What is a scultetus/soltys in Poland?

My great-great-great-great-grandfather was listed in the church records as a "scultetus." He lived in Lulkowo, Poznan, Prussia near the city of Trzemeszno. I have seen several definitions of this term ranging from "sheriff" to "bailiff" to "village headman." Can anyone help me with this term? What does a scultetus do? How did a person become a scultetus? Can anyone help me with this term?

Thank you!

Sołectwo

A sołectwo [sɔˈwɛt​͡stfɔ] (Polish plural sołectwa) is an administrative unit in Poland, a subdivision of a gmina (although only rural locations are assigned to sołectwos). In many cases it consists of one village, but sometimes large villages may be divided into several sołectwos, while in other cases one sołectwo may consist of several villages or hamlets.

The elected head of a sołectwo is called a sołtys (for etymology see Schultheiß). In Polish villages the house of the current holder of that post is generally marked with a red plaque bearing the word SO£TYS

Thank you for that information! I'm still a tad confused though. So is the soltys the one in charge of farm production? Does he do anything with law enforcement? Was a soltys in Poland elected or appointed? Could anyone be a soltys?

He's not in charge of farm productions, every farmer is responsible for his own production.

Sołtys in other words is a person choosen by an election to represent his people from the village in need of government attentions in many matters . He's also kind of a government representative in his village. People from village usually go to Sołtys and apply about some needs (road improvements, school or clubs and many more) and Sołtys is responsible to discuss the matters with the Council body during their meetings .

It's like in the City - a councillor (called councilman-in the US) who's representing a group of residents in the City Council.

one correction to what Asik said, sołtys is not a governmental function, it's local - self governmental one (central government administration and local self-government are two different structures in Poland, like federal and state administration in the US).

Sołtys is elected by the villagers. Any adult inhabitant of the village can run for the position.

Very roughly, a sołtys fucntions roughly like the mayor of a small village.

Different legal and governmental traditions between the US (and different parts of the US) and Poland mean that there is no precise equivalent for lots of administrative terms and offices but 'mayor of a (small) village' is close enough, without actually studying the structure of various layers of local government in Poland (which I can't imagine you'd want to do).

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schultheiss

Jason, I live in the States so my knowledge here is very limited but I do have a Polish heritage and Google is a beautiful thing (except in China apparently but that's a different story). LOL

I've reviewed a few sites in Polish, English and German and basically I believe the term Sołtys (from the German term Schultheiß which in turn came from the Latin word Scultetus) would be equivalent to a mayor of a small village, parish or even small county here in the States. Since in a small village a mayor is responsible for numerous things, all the terms you've used "sheriff", "bailiff", "village headman" could be correct. You probably would also be able to call him an elder. Again, this is what my own extremely unscientific research have shown. (I also see others have posted now and their findings seem to correspond to mine).

Not familiar with the area you mentioned but I've looked up the German names for those towns and maybe that'll help you in your research (since he lived in Prussia, or a Prussian/German period in what today is Polish territory). He lived in Lulkowo (Lulkau), near Poznań (Posen), in Prusy (Preußen or Preussen) and near the city of Trzemeszno (Tremessen). (German version) Poznań (Posen) was the main city in that county.

Not sure if you speak Polish (I can read it but don't write very well). So I took the liberty of translate this Wikipedia article.

pl.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sołtys
(click for the original Polish version)

I'm certain that I've made many mistakes so I encourage others to correct my translation here. Terms in brackets [ ] are my own clarifications and notes.

Here's my Penglish translation... ;)

Sołtys (German Schultheiss, in the middle ages Latin Scultetus) - in the Middle Ages a person selected by the feudal lord in charge of a village based on the German law. Other versions of scholtis, szoltyz, elder in the medieval legal system is also a rural judge (Dorfschulze) and pioneer (settler), 1180 Schultetus, 1249 Sculte, 1259 Schultheiss, 1300 Schulcz, 1371 Scolcz. [different spelling versions] A sołtys could be a noble person, a citizen [townsman, business man], or a peasant. The rights of an Elder were:

- collecting rent
- chairing the rural court bench,
- when several fiefs [old acreage measurement unit] of land were received the sołtys could settle peasants there who would then become indebted laborers to him,

- was entitled to income from the landlord's share (1/6 rent and 1/3 of judicial penalties),
- had the right to hold shambles, mills, etc.

On the other hand, he was obligated to a horseback military service.

Social and economic status of mayors was relatively significant, they could even compete [in status] with the relatively [average] wealthy nobles. For this reason, the nobility prevailed in getting the king Jagiello to incorporate the Warckie Statutes [agreement] (1423), under which the nobility could redeem the village councils. Over time, from the 15th to the 17th Century the mayors [elders] became the village administrators and supervisors assisting the owners of the villages.

During the partition of Poland [I think this is the time frame which would apply to your relative], and during the interwar period [between WWI and WWII or 1918-1939] a Sołtys was the head-elder of the lowest unit of an administrative division - the "gromada" (~cluster, unit).

In the time frame of 1954 - 1972 the sołtys was the intermediary between the villagers and the Gromadzka national council, after 1973 between the local residents and the municipal council and the head of the peoples commune/municipality [remember that after 1945 the communism is forced upon Poland and many legal terms become "egalitarian sounding".]

Sołtysi [Elders] today
From 1990 and on a sołtys is the executive body of the ancillary unit of a rural community or urban-rural - sołectwa [parish/mayorship]. The legislative body is the villagers meeting which also via direct elections elects the mayor and the mayoral [administrative] council which supports the sołtys (mayor/elder]. Specific arrangements regarding the borders (there are mayoral regions which encompass more than one village), the regulations applicable to the mayor, etc. are governed by sołectwo [parish/mayorship] charter incorporated by the county [village] council seat. Mayors remuneration [compensation] is called dieta [not familiar with that term].

