Mathias Havel, my fourth great grandfather, lived in the small southern Bohemian farming village of Ratiborova Lhota, although at the time of his life (1740-1802) it was mainly known by its German name of Melhutka. Like four, and perhaps five, generations of Havel's before him, he died in the same house in which he was born. Most of the 18th century was part of what is called the second serfdom. The rulers of the Austro-Hungarian Empire worked to lessen, in hopes of abolishing the serf free labor requirements, but the implementation of their reforms were hindered by the lords of the operators of the large domains, county officials, and even some of the Empire's own men hired to institute the reforms. This is the second on a series of posts related to Mathias Hawel and his obligations to the Krumlau Domain in southern Bohemia, and will primarily focus on his payment obligations to the estate.
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| Mathias Havel 1773 Urbarium Record, part 1 |
As we found out in last week's post, life of a peasant during the second serfdom in Bohemia was not easy, and the domain increased his days of serf labor, even though the patents issued were to make life easier for the serf. Yet, Mathias lived to see more freedom given to his children, such as who they could marry, and where they could live, and take on a craft without approval. Similar to the information in last week's post, the information for this post primarily comes from the 1773 Urbarium record I located in the online Trebon Archives. I had that record transcribed from German and then translated to English. Let us explore what Mathias owed to the estate. Before payments, let me explain about his land. After discussing land, the first exploration will be of the rent owed, and then I will focus on the goods he was required to provide.
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| Mathias Havel 1773 Urbarium Record, part 2 |
Mathias had a house (#15) and other property in the village of Ratiborova Lhota. He acquired the rights to the property in about 1766, probably a year or less before his father died in February 1767. As the owner he would have acquired the contracts and obligations of his father when taking over the management of the property. The 1773 Urbarium record is only a few years after Mathias took over the farm, so while new as the head farmer, he was not new to farming. I am not sure of the size of the farm, which is important for taxation and payment purposes, but he was probably a third-farmer, which is about one-third of a whole farmer. A whole farmer would have had 60 acres. His approximate 20 acres of arable land which can be derived from the 1802 the property transfer records to his John shows arable land of just over 20 acres is consistent with the idea of one-third of a whole farm. While the Urbarium identifies 24 strich and 1 viertel (about 18 acres if in area) in a system of three (2/3 productive and 1/3 fallow for arable land) for the land, this identifier was probably for the amount of seed required to sow the fields. The woodlot was identified as having One and two-thirds strich. I don't know how a strich works for volume of wood, so perhaps the woodlot is area, but if it is area the woodlot is rather small at 1.18 acres. The cadastre on which this Urbarium is based is not specific to area of land, but rather sowing-based, hence why the thought is that the figures given are not land area as we know, but most likely amount of seed to sow arable land. We do know, from the 1802 conveyance of property to his son Johann that Mathias, at the time of his death in 1802 owned about 35.6 total acres, with 20.15 acres in arable land, 9.4 in meadow, and 6 in woodlot. Wright (p 126) notes that in one estate the average land holdings of 30 Metzen (about 15 acres) was generally sufficient to maintain regular serf payments for rent and fees. Although perhaps there was not much disposable income. If three was no heir for a farm, the property went back to the domain, who could keep it, or find another farmer, hence making the acquisition of additional property difficult. What is interesting is the Urbarium identifies no specific area for the meadow, but rather says "Area equivalent to a crop of 10 two-horse cart loads of hay and aftergrass." The size of the cart is related to a cart two horses would pull, and probably the same cart he used in his robot service. Land was important factor to both serf and the domain, and it determined payment, particularly for the state land tax liability.
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| Havel House in Ratiborova Lhota, circled, circa 1825, Stable Cadastre Map |
Mathias' share of the state land tax liability was 20 Rhenish Gulden, 54 Kreuzer and 0 Phennig in 1773. While the land was analogous to a long-term lease to the serf, the lord made the serf responsible for the taxes due. Part of the serf reforms instituted were to make sure a serf who had land taken away by the domain did not still have to pay the tax--that is how unjust the lord's were to the serfs. Or, the serfs were required by the seigneur to pay part of the share for the lord's land. It was the greatest unkept secret that the domain undercounted their lands for taxation, and the state often threatened a survey of property as the lord's intransigence to reform increased in the 1770's and 1780's. To delve into detail, the accounting system used here was 1 Rhenish Gulden (fl) was equal to 60 Kreuzer, and one Kreuzer was equal to six Phennig. In this way we see that Mathias' total land, property, tax liability was just shy of 21 Rhenish Gulden.
The land tax provides further glimpse into the life of Mathias. While not a Chalupnik, a quarter farmer, but not as large as a half farmer, he was in between--about a third farmer. The payment of about 21 Gulden's is the clue. This also verifies the arable land area from the sowing calculations and from Johann's purchase in 1802. The land tax liability was set at one-third of earnings. The Theresian cadastre, upon which the calculations were based used a whole farm (Ansässigkeit) as its basic unit, and from this assumed a total income of 180 fl for a whole farm, from which they assigned 60 fl (or one-third) as the tax liability. With Mathias' tax liability at 21 fl we can assume he had a farm size about 1/3 of the whole farm, or about 20 acres of arable land. There is a rather detailed method to arrive at area by use of seed sown from which to arrive at their assumed area of land. Land quality of each parcel would affect yield, but not likely significantly affect sowing of seed. To help make ends meet, the family likely engaged in some other craft. We know that Mathias' grandfather was a weaver, before taking over the farm from his father Georg. But, the land tax was only the first of other obligations he was required to pay.
