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Translated by Dobrochna (Dosia) Fire
Hrubieszow, or Rubieszów, is a county seat in Lublin Gubernia[1] on the Huczwa River, at 50º46'3 N and 41º32 E, one mile from the entrance of the Huczwa River into the Bug River. It is 268 versts[2] distant from Warsaw, 116 from Lublin, and 49 from Chełm, connected to neighboring cities with dirt roads since the lack of stone makes building gravel roads difficult. In 1827, Hrubieszow had 634 buildings and 3,992 residents; in 1849, 6,258 residents; in 1862, 600 buildings (of which 57 were brick) and 6,181 residents (3,605 Jews). Currently (1879), there are 522 buildings (52 brick) and 8,208 residents. Of these, 1,706 are Eastern Orthodox, 1,515 are Catholics, 4,984 are Jews, and 3 are Protestants. As for sex, there are 3,836 men and 4,372 women. Hrubieszow consists of the city proper and 3 suburbs: Sławęcin, Pogórze[3], and Pobereżany. The center of the city is located on a slight elevation in the Huczwa valley, surrounded on two sides by the waters of this river: on the north by the [main] channel, on the south by a branch, both connecting below the city into one channel. The channel of the Huczwa is from 4 to 15 feet deep and from 30 to 60 feet wide; however, this river is not navigable. The city proper is connected to Pogórze and Pobereżany by a bridge on the branch and with Sławęcin on the River Huczwa proper, as well as by two small pedestrian bridges. According to a survey in 1564, the city along with the suburbs Pogórze and Sławęcin covered an area of 56.25 łans[4] (according to the registry for the year 1788, it was 4,609 Viennese morgen)[5]. The city itself, without the suburbs, today covers 175 morgen, of which 93 are gardens and the rest are streets, squares, and buildings; excluding the Jewish section, the city is well supplied with fresh air and greenery. It recently acquired a well, but actually river water, which in summer is warm and smells boggy, is used in the city for all its needs. The city proper contains two squares, one old and one new, and 24 streets. The streets are unpaved due to a lack of stone within a 1mile radius, thus in the spring and fall there is mud that is difficult to traverse; it dries out rather quickly in the spring, however, and after a few days of good weather is ground to an extremely fine powder that rises in the air. The houses on the squares and Pańska Street are mostly one or twostory brick buildings; in the rest of the city, with few exceptions, they are onestory wooden structures. In 1859, all the city buildings were insured against fire in the general amount of 188,149 rubles, whereas today, for about 395,640 rubles. The Christian population, and to a small degree the Jewish population, works in the trades, which satisfy part of the city's needs, and also in the cultivation of gardens and farming. Nothing is produced for export. Manufacturing facilities consist of one brewery and two windmills, a steam mill 1 verst to the south, and 3 brickworks closer in the opposite direction. There is, in addition, a factory for the repair of farming machines and equipment in Pogórze, as well as a metalworking plant that employs 5 people. The population of the suburbs is solely agricultural and practices threefield rotation farming. It also earns a large profit from the transport of goods. Commerce is conducted almost exclusively by Jews, but there are 6 stores that are run by Christians, 2 with imported goods, 2 with rural products, one with fancy goods, and one with metal and machinery. Jews are employed largely in commerce, brokerage, and to a small degree the trades; Christians are largely agricultural workers. Annual sowing amounts to 1,780 bushels of winter and spring grain; they own 630 cattle, 455 horses, 80 sheep, and 800 pigs. The city pays an annual tax of 11,631 rubles and 51 kopecks[6]. The income of the city coffers is 5,311 rubles and 87 kopecks.
There is currently only one Roman Catholic, formerly Dominican, church in Hrubieszow; the parish church was taken down at the order of the Austrian government in 1786 as it was in danger of collapse. There are two Orthodox churches, one old Uniate church, St. Nicholas's, built of brick in 1808 by the parishioners in partnership with the squire and restored and covered in metal siding in 1871; this church's belltower was bricked and covered in metal siding in 1870 with funding by the Hrubieszow townsman Antoni Hajwiński. All three previous parishes were incorporated into this church after the old ones were dismantled and the lots sold by the Austrian government. The other is the church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary, erected in 1873 with funding by the government. There are two Jewish synagogues: both are brick, one old one and a new one built in place of the older one erected in 1578, which survived until it was replaced in 1874. There are three hospitals: the first is St. Jadwiga's, built of brick in 1858 and equipped with funding by the citizens of the county; the second is St. Edmund's, intended for those suffering from secret diseases,[7] erected anew with funding by the Agricultural Society of Hrubieszow; the third, the Jewish one, was built of brick in 1844 with funding by the Jewish community. There are two oldage homes, one called Holy Ghost, equipped by half of the funds after the church of the same name burned down in 1803, and the other connected to the church of St. Nicholas, founded by Jan III.