| Abstract [eng] |
From the end of the 18th century to 1830, from the royal possession of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Šiauliai Economy has turned into the property of Russian nobles Zubovs. During that period, times were relatively quiet in the territory of Lithuania, there were no natural or man-made disasters that would have had any influence on households. The Master’s paper analyses the former Šiauliai Economy noble household. We will try to find out the size and structure of a noble’s family, how their social status position changed during the years of the turning point, what was the relationship of a noble with other social classes. The topic is relevant because the former Šiauliai Economy noble household has not been analysed in essence. The research of sizes, structure of households in Lithuania are taking its first steps, there is a particular lack of information on local topics. The object of research is the former Šiauliai Economy noble household. The objective of the paper is to analyse the former Šiauliai Economy noble household from the end of the 18th century to 1830. The following tasks were undertaken in order to achieve the objective: using accessible historiography, to find out about households in the Europe; on the grounds of the obtained historiography, to find out about Lithuanian households of that period; to determine the size and structure of noble households in the former Šiauliai Economy, to analyse the mutual relationships of social classes in the analysed parishes of Šiauliai Economy; to determine, what and what kind of noble families in the analysed parishes were prevalent during the analysed period. When implementing the objective and the tasks, the following methods of scientific research were used: comparative method and analysis of literature sources, as well as genealogy method. The metrics of churches of Joniškis, Naujoji and Senoji Žagarė, Radviliškis and Gruzdžiai parishes from the end of the 18th century to 1830 were used in the research. The visitations acts of the church of 1820, 1825 and 1830, the list of parish members of Joniškis of 1853 and of Naujoji Žagarė or 1840 were also used that helped establishing, whether the analysed noble families remained to live in the aforementioned parishes and if they succeeded in maintaining the nobleness. Also the list of Šiauliai Economy rent fee of 1732 – 1733 was used that provides the area of the used land plot measured in valakas. Households in Europe were different. In Western Europe, nuclear families prevailed, containing a small number of people: around 3 to 4. In central Europe, nuclear families also prevailed, where the number of members in a single household was around 8. Joint households mostly prevailed in the Balkans, where a relatively high amount of people were Muslims, who created such households following their customs. In Lithuania, as in the majority of European countries, nuclear households prevailed. An average number of members in a single household was 8. Normally, a household was created when a woman was aged 20 to 25 and a man was aged 30. Noble households in the former Šiauliai Economy were different. A single noble family could have consisted of 3 to 10 people. Noble households most likely were nuclear, however, there could have been joint ones. The nobles in the former Šiauliai Economy have not been socially distant from peasants, because the majority of them were small and were not very different from the peasants. It can be proven by baptisms of children and marriages. However, at that time, marriage with a peasant no longer guaranteed a noble status to noble children. During the analysed period, there were a few noble families prevailing in the former Šiauliai Economy (Jonišis, Naujoji and Senoji Žagarė, Radviliškis and Gruzdžiai parishes). However, these families belonged to the small nobles, therefore due to deprivation, a part of them often changed their place of residence. |
