve with this thesis. We present a detailed nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) and electron spin resonance (ESR) study of single-crystalline samples of (Y,Ca,La)TiO_3 in a wide range of isovalent substitution (La) and hole doping (Ca). 89^Y NMR demonstrates a clear discrepancy between the static and dynamic local magnetic susceptibilities, with deviations from Curie-Weiss behavior far above the Curie temperature 𝑇_𝐶. ESR of the unpaired Ti electron shows broad resonance lines at all temperatures and substitution/doping levels, which we find to be caused by short electron spin-lattice relaxation times. Modeling of the relaxation as an Orbach process revealed a small gap likely produced by Jahn-Teller splitting of the two lower Ti 𝑡_2𝑔 orbitals. We find that the value of the gap closely follows 𝑇_𝐶 and is consistent with the temperatures at which deviations from Curie-Weiss fluctuations are observed in NMR. These results indicate that full orbital degeneracy lifting is associated with ferromagnetic order. Ferromagnetic resonance with orientational dependence on the three primary YTiO_3 axes was successfully measured and modeled. Free energy description of the data revealed values for the parameters reflecting the inherent magnetocrystalline anisotropy. Furthermore, we present measurements of uniaxial strain on a range of (Y,Ca,La)TiO_3 single crystals and its influence on the bulk ferromagnetism. The results demonstrate direct, reversible and continuous control of ferromagnetism by influencing the TiO6 octahedral tilts and rotations. Ab initio calculations, provided by our collaborators, agree well with the experimental data and offer a better understanding of the complex interactions among structural, orbital and magnetic properties that drive the physics of rare-earth titanates.