[8] There were two mills at Hrubieszow on the Huczwa River until 1860, but after they were destroyed by sudden spring flooding, they were not rebuilt due to sanitary considerations. As a result, the pond (which extended over 120 morgen) turned into a beautiful meadow with a deep substrate of peat, which has started to be extracted for heating the steam mill, built outside the city of Hrubieszow to replace the destroyed water mills. The dismantling of the mills lowered the water level, and the city became substantially drier. In 1881, the post and telegraph office sent out 4,273 telegrams and received 4,059. The middle school[9] is located in what was previously the Dominican monastery. There were formerly only three grades, then Staszic[10] committed 60,000 zlotys;[11] the interest from this sum paid for the professor of a fourth grade. This bequest is made under the condition that if the school is moved out of Hrubieszow, then this capital returns to the treasury of the Agricultural Society of Hrubieszow. In the school year 188182, there are 187 pupils, of which 95 are Catholics, 82 are Orthodox, 1 is Protestant, and 9 are Jews. There are 8 teachers, including the inspector, in addition to 2 priests of the Catholic and Orthodox faiths, who teach religion. There are 4 grades and a fifth preparatory. In addition, there are three elementary schools: the first is a twograde boy's school in Hrubieszow (56 pupils: 17 Catholics, 39 Orthodox, 2 teachers); the second is a girl's school (29 pupils: 8 Catholic, 15 Orthodox, 6 Jewish); the third elementary school is in Sławęcin (50 pupils: 28 Catholic, 22 Orthodox). The Agricultural Society donates 235 rubles annually for the maintenance of the elementary schools and 85 wagons of firewood. By means of a charter granted by Władysław Jagiełło[12] on 29 September 1400 in Lviv, mindful of the destruction of the Ruthenian lands and wishing to ensure an income to his treasury from the village of Rubieszów, located in the Chełm lands, elevated it to the status of city. (In old acts, Hrubieszow bore the name Rubieszów; even Staszic, in his decree, calls it Rubieszów everywhere.) In the named charter, the king conferred the right of inheritance of the mayoral advocacy[13] in Hrubieszow to Bartłomiej, a citizen of Chełm, for 100 grzywnas in Prague groschen,[14] assigning to him two łans of fields, a pond on the Uczew River with the right to erect a mill in a place that would not be detrimental to the royal mills, having the ability to grind all kinds of grain with the exception of malt;
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also half the proceeds from animal slaughter, and from bakery, shoemaking, and fishing stalls, as well as half the proceeds from the bathhouse he was to build, granting him every third grosz of legal fines and every sixth from rents, obligating him and his descendants to serve in war with lance and one bow. He also imposed the obligation on said Barłomiej to measure out łans, that is, allowances of land for the residents, as many as possible, from which łans after ten years the residents should be able to pay 3 zlotys rent each and a 6 groszy tithe each. And he conferred the Magdeburg Law upon the residents for the successful growth of the city, freeing them from the jurisdiction of all Starostas[15], castellans, and governors in all greater and lesser matters, murders, thefts, and other transgressions, making them subject to his own jurisdiction (if they are summoned there by a royal letter with seal) or to that of the mayoral advocacy court, with the right to punish all crimes and execute guilty persons locally. This same king, in the year 1400 on St. Remigius's day,[16] founded the Church of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Hrubieszow, reserving for himself and his successors the right to appoint the rector and granted such to the management of Wacław Łaski, a royal notary. He conferred upon the church the socalled Szczepanowski threshing barn, a residence, a house for brewing beer, a brewery, that is, a malt house, two gardens, that is, yards, a meadow, six serfs with fields and meadows in the village of Pobereżany, four gardeners on the grounds of the church, requiring these latter to give on St. Martin's Day[17] 10 groszy each for wax and a lamp that should burn before the Holy Sacrament, enjoining the advocatemayor Batłomiej to record all this and give it into the possession of the rector. He permitted the possession of a tavern as a benefice to the parish priest, assured free tree felling in the forests for him and his serfs in Pobereżany, free grist without measure, a tenth part of salt, and one tenth of sheaves of all manner of grain and seed from crown manorial estates in Hrubieszow, Czerniczyna, Borodyca, Dyakonów,[18] Szpikołosy, Ślipiec, Cześniów, Busieniec, Huszcza, from this last of which also a barrel of fish and a barrel of honey, and from the gentry manorial estates of Gródek, Czumów, Walicz, Terchińce, Terchińska Wola, Hussynne, and Ohrowiec; in addition, according to the old custom of cities and villages located in the Ruthenian lands, he obligated all the residents of Hrubieszow and others who have fields there to provide one bushel of rye per łan and two bushels of oats per łan on St. Martin's Day. The part of Red Ruthenia that was the Bełz Duchy[19] remained for a time in the possession of the Mazovian dukes, and these created new settlements and granted rights to existing ones. Władysław, duke of Mazovia and Bełz, granted various charters to new cities, among others for a municipal pond and market tariff. This same duke endowed a church with monastery to the Dominican fathers, endowing them with the village of Zadubce; for residents of the Greek rite, he built an Orthodox church dedicated to St. Nicholas, with the appropriate endowment of the parish priest. A castle was built, and the city began to grow so quickly that already in 1411, after his return from Hungary from visiting Emperor Sigismund,[20] Władysław Jagiełło met in Hrubieszow with Witold, grand duke of Lithuania; with him also delegates from this same Sigismund came to see Władysław asking for a loan of 80,000 zlotys of the time, for which sum they were offering the Spisz lands as collateral.[21] This gathering of rulers and delegates allows one to surmise that the city was already at a certain level of wealth and could possess an expansive castle capable of accommodating such a large number of people. The following year, in 1412, Władysław Jagiełło visited the city again on his way to Horodło[22] for a meeting between Lithuania and the Crown.