Słownik N

Geography Maps Slownik Geograficzny Slownik N

Slownik Geograficzny Translations

Naliboki [now in Hrodna, Belarus]

Naliboki-- a small town, village and estate on the Lebiezada River in the 4th police administrative district of Oszmiana province, with gmina and rural districts administered from the town. It lies 70.2 miles from Oszmiana & 103.4 miles from Wilno. According to the town records, the hunting-ground town Naliboki has 233 inhabitants (100 men and 133 women); according to Korejwy, the town area has 111 homes, 2,342 inhabitants; according to more recent reports, the town area has 115 homes, 2,465 inhabitants (12 Orthodox, 2,358 Catholics and 95 Jews). There is present a wooden Catholic parish church, named Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, a Jewish (Yeshiva) school, the gmina administration, a gmina court and a public school. Situated in the midst of an extensive forest in which large deposits of excellent grade iron ore are found, Naliboki was famous as a Lithuanian foundry complex. On the Naliboki estate grounds at present, there is  large milling machinery as well as a factory providing forged and cast iron products on the Kletyszcze farmstead [ed.--apparently destroyed during World War II by either the Nazis or Soviets]. The yearly revenue taken from this operation is about 44,000 rubles.

Nicholas (the Black) Radziwill obtained Naliboki estate in 1555 from the Semiotte and Zawisza families. It later belonged to the Nieswisz inheritance [ed.-- or entail? as part of the Radziwill family activities centered in Nieswisz], and through this eventually passed to Duke Wittgenstein's ownership. It has remained the property of Duke Hohenlohe Schillingsfuerst up to 1881. Before the church was erected in Naliboki, there was a chapel. Following the provisions of the Nieswisz inheritance, it was provided with a chaplain by the Lacinski family. The first church was built out of wood in the year 1636 by Albrecht Radziwill, the Chancellor. Besides the pension received by the curate under the Nieswisz inheritance, interim funding was also made through assignments of fields and forests to the church. In 1655, Duke Albrecht bestowed a perpetual bequest to the church of Naliboki as a favor. This original church was allowed to fall into ruin for reasons unknown, and a new church was erected by the Radziwills in its place, which was consecrated in 1704 by the Bishop of Wilno, Konstanty Casimir Brzostowski. This church has been repeatedly renewed and restored at the expense of Radziwill princes, the last time in 1829. Recently, the present curate has required a substantial renovation.

 

This Catholic parish within the Wisniew deaconate has 4,344 faithful (2,113 men and 2,231 women). The Naliboki gmina belongs to the 3rd police district for peasant affairs at Wisniew and to the 4th conscription district of Oszmiana province headquartered in the town of Wolozyn. The gmina is composed of 3 rural districts (Naliboki, Prudy, and Pilnica), showing a count of 23 villages, 404 homes, and 3,628 peasant farmers. The figures include the town of Naliboki and the following villages: Naliboki, Nestorowicze, Jankowicze, Kreczety and Juridyka. The revision lists of 1865 identified 784 land-owning peasants, and 14 tenant or treasury farmers. Naliboki village has 14 revised peasant farmers [ed.-- this last passage still isn't clear].

 

Additional Slownik information on Naliboki from Volume XV: 

 

Naliboki- town in Oszmiana Province. A glass foundry located there was established by Princess Anna (nee Sanguszko) Radziwill, wife of the Lithuanian Chancellor Karol. The foundry was still in existence in 1820, when it began to decline. The Naliboki estate was acquired by the Falz-Feinow brethren in 1899. K. Lapczynski has provided a botanical description of the Naliboki forest in (Fizygr. Memoirs, L IV, pp. 189-195).

Editor's Note: All Slownik longitudes in this article have been converted to modern coordinates which is based on the Greenwich zero meridian. All Polish measurement units (land areas, distances, height above sea level, etc.) were converted to American-English equivalents.  Monetary units, where identified, were left in zlotys/zl. or rubles/rs.

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1885, vol. 6, p. 890; 1902, vol. 15, p. 369]

 

This translation, by Mike Gansecki, is used by permission.


Naumowicze

a village in Augustów county, in Łabno district, served by the Roman Catholic parish in Adamowicze (Orthodox in Łabno), about 58 km. from Augustów. It has 59 houses and 459 inhabitants, and covers 1,538 mórgs of land. In 1827 there were 44 houses and 267 inhabitants. It was part of the government owned estates of Łabno.

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1885, vol. 6, p. 935]

 

This translation, by William F. Hoffman, first appeared in the Spring 2000 issue of "Bulletin of the Polish Genealogical Society of America".


Netta

Netta, village and manorial farmstead, entailed estate, Augustów county, Kolnica gmina, Janówka parish, 10 versts [11 km.] from Augustów. It has 69 houses, 742 inhabitants. In 1827 the village, in Barglów parish, was owned by the government and had 66 houses and 402 inhabitants. In the 16th century there was supposedly a church here, a branch of the one in Barglów. The Netta manorial farmstead comprises an entailed estate granted to state councillor Chetyrkin. [No author named].

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1886, vol. 7, pp. 5-6]

 

This translation, by William F. Hoffman, first appeared in the Fall 2002 issue of "Rodziny, The Journal of the Polish Genealogical Society of America".


Nick

Nick, village on the river Dzialdówka, Mlawa powiat, Zielun gmina, Dlutowo parish, 38 km. from Mlawa. It has 23 houses, 199 inhabitants, and 726 mórgs of land; in 1827 it had 18 houses and 132 inhabitants.

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1886, vol. 7, p. 32]

 

This translation, by William F. Hoffman, first appeared in the Spring 1998 issue of "Bulletin of the Polish Genealogical Society of America".


Nieciecz

Nieciecz: the river begins in the Nowo-Radom district near Dworszewice and flows westwards by Sucha Wola, entering the Czestochowa district at Kielczyglowa. It then continues northwards, passes Glina, enters the Laski district and flows through Rusiec, Dabrowa, Chrosty, Zborow and Widawy and 2 wiorst later it enters, from the left bank, into the Widawka. It measures 32 wiorst. J. Bliz. [Piotrkow gubernia, Congress Poland]

 

Nieciecz: 1.) a village by the river Wieprz in the Nowy Aleksander district and Golab commune and parish. It has 6 settlements and used to belong to the Deblin lands. In 1827 there were 8 houses and 51 inhabitants. 2.) a village and farm in the Nowy Aleksander district, Szczekarkow commune and Opole parish. In 1827 there were 2 houses and 17 inhabitants. 3.) a peasant village in the Garwolin district, Wilga commune and Gozlin parish. It has 16 houses, 88 inhabitants and 175 morgs of land.  4.) a village in the Sokolwski district, Sabno commune, and Nieciecz parish. It has a wooden parish church established in 1457 by Stanislaw from Wierow. The present church was built in 1713. The village has 42 houses, 557 inhabitants and 1182 morgs of peasant land. In 1827 there were 25 houses and 208 inhabitants. The Nieczecz parish belongs to the Sokolowski deanery, previously the Wegrow one.

Nieciecz: 1.) or Nieciecza, a rivulet in the Lida district, a left tributary of the Dzitwa. 2.) Nieciecz or Nieciecza or Netecza. [Grodno gubernia, Russian Poland]

 

Nieciecz: 1) a village on the Nieciecza stream in the Lida district, Polish area, Lida commune and the rural precinct of Dabrowka. It lies 8 wiorst from Lida by the road leading to Lipniszki and has 17 houses, 181 inhabitants of whom 87 are revisionists. [Grodno gubernia, Russian Poland]

 

2.) gentry lands on the streamlet Nieciecza with 2 houses and 33 inhabitants. [Grodno gubernia, Russian Poland]

 

3.) or manorial, a farm and village in Bielica commune, Tobol rural precinct, 9 wiorst from the commune and 27 from Lida, on the road to Slonim with 21 houses and 275 inhabitants. Here stands the wooden Catholic Church of Jesus Christ, built by the hunter, Koluszewski, in 1715 and renovated in 1837. The Catholic parish belongs to the Lida deanery and has 1701 parishioners. Earlier, there was a chapel at the cemetery. The Swiezynski family owns Nieciecz.

