“They will give no more than 70 marks to the king ever year. Therefore all that is gathered within their demesnes should be free of taxation. They can sell their free goods and will only report to the court of Kłodzko. They are allowed to hunt and fish freely within their demesnes”
(from privilege constituted by emperor Karol the 4th for free magister in Kłodzko County, July the 13th 1348)
In the center of the village by the main road against the football field and the fire station there is a building which by its shape and appearance differs from others in Stary Wielisław. The building rather resembles a manor house. Built in the 17th century, to this day it preserved its baroque appearance.
The history of this place dates back at least to the 2nd half of the 13th century and is associated with the location of Stary Wielisław based on so called German law. During that period ownership regulations were constituted. Among others in the low part and at the upper part of the village 2 manors were built and church grounds belonging to the parish (so called Widmut) as well as property of village leader called a judge (Richter) or free jugde (Freirichter) were assigned. The mentioned building was first the seat of the magister of Wielisław.
Free magister who was responsible for organizing the settlement could count on larger ground assignment as opposed to other village residents. Magisterial estate was free of all tributes to land lords (all the other people were obliged to pay annual rent). An exception was so called field rent which the magister had to pay if they later purchased other grounds not belonging to the property.
It is difficult to estimate the value of the magister in Wielisław for we do not possess many source texts form the period. From an urbarium of Kłodzko from 1534 it is written that the magister of Wielisław paid a rent of about 2 thalers on St. George’s Day and St. Michael’s Day. In 1571 they paid 1 grosh more. On the other hand a collection of protocol from visitation in the parishes churches and schools made by archdeacon of Kłodzko Krzysztof Neaetius in 1560 we find a record of a thite in the amount of 3 quarters of grain. In 1603 it was only 2 quarters. On this basis we can estimate a magister received 54 – 72 hectares of ground when establishing a settlement.
A judge's demesne was an independent estate among with his subjects (also peasants) who paid a rent to the magister and were obliged to serfdom. Magisters had the grounds at their disposal and could pass it to their heirs both male and female. Moreover, when selling or inheriting, they were allowed to divide their demesne with all privileges. Thus the nobility tried to take over their goods.
From records preserved it is found that magisterial manor was the object of numerous transactions and divisions throughout centuries. In 1422 Jan Bertolsdorf sold the manor to his brother Stefan. The son of the latter sold it in 1429 to Hans Heinrich. In 1365 part of the estate belonged to Thicze von Makewicz. In 1413 Niclas Otto inherited 9 hectares of grounds and in 1430 a hayfield covering 9 hectares belonging earlier to the magisterial estate became privately owned.
Not only grounds and woods belonged to magisters but also mills, craft workshops, and right to brew and sell beer.
From 1419 record we find out that magisterial estate was composed of cornfields and also a manor with a baker, a shoemaker, and a blacksmith. A document from 1429 mentions a mill and an inn. The mill (Hillbrand Kauffung owned it then) was mentioned in 1497 as a part of the estate.
A free judge was also a head of the village court of law with the jury chosen by the village residents. Apart of order arbitration the court carried out verdicts concerning any transactions among the villagers. The inn was often a place of sessions. The verdicts were written in court records (Schöppenbuch). The records for Wielisław were drawn up in 1532 (a contraction from years 1590-1743 is preserved in a local parish archive). We find in the records that the court of Wielisław sessions most often were held by the judge and 2-3 lay judges. Sometimes there were more lay judges (5 in 1590 and even 6 in 1743).
On the 7th of November 1603 magisterial property was bought for about 1100 thalers by Jesuits. The order’s provost Johann Werner bought the property from Georg Berger (the chairman of imperial court in Kłodzko) and a townsman Valentin Langer. From that moment magisters were probably nominated by Jesuits out of residents of Wielisław. Unfortunately, in the document of purchase, we do not find any information on the estate’s value apart form the amount of thithe.
On the 23rd of February 1648 the magisterial manor was pillaged and burnt by imperial marshal Graf von Buchheim’s troops going back from Silesia to Prague. It was rebuild to the appearance that remained unchanged until present day.
In 1769 Jesuits sold the inn and the magisterial grounds for 1500 florins, and the mill for 1300 florins. Since then the magisterial manor remained privately owned. The buildings surrounding it come from the 18th and 19th centuries.
In 19th century the village magistrate (Amtsgericht) was temporarily moved to lower manor in Stary Wielisław.
On the other hand the seat of the magister was situated in so called communal house (Gemeinde Haus), placed among houses of the families of Bliski, Kozłowski, Paszkiewicz (last resident miss Zajączkowska) until the World War 2 breakout.
translate: R. Augustyniak