Notes on Terms Requiring Explanation

Chelmno law - charter defining terms under which towns were incorporated in Prussia, Pomerania and Mazovia.

chetvert – a unit of liquid measure from Russian [chetvert’], “quarter.”

dziesie~cina – the same as desyatina in Russian, a measure of land = 1.09 hectares, or about 2.7 acres 

emphyteutic (in Polish empfiteutyczny) - referring to a long-term lease or deed of unused property requiring the owner to improve it; the Latin term emphyteusis refers specifically to church property.

enfranchised - refers to reforms giving peasants legal ownership of the land they had used before but which had belonged to their lords, i. e., releasing them from serfdom. In the Kingdom of Poland enfranchisement was put into effect in 1863 and 1864.

ferton - from late Latin ferto, an ancient Polish coin, worth a quarter of a grzywna, also called a wiardunek.

folwark - large manorial farmstead.

gbur - from Middle High German gebûr, farmer, a farmer or peasant who owned his own land and was therefore relatively well off, for a peasant.

German law - charter defining terms under which towns were incorporated, so-called because they were usually modeled on the charters given such German cities as Magdeburg and Chelmno.

gimnazjum - secondary school or grammar school.

gmina - administrative subdivision of a powiat, ruled by a council and a wojt. It usually encompasses several villages, or a combination of villages and smaller settlements; or it can consist of a single large estate or a town. In most cases the best way to translate it is “administrative district.”

grod - a settlement, enclosed by walls or ramparts, some dating back to the Neolithic period. In the Middle Ages it served as a fortification and center of political or administrative authority; some later developed into towns (cmp. modern Russian gorod, “town, city”).

grosz - an ancient Polish coin, less than a zloty in value.

grzywna (plural grzywny) - an ancient silver coin, worth several denarii, used in Poland and other countries of Europe.

gubernia – from Russian [guberniya], a province in the Russian Empire.

hyberna - from Latin hibernus, “of winter,” a tax paid toward the maintenance of the army during winter.

jednodworzec - a term used in the Russian Empire for those who were neither nobles nor peasants, or for one-time petty nobles who'd lost that rank; literally it means "one with a single manor/court/yard."

kalwaria - literally "calvary," a complex of shrines or chapels commemorating Christ's Passion, generally on a hill, often with vast numbers of small crosses erected by the faithful in memory of deceased loved ones.

kmiec– (Latin cmeto, cmetonis) in records from the 10th to the 13th centuries, a high dignitary, baron, member of a king’s or prince’s retinue; in later usage a peasant who was comparatively welloff, pay-ing rent or doing labor service in exchange for the right to work a full sized farm.

kwarta - literally “a fourth,” an ancient tax paid toward the upkeep of the army.

lan - literally “field,” a unit of land measurement used in Poland since the 13th century. It was originally a full-sized farm a peasant received from his lord, in return for work on the lord’s land. In Malopolska the Franconian lan was used, 23-28 hectares; in Mazovia and Podlasie the Chelmno lan was 16.8-17.0 hectares; and in the Kingdom of Poland the New Polish wloka was about 16.8 hectares.

Magdeburg law - charter defining terms under which towns were incorporated, modeled on the charter of the east central German city of Magdeburg (now in the Land of Saxony-Anhalt) formulated in the 13th century.

mansioner (in Polish mansjonarz) - a resident priest, holder of a small benefice and free of obligations beyond his basic duties as a priest.

mila - the value varied in different times and places, but here the “Polish” or “Russian mila is probably meant; it measured about 7.5 km., so a square mila would be about 56 sq. km.

mórg - a unit of land measurement; per Gerald Ortell’s book on Polish parish records, in the Russian partition 1 morg = 1.388 acres, in the Prussian 1 morg = 0.631 acres, and in Galicia 1 morg = 1.422 acres.

okra~g - literally "circle, globe", an administrative subdivision, perhaps best translated as "district" - there were different kinds, including judicial and military.

oprawa - amount from a husband's property secured for his wife, consisting of the amount of her dowry plus an equal sum pledged by the husband from his holdings.

powiat - administrative subdivision used in Poland since the 14th century, smaller than provinces but larger than gminy or gromady; abolished in 1975, roughly comparable to a county in the U. S, reinstated with new boundaries on January 1, 1999.

prebenda - a benefice or prebend, a church office (such as a rectory) endowed with fixed capital assets.

rewizja - literally "review," it can be an official inspection performed by a rewizor, or, especially in the Russian Empire, it can mean simply "census."

schematyzm or szematyzm - a list of officials; this term especially refers to a kind of annual report issued by Galician dioceses, which may include details on parishes, the diocese's holdings, etc.

scotus, skojec, skot - an ancient monetary unit, 1/24 of a grzywna, a coin of small value.

Sejm - Seym, diet (a parliamentary body)

soltys - derived from and equivalent to German Schultheiß (later Schultz), a bailiff or village headman/mayor.

starosta - a kind of district foreman, a royal official in Poland in the 14th-18th centuries, in charge of treasury and police activities, and the judiciary. His office, property, or jurisdiction was called a starostwo, which could be grodowe, affiliated with a gród (q. v.), or niegrodowe

starostwo - the office or property or jurisdiction of a starosta, a kind of district foreman and royal official in Poland in the 14th-18th century, in charge of treasury and police activities, and the judiciary, sometimes grodowe, affiliated with a grod (q. v.), sometimes not (niegrodowe).

wiardunek - an ancient Polish coin, worth a quarter of a grzywna, also called a ferton.

wola – diminutive form wólka, a “new” settlement built by peasants whose lord granted them relief from taxes and rents for a specified period, while the wola was getting on its feet, in the hope of generating future revenue.

wlóka- a unit of land measurement used in Poland, more or less synonymous with lan; it comes from the root in the verb wloczyc, “to drag, harrow,” thus referring to a field with soil plowed and harrowed and ready for planting. The wloka was generally about 30 morgs, but this can vary, depending on what part of Poland and what time-frame one is concerned with. Generally 30 morgs was considered a full-sized farm, big enough to support a family.

wójt - in rural areas, chief officer of a group of villages; the administrative head of a gmina.

wójtostwo - the land, office, or jurisdiction of a wójt. 

zagroda – literally “enclosure, pen; something behind a fence or barrier.” In the Slownik it’s usually a term for a small farmstead consisting of a cottage with a courtyard, other buildings such as barns or sheds, and a garden. It could be a peasant farm, but the poorer nobility often owned nothing more than a zagroda, which they worked themselves. The term zagrodnik denotes the owner of a zagroda, typically a peasant who owned no significant land, just a small plot large enough for a garden.