 

 
 

Nieciecz: or Nieciecza, a water-course which emerges on the boundary between Uhelna and Bereznica in the Wiedernica woods in the Stryj district. It meanders eastwards making up the boundary of those communes and then crosses through the areas of Siechow, Balicz Podrozny and, south of the village Sulatycz, it falls into the Swica, from its left bank. It is 15 km long and its waters are murky. Br. G. [Galician Poland]

Nieciecza: a village included in the Czerski starost. See Czersk. [Congress Poland]

 

Nieciecza: 1.) a village in the Tarnow district. It is situated on the right bank of the Danube, in a river valley 186 m above sea level. The meandering river’s bed has been straightened here. It belongs to the Roman Catholic parish in Otwinow. The post office is in Zabno, 0.4 km away. It has a public school and a lending bank holding 1397zloty. Earlier, the St. Thomas prebend existed here. The village has 541 Roman Catholics and 782 morgs, of which the majority possesses 126 morgs and the minority 655 morgs, which, in turn, include 137 morgs of marshland. According to Długosz’s Lib. Ben. (1, 9), in the XV century, Nieciecza belonged to Jan Rabsztynski from Krasnik. 2.) a landing-place on the right bank of the Danube, on the road from Wojnicz to Rudka, lies between the villages Komorow, Ostrow and Wierzchoslawice in the Tarnow district. Mac.  [Galician Poland]

 

Niecieczka: a river in the Minsk province, a tributary of the Pereczutej. It flows south of Kojdanow.

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1886, vol. 7, p.50]

 

This translation by Jola Jurasinska is used by permission.


Niepla

A Village in the powiat (district) of Jasło.

 

Once the property of the Abbey in Tyniec now of the religious foundation (do not have any idea about such foundations?) It is 11.8 km distant from Jasło, is situated on a stream which flows into river Wisłok – ('>Wisłoka' is the name of another river in the vicinity but also the genitive case of river Wisłok), in a sub-mountainous region with forests. Elevation - 292 meters above the sea level.

Part of this village belongs to the Roman Catholic Parish in Szebnie and part to Warzyce. The inhabitants are composed of 762 Roman Catholics and 2 Jews, there are also a rural school and a provident society with a capital of 702 zl. w. a. - waluty austriackiej, in Austrian currency (kasa pożyczkowa: there you can borrow money on credit)

The area to the west consists of a narrow belt of forests extending 13 km up to the river Wisłoka which cover the hills with the highest summit called "Pogorzały". (381 m).

The area of the larger estate consists of 15 morg of meadows and 322 morg of forest, the smaller estate consists of 659 morg cultivated fields, 93 morg of meadows, 51 morg of pasture and 69 morg of forest.

The area is bordered on the south by Chrząstówka and Bierówka and the north and west by Grzybówka.

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1886, vol. 7, p.102].

 

This translation, by Jim Piechorowski, is used by permission.


Niwiska

Niwiska, with Hucisko, village, district of Kolbuszowa, lies in a sandy lowland (289 meters elevation), on a field in the midst of deforested coniferous woods. The highway from Kolbuszowa to Przecław (11 kilometers) runs through the village and a stream fllows into the Swierczówka River (which, father on its course, is called the Przyrwa) then into the Łęga River. In the center of the village stands a brick church, to the north a windmill and brickworks, while to the east is an abandoned glassworks behind which is found the hamlet of Hucisko which was founded by metallurgical settlers. Niwiska has a mission parish which belongs to the church in Rzochów, a public school 1-class, a community loan office with assets of 408 złoty (Austrian Currency), 1,198 Roman Catholic residents, 66 of whom work on the estate owned by Kazimierz Hupko.  The property consists of 615 mórgs of fields, 147 mórgs of meadows, 112 mórgs of pasture land and 1,478 mórgs of forests; the lesser domain consists of 1,805  mórgs of fields, 291 mórgs of meadows, 249 mórgs of pasture land and 403 mórgs of forests. The present church was erected in the year 1876, replacing the wooden structure built in 1595. In addition, a brick chapel built in 1874 stands in the cemetery. The parish (Diocese of Przemyśł, Deanery of Mielec) embraces Dębrzyna, Hucina with Zabień, Leszcze, Hucisko, Poręby, Trześń, and Zapole. The population numbers 3,512 Roman Catholics and 141 Jews. Besides agriculture, the inhabitants are engaged in cabinetmaking and turnery (the art of forming solid substances into cylindrical or other forms by means of a lathe).  In the 16th century, Niwiska belonged to the Lubomirski Family. In 1680 it was obtained by the Jesuits of Sandomierz for 15,000 Polish złoty, which they later loaned from the Bobola Foundation to Aleksander Lubomirski, voivode of Kraków, for the education of 12 students from the aristocracy.  After the suppression of the Society of Jesus (Jesuits), the monies were placed in an educational fund which was eventually sold.  Niwiska borders on the east with Trześnia, on the north with Żabieniec and Hucina, on the west and south with many coniferous forests. Dr. Maurycy Maciszewski

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1886, vol. 7, p. 163].

 

This translation, by Anthony Paddock, is used by permission of the author.


Nowogródek [now Navahrudak, Hrodna, Belarus]

- a provincial town in Minsk gubernia. It was known as an ancient fortified town identified in the Russian Chronicles as Nowo-Horodok, in Latin documents as Parva Novogardia or Neogardia, and to Polish historians as Lithuanian Nowogródek or Krivician Nowogródek. During the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was the capital town of the Nowogródek voivodship; in these times of partitions of the country, it is a town on the railroad line between the provinces of Slonim, Lithuania and Grodno. Situated at 53° 56'N and 25°30'E in the Nieman river basin at a picturesque elevated location with small streams and beautiful brooks draining down to the Nieman, the view falls away in all directions. The town is located 94 miles from Minsk, 93 mi. to Wilno, 109 mi. to Grodno, 117 mi to Sluck, 148 to Pinsk, and 330 miles to Warsaw (via the postal road). It has about 12,000 inhabitants-- 470 White Russian Orthodox, 2,200 Polish Catholics, around 1,160 Moslems with 8,170 Jews accounting for the remainder.

In 1817 there were 437 residences in Nowogródek (9 of brick or stone) and 1,571 inhabitants including 726 Jews and 319 Tatars. Nowogródek town contains a post-office and international telegraph stations, 2 brick Orthodox churches, 2 Catholic churches (a parish and affiliate with a brick chapel), a brick Jewish synagogue, 5 Jewish schools and prayer houses (1 brick and 4 wooden), as well as a wooden mosque. Town structures consist of 130 brick or stone houses and about 780 wooden ones; in the town there are 86 brick and 10 wooden shops. In 1877, there were 27 artisan/craft businesses experienced in making household objects, 70 stores for dry goods, and 105 in housekeeping services. Regarding industry in Nowogródek: by 1881 there were three breweries employing 6 workers and generating 1,700 rubles annually; one mead-vault employing two workers and generating 200 rubles; a Dutch tile factory with four workers generating an annual revenue of 2,725 rs. In 1881, 98 weddings were celebrated, 320 children were born legitimately (5 illegitimate), and 290 residents died (164 men and 126 women). There was an increase of 35 residents that year. In the same year town revenues were 6,498 rubles and expenditures 5,138 rs.

Essential health industries within the town servicing the district consist of two drugstores, three physicians, and two hospitals-- one municipal and one Jewish. Also located there is a home for 16 orphaned children of the gentry, possessing about 19,000 rs. capital. The town owns or holds 703 ground-rent leases as well as three homes in townlets leased to private parties. A firefighting company composed of seven individuals has four horses, four fire engines, 12 water tanks and equipment suitable for other uses. Past fires have cost the town the lives of around 814 inhabitants.

With its deep concern for the centrality of education, Nowogródek had a Dominican school here up to 1834 until its annulment, rated as a 5th-class provincial school. It was transformed in 1858 to a 7th-class secondary school, which by 1868 had been changed to a 4th-class provincial school, providing equal educational opportunity for both boys and girls, with 400 students enrolled. Until recently, a private boarding school for girls existed here. Formerly, Nowogródek was also renowned for the "March Contracts", to which a multitude of gentry traveled; now all of this has been discontinued. Today there exists only a single inn for travelers, a restaurant, and several orderly shopping stores. In spite of charming surroundings, the town today has a dirty appearance, and is neglected with its pavement in especially bad condition. On Sundays, town markets feature produce from the countryside, and on March 19th, there is an annual fair for horses and cattle, generating 10,000 rs.