[23] The city did not enjoy peace and quiet for long because the king's brother Swidrygiełło, who became grand duke of Lithuania after Witold's death, started a war with the king, wanting to take possession of Podolia and Ruthenia, and in 1433 there was a battle at Hrubieszow in which the king's troops were defeated and taken captive, and for a long time afterward Duke Fedko Ostrogski battled in these parts. Given the way in which battles were waged at the time, consisting of destruction with fire and sword, the city fell into substantial decline. Kazimierz Jagiellończyk,[24] in Sandomierz on the eve of Epiphany in 1450,[25] confirmed the charters of Władysław of Mazovia and ordered merchants and carters traveling from the Ruthenian lands with all manner of goods to Radom, Poznań, Wrocław, and other cities to go through Hrubieszow and there to pay a tariff, and the income from the tariff he earmarked for the benefit of his mother, Queen Zofia.[26] The commercial road leading to Hrubieszow had to go directly to the city, for this same king, on Tuesday, St. Thomas's day in 1456,[27] in Grodno, grants the Hrubieszow Jew Michel the right to buy and sell wine and all manner of goods in all of Poland and even to transport them to other states and frees him of responsibility to all courts in the land, reserving for himself judgement of grievances against him, and further, by a charter awarded in Grodno in that same year on St. Clement's day,[28] he frees said Michel from paying any tariff in the land. In 1459 on St. John the Baptist's Day,[29] King Kazimierz, having borrowed 500 zlotys from Jan Kuropatwa, the Lublin chamberlain, offered Hrubieszow with the villages belonging to it as collateral, with the proviso that until the sum is repaid all income will belong to said Kuropatwa. In 1470, at the general congress in Tarczyn on the Eve of Christmas, the king borrows 1,400 Hungarian zlotys from Jacob of Sienna and secures it with the Hrubieszow tariff. In 1473, on the Wednesday after St. Mark's Day,[30] upon the representation of Paweł of Grabów, the Bishop of Chełm, the bishop's cathedral was moved to Hrubieszow after Chełm was burned as to a place that was fertile, more populous, and located almost in the center of the diocese; the city did not enjoy the bishop's residence for long, however, because in 1490, upon the efforts of Maciej of Łomża, the Chełm nominee,[31] it was moved to Krasnystaw.[32] In 1475 in Łuków, Kazimierz Jagiellończyk borrows 200 Polish zlotys from the treasurer Paweł of Jasieniec and secures [the loan] with the city of Hrubieszow and the villages belonging to it. In this same year, he takes 2,400 zlotys in pure gold real weight from the naturalborn Deszbor, giving him as collateral Hrubieszow with the villages belonging to it as well as Czystkowice with the ability to possess it and use its income until the debt is repaid. In 1484, on St. Peter's Day, the king, having inherited half the house in the city of Hrubieszow belonging to the burgher Mysz after his death, upon the petition of Paweł of Jasiniec, the Sandomierz castellan, gave ownership of it to Jan Dąbski and his successors. In 1493, after the death of Hrubieszow townsman Jerzy Kiesh, Jan Albrecht[33] inherited by this same right the house with a square and brewery located next to the manorial estate of Marcin Razor on one side and the merchant Misz the Ruthenian on the other and conferred it upon his courtier Mikołaj Wydżdż. In this same year of 1493, on Thursday after Epiphany, Jan Albrecht grants the Hrubieszow tariff to the Hrubieszow Jew Schach Szachniewicz on a threeyear lease, starting on St. Stanisław's Day;[34] then in Piotrków on the Friday before Lent in that same year, he divides the property of their father between this same Szach Szachowiecz[35] and his brother Moszek Mordacz. The attack of the Tatars in 1498 and two in 1500 so destroyed and ravaged Hrubieszow that Jan Albrecht, in Kraków on Thursday before Palm Sunday in 1501, in response to the representation made by Jakób Buczacki, the Starosta of Chełm and Hrubieszow, wishing to come to the aid of the ruined and burned city, releases the city from all taxes and burdens for 10 years. Another attack in 1502 ruined the city completely. King Aleksander,[36] wanting to raise it, reaffirms the charters of Władysław Jagiełło and simultaneously that same day, that is, on the Thursday before the holiday of Sts. Filip and Jakub in 1502,[37] established two fairs: one on Ascension Day,[38]
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and the other on the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross,[39] as well as a market once a week on Thursdays so that merchants, according to the custom of the Ruthenian lands, and people of all stations could participate. Moreover, by a charter issued in Minsk on the Friday after the Ascension of the Blessed Virgin Mary of this same year of 1502, bridge tolls and the tariff that had always been collected were allowed to revert to the benefit of the city; moreover, on this same day and year through a different charter, he freed the residents from paying the alcohol tax for one year. The recovering city was once again ruined by the Tatars in 1506. In addition, the city was burdened by the local Starosta Jerzy Krzepski, who, called before King Zygmunt[40] I by the advocatemayor, Jan Bochotnicki, was sentenced by [the king], in a judgement issued in Kraków on Palm Sunday in 1507, for all his outrage and abuses, to compensate the residents for their losses and damages and the payment of costs. In 1511 in Breść Litewski, King Zygmunt confirmed all the prerogatives and freedoms bestowed by his predecessors. This same king often stayed at Hrubieszow Castle and even signed some charters for the city of Horodło there, and in 1518, on Tuesday after St. Łucja Day,[41] he renewed for the citizens of the city of Hrubieszow the charter for the city pond, allowing the benefits from it to be used for the needs of the city. In 1519, the city was once again destroyed by the Tatars, as a result of which Zygmunt I, at the Sejm[42] in Kraków on the fifth Sunday of Lent in 1523 at the request of Andrzej of Tenczyn, the governor of Sandomierz and Hrubieszow and the Bełz Starosta, released the citizens of the city of Hrubieszow for one year from the obligation of providing conveyance or any board and lodging for him, his delegates, and his courtiers, and in 1524 he prolonged this release for one more year. In 1526 Hrubieszow was again destroyed by the Tatars. Zygmunt I, in response to another plea from