Metadata: Leszno town records
Collection
- Country:
- Poland
- Holding institution:
- State Archives in Poznan
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiwum Państwowe w Poznaniu
- Postal address:
- ul. 23 Lutego 41/43, 60-967 Poznań
- Phone number:
- +48 61 852 46 01
- Email:
- archiwum@poznan.ap.gov.pl
- Reference number:
- 53/4314/0/-/
- Title:
- Leszno town records
- Title (official language):
- Akta miasta Leszno
- Creator/accumulator:
- Town of Leszno
- Date(s):
- 1547/1869
- Language:
- German
- Polish
- Latin
- Hebrew
- Extent:
- 13.43 metres (806 folders)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection consists of material produced by the municipal administration. The documents are divided thematically and cover legislative, judicial and commercial issues handled by the Leszno municipal authorities. There are numerous Jewish-related records, concerning the supervision of Jews in Leszno, mainly regarding trade and finance. The collection also contains excerpts from town books covering all regulations concerning the Jewish population in the area of legislation and judiciary as well as relations between the Jewish and the Christian population. The collected records concern the cartularies of privileges once granted to Jews by the superior authorities.
Ref. no. 544 - Certificates issued to Jews in Leszno (1800-1800);
Ref. no. I / 614 - List of tax arrears of Jews in Leszno (in Hebrew) - it is actually a bardon book (financial revenues in Jewish communities in the Old Polish period). The book is undated (the catalogue states no date - 18th / 19th century); however, on the basis of palaeographic parameters, the book was most probably written in the mid-18th century;
Ref. no. I / 798 - Correspondence regarding Jewish matters directed to the municipal authorities of Leszno (German), 1763-1837;
Ref. no. I / 769 - The salt trade cultivated by Jews in Leszno - import, export and consumption (German), 1782-1783; format: 8°, without a cover - good condition;
Ref. no. I / 512 - List of real estate owned by Jews in Leszno and taxes due on this list (in German), no date - 18th century; format: 8°, 4 sheets - in a cardboard box;
Ref. no. I / 273 - Fragment of the case of the sale of a house by the burgher Zachesz to the Jew Dawid Mankiewicz in Leszno (Polish), 9 May 1730; single page;
Ref. no. I / 652 - a letter from Flemming to the municipal authorities in Leszno regarding the settlement of intermediary agent fees with the Jews and regarding money for the army (German), 16 March 1718; 2 sheets;
Ref. no. I / 657 – Order issued by Flemming regarding the depletion of princely property by Jews (German), 16.XII. 1722; 2 sheets;
Ref. no. I / 656 - Order issued by Flemming recommending return of noble debts from Jews and prohibition of trading in stolen items (in German), 17.III. 1721; 2 sheets;
Ref. no. I / 35 - Chancellor Rafał Leszczyński, informs the residents of Leszno that he is defining the rules for trade in Leszno in order to prevent conflicts between Christians and Jews, (German), 17.V. 1701; format: 207 x 828 mm, 1 sheet of paper with numerous corrections;
Ref. no. I / 24 – Ordinance from Bogusław, the cathedral parish priest of Płock and Rafał, the voivode of Poznań, the heirs of the town of Leszno, ordering the Jews living in Leszno to pay for the construction of the town hall tower with a clock for the sum of 1640 Polish guilders within 6 weeks (German), 14 November 1689; format: 383-388 x 278-282 double sheet of paper, torn at the folds, Gothic script, decorative, impressed with two Leszno seals;
Ref. no. I / 522 - Lists of Jews living in Leszno and assessment of their wealth (in German), 1808-1814;
Ref. no. I / 114 - Notification of the superior authorities of Leszno on the position of Jewish bakers with regard to the bakers guild (in German), 18 December1743;
Ref. no. I / 150 - A copy of the response of the clothiers guild in Leszno to decisions by Antoni Sułkowski, the lord of the town, regulating the relations between Jews and the masters and Christians in the cloth trade. Confirmation of the statute by Prince Radziwiłł (German), 25 October 1782;
Ref. no. I / 621 - An extract of an oath in the Wschowa town court books regarding a fire in the town of Leszno, in which 328 Jewish houses with their belongings, a synagogue with four buildings and archives, 7 Jewish schools, 2 hospitals, Jewish slaughterhouses and 20 Jews perished (Polish/Latin), 25 August 1767; 2 sheets of paper - damaged by insects and stains, stamped with the seal of Wschowa;