The original town annals are lost to history [ed.- or unenlightening as to origins]. The location between the former borders of Lithuanian and Jatvingian settlements forced a struggle to possess a stronghold at Nowogródek in distant times. When conquering Varangians (Scandinavian Vikings) poured into Slavic lands in the 10th Century, local inhabitants rallied around their chieftains in founding fortified towns. Existing chronicles relate a number of different traditions and assumptions about the founding of Nowogródek-- one is its foundation by Woldemar (Vladimir the Great) Viking king of Kiev; another by his son Yaroslav in 1044 as part of preparations against the Lithuanians; and a last one by Yaropelk, son of Vladimir Monomach in 1116. Certainly in most annals, historical Nowogródek began towards the middle of the 13th Century, namely in the hiring of Lithuanians there (as mercenary soldiers) by Prince Erdziwill for the divided Slavic tribes, who with the devastation of Nowogródek by Mongols in 1241 under the leash of Kajdan, profited in the scattering of Varangian rule. He and his men occupied the deserted town and surrounding countryside, constructing a splendid castle from rubble at this location and often stayed there. Soon after, Nowogródek became the capital city of the Lithuanians during the rule of Erdziwill's brother, the courageous Mendog (properly "Mindaugas" in Lithuanian).

Establishing his rule in Nowogródek, Mendog repelled an invasion by his brother-in-law Daniel, Prince of Halicz, obtained the title King of Lithuania from Pope Innocent IV in later accepting baptism for himself and his wife Martha, and was crowned in 1252 in his new kingdom. The Lithuanian historian Theodore Narbut maintains as factual that this recorded act took place in Lithuanian Nowogródek in the vicinity of Kiernow (called "Nauenpille" by the Teutonic Knights-from the Lithuanian National Journal). In any event, by his acceptance of Christianity, Mendog was confirmed on the Lithuanian throne. Despite this, fellow-country Russian rulers did not relinquish dominion or their own laws over their Slavic tribes [ed.- e.g Krivici, Dregovichi, etc.]. Because of this conflict, Mendog forced a continual struggle against them, but attaining supremacy was difficult. Among others, Towciwill, jealous for Mendog's crown, continually instigated sedition and joined with other enemies of Lithuania. Thus in 1256, allied with Russian and Jatvingian knights, Towciwill threatened Nowogródek, but Mendog escaped to Wruta (today the town of Horodische near Nowogródek) and Towciwill was compelled to withdraw.

In 1258, Daniel Prince of Halicz, striving for predominance in Russian lands, hastened his army towards Grodno, but Lithuanians there intervened through revenge on his properties. What finally resulted was an arrangement of power between Daniel and Mendog, in which the first (Daniel) gave up forever rights to Nowogródek and other Slavic tribes in Lithuania. Mendog afterwards settled his son Wojsielk there with the title "Prince of Nowogródek". Local princes knighted in Nowogródek-- so Narbut informs us-- were Jasiold, Bugie, Narwi, and Niemne (L.N.J as above). But not long after Wojsielk ruled as the Nowgorodian Prince by their consent because his father had resigned it to his cousin's brother, Roman Danielow of Halicz, and entered alone into the monastery at Polone. Later however, he resided in the Lawrszew monastery near the Nieman river; finally, when the Lithuanian courts determined the treacherous Trojdan to be the murderer of Mendog, Wojsielk secretly took refuge in the Leszczynski monastery at Pinsk. Following the assassination of Trojdan in 1265, Wojsielk, remaining at Leszcze, appointed his own brother-in-law, Prince Swarna Danielowicz of Chelrn, to the Lithuanian throne. To be sure after Swarna's sudden death, entreated by the people, Wojsielk took over the Lithuanian government, but lived in Kiernow rather than in Nowogródek. There is silence in the Nowogródek chronicles concerning the rule of Wojsielk and his successor Swentorog.

Under Great Prince Germund's command in 1274, Nowogródek experienced a Mongol (Tatar) attack under the leash of Jaruna, allied with Russian knights. The town was saved by the valiant opposition of its garrison and the quarrels among the adversary allies, who had put to death by fire all the inhabitants of the suburbs as well as plundering the unarmed populace in the countryside. The Lithuanian Great Prince Germund was fond of Nowogródek and bided his time, watching over the claims of several contenders. In 1278, Great Prince Giligin, Germund's son, halted the Mongol Tartars supported by the southern Russian knights at Nowogródek, and unable to conquer it the opposition returned empty-handed. In the same year of his death, Prince Giligin took the throne as the Great Prince, promoting his son Romund in Nowogródek. These were splendid circumstances for the town but the new prince's life ended very soon after that. His successor Trabus did not abandon Nowogródek, but following his death, the Lithuanian Prince Narymund in 1280 moved the capital once again to Kiernow. Henceforth, quieter times fell on Nowogródek, such that Lithuanian Prince Witenes settled the boundaries of his kingdom at the land of the Dregovicians, and at the Jasiold and the upper Nieman Rivers.

In 1314, Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights Heinrich von Plotzke conceived an idea for the 'conquest of the Rus' in the upper reaches of the Nieman, and with highly skilled soldiers marched through the deep forests to distant Nowogródek, burning the town. However, the inhabitants took refuge in the castle. The garrison repelled their attacks using boiling oil manufactured on the castle walls, daring the shattered, discouraged Teutonic Knights to attack. Due to their exhaustion the Knights were forced to withdraw. And on the road to the Niernan, not far from Nowogródek, they were harassed by fortified Krivician warriors in bloody engagements. Due to the loss of their most courageous knights, their increasing panic at the skillfulness of their opponents, and at last from numerous plagues, sickness and starvation, they were put to flight into the wilderness. The unhappy circumstances were recorded in their own chronicles. In "The Treasure", Ignace Danielowicz cites his own details and those from Dusberg and others [ed.- ref]. In 1323, Lithuanian Great Prince Gedyminas mentioned this victory in his own privileges to Nowogródek through the creation of a grant in Nowogródek to the Franciscans, and in the following year, Pope John XXII sent monks to this new mission (see "The Treasure" by Danielowicz).

The fifth son in the succession of Gedyminas and the Russian Olga, Koryat, obtained the Principate of Nowogródek in 1329 from his father as his share, and was crowned in Nowogródek. At his death, Theodore, second in succession, received the Principate for his son, who reigned there until 1352. After him, the succession of the Koryat lineage ended in Nowogródek. The successor in the Nowogródek lineage, Dimitri Korybut, tenth son in succession of Prince Olgierd inherited it, but when he afterwards raised a rebellion against Prince Witold, he was overcome and captured at Dokudow, losing his Nowogródek share. Surprisingly soon after that in 1392, during the arrangements of Jagiello with Witold according to familial proportions, Nowogródek was restored to him, but which was encumbered with debts and problems because Witold wanted to remove some dissenters from it to the borders of Lithuania. In 1393, he removed the Sieverskian kingdom from it, but Lithuanian Nowogródek discontinued the inheritance feud and made amends with the crown. Armed legions of Teutonic Knights again besieged Nowogródek in wintry conditions in 1394. When the inhabitants received information of the approaching enemy, they burned the castle and fled to the woods. The Knights, unable to encamp in the ashes of Nowogródek, returned to Drohiczyn, the palace and countryside ruined (ref "The Treasure").

Witold raised the Nowogródek castle again from rubble, founded a parish church there, rebuilt the town, and settled migrant Tatars there in 1415. Under his patronage, a synod of Russian Orthodox bishops desiring certain political considerations there for an Orthodox church free from the influence of the Tsarograd Metropolitan [ed.- chief Orthodox bishop] See, gathered together in Nowogródek during the middle of November, and held a metropolitan election which established an independent church hierarchy. Gathered in Nowogródek at that time were bishops from the following locations: Czernigov, Polotsk, Luck, Chelm, Vladimir, Halicz, Smolensk, Czerwiensk, and Turov. They unanimously elected Gregory Cemblaka as the first metropolitan, designating for themselves three cathedral chairs: in Kiev, Wilno, and Nowogródek. In 1422, Nowogródek held a new commemorative feast, since King Wadislaw Jagiello had married his fourth wife there, Sonke (Sophia), the sister of Andrew Prince of Holszansk.