Andrzej Tenczyński, on the Friday before St. Agnes's Day in 1526,[43] compensating this disaster at the Sejm in Piotrków, grants the city a tavern with the freedom to import and sell alcoholic beverages in it for the use of the city and freed the residents from the obligation of conveyance, carts, and couriers for one year. In 1527, he confirms King Aleksander's charter of 1502 for the collection of tariffs and bridge tolls for the benefit of the city. In this year, the charter confirmed by Władysław of Mazovia granting the Dominicans Zadubie [is reaffirmed]. Since merchants traveling to the fairs in Kraków, Poznań, and Lithuania bypassed Hrubieszow for the purpose of avoiding the payment of tariffs were accused of this by Andrzej of Tenczyn, they were obligated by a decree of Zygmunt I on Saturday after St. Peter's Day[44] in 1532 to travel back and forth by no other route than through Hrubieszow and Chełm, paying the requisite tariff. Then King Zygmunt, on Friday after St. Martin's Day in 1532 in Kraków, grants a new charter for collecting a market fee of two denars for each bushel of grain brought to market and from each quartern of honey for the general benefit of the city, but also obligated each individual resident to deliver 4 oaks for the castle's repairs annually according to the orders of the Starosta or deputy Starosta. In 1538, the citizens of the city of Hrubieszow appeared before the king in Niepołomice to accuse the citizens of the cities of Chełm and Krasnystaw that these are refusing to supply conveyance, as a result of which the entire burden falls on Hrubieszow; the opposing side presented a document that it was released from this obligation, but by a royal decree issued in 1540 they were obligated to pay the citizens of Hrubieszow 20 marks each annually in perpetuity in place of supply wagons, the whole burden for which fell on Hrubieszow. In 1544 a fire destroys the city and along with it the Dominican church and monastery. In 1546, Adam, the Greek Orthodox parish priest of Hrubieszow, obtained consent for himself from the king for three workshops, that is, shares in the Bochnia salt mines that he had bought. Zygmunt August,[45] who often stayed at Hrubieszow Castle, was also generous in his grants to the city. This king, wishing to expand and strengthen the castle, makes an arrangement with the Dominicans, on the strength of which the convent gives up the lot adjoining the castle, on which the church and the monastery were built before the fire, in exchange for two lots located closer to the city square, called Granatowskie; this exchange was made in Wilno on 29 March 1549. Later that same year, on 21 June, he releases the city for 3 years from having to supply 4 oaks to the castle. In 1550, in Piotrków, he permits the city to take possession of all the lots on which during the course of one year the former residents do not start building, and in order to facilitate the rebuilding, he grants it the right of wood felling in the forests of the Luboml Starostwo . This same king conferred upon the city a seal depicting a stag's head, between the horns of which are placed two crosses and surrounding which is the inscription Sigillum Civitatis Hrubieszow.[46] The Hrubieszow mayoral advocacy, with its fields, meadows, gardens, and all appurtenances, he issues to Jędrzej Dąmbrowski, the Hrubieszow Starosta. The permitted wood felling in the forests of the Luboml Starostwo was of little help to the city due to its great distance; therefore, the king issues a new charter on 16 October 1551 allowing the residents free wood felling for fuel and construction in the forests of the Hrubieszow Starostwo . So much benefaction shown by the king and his predecessors contributed in no small measure to the success of the city; for this reason, it became fortified, was entrenched and strengthened with a rampart; two gates, from Bełz and from Sławęcin, closed off the city, outside of which were three suburbs named Sławęcin, Podgórze, and Chrust; this last is currently within the boundaries of the city. Another Greek Orthodox church was erected, Holy Cross, with a separately endowed parish priest to whom the villages of Pobereżany, Wolica, Borodyca, and Swierszowa were added. Previously, the Roman Catholic church and hospital of the Holy Ghost, to which church Zygmunt August, on 24 December 1547, allocated a tithe of all grain and seed from the villages of Jarosławce and Rochatycz, had been funded by voluntary donation of the city residents, half of which was to be for the parish priest and half for the maintenance of the poor; he conferred upon the magistrate of the city the right to put forward the rector, pending confirmation by the Starosta. A survey from 1554 shows gross income from the Starostwo of 4,092 zlotys 10 groszy in the currency of that time, and the income of the city was given as 133 zlotys 5 groszy; this same source lists the price of grain per bushel: rye, 4 zl.; wheat, 10 zl.; barley, 6 zl.; oats, 5 zl.; buckwheat, 8 zl.; peas, 10 zl.; millet, 8 zl.; flax seed, 10 zl.; hemp seed, 5 zl. The residents, who had temporarily been freed by the king from provision of supply wagons, continued to refuse to do so; those summoned to the king in this regard by the royal courtier Stanisław Noskowski in Krasnystaw in 1558 were absolved from Noskowski's claims. On Monday after St. Agnes's Day at the Sejm in Piotrków on 12 March 1565, he gave the tithe from half of the castle's income from the manorial estates of Czerniów, Kosmów, and Slipcz to the Dominicans. That same year on 8 July, the king, after borrowing 16,000 zlotys in Kmiczyn from the Bełz governor and HrubieszowStarostaAndrzej Dąbrowski, gives him Hrubieszow with all the villages belonging to it as collateral. On 21 November 1576, Stefan Batory[47] gives lifetime possession of the Starostwo of Hrubieszow to Andrzej Tęczyński and his wife Zofia, neé Dębowska, and on 18 December of this same year he issues the aforementioned Andrzej, count of Tęczyn, a charter for the purchase of the Hrubieszow mayoral advocacy. This same king, on 12 December 1578, at the request of Andrzej Tęczyński, grants a charter to the Jews of Hrubieszow for the building of a school, houses for the cantor and rabbi, freeing them from obligations and liabilities to the city, moreover allowing the Jews in the city to engage in all commerce and to slaughter and sell meat, to build stores and stalls in the market square and to sell in them, to set up breweries and brew beer in them, to sell alcoholic beverages and food of all kinds,