Ref. no. I / 625 - “Konvention mit dem Fürsten Sułkowski und der Bürgerschaft zu Lissa nach dem Brande 1790 geschlossen.” [Convention concluded by Prince Sułkowski and the citizens of Leszno after the fire in 1790.] Findings of the Crown Treasury Commission and review of the implementation of the economic rights and obligations of the town of Leszno and its owner Antoni Sułkowski after the town fire in 1790, Jewish matters (in German), 11 October 1790; a copy of a translation of the text into German; format: 8°, 10 sheets bound together in a cardboard folder, 6 sheets comprise a second copy;
Ref. no. I / 473 - 1. Extract of an instruction issued by the Economic Protocol of the Crown Treasury Commission curtailing transgressions by Leszno Jews regarding customs duties payment - 13 November 1775; 2. Similar extract of a contract concluded between the Crown Treasury Commission and Antoni Sułkowski, the Gniezno voivode and the heir of Leszno, regarding the payment of customs duties, (Polish / German), 13 November 1775 - 1 January 1776; Non-certified copy and certified extract, 4 sheets in cardboard casing;
Ref. no. I / 768 – Trade in salt by the Jews of Arona and Co. and Falk-Mayer-Marcus. Payment of fees for this trade (in German), 5 December 1773; 6 sheets;
Ref. no. I / 44 – Ordination by Stanisław I (Leszczyński), the king of Poland, confirming all the rights, charters and privileges granted to the Jews in Leszno by previous Polish kings (Polish/Latin), 18 February 1737 at Mendon Castle; at the bottom, signatures: Stanisław Król, Sim. Sonio Deputy Bailiff [Starosta] Crown Court Secretary and chamber scribe to his royal highness - manu propria. On verso: an annotation about the induction of the document into the Kościan town court books 28 April 1738; format: 360-363 x 227-232 mm, double sheet of paper glued along the folds, impressed with the crown seal;
Ref. no. I / 52 - Or. Decree of the commission examining a dispute between the town of Leszno and the local synagogue over the payment of extraordinary expenses by the Jews of Leszno in accordance with the privileges in the amount of 791 Polish zlotys per year and arrears on this account of 6,793 zlotys for the period from 1738 to 1751 due towns (in Polish), 5.I . 1752; at the end of the document, signature: A. J. Sułkowski - manu propria in verso, the text is accompanied by annotations in another hand; format: 215 x 340 mm, 5 written sheets and 1 blank card, documents bound in cardboard, stains visible on the edges of the documents, impressed with a wax seal - chipped;
Ref. no. I / 50 – Ordination by Aleksander Józef of Sułków Sułkowski, count of Leszno, Zduny, Śmigiel, Kobylin, Miejska Górka, Rydzyna, Włoszakowice, Wijewo, the bailiff [starosta] of Odolanów, Nowy Dwór, Sokolniki and Piaseczno, announces that by deciding in favour of these Jews, he defines the rights of these same musicians as established as early as 1661 ( in German), at the end of the privilege, signature: AJ Sułkowski, format: 416-422 x 373-375 mm parchment, a seal, now missing, once hung on a green silk ribbon;
Ref. no. I / 3 - 1) An extract from the town court books of Wschowa of a document of Rafał Leszczyński, Bełz voivode of 6 May 1628, who, referring to the decisions of his father Rafał, Brzeg voivode and Zofia of Opalenica - Leszczyńska, the Brześć voivode, defines and regulates the powers and duties of the Leszno Jews towards the town of Leszno and its heir (in Polish), 6 My 1628 feria secunda post by S. Jacobi Apostoli in castro Wschovensi; 2) An extract from the books of the town of Wschowa, a document issued by Rafał Leszczyński, voivode of Bełz and Bogusław Leszczyński of 3 October 1626, which, referring to the findings of the father of their voivode, confirms the conditions of Jewish settlement in Leszno and their economic rights (in German) , 10 March1626 feria tertia post f. S. Valentini Martinis proxima in castro Wschoviensi; The extract is bound with the extract of the document from 10 March1626, the stamp of the town bailiff [starost] was impressed; 2) 17th century extract - unauthenticated: 2 sheets damaged and bound together with the extract from 25 July 1630;
Ref. no. I / 47 - C. Aleksander, Józef of Sułków Sułkowski, squire of Leszno, Zdun, Śmigiel, Kobylin, Miejska Górka, Rydzyna, Włoszakowice, Wyjewa, Beszków court hunter, bailiff [starost] of Odolanów, Nowodworski, Sokolnicki and Piasecki complying with the request of the municipal authorities of Leszno and confirming the town privileges granted by his predecessors and promising to complete the city ordinance and to regulate relations between Christian burghers and the Jews there (in Polish) 29 IX. 1738 (a copy of this document was made on November 18, 1812), at the end of the privileges signatures: Aleksander Sułkowki and Wilhelm Adamin, sworn translator; format: 202 x 332 mm, seal impressed by a sworn translator on a 19th-century copy;