Witold, returning in triumph from an expedition against Pskov, distributed gifts during 1426 to his courageous knights in Nowogródek. In 1444, King Casimir Jagiello approved the Magdeburgian [ed.- municipal rights and privileges developed by German law] legal system for Nowogródek. When quarrels among Polish and Lithuanian gentry took place at the Lubelsk Sejm, King Casimir, to avoid domestic ferment, met with the Lithuanian parliament in Nowogródek on September 8, 1448, and took advice with quiet deliberation. At that time, there were invasions by Pereskov Tatars from Lithuania against King Alexander of Russia in the years 1503-1506. Nowogródek experienced some internal dissent, refused to take sides, and and succumbed to being plundered. Although the privileges granted by King Casimir were brought up at Brest, Nowogródek finally lived up to its status as a great town and ordained the Magdeburg convention. Truly, it finally organized itself in 1511, after which Zygmunt the Old gave a grant to the city fathers and added privileges to the town.

When Zygmunt I called the gentry to arms in 1537 to meet at Lwow, the Lithuainian knights first assembled in Nowogródek and then marched to Lwow for a notorious parliamentary session (nicknamed the "Hens' Wars"). In 1581, Stefan Batory ordained a tribunal of Lithuanian knights, and gave orders to call a Ruthenian "cadence"- a legislative session in Nowogródek and Minsk for two years following the 22nd Sunday [ed.- of the year]. The representatives to this tribunal immensely elevated the prestige of the town, chiefly in that documents were assembled there in great numbers for preservation in archives and for assisting the gentry. In order to preserve the documents safely, as fate would have it, an archives was set up for the Nowogródek Voivodship in the castle tower called "Szczytowska" (ref); a similar but partial archives was also set up in a nearby Dominican monastery. While attacks by the army of Tsar Alexi Michajlowicz against the knight Trubeck in 1662 were not intended to affect the archives, on May 1, 1751 a horrible fire damaged the entire town, and the archives could not be saved. After the first Partitions of the Country in 1775, the tribunal court together with the remaining archives were removed to Grodno. In 1676, Nowogródek received two great privileges from King John Sobieski: the first was an exemption to the town forever from having to quarter soldiers and even pay the wintering tax; and the second in effect, a consistent tribunal through construction of an excellent, new town hall equally for legislative and other purposes. A Castellan office was established there, which was filled at that time by Samuel Korsak (ref).

Latin was for the most part replaced by Slavic language ritual for the Ruthenians of Lithuania; from time immemorial two Orthodox churches had also existed in Nowogródek: one at the castle by name Assumption of the B.V.M., the second in the suburb of Borisolev, founded there later by Knight Wojselk Mendogowicz. For the elevation of the Orthodox churches there, Lithuanian Hetman [ed-- army chief of staff] Konstanty Ostrogski in 1517 donated the Bykowicze property in the Cyrinski province, situated in a region east of Nowogródek. In 1636, Metropolitan Wilhelm Rudzki established the Basilian code for his churches, endowed by the Chreptowicz family as shown on their family tomb. The Borislav monastery was founded in 1800 as an affiliate to the older Lawryszew monastery but annulled in 1830. Still in the l7th Century, eight of the following Orthodox churches existed in Nowogródek besides the two already mentioned: Elevation of the Holy Cross, St. Nicholas Performer of Miracles, Resurrection, St. John, St. Trucy, St. Nicholas Martyr, St Paraskew, and St. Simeon at the castle. The churches there had been mentioned in the diplomatic papers of Zygmunt III in 1610.

Often wartime fires did not spare towns and sanctuaries from despoliation. Indeed, of the venerable Orthodox churches already mentioned, there remains merely an Old Orthodox painting of the Virgin Mary from the original castle church, in Borisolev at the other St. Nicholas church founded by Franciscan monks in 1780. Around 1620, Adam Chreptowicz, Chamberlain of Nowogródek, provided funding for Borisolev churches near to the Basilian cloister, and a Basilian convent for women. The Basilian movement was annulled in 1839, and at the same time a Black Russian Orthodox monastery was created in Wolnej. At the Franciscan sanctuary, the liturgy had been in the Latin rite, already mentioned above, founded by the Lithuanian Prince Gedminas, and where Prince Witold had founded a missionary church at the ramparts of the shrine to Perun [ed.Slavic pagan god of Thunder], although the details of the latter construction were not preserved in the annals. Kristof Chodkiewicz, Lithuanian Master of the Horse, later Voivod of Wilno, funded a church at the cloister of the Dominican monks in the first part of the 17th Century.

At nearly the same time Bonifiraters [ed.- a religious order] were imported by Casimir Lew Sapieha, and Jesuits as well as Dominicans were brought in by Moszynski, who was later killed at Nieswisz in the Russian invasion of 1659. Calvinists had an assembly hall here during the middle of the 16th Century; somewhat later it served a spiritual purpose for the ministry of Jan Zygrowiusz. Arrogance and hate multiplied in Nowogródek equally between Catholics and Protestants. Amid the sorrowful moments of intolerance and controversies which had occurred there, on January 9, 1616 in Nowogródek, Zygrowiusz compiled memoirs of the dispute with the Jesuit of Niewisz, Benedict Brywilias. In the same year, the dispute of Zygrowiusz was printed in Lyubcha. The Protestant assembly hall remained closed at the command of King Zygmunt III for the year 1618. Of the Catholic priories and monasteries mentioned, none of them existed any longer as a consequence of the cassations [ed.- Tsarist cancellations] between the years 1830 and 1863.

In 1785, King Stanislaus August visited Nowogródek for a memorial service in his passage from Nieswiesz to Grodno. The recovered memoirs of Zygrowiusz gained merit in the King made at the beautiful ruins of the old castle on the lofty hilltop and at the nearby ruins on this hill called Mendog's Grave. He used the opportunity to lay to rest the doubtful (religious) matters at the grave of the Lithuanian hero, murdered treacherously in Livonia in 1263. In the mission church, today designated as an affiliate parish, a marble monument was erected by Jan Rudomine, Castellan of Nowogródek, as a memorial to the fallen knights in the battle of Chocim in 1621 [ed.- the terrible battle against Turkish invaders]. Remains of this exhibition piece in high relief show Rudomine's chieftains kneeling in full figures, and alongside of them nine kneeling companions-in-arms with their severed heads lying at their feet.

Nowogródek was the birthplace and childhood home of Adam Mickiewicz. There are besides his own, numerous first-hand articles concerning Nowogródek and its surroundings, namely in: F.M. Sobieszczanski's The Great Orgelbrand Encyclopedia; Adam Kirkora's Guardian of the Domestic Front, Michael Hausman's Description of Nowogródek, in the Illustrated Weekly, and War Chronicles of the Warsaw Library. Nowogrodian town sheriffs took office according to a Parliamentary law in the neighborhood of the castle, and the court met for 22 weeks where the tribunal of the Lithuanian knights had once assembled. Sheriffs there were forever joined to the dignity of the Nowogródek Voivodship and partners in the Polish-Lithuanian Crown economy as well as the Seneschalate, contributing 347 zlotys for the quarterly army tax and 412 zlotys for the winter army tax. Costs for Parliaments, land courts and demonstrations from among the entire knighthood were also taken care of out of the Sheriffs office. The last to occupy the office was Prince Joseph Jabłonowski, Voivod of Nowogródek.

Editor's Note: All Slownik longitudes in this article have been converted to modern coordinates which is based on the Greenwich zero meridian. All Polish measurement units (land areas, distances, height above sea level, etc.) were converted to American-English equivalents.  Monetary units, where identified, were left in zlotys/zl. or rubles/rs.

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1886, vol. 7, pp. 255-258].

 

This translation, by Mike Gansecki, is used by permission.


