Metadata: Landed Gentry’s Court
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- National Archives in Krakow
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Narodowe w Krakowie
- Postal address:
- ul. Sienna 16, 30–960 Kraków
- Phone number:
- (+48 12) 422 40 94; (+48 12) 4212790; (+48 12) 421 68 81
- Web address:
- http://ank.gov.pl/
- Email:
- sekretariat@ank.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- PL 29/23
- Title:
- Landed Gentry’s Court
- Title (official language):
- Sąd ziemiański
- Creator/accumulator:
- Landed Gentry’s Court
- Date(s):
- 1792
- Date note:
- Documents date from 01.03.1792 to 10.10.1792.
- Language:
- Polish
- Extent:
- 1 linear metre (15 volumes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
This collection comprises records of the Landed Gentry’s Court.
The entries were strictly related to the type (series) of the books/registers. When making up a series, mostly the castle courts, and to a lesser extent land ones, were followed as a model. Polish was assumed instead of Latin as the language of procedure in the new court.
The decrees (the record) included the verdicts and other rulings/decisions passed by the Court in the course of the lawsuit; these include adjournment or conducting of investigation. A separate register was dedicated to entries of decrees of the court of appeals, called the Tribunal, for the Voivodeship of Krakow.
The inscriptions (the record) comprise entries such as donations, [cor]roborations (confirming the facts), cessions/transfers, receipts related to loans, annuities/perpetuities or life estates, intromissions (for estates/properties and realties). A separate record was set up for cases filed on stamped paper (protocollon signatae papyri).
The reports (accounts) include the record and copies thereof, as well as fair copies (inducta), where representations/declarations, manifestos, testimonies of actions filed, oblates [i.e. entries of legal acts in court registers], (site) inspections, forensic examinations of wounds, seizures (of things and persons), and oaths taken were entered.
Record of plenipotentiary powers (no fair copy).
Record of suits/actions submitted; oblates [entries] of testimonies from other courts.
Copies of suits/actions submitted.
Other records (files) in the fond are of no relevance to the Jewish issues.
The situation with registers (regests) is different: the registers corresponded with the type of case, and thus there was a dedicated regest for criminal cases, ordinary civil cases, enforcement of lawsuit-based rulings, cases brought for failure to pay a penalty, plus one related to the affairs of the judges and their families. The registers of actions filed specify the names of the plaintiff and the defendant, the beadle’s statement that action has been filed. The copies of suits offer some interesting details, such as where the suing Jew/defendant came from; specifications of property, type of activities, and the like.
The inscriptions regarding Jews concern all types of matters and cases, from contracts or loans, leasehold payoffs, through to empowerments (powers-of-attorney), seizure of innkeeper’s (publican’s) assets and bringing the same to ruin. The records are of high value due to the signatures featured, made mainly in Hebrew, some of them also in Polish.
It is likely that all parts of the collection (except the judge attendance record) include Jewish-related elements. This can be confirmed for Terr. Crac. Nova 56, 57, where they appear in significant numbers, though usually scattered.
- Archival history:
- Landed gentry’s registers were stored at the castle court at the Wawel. Following the Third Partition of Poland-Lithuania, the Austrian authorities moved the resource, around 1799, to a post-Jesuit college at 52 Grodzka St. in Krakow. When Krakow was recovered from Austria, the Government of the Duchy of Warsaw mandated the fond to the Manager of Mortgages, in 1810. Pursuant to the Congress of Vienna’s decision in 1815, the registers remained in Krakow as property of the Kingdom of Poland supervised by the Kingdom. In 1852, Russia transferred them to Austria (to be managed by the Land Court of Krakow); in 1877, the collection was taken over by the authorities of Galicia. It was eventually regained by Poland in 1918, and returned to the Wawel Castle in 1949.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Landed Gentry’s Court (sąd ziemiański) was an ordinary nobility and State court for the Voivodeship of Krakow which remained in Poland after the First Partition and encompassed the lands situated on the left bank of the Vistula River. The Court was established by the Four Years’ Seym as part of the constitutional reform of 1792; having functioned for half a year, it was liquidated by the Confederacy of Targowica on 13th March 1792, following the war lost to Russia. Two courts were originally set up for the Voivodeship of Krakow: one for Krakow (extending to the Districts [Poviats] of Krakow and Proszowice and the Duchy of Siewierz) and the other one for Lelów (the Districts of Książ and Lelów). The Landed Gentry’s Court came in lieu of the nobility’s courts: the land, castle, and chamberlain’s court. The Court was responsible for criminal cases, public security, including security of the Court, as well as for civil cause-listed causes involving the nobility and other estates.
The court was liquidated by the Confederacy of Targowica. Established as part of the constitutional reform, under a parliamentary constitution, the Court assumed (once established) the ordinance (regulations) as of 1st April 1792. With the court devised to operate nine months within a year, the office remained open for entries on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, the Court functioned in Krakow between 1st March and 9th October 1792. Its competencies embraced all matters regarding the nobility and all public affairs, plus cases specifically brought to the court. The Court functioned as a collegial body: the dietine would elect ten judges for four years, the chancellery was managed by the land scribe (elected for seven years’ term) and the record scribe (an office held for life).
- Access points: locations:
- Krakow
- Subject terms:
- Legal matters
- Real estate
- System of arrangement:
-
The fond is composed of several series of books/registers. Inscriptions: Terr. Crac. Nova 55 (protocollon), 58 (protocollon signatae papyri). Reports: Terr. Crac. Nova 56 (re. suits submitted), Terr. Crac. Nova 57 (reports, empowerments, Confederacy-of-Targowica accessions), Terr. Crac. Nova 59 (Inducta), Terra Crac. Nova 59a (copies); decrees, Terr. Crac. Nova 53, Terr. Crac. Nova 54 (decrees from the Tribunal of Lublin ); record of the presence of the Court, Terr. Crac. Nova 127; accessions to the Confederacy of Targowica, Terr. Crac. Nova 57; registers, Terr. Crac. Nova 122–6, 128.
NB A change in the numbering of these records is expected soon.
- Access, restrictions:
- If a copy (microfilm, scan, photocopy) of a document exists, this is what will be made available. Access to the originals requires the consent of the Director.
- Finding aids:
-
Inventory available online.
Also see:
Katalog Krajowego Archiwum Aktów Grodzkich i Ziemskich w Krakowie. Wydał Dr. Stanisław Kutrzeba, Kraków 1909, s. 75, 79.
An index and inventory in Polish are available in the reading room.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Emanuel Ringelblum Jewish Historical Institute
- Author of the description:
- Janusz S. Dąbrowski; Kraków; 2015