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to buy houses on the market square and throughout the city and live in them, allowing them absolutely all the rights and prerogatives on an equal basis with those of Christian citizens, obligating them to bear all the burdens together with them; because of the permitted slaughter, he places upon the Jews the obligation to give 15 stone[48] of tallow to the castle annually, and however many times the townspeople are forced to take oaks, metal, or other necessities to the castle, the Jews had the obligation to give 2 measures[49] of nails. This same king, at the request of Tęczyński and the whole populace of the city of Hrubieszow, allows the Jew Abraham, as a result of his proven good performance, to keep for life the taproom he had kept hitherto, with the obligation to pay annually 60 Polish marks for the needs and fortification of the city and supply annually one good harquebus. In Brześć Litewski on 8 November 1588, Zygmunt III[50] confers the Hrubieszow Starostwo and mayoral advocacy for life upon Stanisław Żółkiewski. This same Żółkiewski, on 20 November 1592, enters into an agreement with the city, on the strength of which the city relinquishes to him the right to the pond outside the city and Żółkiewski frees the townspeople from transporting oaks from the forest called Huszcza, reserving the obligation to transport grain there; he also releases the townspeople from repairing the levees, and only because the town collects the bridge fee are the townspeople required to repair this bridge at the sluice; finally, he permits the townspeople to fish in the shallows of the river below the levees. This agreement was confirmed by Zygmunt III in Warsaw on 23 May 1593. At this same time, trade guilds started to be created in the city, confirmed by the king or the Starosta; and so, in 1605 at the Sejm in Warsaw, Zygmunt endorsed the enactment of the furrier guild, in 1615 the tailors guild, confirmed by theStarostaŻółkiewski, also the bakers guild; in 1616 the establishment of the shoemakers guild is confirmed by the king; in 1617 the establishment of the following guilds are confirmed by the king: blacksmiths, cartwrights, saddlers, metalworkers, armorers, goldsmiths, and shingle makers. And on 24 October 1619, the guild of weavers was approved by Jan Żółkiewski, the Hrubieszow Starosta. On 26 June 1630, Zygmunt III, in Warsaw, at the request of Metadiusz Terlecki, the bishop of Chełm, confirmed the founding of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Greek Uniate church, built of brick and outfitted by Sofroni Kocula, a Hrubieszow townsman; the successors of this Kocula added a łan of fields bought from Marek Demkowicz for the benefice of the parish priest, and they obtained the authorization for the erection of the church from Władysław IV[51] in Wilno on 9 February 1633. On 5 March 1519, Zygmunt III confirmed Zygmunt August's conferral of the free right to wood felling in the Luboml and Hrubieszow forests. Acts of the town councillors from 1606 can be found in the archives of the Hrubieszow petty court, with various discontinuities during times of disturbances. They encompass sales, bequests, testaments, judgements both civil and criminal, these latter usually very harsh; there is reference in them to a peculiar custom according to which, during the purchase of real estate, the purchaser is given a green branch by the town councillors that is carried throughout the whole city, announcing the purchase, followed by a purchase drink, the cost of which was included in the purchase agreement. A survey from this time shows that the residents paid 1 zloty 6 groszy each for 54.5 łans to the Starosta, which comes to 65 zlotys 12 groszy, additionally 6 groszy each to the parish priest. Of the 7 breweries, 2 marks each so that castle beer would not be brewed in them. Bakers, whose number varies but of whom there are now 12, paid 4 groszy each, which came to 1 zloty 18 groszy; shoemakers, of whom there are 26, pay rent of 8 groszy each, which comes to 6 zlotys 28 groszy; the bathhouse pays 26 zlotys in rent. Market fees, grazing fees, or rent comes to 60 zlotys; 26 zlotys rent from butchers, who give 3 groszy for each cattle shoulder and a shilling for a sheep shoulder; Jews pay 9 zlotys for 3 measures of nails; Jewish butchers give 15 stone of tallow, which at 1 zloty 10 groszy per stone comes to 20 zlotys. The two mills outside the city pay 700 zlotys rent. The income from the city comes to 1,111 zlotys 10 groszy; the income from the Starostwo is calculated as 11,318 zlotys. At that time, the following villages belonged to the Hrubieszow Starostwo : Pobereżany, Czerniczyn, Borodycz, Modryń, Mienczany, Kosmów, Bohutycze with its mill, Dyakonów, Szpikołosy, Jarosławiec, Putnowice, Busieniec with its mill, and Huszcza with two mills in Bełz Province and Jastrzębna Kola or Przyhorha in the Chełm lands. On 15 March 1627, Zygmunt III gave the vacated Hrubieszow Starostwo to his son Władysław. The survey conducted in 1628 refers to the survey of 1616 and shows the same income with minor differences. At the representation of the residents of Hrubieszow about bad roads and the need to install levees, Zygmunt III sent inspectors to the site; as a result of their report, Władysław IV, through a charter issued as early as during the coronation Sejm in Kraków on 16 March 1633, set a bridge toll at 1 grosz per horse or livestock, from which fund the residents are obligated to fix the levees and maintain the bridges in good condition. At this same Sejm, the king confirmed the charters issued to the city by Zygmunt I and Zygmunt August. In that same year on 10 March, the king gave this Starostwo to Rafał Leszczyński, the Bełz governor, with the obligation to pay the quarter tax,[52] and on 12 October 1639 he confers the Hrubieszow mayoral advocacy upon Anna