Nowogródek powiat

- was up to the years 1793-1795 when temporarily by Tsarist Russia, one of three provinces within the Voivodship of Nowogródek. In these years, the southern and eastern portions became new additions to Nieswiesz province under the governance of Minsk, exchanging the following portions with Sluck province through the laws of the Minsk gubernia: the southern and eastern portions constituted as part of Slonim gubernia up to 1796 a part of Lithuania gubernia, which in 1801 was divided into two: Wilno and Grodno, the remainder transformed into its own Nowogródek province. In 1842-3 by decree of Tsar Nicholas, the boundaries were again altered and Nowogródek province was placed within the Minsk gubernia. Therefore, parts of the former Nowogródek province detached into different regions, are today in Sluck, Mozyr, Minsk, and a little in Slonim and Bobruisk provinces, but the essential part of it, the extreme western portion, remains under its former name and stands as the most populous and wealthiest province in the Minsk gubernia.

On the northwest and north it borders on Lida and Oszmiana provinces of the Wilna gubernia; on the northeast and east with the provinces of Minsk and Sluck, on the south with Pinsk province; and also to the west, with Slonim province of the Grodno gubernia lying between 43-45° N latitude and 25-26° E longitude. According to the latest information, it contains 1995 square miles amounting to around 1,276,600 acres. The Treasury possesses about 60,000 ac. of wooded tracts and 7 expired land grants; peasant ownership includes: 113,180 ac. on Treasury estates, 444,440 ac. on private estates, 768 home-quartered soldiers, and 443 sundry acres.  10,200 landed acres belong to the Orthodox churches, 397 ac. to the Catholic churches, and 1900 ac. to the town of Nowogródek, with the rest under private ownership (646,630 ac.). Around 1880, 173 Orthodox farmers owned 68,420 ac., while 507 Polish farmers possessed 482,811 ac. mostly in the uplands. In 1881, 143,200 ac. belonging to Polish owners passed into other hands. After this time, Polish landowners were no longer able to sell significant lands, and at present are hard-pressed owing to the disasters in agricultural husbandry in 1885 and the generally stagnant economy.

In 1881, the agricultural output of the province consisted of 4,187 Lithuanian barrels of winter wheat, 35,192 barrels of rye, 5,384 barrels of "ravine" wheat, 10,768 barrels of oats, 21,535 barrels of barley, 3,059 barrels of buckwheat, and 3,393 barrels of other grains, and 285,738 barrels of potatoes. It was a year of average productivity, perhaps somewhat higher than average considering the conditions of overall productive capacity. The arable land area in the province is about 756,000 acs., around 108,000 acs. of grazable moors, 243,000 acs. of wooded lands, with the rest (170,000 acres) marshes, water bodies, and pastures, with the sandy soils in the western, southern and eastern parts excellent for growing grain; in this locality the soil surface is undulating, of calcareous-gravelly composition, possessing a great deal of porosity. The northern and western portions of the province are stripped of woods, but to the south it contains significant wooded areas and interrupted stands. According to official statistical knowledge around 1860, there were 18,195 horses, 62,955 horned cattle, 40,753 common sheep, 41,460 specialty sheep, 27,502 hornless cattle and 515 goats.

In considering the ethnic composition of Nowogródek province, the characteristic inhabitants today are representative of earlier related ethnic Lithuanian-Slavic stock, from the Dregovichian, Krivician, Jatvingian, and Lithuanian tribes which bordered the area and formed into the typical original Kievan Rus, which our history and ethnography reckoned as among Black or White Russians. These judgments were shared among the original tribes in time. Amid the Ruthenian stock, Witold brought in Jews and Tartars over time. As to the fortunes of a unified Polish and Lithuanian polity, the impetus originated from Poland.

The overall population consists of about 185,000 persons, in which count there are around 18,000 [Stolpianskij] Poles, 9,400 Lithuanians, 25,000 Jews, 408 Moslems belonging to the Polish community, about 4,200 Ruthenian (Stolpian) Catholics, and the remaining (about 138,000) consist of Ruthenian Orthodox, up until the 1839 cassations mostly Uniate Orthodox (Eastern Rite). To our knowledge, none (of the latter) exist today. In Nowogródek province, there existed a 4th- Class secondary school in the town of Mir until its closing in 1868, at the present time a 2nd-Class school. Additionally, there are rural schools for each gmina; the most important are run by the gminas as public schools: the one in Szczorse has 120 pupils, that in Niehniewicze 116. Not only peasants but petty gentry students attend the gmina schools. According to the latest statistical figures, each can seat 110 students. Even such scanty instruction capacity negatively affects the morality of the people, and also many of them wish to remain there (in school). In general, the people are beginning to neglect the old customs, change their attire, confuse their native tongues, and sing erotic camp songs rather than traditional ones.

 

In 1881, there were 2,684 marriages, 7,840 legitimate births, 184 illegitimate ones, and 6,407 deaths in the province. There were also 163 fires in 1881, of which 74 were deemed arson (almost half); 948 homes were destroyed for a total financial loss of 705,156 rubles. In the same year the arrears for unpaid taxes amounted to 125,508 rubles. In 1882, provincial industrial production amounted to the following: 8 beer breweries employing 16 workers at a production or sales value of 3,480 rubles; one mead vault with 2 paid workers worth 200 rubles; a Dutch tile factory, 4 workers, worth 2,725 rs.; 6 brick kilns, 26 workers, 5,265 rs.; one steam powered mill, 3 workers, worth 71,000 rubles; one rape-seed oil manufacturer, 25 workers, 10,500 rs.; 6 cheese makers, 12 workers, wages at 12,975 rs.; 16 distilleries, 80 workers worth 765,356 rubles; 7 turpentine producers, 7 wage workers, worth 3,819 rs.; 8 pitch burners, employing 8 and worth 1,650 rs. Total production capacity for the 55 industries was 183 wage workers worth 876,970 rubles.

 

There were three provincial drugstores in 1882-- two in Nowogródek and one in the town of Horodyszcze. Three hospitals were operational in Nowogródek province. For each gmina, there was an army surgeon and a small apothecary shop. As for public charities, there exists a shelter for orphans in Nowogródek with a capital endowment of 10,787 rubles provided privately, including education for 16 orphans of gentry descent, amounting to a budget of around 1,345 rs. annually and taking the form of an extraordinary perpetual private endowment. With regard to police administration, the province is divided into 5 (Tsarist) State police districts (okrag) and 24 gminas, comprising 57 rural sheriff offices. District 1-- Niehniewicze, administered from the same town includes the following gminas: Niehniewicze, Szczorsowka, Horodczanska, Wereskowska, Lubczanska and Wsielub; District 2-- administered from the town of Horodyszcze with the following gminas: Horodyszczanska, Cyrynska, Rajczanska, Poczepowska, and Koszelewska; District 3-- administered from Nowy Mir, containing the Nowomysk, Stolowick, Czernichowska and Zuchowicka gminas; District 4-- administered from the town of Mir containing the gminas Mir, Horodziejska, Korelice and Jeremicka; and District 5-- administered from the town of Snow, with the following gminas: Darewo, Snow, Jastreble, Ostrow, and Krzywoszyn.

The province is composed of four (civil) district courts and four military tribunal courts, located in Nowogródek, Mir, Horodyszcze and Darewie. According to available figures, there are 723 small villages and estates, 371 farmsteads, 54 rural settlements, and 27 other gentry and 25 small towns (named Cyryn, Horodyszcze, Iszkoldz, Jeremicze, Korelicze, Kraszyn, Krzywoszyn, Lipsk, Lyubcha, Mir, Nowogródek, Nowy Mysz, Niehniewicze, Ostrow, Poczepowo, Polonka, Poruczyn, Poloneczka, Stolowicze, Swojatycze, Snow, Turzec, Wsielub, Walowka, and Wiedzma). Only Nowogródek has the appearance of a somewhat orderly town, with the rest in the condition typical of poor Lithuanian villages, with Jews predominating in the town without brick/stone houses or paved streets. We note that somehow Horodziej which is not counted as a town, is the only one to recently acquire a major railroad station on account of its location on the Moscow-Brest line. Citizens of nearby Marcinkiewicze have properly adorned homes, inns and even shopping booths, so that the nearby village is called a "little town".