Competence [Obligations]
- represent the parish on the outside,
- convene and organize the parish meetings, and to this end distributes notices and ads regarding the meeting in a way which ensures the largest participation possible of the inhabitants of the parishes,

- implements the resolutions of the city council of parishes, as well as encourages the highest level of comprehension of the council's legislations among the citizens of the parish,

- in the time frame determined by the city council makes the collection of agriculture and forestry taxes as a collector of the tax authorities,
- attends the city council sessions and the legislative bodies without the right to vote,
- is obligated to take part in committee meetings whenever village council issues are being dealt with.

In the urban municipalities the equivalent term to a parish sołtys may be the council chairman of the borough [county] or district.

Sorry 'bout all the typos but I got too busy... :)

Here you can see Lulkowo on the map. Change the scale to find Trzemeszno to the east and Poznań the southwest.

Your great-... grandfather lived only a few miles from Gniezno (to the west) - the very first Capital of Poland. In 1038 (thanks google ;) it was moved to Kraków and a few hundred years later to Warsaw.

https://www.google.com:443/maps?q=62-200+Lulkowo,+Gniezno+County,+Greater+Poland,+Poland&ie=UTF8&hl=en&cd=2&geocode=FYr0IQMd_j4OAQ&split=0&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=23.875,57.630033&hq&hnear=Lulkowo,+Gniezno+County,+Greater+Poland,+Poland&ll=52.556938,17.710846&spn=0.234615,0.617294&z=11

Wow! That is so much good information! Thank you all so much for your help!

skysoulmate, thank you for your translations! I don't read Polish, so that is a big help to me. That is a wealth of information, and I truly appreciate it. Thank you!

The village sołtys where I lived for a while was also the mailman. Then they elected another sołtys who was fat and drank a lot.

But they were liked by the villagers and they were helpful and nice people.

You're more than welcome. Interesting stuff and good practice for me. I was a kid when we moved from PL so reading in Polish is sort of difficult for me but somehow it usually works out...

You live in the States? If so where? (I'm just curious). I'm in the Aloha state.

Hahaha, sounds like you've had you've had an interesting soltys or two, krysia. I sure hope that my ancestor wasn't like that (errr the second one.)

Skysoulmate, I bet that you're having a lot better weather than I am. I'm enduring the Chicago winter like I always have, bleh. I've never been to Poland, but I hope to go sometime soon. It's one thing to read about your ancestors in church books, but I imagine that it is quite another to walk in the village where they walked!

I understand, last time I was in Poland was some 30 years ago (I was a kid then)... Pretty sad actually as I've visited half the world by now (literally) but haven't had time to visit Poland... I'll have to do it sooner rather than later...

If you decide to go, the best thing is to have someone who can show you around. I always get a "guide" whenever I visit a place. Sometimes I pay him/her/them a fee, buy them dinner, coffee, whatever we agree on. It'll quadruple your experiences...

Good luck whenever you go..

I have a Polish document of the King's court in Latin from 1767. In it, my ancestral paternal grandfather was given the appointment of "soltys" scultetum, scultetus....by King August Stanislaw Poniatowski, the last King of Poland. In it, it states that my grandfather and another appointee were citizens in good standing....they were given land by the King and were to trade off the "position" every 3 years (to prevent corruption i would think) and some of their responsibilities...This appointment was to be handed down to eldest son and it was through at least several generations....additionally, I have found one generation farther back where my ancestral grandfather's father had same position at the time of his marriage in 1700. After I received the document from the University of Gdansk, I had the document translated by a Professor Emeritis in Latin from a nearby university. So I am very confident the translation was accurate...lol...I don't know if all "soltys" or scultetum were appointed by the King....but if you would like to see my document, I can email it to you...drop me a note at derdowski@yahoo ....Mike Derdowski - USA

ha! great story!

Did you actually pay for this translation? If so I would demand my money back or you're simply misinterpreted what it actually states. Your story doesn't hold water.

Let's start with the inheritance issue, the Sejm of 1568 has abolished the practice of inheritance of this particular office since too many of those who hald this office grew rich and their wealth in some cases exceeded the wealth of those nobles who they essentially worked for. That's well over 200 years before your ancestor supposedly held this office.

One did not have to be of nobel birth to hold this office and the nobles could not tolerate the fact that even a peasant who was basically a hired hand could in a generation or two be actually richer than the owner of the land he administered due to the revenue generated by the privileges and perks that came with this office. In time many of the poorer nobles actually started the practice of buying this office for themselves since the eldest son could actually inherit it, as they received land tax exempt to go with it, could run other enterprise like an Inn or a mill, took one 6th of the revenue collected from the peasants and were entitle to all the fish and game they wanted provided it's taken from the land they administered. As you can see no appointments were necessary but that in turn did not sit well with higher up nobility whose position was threaten by the wealth accumulation of the lower nobility. To make a long story short the tensions grew and this practice was abolished by Sejm of 1568.

On the lands that belonged to the King himself, a Magnat or that of the Church this office was held by the members of poor nobility once they figured out the game and started buying them left and right. Since it was very lucrative indeed it was the members of poor nobility for the most part that held that office that's going back to the XVI c but the actual title was administrator, ekonom or włodarz.

In the time frame you have specified the office and its privileges of the good old days, including inheritance was reestablished but only on the lands that were taken over by Prussia, so the King would not make an appointment there now would he? Besides you did say it was in 1767 that's 5 years prior to the first partition of Poland anyway so we can safely dismiss this scenario.

Nice fairytale and bedtime story for your grand kids tough.