7br., 8br., 9br., Xbr.
Latin
September, October, November and December, written with the Latin numeral their names come from: septem, octo, novem, decem (X). So "d. 22 ten Xbr 1815" is 22 December 1815.
Glossary
Words in the documents that a reader today cannot be expected to know: money and measures, the law of land and estates, offices and forms of address, and the events the letters take for granted. In the documents these words are faintly underlined; tap one to see what it means.
Each entry names the reference work of the period that its definition was checked against, or is still to be checked against.
Nothing in the glossary matches.
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A
Actum
Latin
"Done": the first word of a court record, followed by the place and date, as in "Actum Betsche, 28 July 1804". What follows is the record of what was done and said there.
allodial
Latin: Allodium, Allodial
Owned outright, as against held as a fief or bound in an entail: property its owner could sell, mortgage and leave as he pleased.
appurtenances
German, from Latin: Pertinenz, Pertinenzien
Everything that belongs with an estate and passes with it: its villages, farms, mills, forests, rights and dues. A grant "with all appurtenances" gave all of them.
Auditeur
German, from French
The legal officer of a military court: the lawyer of a regiment, garrison or fortress government, who conducted its proceedings and kept its record. A Gouvernements-Auditeur at Breslau certified several of the copies of the grants.
B
bill of exchange
German: Wechsel
A written order to pay a sum at a set date and place, which could be passed from hand to hand. The ordinary instrument of credit; an unpaid bill could be enforced quickly and harshly.
bushel (Scheffel)
German: Scheffel
The measure of grain by volume: the Prussian Scheffel held about 55 litres. Rents in kind and the yield of a mill were reckoned in it.
C
cabinet order
German, from French: Cabinets-Ordre
An order issued by the King from his own cabinet, his personal secretariat, rather than through a ministry. It was how a petition to the King was answered, and it overrode the offices below.
canon
German, from Latin: Canon
The yearly rent a hereditary tenant paid to the lord, who kept the ownership; in Latin canon emphyteuticus. Nothing to do with the church. In the letters it is a sum of money, set in the contract.
Centner
German
A hundredweight: at Berlin 110 pounds, about 51 kilograms, though in Silesia 132. Goods in bulk, such as iron or wool, were weighed by it.
certified copy (vidimus)
German, from Latin: vidimirt, vidimata
A copy that a notary or an authorised official has compared with the original and certified as true, from the Latin vidimus, "we have seen". Such a copy could stay in the files in place of the original, and many of the deeds survive only in such copies.
cession
German, from Latin: Cession
The transfer of a claim to someone else, who may then collect it: a creditor ceded a debt, often in payment of his own. The new holder is the cessionary.
Chamber
German: Cammer, Kammer
The Kriegs- und Domänenkammer, the board that ran a Prussian province: its taxes, crown lands, settlement and police. South Prussia's chambers sat at Posen and at Petrikau, later Kalisch. In 1808 they were replaced by "governments".
competence (Competenz)
German, from Latin: Competenz
The fixed income owed from an estate to a church foundation or its clergy. Estates that had been church property passed to the Prince with the duty to keep paying it. It has nothing to do with ability.
Congress of Vienna
German: Congress
The meeting of the European powers in 1814–15 that redrew the map after Napoleon. Triebenfeld was there for the Prince, petitioning for his lost Polish estates.
From September 1814 to June 1815 the powers that had defeated Napoleon met in Vienna to settle Europe. The fate of the Duchy of Warsaw was among the hardest questions: Russia wanted it whole, Prussia wanted its Polish provinces back. The compromise gave most of it to Russia as the Kingdom of Poland and the west to Prussia as the Grand Duchy of Posen, with the border along the Prosna. Triebenfeld's letters from Vienna follow the Prince's attempt to recover his estates there, and the border question that decided on which side Trąbczyn would lie.
cord (Klafter)
German: Klafter
The measure of firewood: a stack of split logs a fathom (six feet) long and six feet high, as deep as the logs were long. With the three-foot logs usual in Prussia it held 108 cubic feet, about three and a third cubic metres. Woodland was valued by the cords it would yield.
