PolishOrigins(TM) Forum

Re: Komornik - bailiff or tenant (farmer)

SPG — Sun Jul 21, 2024 11:19 am

Author: SPG

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2024 11:19 am

dnowicki wrote:

SPG wrote:

I’ve seen komornik translated both as bailiff (even overseer) and as a tenant (farmer). I know that the use of some teems evolved over time and can have slightly different interpretations from place to place. However, in the case of komornik, the two definitions often provided seen very different.

If komornik can be used in both senses, can someone provide some guidance in how to determine when one interpretation applies over the other.

In one branch of my family, I have an ancestor in Włocławek often identified as a parobek, but twice identified as a komornik in the mid-1800s. In his case, perhaps for a time he had some responsibility to his landlord to help with some sort of administrative / rules enforcement duties.
But maybe the term just meant he was a tenant farmer. This is somewhat a splitting hairs case.

However, in another case, the godfather of a relative — also early-mid1800s — different family branch in another part of Poland — is identified as a noble AND a komornik from/of Ciechanów. Seems like in his case he was some official for the starostwo and his occupation was truly more of a bailiff.

Hi,

The terms about which you wrote must be understood as they were used in the 19th century. In general the meaning you would find in a contemporary dictionary or using Google Translate don’t usually fit. The go to dictionaries to understand Polish words as they were used in the 19th Century are Słownik języka polskiego, Warszawa 1807–1814 by Samuel Bogumił Linde, which was the first comprehensive dictionary of the Polish language, and what is commonly referred to as the Słownik warszawski, which was published in eight volumes in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Both dictionaries are available online in PDF format.

Parobek is an occupational word for a landless farm worker or a worker on a large estate or in other words for a farmhand. Komornik, on the other hand, is a status word used to describe a landless peasant who was a tenant who lived with and worked for another person. This term dates back to the time of the Polish Lithuanian Commonwealth prior to the Partitions. It was used to describe status in terms of the old feudal system. In 18th century documents it appears in Latin as “inquilinus” with the same meaning as above.

Combining a term used to describe peasants with someone who was szlachta (a noble) would seem to be a metaphysical fizzle unless he were a tenant who was living with and working for another member of the gentry. In that case he could best be described as a landless minor member of the gentry.

I hope this explanation helps you.

Wishing you success,

Dave

Thanks you for the response. My understanding of the word in the context of the relative identified as a Parobek/Komornik was not in serious doubt. What has stumped me over the years is that SO MANY Polish(-American) genealogy sites define komornik as bailiff (sometimes solely), which gave rise to some doubt. Then I saw the term applied to a noble and I wondered a bit if somehow I was misunderstanding something. For what it is worth, the Słownik Doroszewskiego as my go-to dictionary for understanding archaic terms and definitions.

To go a bit further regarding the use of komornik as it applied to a noble Baltazar Bobiński, who may or may not be the same noble Baltazar Bobiński as my relative's godfather -- in this wikipedia.pl entry (yes, yes, I know about the reliability of Wikipedia), komornik almost certainly isn't used in the sense of a tenant farmer:

W XVIII wieku, zapewne przed 1775 rokiem, Bądkowo przejął Kazimierz Krasiński, oboźny wielki koronny, poseł i marszałek sejmowy, także trybunalski. Za tezą tą, przemawia, liczna korespondencja z lat 1785-1796, którą pisali do Kazimierza, oficjaliści z Bądkowa m.in. Baltazar Bobiński, komornik ciechanowski. Z drugiej strony, ówczesną sukcesję dóbr bądkowskich potwierdzają, szerokie zainteresowania Krasińskiego, który posiadał w ziemi ciechanowskiej liczne dobra, w tym klucz krasnosielecki i płodownicki, a w ciągu swego życia nabywał wiele majątków, głównie na Mazowszu. Zatem, najprawdopodobniej, dopiero wtedy, czyli po 1775 roku, pobudowano pierwszy, niewielki dworek drewniany, z dachem gontowym i gankiem na osi. Miał służyć za mieszkanie dla oficjalistów dworskich, doglądających interesów kolejnych Krasińskich. W I połowie XIX wieku, nastąpiło powiększenie dworku o dobudówki o charakterze gospodarczym (kuchnia, spiżarnia, pokoje dla służby), powiększono piwnice i dostawiono drugi, drewniany ganek. Następnie, wszystkie ściany potraktowano gliną i pomalowano na biało, a sufit podbito deskami z otynkowaną podsufitką. Rozbudowę skromnego dworku, w obszerne siedlisko, wiąże się, z Dionizym Strzeszewskim, kolejnym, przynajmniej do 1847 roku, właścicielem rozległego majątku. W końcu XIX wieku, Bądkowo należało już do rodziny Sumińskich, od których, w 1903 roku, majątek zakupił Zygmunt Bojanowski (†1917), z silnie zakorzenionej, mazowieckiej rodziny ziemiańskiej.

https://pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bądkowo_(województwo_mazowieckie)

I brought this to the Polish Origins forum to get clarity but also to provide an example of how amateur researchers really need to take care in understanding the context in which some terms are used.

For what it is worth, I looked into the various Baltazar Bobińskis about 7-10 years ago, so I don't recall all the various details about them now. The question popped into my head when I saw the term applied to an ancestor I recently found on my tree.

Again, thank you for your input.

Re: Komornik - bailiff or tenant (farmer)

dnowicki — Sun Jul 21, 2024 7:03 am

Author: dnowicki

Posted: Sun Jul 21, 2024 7:03 am

SPG wrote:

Komornik - bailiff or tenant (farmer)

SPG — Sat Jul 20, 2024 2:52 pm

Author: SPG

Posted: Sat Jul 20, 2024 2:52 pm

I’ve seen komornik translated both as bailiff (even overseer) and as a tenant (farmer). I know that the use of some teems evolved over time and can have slightly different interpretations from place to place. However, in the case of komornik, the two definitions often provided seen very different.

If komornik can be used in both senses, can someone provide some guidance in how to determine when one interpretation applies over the other.

In one branch of my family, I have an ancestor in Włocławek often identified as a parobek, but twice identified as a komornik in the mid-1800s. In his case, perhaps for a time he had some responsibility to his landlord to help with some sort of administrative / rules enforcement duties.
But maybe the term just meant he was a tenant farmer. This is somewhat a splitting hairs case.

However, in another case, the godfather of a relative — also early-mid1800s — different family branch in another part of Poland — is identified as a noble AND a komornik from/of Ciechanów. Seems like in his case he was some official for the starostwo and his occupation was truly more of a bailiff.