Ref. no. I / 17 – Ordinance by Count Rafał of Leszno, the heir of Śmigiel, Rydzyna, Zaborów, the starost of Wschowa and Mościce, announcing that he is mercifully allowing Jerzy Frommelt,. an elder baker in Leszno, to sell his corner house on Żydowska Street to a local Jew. At the same time, he announces that he will extend the property rights of the rest of the residents of Leszno, and limit the rights in this regard of the Jews of Leszno (German), 16 January 1681; format: 373-378 x 247 mm, paper, impressed with the seal of the issuer Raphael Graf auf Lissa;
Ref. no. I / 42 - C. Stanisław I (Leszczyński), King of Poland in response a dispute of June 21 between the town authorities of Leszno and the Jew Mankiewicz ensuring the continuity and invariability of town rights and advising them to refer such matters to the Poznań Chamberlain nobleman Radzewski (Latin), 29 July 1732 Chambord; a non-certified copy from the 18th century, format: 215 x 340 mm, paper - 1 sheet of text and 1 blank sheet.
- Archival history:
-
The materials included in the collection were produced and collected by the municipal administration. The municipal archive was in close contact with the administration as an integral part of its functioning. The collection of books, records and financial documentation were stored in cabinets, drawers or chests located in the court room of the town hall, which often also housed the city seals and the official library. Documents concerning the rights and privileges of the municipality were locked in the town hall treasury. In 1794 and 1796, ordinances of the Prussian king were published, handed over by the South Prussian Military and Domain Chamber in Poznań, ordering the magistrates to prepare lists cases which were to be found in the municipal documents and privileges. After 1815, the District offices in Poznań and Bydgoszcz demanded access to an inventory of the registers prepared by the magistrates.
In 1869, the Prussian government of Chancellor Otto von Bismarck organised the government State Archives in Poznań (Stadtarchiv Posen), which became part of the network of Prussian state archives. At the beginning of March of that year, Carl Horn, the chief president of Poznań Province, addressed an appeal to communes, associations, institutions and private persons to submit all records to the Poznań archives. The archives of the town of Leszno were finally placed in the Stadtarchiv Posen at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century as municipal collection deposits. They were ordered and processed there, but also often lent to German courts, where they were used as evidence in cases brought by the Brandenburg-Prussian state tax authorities against Polish landowners, but also by historians. [In his work on the history of Jews in Leszno, Louis Lewin often used the primary sources from the Town Records of Leszno and the Guilds of the town of Leszno, which is evident from the entries of dates of sending and returning materials, visible on the cards of individual documents.]
Archival materials, including materials from Leszno, returned to Polish archives after the end of World War I and the Greater Poland Uprising.
In 1943, the German occupation board of the State Archives in Poznań (Reichsarchiv Posen) decided to remove the oldest and most valuable records from Poznań. Archival materials produced after 1500 were scattered around churches and manors in the Poznań and Szamotuły districts, and some destroyed. After the end of World War II, the records entered the legal resources of the successor of the same, i.e., the State Archives in Poznań.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
In the first period of Leszno's history, the seat of administrative and judicial power was most likely the house of the hereditary wójt [advocatus/vogt]. Later, the town hall ("Rathaus", "domus consulum", "councilors hall") became the place of assembly for the court and the council office as well as the court of the commune administrator and jury. The wójt was the most important official in the commune under German law; this position was usually given to the recipient of the location privilege. The office of the wójt was life-long and hereditary. After organising the city, the most important function of the hereditary wójt was to manage it and to uphold the court system. The administrative authority of the town of Leszno was organised in the form of three colleges, called “orders” [porządki]: 1) the town council, headed by the mayor; 2) a court bench; 3) the commoners, composed of guild elders as representatives of all the guilds, also known as sworn councilmen [przysiężni – literally, those who have sworn an oath], because they swore allegiance to the council.