Councillor of War
German: Kriegsrath, Kriegs- und Domänenrath
A member of a Chamber (Kriegs- und Domänenrat), or the title alone, granted as an honour. It had long ceased to mean anything military. Triebenfeld was Kriegs- und Forstrath, Councillor of War and Forests.
Courant
German
The coin current in everyday trade, as against gold: in Prussia the silver thaler and its parts, small change apart. A sum "in Courant" was paid in silver; a sum "in Gold" in gold coin, worth more. The letters keep the two strictly apart.
Court Councillor
German: Hofrath, Hoffrath
Properly a councillor at a prince's court, the Hof being his household and government; by this time often a mere title of rank, given to officials, lawyers and agents in his service with no post attached. The court is the prince's, not a court of law.
D
d. J., a. c., ej. a.
German: d. J., a. c., c. a., ej. a.
"Of this year", in a date: d. J. is dieses Jahres, a. c. and c. a. are the Latin anni currentis, currentis anni. Ej. a., ejusdem anni, is "of the same year". "Den 19ten Junius d. J." is 19 June of the year the letter was written.
de dato; vigore
Latin: de dato, vigore
Latin of the deeds. "De dato" means "dated": a charter de dato 19 June 1797 is the one of that date. "Vigore" means "by virtue of", as in vigore Decreti, by virtue of the decree.
decree (Decret)
German, from Latin: Decret, Decretum
A written order of a court or an office, often a short ruling written on the petition itself. "Vigore Decreti", by virtue of the decree, cites the order an entry rests on.
deign (geruhen)
German: geruhen
To be graciously pleased to: the verb for anything a superior does, in letters written up to him. "Ew. Durchlaucht geruhen ..." asks or thanks; the English renders it "deign" or "be pleased".
demesne farm
German: Vorwerk
A farm belonging to the manor itself and run for the lord, by him or by his steward, worked largely by the labour the peasants owed him. Polish folwark, from the German. A large estate had several, each working its own part of the land.
department (Departement)
German, from French: Departement
Two things. A branch of the Prussian ministry, under a departmental minister (the finance department, the military department). And a district governed from one seat, as the Posen department; in the Duchy of Warsaw, its provinces.
dismemberment
German, from Latin: Dismembration
The breaking-up of an estate into separate holdings to be sold or let. In Prussia it needed the state's consent, which is why the Prince's plans for his estates waited on ministers.
district administrator (Landrath)
German: Landrath
The head of a Prussian district (Kreis), usually a local landowner, who answered to the Chamber for its taxes, roads, levies and police.
District Judicial Commission
German: Kreis Justiz Commission, Kreis Justiz Rath
In South Prussia, the royal court of a district, above the patrimonial courts: the owner who held a patrimonial court answered to it. Its members were Kreis-Justiz-Räthe.
Dominium
Latin
The manor as a legal person: the lord's estate together with his rights over the villages and peasants on it. A document addressed to "the Dominium" is addressed to the manor and whoever runs it.
donation (royal grant)
German, from Latin: Donation, Donations-Güter
A gift of land by the King. In 1796–97 Friedrich Wilhelm II gave estates confiscated in South Prussia to generals and officials as donations; the Prince's Polish estates were such donation estates (Donationsgüter).
ducat
German: Ducaten
A gold coin of standard weight, current across central Europe, and the money of large payments and of travel. In Vienna in 1814–15 the letters count expenses in ducats and gulden.
Duchy of Warsaw
German: Herzogthum Warschau
The Polish state Napoleon created in 1807 from Prussia's Polish provinces, under the King of Saxony as Duke. It ended with Napoleon's defeat, and in 1815 was divided between Russia and Prussia.
By the Peace of Tilsit in 1807 Prussia gave up most of what it had taken from Poland, and Napoleon made of it the Duchy of Warsaw, with Friedrich August, King of Saxony, as Duke. It had a constitution, French-style departments under prefects, and the Code Napoléon. For the Prince, a Prussian general, it meant estates in a foreign state allied to France: sequestrations, claims by the former owners' family, and courts he could not influence. Russian troops occupied the Duchy in 1813, and the Congress of Vienna divided it, the west going back to Prussia as the Grand Duchy of Posen.
