Novograd-Volhynskii County Court; Novograd-Volhynskii, Volhynia Province

Collection

Holding institution (official language):: Державний архів Житомирської області

Title:: Novograd-Volhynskii County Court; Novograd-Volhynskii, Volhynia Province

Title (official language):: Новоград-Волынский уездный суд, г. Новоград-Волынский Волынской губ.; Новоград-Волинський повітовий суд, м. Новоград-Волинський Волинської губ.

Scope and content:: Among documents housed in the fonds are rules pertaining to the recruitment of Jews; lists of agents of Jewish communities of a number of towns of Zaslav county (Belogorodka, Kornitsy, Slavuta, Shepetovka, Sudilkov, etc.) elected to be present during Jewish recruits’ oath-taking; and recruits’ petitions and name-lists (1833); a copy of an imperial edict (27 June 1833) on abuses in the drawing up of Jewish poll-tax censuses of the city of Berdichev, and circulars of the Volhynia Provincial Administration about the implementation of an imperial edict on the korobka [kosher meat tax] and charts of items, income, and community expenditures from an auxiliary korobka of the Jews of Novograd-Volhynskii (1845). There are also files on financial claims against Jewish communities; on the sale of real estate belonging to Jews to cover korobka arrears; on the abduction, by residents of the village of Glianovka, of the Zhitomir Jew M. El’bert’s daughter, who had “expressed her desire to convert to the Orthodox faith”; etc.

Administrative/biographical history:: County courts were established in 1763 as povet (county) land courts pursuant to a charter of hetman Kyrylo Rozumovs’kyi and in accordance with the Lithuanian Statute. In 1783, Catherine II extended the Regulation on the Provinces (1775) to cover Ukraine; these courts accordingly became county courts. However, in late 1796 Paul I restored the former judicial system, which existed until the Polish Uprising of 1831; after this was suppressed, all Polish institutions were liquidated, and povet land courts were reorganised as county ones. These courts were under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Justice and were initially subordinate to corresponding central courts, and after 1831, to chambers of the criminal and civil court. They heard civil and criminal cases, and also conducted notarial proceedings related to the witnessing of deeds of purchase, promissory notes, last wills and testaments, and the decisions of arbitration courts in property disputes. They were liquidated in 1872 in connection with the Judicial Reform of 1864.

Access points: locations:: Berdichev; Kornitsy; Novograd-Volhynskii; Shepetovka; Slavuta; Sudilkov; Ukraine; Volhynia province; Zaslav county; Zhitomir

Subject terms:: Census; Conversion to Christianity; Financial matters; Jewish community; Jewish oath; Military; Real estate; Taxation; Taxation--Korobka

System of arrangement:: The fonds includes a single inventory systematised chronologically.