Żyżyńska for life. In that same year, a great fire destroys the city as in the next year, in 1640, does the invasion of the Tatars. In 1641, Abraham Szlatkowski, the Chełm suffragan and Hrubieszow rector, takes some houses from the city that are located on the city rampart, demolishes them and adds the land to the presbytery, blocks off the street next to the river, and builds a distillery, making vodka and spirits; called before the king for this, after designating a commission on site for evaluation, he was sentenced on Friday before St. Prisca's Day[53] in 1643 to pay 4,000 zlotys to the city, as well as to the razing of the structures built by him. After which the king confirms the city's right to a monopoly on vodka, with the proviso that this income be used for improving the city. In 1646, when Władysław IV was gathering troops for the war with Turkey, the city suffered a great deal from their passage. Mention of this in the councilor's acts is as follows: after many trials from olden times, a terrible oppression came this year to the residents from soldiers, two kinds of bread, one for the regiment of Master Bieganowski in the winter and in the spring another for the regiment of the lord governor of Rawa, whom we paid 3,000 zlotys. Fourteen regiments coming and going to their camp took 1,500 zlotys from us. Three regiments of the king's guard, in which there were 600 people, these cost up to 3,000 zlotys, because they took eighteen and a half from the Jews, and sixteen and a half of combined municipal from the landlord, after which Korydynów's regiment came to overwinter and was a great burden because it cost each landlord 60 zlotys. God grant this never happen. Chmielnicki, who in 1648 got as far as Zamość, passed through Hrubieszow as well and destroyed the city and the castle; residents of the Uniate faith suffered the most, therefore Jan Kazimierz,[54] on 19 April 1652 in Warsaw, upon the representation of Jakub Susza, the Chełm Uniate bishop, allows Daniel Kocula, the presbyter of the Hrubieszow Orthodox church, rewarding him for his steadfastness in maintaining and spreading the faith during the Cossack rebellion, to brew mead without a fee twice a year for his needs, that is, on the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary and on Christmas, about which he informs Łukasz Opaliński of Bnin, the court marshal and Hrubieszow Starosta; this charter was confirmed in 1728 by August II.[55] This same Łukasz Opaliński, on lands belonging to
[Columns 87-88]
the Hrubieszow Starostwo on the territory of Chełm, founded the city of Opalin. The Tyszowce Confederation[56] brought the Swedes to these parts, and they destroyed the city, and then Rakoczy's passage there and back destroyed the city again.[57] So many calamities taking place one after the other led the previously wealthy city to ruin. A survey completed in 1661 shows the city's income as 243 zlotys and an income from the Starostwo of 3,000 zlotys. At that time, theStarostawas crown treasurer Mikołaj Daniłowicz, and the owner of the mayoral advocacy was Krzysztof Strojnowski. The 100,000 zlotys endowment of Archprincess Eleonora, the wife of Michał Korybut[58] and the same amount at the wedding by a Sejm pronouncement on 9 September 1670 was secured, among other Starostwos, by Hrubieszow. An attack by the Tatars in 1672 again destroyed the city, but they were defeated outside Hrubieszow by Jan Sobieski.[59] Councilors' acts interrupted during this time mention nothing of this except for a folk legend about this by the naming of Tatar Hill. Since the income of Chełm Cathedral fell so much that they were insufficient to maintain the chapter house, a pronouncement of the coronation Sejm in 1676 joined the Hrubieszow parish to this cathedral. As a result of a complaint by the townspeople, Jan Bełchacki, the Ruthenian master of the hunt,[60] came to the castle on behalf of the Hrubieszow Starosta and heard the accounts of Szajewicz, the major, of the sum of 1,618 zlotys, accepted an expense of 1,006 zlotys for establishing a city drain, and the remaining 612 zlotys he recommended returning in installments, ordering this sum be used for the construction of a city hall. He ousted Szajewicz from his post as major. On 23 November 1693, at the intercession of Marek Matczyński, Ruthenian governor, and at the request of the townspeople of Orthodox faith, Jan III [Sobieski] of Żółkiew, while retaining all rights and appurtenances belonging to the Orthodox Church of St. Mikołaj, funds a hospital, adding a field in the oak woods located beyond Sławęcin and a walled garden for the rector, and for the brotherhood, a łan of field called Turczyński in the Uszów valley, with a garden and orchards beyond the keep; for the hospital, a half łan of field along the Sokalski road and a garden. In 1709, the city was afflicted with the plague, then the battles of Hetman Sieniawski with the adherents of Leszczyński and Charles I again destroyed the city,[61] so that it could no longer reach the state and wealth in which it was prior to 1639. The Catholic and Orthodox churches were rebuilt, however, as was attested by the visits of the bishops of Chełm Krzysztof Szambek on 16 October 1714 and Józef Lewicki on 21 July 1721. And the Dominicans started to convert the church and monastery to brick and completed the task with the help of the Kuropatnickis and the Kurdwanowskis; the tombs of both these families are in the church crypts. On 23 November 1722, August II confirmed the charters granted to the city by his predecessors. The Hrubieszow Starostwo was from March 1705 in the possession of Stanisław Potocki, Lithuanian Starosta, who in 1727 abdicated this position at Bełz Castle to Franciszek Salezy Potocki, which was confirmed by the king on 22 June 1727. The survey of 1765 presents the following state of the city: 26 Christian houses, 13 houses on Wójtowska Street, 24 on Sokalska Street, 25 on Zamojska Street, 17 belonging to the parish church, 8 belonging to the Dominicans, 5 to St. Mikołaj's Orthodox Church, 101 in the suburb of Sławęcin; altogether 375 houses.