E
Einsassen
German: Einsaßen
The inhabitants who belong to a village or estate, as against outsiders. The English gives "residents".
entail
German: Majorat
An estate settled so that it passed whole to the eldest heir and could not be sold or divided. In 1805 the Prince bound his Silesian and South Prussian estates in this way.
entry money
German: Einstand, Einkaufsgeld
The sum a tenant paid once, on taking up a hereditary lease, besides the yearly canon. Settlers often owed it in instalments, and arrears of it were sued for.
Ew., Ewr, Sr., Ihro, Dero
German
The possessives of courtly address, abbreviated. Ew. or Ewr is Euer, "Your" (Ewr Durchlaucht, Your Serene Highness); Sr. is Seiner, "His" (Sr. Majestät, His Majesty). Ihro and Dero are old chancery forms of "your", "his" and "their", kept as marks of respect for persons of rank.
ex officio
Latin
"By virtue of office": done by an authority on its own motion, because its duty required it, not at a party's request. Entries in the mortgage book were often made ex officio.
execution
German, from Latin: Execution
Enforcement of a judgment or a debt by the authorities: seizing goods, quartering soldiers on the debtor, or selling his property. It never means putting anyone to death in these letters.
express courier (Estaffette)
German, from French: Estaffette
A letter sent express by mounted postilions, dispatched out of turn, each riding to the next post station, where another took it on. It was costly, and used when an answer could not wait for the ordinary post.
F
fief
German: Lehn, Lehen
Land held from a lord or the crown in return for loyalty and service, which the holder could not freely sell. By 1800 most Prussian fiefs had been turned into outright property.
Friedrich d'or
German, from French: Fr. d'or, fr d'or, f. d'or
The Prussian gold coin, written Fr. d'or. By law it was worth 5¼ Reichsthaler in silver Courant; in trade it was reckoned at five thalers in gold, with a premium over silver that moved, and in 1809 the royal offices took it at six. Sums "in Gold" were reckoned in it; it was the coin of savings, large payments and travel.
G
General Government (Gouvernement)
German, from French: Gouvernement, General-Gouvernement
The French military government of occupied Prussia, seated in Berlin from 1806 to 1808, which collected contributions and gave orders to Prussian offices. Elsewhere a Gouvernement is a fortress governor's office, with its own court and judge (Auditeur).
General Law Code (Landrecht)
German: Landrecht, allgemeines Landrecht
The Prussian code of 1794, the Allgemeines Landrecht für die Preußischen Staaten, cited by part, title and section ("Th. I. Tit. 15. §. 103"). It was introduced in South Prussia in 1796, with Polish law kept as provincial law alongside it.
Government (Regierung)
German: Regierung
Before 1808 a Prussian province's "Government" (Regierung) was its high court of law, keeper of the mortgage book; the Chamber did the administering. After the reforms of 1808 the name passed to the new administrative boards, and the courts became Oberlandesgerichte. The deeds place estates "under the jurisdiction" of the Government at Posen.
Groschen
German: Groschen, g.
A silver coin and unit worth one twenty-fourth of a Reichsthaler, and divided into 12 Pfennig. Sums are written in three columns: thalers, Groschen, Pfennig.
gulden
German: Gulden, fl.
The florin, written fl. In the letters from the Congress of Vienna, the Austrian gulden, of 60 kreuzer (x), in which the Prince's agent paid his way. In the deeds, "Polish gulden" is the złoty, a money of account of 30 Polish groschen.
H
H., dH., Hl.
German: H., Hr., dH., dh., dHl., Hl.
Herr, "Mr" or "Sir", abbreviated: H. or Hr. is Herr, dH. or dh. is dem Herrn, "to Mr". Before a title or a "p." it is a courtesy: "der H. p. Michaelis" is Mr Michaelis, with his titles.
hereditary lease
German: Erbpacht
A lease that passed to the tenant's heirs and could be sold. The tenant paid a sum on entry and then a yearly rent, the canon, for ever; the lord kept the ownership. It was the Prince's main way of turning land into money.
