Records of the town of Biecz

Collection

Scope and content:: The collection was compiled by the local government of the town and, in the period of Austrian rule, the municipal authorities (magistrat) appointed by the superior authority.

The municipal records contain dispositions regarding real estate, wills, arrangements, debts, receipts, entries of rulings and verdicts passed by other courts, universal proclamations issued by the king, contentious and criminal cases and offences against morality.

Jewish-related elements mainly refer to Jews from outside of Biecz, and are considerably dispersed. These items include mentions of debts, petitions for offence or insult (DEP 22, s. 20-21), details of Jewish victims of an arrested delinquent, plus a corroboration (dated 1768) of a king’s charter de non tolerandis Judaeis (DEP 4, 445–453, 482–486), an appeal made by certain burghers in 1808 against a decision to consider a Jew an inhabitant of Biecz in 1787 (DEP 35, p. 4). DEP 34 contains no Jewish-related items.

The archival resources of Biecz from the period preceding and including the 18th century are held by the Scientific Library of the Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences/Polish Academy of Sciences (PAU-PAN) in Krakow, the Jagiellonian Library in Krakow and the Ossoliński Library in Wroclaw.

Archival history:: The authorities of Austrian-Polish Galicia began amassing archival resources from urban and rural areas in 1887 in order to protect and preserve them. In 1888 the commune of Biecz drew up an inventory of the archives it kept at the time, but it was only in 1903, after a fire consumed half the city and destroyed twenty Jewish shops, that the commune deposited the records, comprising 33 registers from 1388 to 1788 and original documents (privileges and charters), with the archiving institution of Krakow.

Administrative/biographical history:: Located 125km south-east of Krakow, Biecz was between 1306 and 1772 a royal city within the voivodeship of Krakow, part of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland; the town was home to a castellany, starosty, district (poviat), a land court and a municipal court. In 1772-1918 Biecz was part of so-called Galicia, then within Austria and from 1867, Austria-Hungary.

After 1569 Biecz had a privilege banning Jewish settlement, but had 31 or 48 Jewish inhabitants in 1765 and 1780 respectively. By 1890, Jews accounted for 15% of the town’s population; an independent community was formed in 1891.

Biecz was granted the Law of Magdeburg in the 13th century. The local municipal government consisted of a town managing council led by a mayor and a bench with the commune head and aldermen or assessors, which was tasked with administering justice. Major cases, including litigations, were considered by both institutions jointly, and settlements of importance were subject to approval of the starost‘s court (indeed the starost‘s deputy was in charge). The Austrian authorities sold the town in 1776 to the Siemieński family. Ten years later the local government body was replaced by municipal authorities (magistrat), which reported to the Austrian authorities on the circular or precinct, national and central level, and primarily the domanial authority.

System of arrangement:: The collection is arranged by subject and chronology, by type of document and then chronologically within each (type of) document:

Parchment documents, 1604, 1618 (Dok. Dep. 3, 5); Aldermen’s registers, 1388–1788 (ref. no. DEP 5–DEP 23); Town Council registers, 1532–1769 (DEP 1–DEP 4, DEP 31); Account/tax books and records, 1540–1669, 18th c. (ref. no. DEP 24–DEP 30, DEP 32); Court-filed documents (Parish of Biecz), 18th c. (ref. no. Dep. 33); Miscellaneous records (fairs, lawsuits), 1363–1812 (DEP 34–35).

Finding aids:: Inventory available online.

An inventory in Polish is available in the reading room.

See also:

Materyały do historii miasta Biecza (1361-1632), oprac. Fr. Bujak, Kraków 1914