 

The most important river in the province is the Nieman, extending for 81 miles along the northwestern border of the province.; it has harbors or river ports in Jeremicze, Koladznie, Szczorsze, Lubycha, Delatycze, Morino, and Krivichi. Navigation can be accomplished through the considerable bends in the river without sails, assisted only by oars or riverside road-pullers. Not counting the many brooks and unnamed tributaries, there are 65 other named streams as follows: [ed.- 65 stream names not repeated here].

... There are no very large or important lakes in the entire province. The biggest here is Switez, mentioned in Adam Mickiewicz's ballads, about 277 acres in area and containing a viable fishery. Among other larger lakes are: Caesearia, Douhoje, and Krzywicki (on the Nieman), a second Douhoje, Gluche, Kruhloje, Koldyczewski (from which flows the Szczara river), Plosa, Sinie, Swiete (two), Szpakowskie, Snowskie (formed by the flooding of the Snowski river), Tartackie (formed by the flooding of the Dzierewianski River), Zablocki, and Zlobinski lakes. A considerable portion of the province is undulating and picturesque, the highest single points at 864 ft. above sea level in the vicinity of Koladzina and 727 ft. at Czernichowa. Through-routes by land in Nowogródek province from north to south connect with the main Moscow-Brest railroad lines-- with stations at Horodziej, Pohorelcy, Baranowicze, and Lesna, with a branch directed through Baranowicze station to Białystok. Earlier passers-through near the southern border used the Moscow-Warsaw high road along the moraine.; today there are three postal roads in use: from Nowogródek to Minsk, to Lida, and to Nieswiesz and Sluck. Well-kept military roads are maintained from Nowogródek through the town of Horodyszcze to Stolowicz; from there to Molczad and Polonki; from Nowy-Mysz to Polonki, Nieswisz, Kleck and Lachowicz. Commercial roads include: from Nowogródek to Molczad, Nikolaev, Stolowicz, and Nowy-Mysz to the Moscow-Warsaw high road and from the town of Korelicze to Zbynsk in Oszmiana Province.

Historical locations or those otherwise worthy of mention include: Darewo (where the gloomy Florian Bochwic lived); Horodyszcze, old Wruta (Mendog's battle with the Varangian knights around 1256); Korelicze (chiefly remembered for the confirmation there in 1733 of the Lithuanian party's king Stanislaus Leszczynski); Krzywicze (destruction of the Teutonic Knights in 1314); Lyubcha (ancient Slavic town famed for its printing house); Lawryszew (monastery); Lawczyce (sacred location for the Lithuanian Tatars); Mir, Nowogródek, Nowy-Mysz, Niedzwiadka (birthplace of Ignace Domejki); Osowiec (according to some the birthplace in 1798 of Adam Mickiewicz); Polonka (a memorial to the battle with the Tatars in 1506 and victory by Stefan Czarniecki over Prince Chowanski in 1660); Rzepiehowo (birthplace of Jan Czeczota); Ruta (birthplace of Metropolitan Bishop Weljamin Rutski); Soplicowe (mentioned in the novel Pan Tadeusz); Siedliszcze (birthplace in 1791 of Thomas Zana); Tuhanowicze (place of last home residence of Adam Mickiewicz [ed.- who died in exile]); Woroncza (burial place of the last Voivod of Nowogródek, Joseph Niesiolowski); Waszkowce (place of sojourn and death of the learned Florian Bochwic). Scientific collections or memorials include: at Czeszew Kobylinski (library, memorial, stamp collection); Niankowie (naturalist collection of Wadislaw Dybowski); at Obryn Kaszycow (porcelain exhibit, art collection); at Poloneczce Radzillow (library, archives, memorial, and art collection); Szczorcow Chreptowiczow (a remarkable library, amounting to 12,000 volumes, a large archives and memorial); at Lipie Obuchowicz (library and archives); at Sworotwie Niezabitowski (library, archives, memorial, art collection); at Serwecze Niesiolowski
(an early archives collection); at Waszkow Bochwic (library); at Zamirze A. Fuciaty (a great library); and at other wealthy residences: Obrynie, Wereskowie, Morino, Ostaszynie, Szczorsze, Horodziej, Poloneczce, Sworotwie, Swojatycze, Snow, and others. Exemplary inns are found in Szczorsze Chreptowicz, managed by F. Fiszera (mentioned in the 1880 Agricultural Gazette), Ostaszynie Bulhaka, Wereszczaki and many others. Ornamental gardens: in Waszkowszcze (30 morgs in area); in Obrynie, Swojatycze Czapski, Sworotwie, Horodzieje, Szczorcze, Poloneczce and others. Stud farms were once present at a number of these estates; there are still a few today... [ed.- not listed here]... Of the famous people worthy of mention who originated in the province, the greatest are: Adam Mickiewicz, Thomas Zan, Jan Czeczot, Tadeusz Rejtan, Joseph Niesiolowski, Rafael Slizien (sculptor), Ignace Domejko, Florian Bochwic, (philosopher), Weljamin Rutski, Joachim Chreptowicz and Adam Moskiewicz (biographers), Jewlaszewski (diarist), Julian Korsak (Nowogródek ambassador), Michael Obuchowicz (diarist), Wadislaw Dybowski (naturalist), Jan Rudomina (Castellan of Nowogródek, famous for his scales [ed. or balances/weights?] and author of a description of the Chocim battle).

Regarding religious participation up till 1839, Ruthenians of this place belonged to the Uniate Church, until its annexation to the predominant (Russian Orthodox) faith. In 1880, from the transformed Uniate churches, 20 brick or stone Orthodox churches, 49 of wood, constituting 49 parishes, one stone and 52 wooden chapels were enlarged. Up to 1839, there was an assembly of 50 Uniate parishes. Within the present borders of the province, 46 Ruthenian sanctuaries had founders or benefactors from Polish or Latin clergy. Very likely these funds were greater, but as reported no one stood up for the Orthodox churches without the cooperation of the Polish landed proprietors, while traces of them have disappeared in the continual struggles of the country. An instructive point about this is that until the elimination of the Uniate church in 1839, numerous Orthodox churches had been erected by Polish landowners. Details can be found in the works of Archmandrite Nicholas (detailed in the statistical-historical descriptions in the 1864 Minsk Eparchs archives). In this work are briefly summarized all of the churches attributed to Polish financing within the current boundaries of Nowogródek province.

They are: 1) the Borisolev monastery in Nowogródek from the charity of Adam Chreptowicz, proprietor of Szczorsze; 2) the monastery at Wolnej, funded by Kristof Kamienski in 1632. Other benefactors at different times were Michael Domaslawski, Casimir Malawski, and Paul Makaszycki; 3) the monastery at Mir funded by Prince Karol Stanislaw Radziwill in 1705, bequeathed with remarkable sums, closed in 1824; 4) the monastery at Darewie had benefactors Krzyzanowski and the Lopot family; 5) the Orthodox church in Nowogródek funded by the Franciscan fathers from 1780; 6) the Orthodox church in Berezce, her Radzwill benefactors leaving a bequest of land in 1627; 7) the Orthodox church at Wolkowicz in 1787, funding by Korsak; 8) the Orthodox church in Miratycze from 1713, funding by the Jesmanows; 9) the Orthodox church at Walowce, funded by landowner Kurcz; 10) the Orthodox church in Wsielub, built in 1840 at the expense of Count Joseph O'Rourke; 11) the Orthodox church at Wielki Zuchowicze, funding by the Radziwills; 12) the Orthodox church at Czernichow, funded by Marcin Chalecki; 13) the Orthodox church at Stojko, funder Judycki; 14) the Orthodox church at Horodziej, built in 1808 at the expense of the landowner Brochocki , and her benefactor Bykowacy; 15) the Orthodox church at Oszpowie, funded by Miternawski; 16) the Orthodox church at Podlesie in 1794 funded by Bykowski; 17) the Orthodox church at Horodyszce in 1764 by the Pac family; 18) a second Orthodox church at Darewie, funded from 1550 by Jurahow; 19) the Orthodox church at Jeremicze in 1790 by Chodkiewicz; 20) the church at Zalusz, funding by the Radziwills; 21) the church at Izwie in 1757, funding by Sobolewski; 22) the church at Kolpienicze in 1781, capital funding from the Wilno Roman Catholic church; 23) the church at Luka in 1779, funding through the Kossakowskis; 24) the church in Lipie in 1773 funded by the Obuchowicz family and benefactor Czapscy; 25) the church at Lysicy in 1689, funded by the Lysykiewiczs; 26) the church at Maly Zuchowicz in 1783 funded by Niesiolowski; 27) the church at Morino, funded by Pocieha, with benefactors Brochocki and Kristof Radziwill; 28) the church at Ostrow with funding from Bakanowski; 29) the church at Ostrow, attributed to the charity of Protasewicz; 30) the church at Niedzwiadce, funded by Jablonski; 31) the church at Poczepowie in 1770, funded by Korsak; 32) the church at Delatycze funded by the Radziwills; 33) the church at Polonce, funded by the Dominican fathers; 34) the church at Poruczynie in 1783, funded by Prince Jacob Kobylinski of Lack; 35) the church at Rajcze in 1817 by Rajecki; 36) the church at Lubonicze, from a former bequeathal of an owned estate with a given annuity; 37) the church at Swojatycze, built in 1823 at the expense of Niezabitowski children; 38) the church at Siennej in 1770 funded by Wolodkowicz; 39) the church at Niankowie in 1750 funded by Wojnillowicz; 40) the church at Sulatycze, built of brick in 1850 at the expense of landowner Puchalski; 41) a second church at Sulatycze built in 1824 at the expense of Jazwinski; 42) the church at Basinie, owned from a bequeathal of landowner Ignace Jazwinski, deeded in 1839, with a shelter for 6 poor aged folk; 43) the church at Snow in 1836 with funding by Rdultowski; 44) the church at Szczorsze in 1776, funded by Joachim Chreptowicz, of expensive brick construction and a fund provided; 45) the church at Jatrze in 1773 funded by Kaszycow; and 46) the church in Jastreblewie, funding provided by the Kotlubajows. With respect to curial administration they were divided into three deaconates (or blahoczynias): in Nowogródek, Wielki Zuchowicz, and Kolpienicy.