Hochwohlgeboren
German: Hochwohlgebohren
"High well-born": the style of every noble, baron or untitled. Below it came Wohlgeboren, which some chanceries gave the lesser nobility and which went to commoners whose standing came close to noble. The English renders them "Right Honourable" and "Your Honour".
Hollanders (Olęders)
German: Hauländer, Holländer
Settlers holding land under "Dutch law": personally free, with long or hereditary leases and their own village self-government, in return for clearing and farming land. The first were Dutch Mennonites; in Greater Poland most were Germans. Trąbczyn's colonies were of this kind.
Hufe
German: Hufe, Hufen
A farm holding and a measure of land: the arable one household could live on, reckoned at 30 Morgen. Its size varied with the Morgen; the Kulm Hufe usual in this region, the Polish włóka, was about 17 hectares, and in Greater Poland the włóka itself was often called Hufe. Settlers on the estates were let land by the Hufe.
humble servant, faithful Knecht
German: unterthänigster Diener, treuester Knecht
The signature line of a letter to a superior: "most humble servant", "most obedient servant". The degree mattered: unterthänigst is a step above unterthänig. A Knecht, as Triebenfeld signs to the Prince, is humbler than a Diener: by then the word was used only to persons far above the writer, to mark the distance.
I
"I remain until death"
German: ersterbe
The close of a letter to a superior: "in deepest reverence I remain until death your most humble servant". A fixed formula of deference, as "yours faithfully" is now, not a statement about dying.
in fidem
Latin
"In good faith": the formula by which an official certifies that a copy agrees with its original, with his signature and seal after it.
in Ratis
Latin: Ratis, Rata
In instalments, from the Latin rata, a share: "in halbjährigen Ratis" is in half-yearly instalments. A purchase price or an entry money was often paid so.
in solidum
Latin
Jointly and severally: each of several debtors answers for the whole debt, "einer für beyde", so the creditor may sue any one of them. The communities that took over Betsche were bound so.
indult
German, from Latin: Indult
A period of grace for meeting an obligation; here one granted by the sovereign, during which creditors could not enforce their claims. By March 1809 the King of Saxony, as Duke of Warsaw, had granted landowners a general indult of three years.
intabulation
German, from Latin: Intabulation
Entering an owner's title or a debt in the mortgage book. Only an intabulated debt was secured on the land and ranked against other creditors.
interest (Intressen)
German: Intressen, Interessen
Interest on borrowed money. "The Intressen" are the yearly payments on a debt, not anyone's interests or concerns.
Invalids' Fund
German: Invaliden-Casse
The Prussian fund for disabled soldiers, which invested its capital in loans to landowners. It lent the Prince money in 1805 and later went to law to recover it.
inventory (Inventarium)
Latin: Inventarium
The livestock, implements and seed that belonged to a farm, and the list of them drawn up when it changed hands: "Vieh und Feld Inventarium". A lease said whether the tenant took it over, and at what value; a missing inventory was deducted.
J
justice commissary
German, from Latin: Justiz Commissarius, Justiz Commissar
A Prussian lawyer admitted to represent parties before the courts and to draw up their instruments, an attorney; many were also notaries. One was engaged to have the Prince's title entered in the mortgage book.
justice-burgomaster
German: Justiz Bürgermeister
In a Prussian town, the mayor responsible for its court, as against the mayor responsible for police and administration. He had to be a trained lawyer.
justiciary
German, from Latin: Justitiarius
The lawyer who held a landowner's patrimonial court for him. The owner could also judge in person, but most had a justiciary sit in their name.
K
Kammergericht
German
The supreme court in Berlin, for the Mark Brandenburg and for cases the Crown sent to it. The Invalids' Fund sued over the Prince's loan there. Not a court of the Chamber.
komornik
Polish: Komornik
A Polish court officer, who in the Duchy of Warsaw served writs and carried out judgments, seizures and sales. In the older Polish courts the boundary komornik, acting for the boundary judge, had to be a surveyor.
