53/17/0/-/Konin Gr.116

Twelve entries on thirteen pages of a register of the castle court of Konin for the years 1775 to 1777, kept in the State Archive in Poznań (Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu). They are what the register holds on the commission that fixed the boundary between Trąbczyn and Łukomia: the notices of its coming, the protests made while it sat, and the searches for a decree afterwards. They are in Latin, with signatures in Polish, and are twelve documents.

Historical background

The Polish parliament appointed a commission to fix the boundary between Antoni Prusimski’s Trąbczyn and Stanisław Ścibor Chełmski’s Łukomia. It opened on the ground on 13 September 1775 under Ludwik Dąmbski, voivode of Brześć Kujawski, and ruled for Prusimski: 53/17/0/-/Konin Gr.145. Chełmski did not accept the result. The entries here show that he had brought commissioners of his own, who made an act of their own on the disputed ground, and that both sides then came to the castle office at Konin, first to protest and later to ask whether a decree had been entered there.

The volume belongs to the archive’s fonds “Księgi sądu i urzędu grodzkiego w Koninie”, the books of the castle court and castle office of Konin, and follows the register for 1768 to 1774: 53/17/0/-/Konin Gr.115. Each day the office sat has a line beginning “Actum in Conin”, and under it short entries, each headed with the name of the party and the kind of entry. Many are one-line notes that a paper has been brought in and lies among the papers produced. Where a party announced an entry and its text was never written, the clerk closed the space with pen strokes or with the word “Vacuum”, empty.

Contents

The commission announced, August 1775. A note records that an extract of the constitution ordering the commission, drawn from the records of the royal court at Warsaw, was brought in [1]. On 16 August 1775 three notes follow: the letters of notice for the commission, brought in for Prusimski; his citations to the heirs and possessors of Łukom, Podbiele and Szetlew and to the abbot and convent of Ląd; and Chełmski’s citations to the heirs of Trąbczyn, Drzewce and Biskupice [2].

Protests while the commission sat, September and October 1775. Commissioners of the field commission protested in person against Chełmski and “the commissioners brought in on his part”, for an act these had made unilaterally on the disputed ground: Dąmbski, the voivode; Brzeziński, Starost of Inowrocław; Dąmbski, standard-bearer of Brześć Kujawski; Kwilecki and Umiński. All signed, Ludwik Dąmbski “as commissioner and president” [3]. Prusimski protested against the Gliszczyńskis of Tomice, against Chełmski and against others, for the entangling of the boundary proceedings, and signed [4]. Piotr Rajewicz protested that he had in no way taken part in the boundary proceedings, and signed [5]. On 3 October 1775 an inspection of the boundary line was announced for the heir of Trąbczyn; nothing was written under the heading [6]. Chełmski entered a counter-protest against Prusimski and against the act of the commission, and signed [7].

Searches for a decree, from 1776. On 16 February 1776 Antoni Lipiński and Nicolaus Ostrowski, with the court messenger Bartłomiej Szepczyński of Trąbczyn, asked in Prusimski’s name for a commission decree pronounced on the disputed ground “in contumaciam”, in default of Prusimski, as though it had been brought in to the Konin records. The office looked through its register and certified that the decree had not been brought in up to that day. Both men signed [8]. A search was then announced for Chełmski, for the commission decree given at Trąbczyn and Łukom; the entry was not written, and the space under the heading is marked “Vacuum” and signed by Fr. Zielonacki [9]. A second, for a mandate and field decree given between the two estates, was likewise left unwritten, marked “Vacuum” and signed by Chełmski [10]. A further heading announces a protest by Prusimski against Chełmski; the clerk noted under it that the information for it had not been supplied, and Prusimski signed [11]. In the last entry Chełmski came in person and asked for the field commission decree pronounced between the heirs of Nowa Wieś, Łazy, Osiny, Trąbczyn, Łukom and other villages and signed by the commissioners on Prusimski’s side. It was not found in the records, the office certified the search, and Chełmski signed [12].

The decree pronounced in default of Prusimski, for which his own men searched in February 1776, cannot be the decree of the parliament’s commission, which ruled for him. It is presumably the act of Chełmski’s commissioners against which the five protested; the entry does not say so.

The land court’s decree of October 1777 cites a search that Chełmski made himself at the castle court of Konin in October of that year. The last entry here answers to it and is dated from it: 53/6/0/-/46. That decree ordered Prusimski to bring the commission’s decree to Konin, where its text now stands.

Form and language

Each entry is a few lines among many others on its page; the pages are shown whole and the other entries are not transcribed. The Latin is heavily abbreviated and the transcription writes it out. The signatures are autograph and in Polish, except Rajewicz’s; in three of them a word is not read and is marked. The clerk’s Latin calls Kwilecki and Umiński “dapifer”, pantler; they sign as “cześnik”, cup-bearer, which is also what the commission’s decree calls them. Five of the twelve entries have no dated heading of a sitting on a photographed page; they are dated from the headings before and after them or, for the last, from the land court’s decree, and each says so.

Related holdings

The commission’s decree: 53/17/0/-/Konin Gr.145. The register before this one: 53/17/0/-/Konin Gr.115. The search at Kalisz in November 1776: 53/15/0/-/Kalisz Gr.424. The land court’s decree of October 1777: 53/6/0/-/46.

Scans

The folder has nine photographs of this book, each showing two facing pages. Each was cut at the fold. Thirteen of the eighteen halves carry an entry that is transcribed and are shown whole; five are left out. The photographs are from Skanoteka, the scanning project of the Polish genealogical society (skanoteka.genealodzy.pl), and carry its watermark across the middle of the image.

Transcription

The editor transcribed the entries that concern the boundary commission and supplied them by paragraph, with the Latin written out.

Check against the scans

The entries are short, and an AI model (Claude) read all of them against the scans and corrected 18 readings. Those that change the sense: Dąmbski is the “palatine”, the voivode himself, and the heading of the commissioners’ protest does not name a president; the Starost of Inowrocław is Brzeziński; and the four headings that ended in an unread word end in “Manifestatur” or “Remanifestatur”, protests and counter-protests. The signatures under seven entries, and the word “Vacuum” with the signature under it in two more, were added. Each change is logged with its reason.

Division and dating

Each entry is a document; the three notes of the sitting of 16 August 1775 are one. Three documents are a heading under which nothing was written. Three entries are dated by the line “Actum in Conin” directly above them, and three by the heading of their sitting elsewhere on the leaf. Six have no dated heading on a photographed page: four are dated to the month from the headings before and after them, one to the year from its place in the book, and the last to October 1777 from the land court’s decree that cites it. Each says so.

Translation

The English is the editor’s own translation and was not made again. It was changed in thirteen places where the text had been corrected, and the signatures were added to it.

Summaries

The summaries were written in German from the Latin and translated into English. Each of their 37 statements was then checked against its document. All held.