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| Former Havel House, #15 Ratiborova Lhota, (left) Present day, from Google Maps |
Besides property tax, Mathias had to pay "leasehold house rent" to the domain on the two traditional Bohemian bi-annual payment dates of Georgi and Galli, meaning St George's Day, which is 24 April, and St Gall's Day, which is 16 October. Mathias likely would not forget the latter payment date, as the Havel surname is based on the Bohemian recognition for St Gall. Although, it could have been a downer to him to have the last annual tax date set on his surname's feast day. For his leasehold rent, Mathias was required to provide payment of one Rhenish Gulden, five Kreuzer, and five Phennig. While this record is somewhat ambiguous (is it that payment twice, or that total payment split between the two dates?) given other records it appears the identified payment was the total payment due and split between the two dates. Beyond this payment in currency he also had to pay with in-kind contributions.
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| Former Havel land, Indication Sketch of Stable Cadastre This property is east of Ratiborova Lhota |
Mathias was also required to provide what were referred to as grain tithes to the domain, although this was not a percent of yield. This provides us an idea of some of what he grew on the property under his management. The units used for the grain were the common volume, or land area measurements of the time, they were strich, viertel, and maaßl. I will not get into the detail of each, but leave it to a simple explanation of approximate equivalency that we Americans can understand. Mathias grew at least rye, barley and oats, of which oats had the largest tithe. His contribution to the domain for rye was just under 3.5 bushels; for barley it was just under two bushels; but his contribution of oats was over 5.5 bushels. I picture Mathias as a short, slender wiry man facing the dominating seigneur as he unloads his required obligations and hoping that the seigneur is not fair in his measurement.
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| Continuation of above parcel Indication Sketch of Stable Cadastre |
The most interesting contribution Mathias had to make was that of one-half shock of morel mushrooms. Yes, morel mushrooms. So we can take it that Mathias had morels grow in the woodland under his control. Morel mushrooms tend to grow in deciduous hardwood forest, so his woodland was probably oak, ash, elm, and perhaps some aspen trees mixed in. Morel mushrooms were a delicacy 250 years ago as they are today. One half shock is equal to 30 mushrooms. I wonder if he had to dry them or was required to provide them fresh. I can hear the estate command him to get fresh morel's to the lord, and on the double!
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| Former Havel parcel east of Village Indication Sketch of Stable Cadastre |
Mathias also had an annual quota of wood chopping, which we would know as firewood. His contribution to the domain for firewood, as recorded, was four and one-half Klafter. Here again, a klafter can be both a volume and area measurement. In this case volume is used, and one klafter is about 4 cubic yards meaning that overall Mathias' contribution of firewood was almost four cords of wood, 3.8 cords to be exact. A cord, is a stack of wood four feet high, by four feet deep, by eight feet long. Those four cords is what he had to provide to the domain, so it does not include the firewood he would have had to chop for his own use over the course of the year for essentials such as heat and cooking.
As if Mathias' individual contributions were not sufficient to please the domain, the community had to make additional contributions. These contributions were shared by each farmer in Ratiborova Lhota, with each farmers share decided by the village head, the Richter (Rychter). Another post will explore this community obligation. I hope that these blog posts provide an insight into the life of one peasant farmer in the small rural farming village of Ratiborova Lhota. Being a farmer, he was of a higher class than some other of our ancestors, as some were landless cottagers. Because of his occupation as a farmer, Mathias had greater obligations to the domain than cottagers, and day laborers.
Sources:
D'Amelio, Richard of Boheimb Research Services. April 2022, varied correspondence. (Many thanks to Richard for a great deal of information on this subject.)
D'Amelio, Richard of Boheimb Research Services. Transcription to German and then translation to English of the Urbarium records. (His services were engaged by the author.)
Himl, 2003 Die 'armben Leute und de Macht' Portion of this work translated and provided by Richard d' Amelio of Boheimb Research Services (April 2022)
Klein, Alexander and Sheilagh Ogilvie 2016, "Occupational Structure in the Czech lands under the second serfdom." Economic History Review, vol 69.
Velkostatek Český Krumlov, Urbarium, Ordinal 31, 1773 found at: https://digi.ceskearchivy.cz/134537/1/2651/814/78/0 (varied images)
Wright, William E. 1966. Serf, Seigneur, and Sovereign: Agrarian Reform in Eighteenth Century Bohemia, University of Minnesota Press.
Note: Mathias' son Johann transferred the land to Johann Mila in 1818,and that is why the Cadastral Indication Sketch shows Mila as the property owner. The Cadastral maps were generally accomplished in the 1820' to 1830's. In 1842 Johann Mila land transferred the land to Katarina Havel, Johann's daughter, who sold it in the same year to John and Anna Kozak.
Cadastre Maps from: https://ags.cuzk.cz/archiv/
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