L
L. S. (Locus Sigilli)
Latin: L. S.
"The place of the seal": written in a copy where the original bears a seal, to show that it was sealed.
Landschaft
German: Landschaft, Pfandbriefe
A credit association of the landowners of a province. It lent to its members on their estates, up to half their assessed value, raising the money by issuing mortgage bonds (Pfandbriefe) that the association stood behind. Not a landscape.
Laudemium
German, from Latin
A fee paid to the lord whenever a hereditary holding changed hands, by sale or inheritance, in acknowledgement of his superior ownership; on a sale it was owed for his confirming the new holder.
Liebden
German: Ew. Liebden
The form in which a sovereign addressed a prince, and princes each other: roughly "Your Grace", as between equals or near-equals. The King writes to the Prince as "Ew. Liebden"; the English renders it "Your Lordship".
lordship
German: Herrschaft
An estate made up of several villages and farms under one lord, with his rights over them: "the lordship of Betsche" is a territory. Paid "to the Herrschaft", money goes to the lord or the estate's management.
M
Matura
German
The examination at the end of secondary school, in Polish matura or egzamin dojrzałości, the "examination of maturity"; the same word is used in Austria and Switzerland, and in Germany it is the Abitur. Passing it closed the grammar school (gimnazjum) and gave the right to study at a university. A note in Breyer's notebook of 1936 calls passing it the hardest thing in life, without saying whose it was.
Midsummer, Michaelmas, Martinmas
German: Johannis, Michaelis, Martini
Saints' days that served as the year's fixed dates for business: St John's Day (24 June), Michaelmas (29 September) and Martinmas (11 November). Rents and interest fell due, and leases began and ended, on such days.
Morgen
German
A measure of land, roughly what a team could plough in a day or, as the name was explained, in a morning. The Prussian (Magdeburg) Morgen of 180 square rods was about a quarter of a hectare; other Morgen were larger, so a document often names the one it means.
mortgage book
German: Hypothequenbuch, Hypothequenschein
The Prussian land register. Each estate had its folio, recording who owned it and every debt secured on it, in order of rank. A mortgage certificate (Hypothekenschein) is an official extract from it.
N
notary public
Latin: Notarius publicus
A lawyer appointed after examination, by the sovereign's authority, to draw up and certify deeds, contracts, wills and powers of attorney in a set form, so that courts would accept them as full proof.
O
Oberlandesgericht
German: Ober-Landes-Gericht, O. L. G.
A Prussian provincial high court, the name the judicial Governments took in 1808: the court of appeal for the province, and of first instance for nobles and estates.
official copy
German: Ausfertigung
A document as formally issued by an office or court: made out, signed and sealed, and sent to the party, who can rely on it in court. The office keeps its own record.
P
Partitions of Poland
Polish: rozbiory
The three divisions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth between Russia, Prussia and Austria, in 1772, 1793 and 1795, which ended its existence as a state. The estates in these documents came to Prussia in the second.
In 1772 the three neighbouring powers took a quarter of the Commonwealth's territory. In 1793 Russia and Prussia took more, Prussia gaining Greater Poland with Posen and Kalisch. After the Kościuszko uprising of 1794 was crushed, the third partition of 1795 divided what remained, and Prussia took Warsaw. The Polish nobility who had owned these lands lost them, or kept them under foreign rule; the confiscated estates of those who had risen in 1794 were what the King of Prussia gave away in 1796.
patrimonial court
German: Patrimonial Gericht
The court a landowner held over the people of his estate, by a jurisdiction the King delegated with the land. It heard all matters between the lord and his peasants except criminal ones, and drew up their contracts and mortgages.