With its physical church structures and clerical personnel in a very reduced condition, the Catholic church in Nowogródek province combined the Minsk and Wilna dioceses in 1869. In 1883 it further combined the Catholics in this province with the Mogilev archidiocese, numbering 24,360 of both sexes from seven parishes: Nowogródek, Wsielub, Woroncze, Kroszyn, Darewie, Poloneczce, and Nowy-Mysz. Latest details are available from the Minsk archdiocese. Parish churches in Nowogródek, Woroncze, Wsielub and Nowy-Mysz are built of brick, while the rest are of wood. Protestant faithful have an ancient brick meeting-house in Ostaszynie, funded by Szwejkowski; the Ostaszynie church is an affiliate of Sluck parish. Moslems have two mosques, namely in Lawczycze and Nowogródek. Jews possess 7 synagogues and 20 schools or prayer houses.

Annual fairs which take place are in Lyubcha on the feast of St. Elias (July 20th); in Korelicze (October 1st) on the Ruthenian "Pokrowy"; in Horodyszcze on the feastday of the Ruthenian St. Jerzy (April 23rd) and another there on Whitsuntide (August l5th and September 8th); in Mir on the feast of the Three Crosses (January 6th) [ed.-- isn't this also the Russian New Year?] as well as on the feasts of St. Nicholas (May 9th and December 6th). Taxes from all of these events amounts to about 30,000 rubles a year. For the greater part, mostly horses and cattle are bought and sold; specialty fairs excel in Mir and Lyubcha.

The chief industries in the province are oriented around agriculture, which annually produces for export a million rubles worth of goods, with railroad lines facilitating this export. 200,000 rubles worth of forest products are sold annually, although the forests are gradually disappearing. 200,000 rubles worth of vodka and other alcohol spirits are produced in the province annually; 80,000 rubles of wool, and miscellaneous livestock bring in another 150,000 rubles. Fruits, poultry, and processed dairy products also add to overall sum of exported goods.

On the other hand, the province consumes or imports soil fertilizers, iron, herrings, copper utensils, steel articles, as well as manufactured and grocery goods roughly amounting to 500,000 rubles annually. Beekeeping is represented by over 3,000 hives. Fisheries in Nowogródek and the Minsk provinces by contrast are insignificant and hardly provide enough supply for local residents. In lakes and streams are found the following species: pike, perch, tench, crucian, trout, roach, bream, [ed. untranslated term **jasgarze**], and other smaller fish. Game animals are so rare in the depleted woodlands of the northern and western parts of the province that there are scarcely any rabbits, foxes, partridges, or heathcocks, but in the southern portion healthy specimens of these are more frequently caught. A temperate climate and favorable growing conditions allows orchards everywhere to produce delicate kinds of fruits, even Italian walnuts, hazelnuts, trellis grapes, exquisite plums and pears. Nowogródek province temperatures are on the same isotherm on a line from Suwałki, Grodno, and Charkowow; isobarically, on the same line as Radom, Niszy Novogorod and Perm; isohimeny: Warsaw-Grodno, Zytomirsk and Stavropol. Most commonly winds are from the west or northwest.

The final sections are lists of former Marshals of Nowogródek province [ed.-names, coat-of-arms not translated, and the dates]: Wadyslaw Brochocki h. Osorya-(the last from his election until 1863; Andrew Jundzil h. Labedz, & Joseph Korbut h.Korczak- 1807 to 1812; Count Alexander O'Rourke h. his own person [ed.- translation of ** wlasnego**], Prince Konstanty Radziwill, Rdultowski h. Drogoslaw, & Casimir Rejtan h. Rejtan, (prior to 1805); Francis Dunin Rajecki h. Labędz (1822); Joseph Wojnillowicz h. Syrokomla as changed, 1816-1820; Joseph Wijnillowicz [ed.-**t.h.**?], 1858; Nicholas Wolski h. Polkozic & Joseph Wereszczaka h. Lis, 1825.

Former Voivods of Nowogródek when it was a major entity in the Lithuanian-Polish kingdom: Peter Montygerdowicz, 1431-1453; Marcin Gasztold, 1464-1471; Wojciech Janowicz Moniwid, 1471-1475; Michael Montowtowicz, 1483-1484; Soltan Alexandrowicz (strictly speaking Soltan Stretowicz Alexandrowicz), 1486-1487; Nicholas Radziwillowicz, 1488-1490; Yuri Pac, 1492-1496; Jan Jurjewicz Zabrzezinski, 1496-1498; Jan Litawor Chreptowicz, 1498-1500; Knight Simeon Jurjewicz Holszanski, 1500; Peter Hlebowicz, 1502; Albert Marcinowicz Gasztold, 1503-1506 and later in 1508; a certain number of woiwods beginning with Knight Ivan Lwowicz Hlinski, 1507-1508; Jan Janowicz Zabrzezinski, 1509-1530; Stanislaw Albert Gasztold, 1530-1542; Gregory Grygorowich Ostyk, 1542-1544; Alexander Iwanowicz Chodkiewicz, 1544-1549; Knight Alexander Iwanowricz Polubinski, 1551; Ivan Hornostaj, 1551-1558; Paul Iwanowicz Sapieha, 1558-1579; Prince Nicholas Nikolaevich Radzwill, 1579-1589; Theodore Skuminowicz Tyszkiewicz, 1590-1618; Nicholas Kristof Sapieha, 1618-1638; Alexander Sluszka, 1638-1642; Prince Sigmund Karol Radziwill, 1642; Thomas Sapieha, 1643-1646; George Chreptowicz, 1646-1650; Kristof Chalecki, 1650-1653; Peter Casimir Wiazewicz, 1653-1658; Kristof Wolodkowicz, 1658-1670; Jan Kiersznowski, 1670; Dimitry Samuel Polubinski, 1671-1678; Boguslaw Alexander Unichowski, 1689; Stephen Tyzenhaus, 1689-1709; Prince Jan Nicholas Radziwill, 1709-1729; Prince Nicholas Faustyn Radzivrill, 1729-1746; Prince George Radziwill, 1746-1754; Prince Joseph Alexander Jablonowski, 1755-1773; and Joseph Niesiolowski, (elected from 1733 to 1814). [ed.: it appears that after about the mid 1500s, the position was retained for life except under unusual circumstances. The final date generally represents the year of death with some obvious exceptions].