[62] The income from the taproom along with middleman fees is 27,575 zlotys, the pond, which gets filled, brings in 700 zlotys. Tributes: Huszcza, 133 zlotys from Jews and 465 zlotys from Christians. Rents from empty fields: 66 zlotys 20 groszy from townspeople. Rent from the bakers and tailors guilds and the brewery from Jews, 18 zlotys. Nail and tallow fees from Jews, 432 zlotys. Fishing fees from Christians and Jews, 100 zlotys; from Christian butchers, 100 zlotys. Fencing fees from Catholics and Jews, 40 zlotys. Bequest fees from Christians, 324 zlotys; from Jews, 282 zlotys. The total income from the Starostwo, together with the cities of Opalin, Huszcza, and Jastrzębina Wola, was 60,045 zlotys and 15 groszy. As a result of the first partition of the country,[63] Hrubieszow passed under Austrian control. After the death of Franciszek Salezy Potocki, the last Starosta, the Austrian government took over the city of Hrubieszow and the villages belonging to it and then exchanged them for salt works with Ignacy, Count Cetner, the Bełz governor. During the exchange of the property, that is, during the preliminary agreements regarding this exchange, the Austrian government completed an inventory on 7 March 1788, according to which the city was obligated to pay the following: (1) a monetary tribute to Huszcza, which the Hrubieszow townspeople were obligated to pay instead of transporting grain to the village of Huszcza, 457 zlotys; (2) for the pasturage next to the cemetery stretching toward the village of Grudek, 58 zlotys 20 groszy; (3) fishing fee, 58 zlotys 20 groszy; (4) rent from Catholic butchers, 100 zlotys; (5) from bakers and shoemakers, 6 zlotys; (6) to Huszcza from Jews, 135 zlotys; (7) fishing fees from Jews, 33 zlotys 10 groszy; (8) tallow fees from Jews, 216 zlotys; (9) brewery fees from Jews, 12 zlotys; (10) nail fees from Jews, 136 zlotys: (11) fencing fees, 40 zlotys. These rents were paid up to 1866; in that year, with the enfranchisement of cities, they were cancelled without any compensation. A manor house still existed then in the city of Hrubieszow consisting of 12 rooms and a foyer, an annex with 6 rooms and a foyer and bakery, granary, stable, wagon house with a separate stable, barns, all wooden, a slaughterhouse behind the manor by the river, a mill with 4 millstones, and one lumbermill with 1 saw. The sum of net profit was calculated at 20,010 zlotys 20 groszy. The exchange of the Hrubieszow properties was accomplished by a reconciliation agreement on 7 December 1799 between the imperial treasury and Ignacy Cetner and confirmed by an imperial decree of 16 February 1802. As a result, Count Cetner, the Bełz governor, by a decree of the Lviv forum nobelium[64] of 20 May 1803, was entered into the land registry as the owner. Before the act of exchange could receive highest authorization, Ignacy Cetner, along with his daughter Anna Potocka, later duchess of Lorraine, sold the properties formerly forming the Hrubieszow Starostwo the city of Hrubieszow with the mayoral advocacy and the castle environs; the villages of Pobereżany, Czerniczyn, Borodyce, Dyakonów, the part of Szpikołosy called Starościńska, Jarosławice, Busienia, and part of Putnowice by private contract agreed to in Lviv on 30 March 1800 to Aleksander and Anna neé Zamojska, duke and duchess of Sapieha, for the appraised sum of 700,000 zlotys. Monsignor Stanisław Staszic concluded and signed the contract on behalf of the Sapiehas as a special plenipotentiary. It turned out, however, that the Sapieha duke and duchess were only the surrogate owners, whereas Staszic was acquiring the abovementioned properties for himself; because he was not nobility, he was not permitted to acquire properties in his own name in Austria. Therefore, by an act of 20 February 1801, Aleksander Sapieha transferred all rights to the Hrubieszow properties to his wife, Anna, who then, with her husband's authorization, by an act of 28 March 1801, declared that Stanisław Staszic had indeed purchased the Hrubieszow properties for himself, and she signed off on the appraisal of 700,000 zlotys paid, having given him previously, on 19 March of that year, unlimited plenipotentiary powers to dispose of the abovementioned properties. This act was not divulged in the land registry by Staszic because he could not prove his noble ancestry. Only after this part of the country became part of the Duchy of Warsaw[65] did Duchess Sapieha cede the abovementioned Hrubieszow properties in favor of and to the person of Monsignor Staszic by a contract signed before Walenty Skorochód Majewski on 19 August 1811 in Warsaw and allowed the rewriting of the title of ownership in the books of the Lublin department. This contract was written into the land registry under the date 13 March 1812 as number 18 on page 370. In 1801 and 1803, substantial fires destroyed the city; its growth did not resume until 1806, when the office of the underprefecture, the petty court, and a middle school[66] were located in Hrubieszow. During the time of the founding of the Hrubieszow Agricultural Society by Staszic, the city, owning its own hereditary grounds, did not want to join this society, so it was joined only by the hereditary parts, that is the mayoral advocacy and castle environs;
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however, Staszic always accorded the city certain advantages, such as providing mortgage loans for land and brick houses, and whoever in the city as well as in the whole society builds a brick house from the ground up and covers it with nonflammable material will get a refund of onequarter the value of this house. From the time of the founding of this society, 38 houses were built of brick in the city and covered in nonflammable material, for which 33,228 rubles 52 kopecks were paid. Of these, Christians built 13 bricked houses and received 12,198 rubles 37 kopecks, and Jews built 25 bricked houses and received 21,030 rubles 75 kopecks. The capital lent to the city amounted to 43,646 rubles, at an annual rate of 5.5 percent and a 20year amortization. The famous mechanic and mathematician Abraham Stern was born in the city of Hrubieszow in 1769. The Hrubieszow parish of the deanery bearing this same name numbers 3,720 souls. The township[67] of Hrubieszow belongs to the township court of the third circuit in