In South Prussia the Prussian General Law Code, introduced in 1796, gave the highest jurisdiction to the King, who could delegate it. Delegated with the land, it was patrimonial: it passed to each new owner, and belonged in principle to the nobility. All subjects and free persons on the estate were under it. The owner could judge in person or have a justiciary sit for him; he answered to the District Judicial Commission (Kreis-Justiz-Commission) above him, took the court fees in return for the court's costs, and might set up more than one court, but could not interfere with its rulings. Contracts and the mortgage register were much of its business, though the mortgages reached only a few of the wealthier peasants. In the Duchy of Warsaw the patrimonial courts were abolished in 1808 and their business passed to the peace courts. The Prince's court sat at Trąbczyn.
pct., pro Cent
Latin: pct., pCt., pro Cent
Per cent, from pro centum: "4 pct." is four per cent. The legal and customary rate of interest in Prussia was five per cent.
peace court
German: Friedens Gericht
The lowest court of the Duchy of Warsaw, one in each district (sąd pokoju), on the French model: it tried small cases, sought settlements and kept guardianships and records. In 1808 it took over the business of the abolished patrimonial courts; the court at Konin received the lease file of 1811.
Peace of Tilsit
German: Tilsit
The peace of July 1807 between Napoleon, Russia and a defeated Prussia. Prussia lost half its territory, including its Polish provinces, which became the Duchy of Warsaw.
Pfennig
German: Pfennig, d.
The smallest unit: a twelfth of a Groschen. It is often written d., from the Latin denarius, as the English penny was.
plenipotentiary
German: Bevollmächtigter, Mandatarius
Someone acting for another under a power of attorney. Triebenfeld was the Prince's general plenipotentiary for his estates in the east. Mandatarius is the Latin word for the same.
power of attorney
German: Vollmacht
A written authority to act for someone in law: to sue, collect, sign or sell in their name. A general power of attorney covered all their affairs.
pp., p.
Latin
Short for perge, perge, "and so on": it stands for titles too long to write out. "Dem p Hawich" is Hawich with his titles; after a name or a title list it is a polite "etc.", which the English gives.
prefect, sub-prefect
German, from French: Prefect, Podprefect
Officials of the Duchy of Warsaw, on the French model: a prefect ran a department, such as Kalisz; a sub-prefect (Polish podprefekt) ran a district within it.
Pro Memoria
Latin
A memorandum: a written request, statement of a case or simple reminder, headed "Pro Memoria" in place of titles and address, and handed in rather than sent as a personal letter.
propination
German, from Latin: Propination
The lord's sole right to brew beer, distil spirits and make mead on his estate, and to sell drink there, a right of the Polish nobility (propinacja) that followed from owning the land. It was usually let, often to an innkeeper, and buyers and tenants of the estates bargained for it.
Q
Quantum, Abstands-Quantum
Latin: Quantum, Abstands Quantum
Quantum is simply "a sum". An Abstands-Quantum is the sum paid to someone to give up a right, above all a tenant to give up his lease before it ran out, so that the land could be sold or let again.
quit-rent
German: Erbzins
A yearly rent paid for land held by inheritance: the holder had the use of it and passed it on, and the rent acknowledged that the soil remained the lord's. Unlike a lease rent, it bound the land itself, whoever held it.
R
record (Protocoll)
German, from Latin: Protocoll, ad protocollum
The official record of a hearing or transaction, written down by the court as the parties declared it. To declare something "ad protocollum", "to the protocol", put it on record. It has nothing to do with etiquette.
Reichsthaler
German: Rthl, rt.
The Prussian unit of account, a silver thaler, written Rthl or rt. It was divided into 24 Groschen of 12 Pfennig each. Nearly every sum in the letters is reckoned in it.
Rendant
German, from French
The cashier and accountant of an office, fund or estate, who received and paid out its money and rendered the accounts.
resignation
German, from Latin: Resignation
The formal surrender of property to a new owner, made before a court. A Resignationsbrief is the deed that conveys an estate. Nobody is leaving a post.
rod
German: Ruthe, R.
A measure of length, the Prussian rod of 12 feet, about 3.77 metres; as a square rod, a measure of area. A Magdeburg Morgen was 180 square rods, so land is often given as "Morgen and rods".
S
section of the mortgage book (Rubrik)
German: Rubrik, Rubrica, Rubr.