Castellans of Nowogródek were: Gregory Grygorovrich Wolowicz, 1566-1585; Knight Alexander Iwanowicz Polubinski, 1586-1607; Samuel Wolowicz, 1608-1626; Wasil Wasilev'ricz Kopec, 1626-1636; Jan Dusiatski Rudomina, 1636-1646; Bogdan Wilhemowicz Zawierski Stetkiewicz, 1646-165 1; Samuel Stetkiewicz, 1652-1660; Nicholas Wladyslaw Judycki, 16601670; Stanislaw Zenowicz, 1671-1672; Kristof Jesman, 1672-1677; Nicholas Wladyslaw Przezdziecki, 1677-1683; Alexander Jasiennicki Wojna, 1684-1698; Stephen Aleksandrowicz, 1698-1700; Theodore Jerome Obuchowicz, 1700-1707; Anthony Nowosielski, 1709-1726; Anthony Oskierko, 1726-1734; Boguslaw Niezabytowski, 1734-1739; Jan Rdultowski, 17391744; Daniel Szyszko, 1744-1756; Jan Chreptovvicz, 1756-1765; Joseph Niesiolowski, 17651773; Raphael Joseph Jelenski, 1773-1780 and Gideon Jelenski, 1780-1798. [ed.: as with the Woiwods, the final date is generally the year of their death].

[Additional Slownik information on Nowogródek town/province from Volume XV]:

 

NOWOGRÓDEK ... 3). (amendments to S.G. Volume VII, 255-263)- a province [Powiat] town within the Minsk gubernia. In the third redistricting (not the second), Nowogródek became a provincial town in the Sluck gubernia (p.255). The picture of the Blessed Virgin Mary, formerly in the castle Orthodox church, is present today in the Borysogleb Orthodox Church (post-Basilian but not in St. Nicholas Church {p.258}). Michael Dabrowski, a Maltese knight, founded the Dominicans in Nowogródek and donated the Mogilny, Bulbrowszczyna, and Turzec estates to them. Among the Nowogródek province Marshals omitted in the earlier work were: Adam Wierzejski (1799-1807), Josef Wojnilowicz (1816-1820), and Josef Kaszye (1830).

The following works relate to Nowogródek: Edward Pawlowicz: "Nowogródek In the First Half of the 19th Century", a Russian writer (in Research Works Dedicated in honor of the 100th Anniversary of Adam Mickiewicz, Warsaw, V. II., pp. 136-144); Contained in footnotes of the lists of the Voivods and Castellans of Nowogródek (X.W.K?): "Oh marvelous picture of Our Lady in Nowogródek!" (same V. II., p.257 et. seq.); Edward Pawlowicz: "From the Wilija to the Nieman", Lwow 1901; same publication: "Nowogródek in the 19th Century", Krakow 1902.

Note: All Slownik longitudes in this article have been converted to modern coordinates which is based on the Greenwich zero meridian. All Polish measurement units (land areas, distances, height above sea level, etc.) were converted to American-English equivalents.  Monetary units, where identified, were left in zlotys/zl. or rubles/rs.

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1886, vol. 7, pp. 258-262; 1902, vol. 15]

 

This translation, by Mike Gansecki, is used by permission.


Nowydwór

13) Nowydwór [German name Neuhof]: estate of the Chelmno bishops, Starogard powiat, postal, telegraph and railway stations, district civil registrar's office. Located 4 km. from Pelplin, it is served by the Catholic parish in Klonówka and the Protestant congregation in Rudno; it has a Catholic school. With the manorial farmstead of Debina (German name Eichwald) it has 13 homesteads, 48 hearths, 234 Catholic inhabitants (as of 1879), 516.1 hectares of arable land and gardens, 139.3 of meadows, 1.7 of pastureland, 12.2 unusable hectares, 8.9 of water, for a total of 678.2 hectares, with a net income of 9,796 marks from the land; it is about 12 km. from the powiat capital [Starogard Gdanski].

 

It appears that Nowydwór is one of the older settlements. In 1884 urns were discovered there, but only scraps were extracted. Long ago this estate was the property of the Pelplin Cistercians. The local manorial farmstead may already have been founded in the 15th century on the old territory of Pelplin (cmp. Rev. Kujot's Opactwo Pelplinskie, p. 386). There used to be two smaller farmsteads there, which circa 1618 were called Kamieniec and Starydwór [Old Manor]. In 1545 it and Ropuchy came into the possession of the monastic attorney Jerzy Pomierski. In 1548 King Zygmunt August confirmed Pomierski's lifelong tenancy, along with the monastery's charters. In 1594 farm-owners from Rudno leased the local manorial farmstead for 12 years at 700 zl. (2,659 marks) annually. The original of this agreement, designated for the monks' use, has been preserved to this day in the Pelplin records. In regard to form and signatures it is one of the most interesting relics of the Cistercian era. It was drawn up in Polish: "We, Oswald Kiclier (Lachtliwy) and Stanislaw Raikowski, soltyses, and all neighbors of the village of His Royal Majesty Rudno, leaseholders for this period of His Excellency Stanislaw Przyjemski, Royal Marshal, Konin starosta, etc." At the bottom and on the left side of this document all the lease-holders signed, but in German. Stanislaw Raikowski signs it with his own hand as "Stenzel Reke," his two brothers Pawel and Jan/ Hans do likewise. Alongside them stand Lukasz Mulintz (Milecz, from Milecz near Matawy), Jan Frost, Pawel Bielawski (Bilaw), Jan Hildebrandt (Hilbrandt). Several of the names are written very illegibly; there are 17 of them in all. Both the soltyses put their seals over their names. The shields are just as in their arms, but in place of the usual arms of Rajkowski there is a high cross to which a line is attached at a right angle from the left. The other soltys's seal has three stars on the shield. This document was drawn up in Rudno. The names show that adoption of German forms happened among the peasants of Pomerania as well as the nobles; from the days of the Teutonic Knights the inhabitants had become so used to these forms that they signed their names that way, even though they considered themselves Poles.

 

In 1661 with abbot Czarlinski's permission the monastery leased Nowydwór for three years to the renowned lord Jan Kenig. The lease-holder was to occupy: Grawensee, Szaszek, Rorteich, Dwaslupy, a pond in the woods, Starydwór by Wangiermucy, a small pond by the manor, and a second in front of the courtyard. The monastery kept for itself three ponds, Grabówko, Chójka "by the dike" and Lenartek. Five people and an innkeeper were left behind. Kenig had wood for free, but was not to touch the oak grove and small birch forest beyond the manor. The livestock consisted of 8 oxen and 3 cows (this was in the days after the Swedish war). The lease was for 500 zl. the first year, 900 the second, and 1,000 the third. The monastery allowed brewing beer for the house's use, but stipulated that Kenig was to leave a complete sowing on the farmstead of 1½ lasts of rye, half a last of barley, a last of oats, a quarter bushel of peas, and several bushels of wheat.

 

On 14 April 1683 a great fire broke out in Nowydwór and destroyed all the farm buildings and livestock.

 

Currently Nowydwór has 85 Chelmno-measure wlókas. After the transfer of the Chelmno diocese's capital from Chelmza to Pelplin in 1821, Nowydwór remained the property of the bishop. The Cistercians built the local chapel for their steward, who resided there.

 

[Editor's note: there are dozens of places named Nowy Dwór in Poland, and many were called Neuhof by the Germans because both names mean "new manor." So even if this name sounds familiar, don't jump to the conclusion this is the right one unless the one you want was located within a few kilometers of Pelplin, in what is now Gdansk province.]

 

Source: Slownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego - Warsaw [1886, vol. 7, p. 298, 13th entry under Nowydwór]

 

This translation, by William F. Hoffman, first appeared in the Summer 1997 issue of "Bulletin of the Polish Genealogical Society of America".


Nowy Dwór

1895 Administration: Kreis Inowroclaw, Regierungsbezirk Bromberg, Provinz Posen, Kaiserlich Deutsches Reich

Read more: http://polishamericangenealogy.blogspot.com/2009/11/nowy-dwor-gmina-dabrowa-biskupia.html#ixzz14cUwhNEh

Current Administration: Gmina Dąbrowa Biskupia, Powiat Inowrocław, Województwo Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Poland

 

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