Records of the town of Wojnicz

Collection

Scope and content:: The collection was created by the municipality of Wojnicz and the town’s domanial authorities.

The documents refer to Jews infrequently, except for those referring directly to the town or municipality. The reviewed municipal books and registers predominantly comprise civil-law entries: instructions regarding real estate, contracts, arrangements and settlements, revisions and reviews, acknowledgments of debts and debt payments, testaments and wills and posthumous inventories. There are also records of contentious and criminal issues: protestations, complaints, writs and subpoenas, visits to crime scenes, forensic examinations of wounds, testimonies, verdicts and decisions of the court and of courts of arbitration and conciliation. Entered in the files were also beadles’ testimonies of official acts and ordinances of the Polish and later Austrian authorities.

Jewish-related items appear to be scarce and dispersed; they concern debts against Jewish residents, including larger sums guaranteed against property, as well as criminal and moral cases, such as intrusion on a leaseholder innkeeper’s house and imputation of his thievery (DEP 181, pp. 63, 115-116, 187-188). The notes mainly concern alien Jews from Tarnów and nearby localities (DEP 183, pp. 163-164, 182); as late as 1788-1813 real-estate transactions involving Jews were still extremely scarce in Wojnicz (DEP 184).

Archival history:: The authorities of Austrian/Polish Galicia proposed in 1887 to amass the municipal archival resources in Krakow and Wojnicz presented its inventory the next year. In 1901-02 the presidium of the national court in Krakow intermediated in the deposit at the Wawel archives of 13 books and registers from the period 1575-1807 which had been kept at the district court [Sąd Powiatowy] of Wojnicz. Following further solicitation, the Commune of Wojnicz deposited in 1904 more than 30 original documents and nine books and registers dated 1611-1811, which were subsequently arranged into a collection.

Administrative/biographical history:: Situated 85km east of Krakow, Wojnicz was a royal town, a seat of the Castellany and the Starosty within the voivodeship of Krakow, itself being part of the Kingdom of Poland, until 1772, then under Austrian rule from 1772-1918 as part of Galicia.

Jews are reported to have first settled in Wojnicz in the late eighteenth century; the number of local Jewish residents reached 200 by 1880.

Wojnicz was a royal town administered under the Law of Środa-Śląska (the Neumarkt-Magdeburg Law) and from 1349 under the Magdeburg Law. The municipality consisted of a council led by the burgomaster (burmistrz) and a court bench with the wójt (vogt or mayor or his deputy, the podwójci. Affairs of importance were settled and adjudicated jointly under the supervision of the starost ormore commonly his deputy. After the First Partition of Poland-Lithuania in 1780 the Austrian Government sold the town to a Mr Stadnicki and the municipality was replaced by the domanial administration, also the State administration, reporting to the proprietor and to the Austrian circular or precinct, national and central authorities.

System of arrangement:: The archive has been arranged by the type (form) of the source or generating institution. Within this, the units are in chronological order:

Documents (including those concerning Jews), 1379–1732 (Dok. Dep. 156–189); Town Council, 1615–1811 (DEP 172, 174, 176, 192, 193); Municipal Tribunal (magisterial court), 1575–1777 (DEP 173, 175, 177–178, 179a, 179b, 180, 181, 182, 185, 186); Town Council and Municipal Tribunal, 1773–95 (ref. no. Dep. 183); Land register (trading in land, taxes) 1734–1855 (DEP 184, 191); Town’s finances, 1636–78 (DEP 187–188, 190); Varia [Miscellaneous], 1349–1827 (DEP 194–196).

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.

An inventory in Polish is available in the reading room at the archive.

See also:

Księgi miejskie wojnickie (6 volumes), Wojnicz 1995-1997, edited by Barbara Trelińska and Józef Szymański.