One of the three sections of an estate's page in the Prussian mortgage book: the first for the owner's title, the second for permanent charges and limits on ownership, the third for debts. "Rubr. III No. 2" is the second debt entered on the estate.
sequestration
German, from Latin: Sequestration
The seizure of an estate by order of a court, to enforce a debt: a sworn administrator, the sequestrator, runs it and pays its income to the court for the creditors until the debts are settled. The owner keeps the title but loses the use; where many creditors sue, a sale may follow.
Serene Highness
German: Durchlaucht, Ewr Durchlaucht
The style of a prince or an elector. "Your Serene Highness" (Ewr Durchlaucht) is how his agents and officials address the Prince, often several times a page; its many forms are formulas, not flattery.
settlement (Transact)
German, from Latin: Transact
A formal settlement ending a dispute by concessions on both sides, with the force of a judgment. The English translation renders it "settlement".
South Prussia
German: Südpreußen
The Prussian province made from the Polish lands taken in the partitions of 1793 and 1795, with Posen, Kalisch and Warsaw. It lasted until 1807. Trąbczyn and the Prince's other Polish estates lay in it.
Prussia took the western part of Greater Poland in the Second Partition of 1793, and Warsaw with the lands around it in the Third, of 1795, and made of them the province of South Prussia. The estates of Poles who had joined the Kościuszko uprising of 1794 were confiscated, and in 1796 the King gave many of them to Prussian generals and officials; that is how Trąbczyn came to the Prince of Hohenlohe-Ingelfingen. The province was run on Prussian lines, with Chambers at Posen, Petrikau (later Kalisch) and Warsaw, and the Prussian mortgage book. The Polish courts were abolished in 1793 and Poles excluded from judicial office in 1795; in 1796 the Prussian General Law Code was introduced, with Polish law kept as provincial law. After Prussia's defeat in 1806 the province was lost, and in 1807 it became most of the Duchy of Warsaw.
starost
Polish: Starost, Starostey
In the old Polish Commonwealth, a nobleman to whom the king gave crown lands (a starostwo) as a reward, in practice for life. A castle starost also held the district's courts and kept the peace in it; others only ran the lands. After the partitions the title stayed with those who held such lands. Prusimski, the estates' former owner, was a starost.
subjects (Unterthanen)
German: Unterthanen
The peasants of a manor: bound to its lord, owing him labour and dues, and under his court. In these documents the word means them, not the subjects of a king.
surveyor (Conducteur)
German, from French: Conducteur
A trained technical official of the Prussian building administration, who oversaw works for the Crown; sworn Conducteurs also measured and mapped land. In the letters they survey estates for valuation, sale or settlement.
T
title of possession (titulus possessionis)
Latin: Titulus possessionis, Besitztitel
An owner's title, entered on his estate's folio in the mortgage book. Until it was entered, the owner could not sell, mortgage or lease with effect; from 1795 Prussia required the title to rest on legal proof, so entering the Prince's title took years of papers.
Tribunal
German, from French
A court of the Duchy of Warsaw, set up on the French model with the Code Napoléon; each department had a civil tribunal. The claims against the Prince's estates were fought out before them.
V
valuation (Taxe)
German, from Latin: Taxe, Taxa
The valuation of an estate, worked out from its yield in grain, timber, rents and dues. It was made by order of a court, or privately, for an owner selling or letting of his own accord. Sales, loans and grants all rested on it, and its figures were argued over.
village mayor (Schulze)
German: Schulze, Scholtisey
The head of a village, answerable to the lord for its dues and order, and judge in small matters with assessors chosen from the villagers; Polish sołtys, from the German Schultheiß. A free Schulze held the office and its land by inheritance, free of dues. His holding is the Scholtisey.
W
woźny (court messenger)
Polish: woźny, Woźny; in Latin ministerialis
A sworn officer of a Polish court, in Latin ministerialis. He served summonses on the parties, called out the court's orders in public, and went to see wounds, damage or a boundary and reported what he saw to the court's books. His report that a summons had been served made it valid. The office went on in the courts of the Kingdom of Poland in the nineteenth century. The translations call him the Court Summoner, the summaries the court messenger.
written undertaking (Revers)
German, from French: Revers
A signed declaration given in return for something received: a promise to repay, to return, or to keep conditions. Not the back of anything.