Metadata: Catalogue of Captives 1750-1819
Collection
- Country:
- Hungary
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Hungary, Hajdú-Bihar County Archives, Debrecen
- Holding institution (official language):
- Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Hajdú-Bihar Megyei Levéltára, Debrecen
- Postal address:
- 4024 Debrecen, Vármegyeháza u. 1/B
- Phone number:
- +36 52 503 296
- Web address:
- https://mnl.gov.hu/hbml
- Email:
- hbml@mnl.gov.hu
- Reference number:
- IV.A.7.b
- Title:
- Catalogue of Captives 1750-1819
- Title (official language):
- Raboskodók kimutatásai 1750-1819
- Creator/accumulator:
- Bihar county
- Date(s):
- 1750/1819
- Language:
- Latin
- Hungarian
- Extent:
- 0.18 linear metres (2 volumes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection ‘Catalogue of Captives 1750-1819’ is a list of prisoners held in the prisons of Bihar county. The collection is part of the extensive collection of 'Bihar County Extraordinary Criminal Tribunal (Sedes Revisoria Captivorum)’.
The collection includes the catalogue of captives. The description included the name of the offenders, their place of origin, and the extent of their sentence. A report on prisoners was sent nationwide to government agencies almost every year from 1750. In the collection, a regestrum book from 1750 to 1791, and captives’ records from 1791 to 1819 survived.
Jewish-related records of captives are available from 1759. The first recorded the case of Joseph Abraham from Pozsony (Bratislava) county (November 1759). As it survived in a regestrum book, only his name, place of origin, and religion are available. The first entry in the catalogue of captives is from 1793. Joda and Jacob Henz (probably Juda and Jakob Hercz, the clerk may have misunderstood the names) were sentenced from a small town in Kisjenő, Bihar County, to one year in prison and 60 whacks with a stick (30 June 1793 No 30.) A total of 83 cases of captives were recorded from 1759 to 1819. In fact, the number of Jewish prisoners is slightly less, as the names of specific convicts were often on the list for several years, based on the length of their sentence. Izrael Nathan’s name can be found on the list of names in 1816 and 1817 (17 July 1813 No 7.; 09 January 1816 No 31.; 27 January 1817 No 113.) The place of origin of the captives is very diverse at national level: for example, perpetrators in Bratislava, Bihar, Zemplén, Szabolcs, Arad, Békés counties can be found in prisons, and even those from abroad (Bohemia, Galicia, Russia). Their punishment could range from a few months of imprisonment to several years, often supplemented by corporal penalty. The catalogue can be used as a supplement to judicial materials (for either regular or extraordinary courts). In the case of the extraordinary judicial material, the significance of the source is also outstanding because there are no original records from 1750 to 1819, and no indexes are available from this age. The entries were written in Latin and Hungarian.
- Archival history:
-
The foundations of the Archives of Bihar County can be traced back to the 14th century when the conscious preservation of legal documents and property policy documents by sub-prefect and notaries began. Due to the low level of literacy and the fact that the county records were not maintained in a safe place, the notary took the materials and placed them in the county mailbox. Article LXXIII. 1723 regulated the development of archives, and the documents were transferred to the conservatory of the Oradea chapter in Bihar county in 1726. The old documents were placed here from 1729, and the new ones in the town hall building. In 1738, the county purchased a new building for archival purposes. The categorisation of the collection started during the reign of Maria Theresa.
From 1760, the records were placed in congregation shelves. In 1771 a new building was constructed for the archival documents. After the First World War, only a part of Bihar County remained within the borders of Hungary. Part of the Bihar County documents was transferred to Romania under the Treaty of Trianon, according to the territorial jurisdiction, which affected the documents from the feudal era to a lesser extent. The archival material remaining in Hungary was moved to the county hall in Berettyóújfalu. In 1950, according to the decree of the Ministry of the Interior, the source material was transferred to Debrecen, the archives of Hajdú county. Also as part of the new archival decree, the name of the archive became Hajdú-Bihar County Archives. In 1968, following the “state history” period, the documents came under the jurisdiction of the county. In the case of the Bihar county material this meant that they remained in Debrecen in the Hajdú-Bihar County Archives.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The members of Bihar County Extraordinary Criminal Tribunal were the delegates of congregations (alternately). The tribunal was established for the purpose of applications against the sedria's judgments, as they were necessary for the retrial of prisoners. Therefore, the court was not a permanent but a temporary body. As its members were from the (permanent) members of the sentencing sedria, their sentencing almost always remained equal to that of sedria.
- Access points: locations:
- Bihar county
- Bratislava
- Oradea
- Access points: persons/families:
- Abraham, Joseph
- Nathan, Izrael
- Subject terms:
- Crime
- Legal matters
- Prisoners
- System of arrangement:
- The register of captives was listed in alphabetical order from 1750 to 1819. The statement includes the reason of captivity, the date and number of the retrial. The numbering is the same as the record serial number.
- Finding aids:
- There are no finding aids.
- Yerusha Network member:
- University of Szeged
- Author of the description:
- Dr. Tibor Almási and Dr. Erzsébet Mislovics, University of Szeged, 2020