The highest authority over the municipal government was exercised by the hereditary owner of the towns, while the highest authority in the most important matters, both organisational and judicial, in all towns, regardless of the type of ownership, was the royal authority. The mayor and councillors, after being constituted and sworn in, elected lay judges and appointed the mayor, who was only a court clerk at the head of the jury. They also appointed new guild masters from among the candidates proposed by each guild. There was also a town chancellery in the town hall, where documents, books and town records were created. The town authorities supervised the activities of the office. The chancellery was one of several municipal institutions; it supported and supplemented the activities of the court and the council office as well as the court of the head of the commune and the jury.
The town chancellery was run by a town council scribe, also known as the town scribe ("stadtschreiber", "notarius civitatis", "scribe"), who worked alone or with an assistant. The scribe participated in the meetings of collegial bodies and wrote down their resolutions, and dealt with their correspondence. Scribes often kept a town chronicle. Town scribes were professional officials appointed on a permanent basis. They took an oath when taking office. Each year, the newly elected council approved the scribed in his position, sometimes placing his name next to the names of members of the new authorities. Besides German, Leszno town scribes at times also had to know Latin, which was the official language of Poland at that time, the language of royal privileges and general orders of the starost general of Greater Poland, as well as the Polish language, which, especially in the 18th century, was increasingly used by state institutions and owners or administrators of the town of Leszno.
- Access points: persons/families:
- Mankiewicz, Dawid
- System of arrangement:
-
The collection consists of handwritten books - a register and loose materials - statutes, privileges, documents, minutes, ordinances, extracts from town books. It is arranged as follows:
1. Documents (70 archival units ) 1547-1788 (ref. no. I / 1-I / 69, I / 802)
2. Copies of documents 1625-1755 (ref. no. I / 70, I / 800 - old ref. no. I / 70a, I / 805)
3. Lists of documents, record registers, indexes 1630-1738 (ref. no. I / 71-I / 74)
4. Town ordinances 1637-1738 (ref. no. I / 75-I / 76)
5. Materials concerning the organisation of municipal authorities 1732-1811 (ref. nos. I / 79-I / 90, I / 804, I / 806 - old ref. no. I / 79a)
6. Council books 1658-1811 (ref. no. I / 91-I / 194)
7. Books and records of the guardianship court 1660-1794 (ref. no. I / 195-I / 237, I / 803)
8. Books of the village mayor 1751-1794 (ref. no. I / 238-I / 264, I / 801)
9. Wills and inheritance cases 1744-1803 (ref. no. I / 309-I / 360)
10. Cash and accounting books and records concerning the accounting matters of the city of 1655, 1670-1843 (ref. no. I / 361-I / 498)
12. Contributions and other war fiscal obligations and military matters 1677, 1704-1705, 1711, 1815 (ref. nos. I / 621-I / 625, I / 629-I / 655)
13. Laws and instructions passed by sejmiki [regional councils] 1705, 1711, 1714, 1790 (ref. no. I / 626-I / 628)
14. Records of cases with the owners of the towns and their officials, and the fiscal burdens paid by the town to the superior authorities 1706-1793 (ref. no. I / 656-I / 725)
15. Records on crafts and manufacture 1662-1682, 1752-1869 (ref. no. I / 726-I / 758)
16. Records on trade 1708-1810 (ref. no. I / 759-I / 772)
17. Books of merchant correspondence and trade receipts of merchants 1695-1793 (ref. no. I / 773-I / 792)
18. Materials concerning the development of education 1739, 1774-1777 (ref. no. I / 793-I / 794)
19. Materials concerning Jews and found objects 1703-1837 (ref. no. I / 795-I / 799).
- Finding aids:
-
A printed inventory is available in the archive.
An online finding aid is also available.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://www.szukajwarchiwach.gov.pl/en/strona_glowna
- Yerusha Network member:
- The Taube Department of Jewish Studies of the University of Wrocław
- Author of the description:
- Mikołaj Wojciechowski, University of Wrocław