Metadata: Regional Court Documents of Szabolcs County, 'A and B' collections
Collection
- Country:
- Hungary
- Holding institution:
- National Archives of Hungary, Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg County Archives, Nyíregyháza
- Holding institution (official language):
- Magyar Nemzeti Levéltár Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg Megyei Levéltára, Nyíregyháza
- Postal address:
- 4400 Nyíregyháza, Széchenyi u. 4
- Phone number:
- +36 42 414 313
- Web address:
- http://www.szabarchiv.hu/drupal/elerhetosegunk
- Email:
- szszbml@mnl.gov.hu
- Reference number:
- IV.A.9.a-dd
- Title:
- Regional Court Documents of Szabolcs County, 'A and B' collections
- Title (official language):
- Szabolcs Vármegye Törvényszékének iratai (Acta judicialia)
- Creator/accumulator:
- Regional Court of Szabolcs County
- Date(s):
- 1629/1848
- Date note:
- The majority of the documents cover the period of 1742-1786.
- Language:
- Latin
- Hungarian
- Extent:
- 16.27 linear metres (68 boxes. 11 volumes)
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The 'Regional Court Documents of Szabolcs County (Acta Judicialia)' collection is maintained in the fonds entitled 'County legal institutions, free royal boroughs and towns with legal, institutional rights' from the feudal era in the Szabolcs county archives. The A and B collections of this description are the first part of the above-mentioned documents. The dossier comprises the judicial documents and court files of Szabolcs County from 1629-1787. However, the majority of the documents cover the period of 1747-1786. The extensive collection could survive because the notary, the representative of comitat literacy in the county, was permanently commissioned to record issues brought before the judicial body from the 16th century. These documents were carefully preserved initially by the notary and the sub-prefect, and later they were maintained in the archives established in the county.
The documents highlight a wide range of aspects of the everyday life of Jewish and non-Jewish inhabitants related to judicial issues: business contracts, farming leases, payment of debts, requisition of property, records of prisoners, theft, robbery, despotic issues (between landlord and subordinates), possession of stolen property, violent assaults against individuals (murder, beating, verbal abuse), violations of standards of public decency civil lawsuits and testimonies in court cases. Jewish-related documents do not represent a separate unit within the collection as a result of the principle of organisation.
Jewish-related documents can be found scattered in 68 boxes under about 93 headings. The first document is from 1769. Under the headings, we can find separate documents and extensive investigation-related materials (including several files in connection with specific cases). The source material typically includes cases with regard to individuals. As for their content, Jewish citizens played four distinguishable legislative roles: sufferers (victims of murders, robbery, beatings and despotism), offenders (possession of stolen property, theft, incitement to theft, verbal abuse, violations of public decency), partners in contracts (farming leases, parties to business transactions, suppliers) and witnesses (which is not exclusively limited to testifying in court cases within the Jewish community; it was most typical in cases involving members of non-Jewish society). It must be stressed that as the time interval of this Jewish-related collection is 1769-1787, standard family names could be hardly found (they were only made compulsory in the Hungarian Kingdom by Joseph II. with his decree of 1787). Personal identity was generally recorded with one or two surnames, for example, Izsák Hersli from Bercel. Frequently there were merely notes in the file referring to the complaints of a Jewish individual from Újfehértó.
However, this source material is of tremendous value from more than one angle concerning the history of the Jews. It describes the meeting points of Jewish and non-Jewish communities and the proceedings of lawsuits in the era within the given county. The documents highlight that discords among the members of the Jewish society were frequently taken before the regional courts of counties (especially when they were of county or national level). On the other hand, the geographic scatteredness of the Jewish residences indicates in which settlements they lived in the concerned period and the widespread nature of their business relationships. In several cases, the material comprises not only external sources (e.g. county decrees, sentences) but also internal ones, that is, the petitions and witness statements of Jewish individuals. The internal sources are characteristically similar to other documents in the collection in terms of their layout and language. For example, Moises David gives his request against Gabriel Filep in Hungarian (IV.A.9.a Nr. 33.).
- Archival history:
-
From the 14th-15th centuries the notary was tasked with recording judicial issues in the county. Initially, he worked on an ad-hoc basis, moving to a permanent position from the 16th century. The documents were maintained by sub-prefects and notaries also held dossiers in the 17th century. On expiry of their term of office, officials were expected to hand over the materials to their successors. Once the county archives were established, the documents were transported to the castle of Kisvárda. After the chief town of the country was appointed in the 1760s, the archives were transferred to the county office building of Nagykálló.
Following the establishment of the archives, the materials were not filed, and this fact was registered after an investigation in 1725. Notaries were tasked with the filing, but in fact the situation remained unchanged until 1767. At that time, Ferenc Schemberger was commissioned with the systematisation of the dossier, and it is still usable today. He used both the principles of provenience and pertinence in his work. In 1335-1787 he undertook the systematisation of judicial and court files. (He could not continue this activity because the reconstruction of public administration in the county by Joseph II. affected his duties, and the discord between him and county authorities over the payment he received for his work hampered the categorisation of further documents). Nevertheless, his classification principles were preferred and used by archivists until 1848.
1893 saw the transfer of the document collection of Szabolcs County to Nyíregyháza. In 1950 the counties pf Szabolcs, Szatmár and Bereg were united, and the Nyíregyháza archives became responsible for collating materials for the three counties.
- Subject terms:
- Crime
- Legal matters
- Trade and commerce
- System of arrangement:
- In categorising Szabolcs county judicial documents, Ferenc Schemberger dealt with registers and files separately. The file was incorporated in Acta judicalia, which also contained the documents of Acta personalia and Acta civilia. The categorisation of the documents resulted in the development of two series. The first one recorded the years. Cataloguing in 1787 revealed further documents, but these could not be incorporated into the elements of the former series. Consequently, the first was named A and the second B. The papers were categorised into fasciculi by their subject headings (civil lawsuits, orders, petitions). 1-1 fasciculus can include several years. Particular judicial groups are highlighted and the files are catalogued under them.
- Access, restrictions:
- The archive only allows up to four boxes per day to be consulted.
- Finding aids:
- Indexes are available under the reference number IV.A.9.dd. However, they are an unreliable source of information.
- Yerusha Network member:
- University of Szeged
- Author of the description:
- Dr. Tibor Almási and Dr. Erzsébet Mislovics, University of Szeged, 2019