Dyakonów, where the township offices are located. Its area is 12,013 morgen, with a population of 4,023. The township includes the Antonowka manorial estate, the village of Bohorodyca, Białoskury, Czerniczyn, Dyakonów, the Jakubówka manorial estate, Kaźmierówka, Łotoszyny, the Makowszczyzna manorial estate, the Michałówka manorial estate, the village and manorial estate of Moroczyn, Pobereżany, the village and manorial estate of Swierszczów, the Szwajcary manorial estate, the village and manorial estate of Szpikołosy, the Teosin manorial estate, the Teresówka manorial estate, Tentiuków, the Wójtowstwo manorial estate, and Wolica Podhorecka. Hrubieszow County is currently only the northern part of the old county, out of which another, new county of Tomaszów was created in 1866. It is bordered on the north by Chełm County, on the east by Wołyń Guberniya, separated from it by the Bug River, on the south by Tomaszów County, and on the west by Zamość County. Its general area is 26.68 square miles. The northern part of the county, forming a triangle contained between the Wełnianka and Bug Rivers and separated on the south by a graveled road connecting Uchanie and Horodło, features a forested and marshy terrain, particularly on the banks of the Wełnianka and several streams carrying forest waters to the Bug River. This triangle, in terms of physiographical features, forms part of its neighboring Polesie. It is the least inhabited part of the county; villages placed themselves only on the edges of the triangle on the banks of the Wełnianka and Bug Rivers and along the gravel road; the center is composed of a forested terrain without villages or roads. Further south begins land that is hilly with fertile, clayey soil, part humus, having features in common with the neighboring Wołyń. Elevations are gradual and reach 900 feet on the western side between Uchanie and Grabowiec; going east, we encounter a gradual lowering such that the edges of the Bug valley lie at an elevation of 650 to 700 feet above sea level, and so 250 to 200 feet lower than the western part. Numerous populous and prosperous villages have settled on the fertile soil. Forests take up an area of 57,632 morgen, of which 46,149 morgen are unmanaged and 4,617 have established forestry management (in 1880). Cleared and not wooded forest areas cover 3,182 morgen. Small farmers owned only 195 morgen and received only 2,588 morgen for abolished servitudes;[68] 622 morgen belong to urban settlements. Manorial orchards take up 296 morgen and peasant orchards, 195 morgen. Agriculture, in spite of the richness of the soil, is not highly developed. Larger estates (over 1,000 morgen) predominate here, and there is a lack of smaller holdings. The main agricultural product is wheat, next to which, in smaller quantities, beets were grown for the sugar plant in Mircze. Manufacturing industry is little developed due to a lack of cities and commercial roads. There are 20 factories in the whole county, among which are 9 distilleries with a production value of 306,000 rubles, one sugar plant producing a value of 62,000 rubles, one steam mill (Pobereżany) with production worth 28,000 rubles, 6 small breweries, 1 distillery, and 2 mead breweries. The general production value amounts to 413,209 rubles. The main means of transport is the Bug River, which, due to the changeable state of the water presents many difficulties during the floating of lumber and grain. There are no gravel roads at all here due to a lack of stone, with the exception of a small section from Lublin to Uściług;[69] the usual roads are impassable during rains or thaws because of the clayey ground. The population of the county numbers 78,226 souls; there are 72 elementary schools. As for courts, Hrubieszow County is divided into four petty courts: Jarosławiec, Grabowiec, Dyakonów, and Mądryniec; and administratively, into 13 townships: Białopole, Grabowiec, Horodło, Hrubieszow, Jarosławiec, Kryłów, Miętkie, Mircze, Miączyn, Mołodziatycze, Moniatycze, Mieniany, Werbkowice. The Hrubieszow deanery of the Lublin Roman Catholic diocese consists of 8 parishes: Dubienka, Grabowiec, Horodło, Hrubieszow, Kryłów, Moniatycze, Trzeszczany, and Uchanie. The Hrubieszow deanery of the former Chełm Greek Uniate diocese was divided in 1863 into 18 parishes: Chyżowice, Czerniczyn with a branch in Masłomęcz, GrudekNadbużny, Hołubie, Hostynne, Hrubieszow, Kryłow with a branch in Prehoryl, Mircze, Modryń, Mołodziatycze, Nieledew, Pawłowice, Peresołowie with branches in Bohutycze and Gdeszynie, Podhorce on Huczwa with a branch in Gozdów, Ślipcze with branches in Czumów and Mienie, Szychowice with a branch in Małków, Terbiń, and Berbkowice. The Hrubieszow Orthodox deanery, Chełm district. Gus. Grot., W. Bystrz., Br. Ch.[70]
Footnotes:
Volume XXIXXXV
Warsaw 1902 (p. 422)
Translated by Dobrochna (Dosia) Fire
Hrubieszowcounty seat in Lublin Province on the Huczwa River. Consists of the city proper and 3 suburbsSławęcina, Pogórze, and Pobereżany. The population was occupied with trades and orchard keeping and agriculture. Commerce was almost exclusively in the hands of Jews. There were two synagogues, both made of brick. On 29 September 1400, Władysław Jagiełło, through a charter in Lviv, raised Hrubieszow to the rank of city. Later, Władysław, duke of Mazovia and Bełz, granted it new charters. Then a castle was built here in which Władysław Jagiełło met with Witold, the grand duke of Lithuania, in 1411.
Kazimierz Jagiellończyk in 1450 confirmed Władysław of Mazovia's charters. Tatar attacks, which destroyed the city completely each time, took place in 1498, 1500, 1502, 1511, 1526, and 1672. In 1511, King Zygmunt confirms all of Hrubieszow's charters in Brześć Litewski.
In 1544, Zygmunt August confers upon the city the seal of a stag's head with 2 crosses placed between its horns.
As a result of the first partition of Poland,[1] Hrubieszow passed under Austrian rule. In 1800, Stanisław Staszic acquires the city for himself. The residents of the city were enfranchised and freed from serfdom. Staszic then organized an Agricultural Society here, the statute of which was confirmed by the Austrian emperor.
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