Román János (szerk.): Borsodi levéltári évkönyv 4. (Miskolc, 1981)
Angol nyelvű összefoglaló
ABSTRACTS FROM THE THIRD VOLUME OF THE BORSOD ARCHIVAL ANNUAL SOCAGE AND ADMINISTRATION IN APÁTFALVA IN THE PERIOD OF FEUDALISM Andor Csizmadia The author made researches in order to bring to light the history of economic life and administration and its system of unwritten law in the village Apátfalva/today Bélapátfalva/ ,which used to belong to the county Borsod in the period of feudalism and capitalism. He completed his research work in National Archives, the Archives of the county Borsod and that of Heves, as well as, in the Archives of Seminary of Eger. Based on this the assembling of the treatise has now been formed, with the author’s use of some material of the complex research work, to show feudal socages, village administration and housekeeping in Apátfalva in the frames given. Apátfalva had been a village of serfs founded in the 13th century and owned by the Cistercian Abbacy of Bélháromkut, which managed to tide over Turkish times. While neighbouring villages had been turned into deserts from time to time, life had been going on in Apátfalva. The inhabitants of the village have been known since as early as the 16th century, whose descendants are living in the village even in our days and to follow them with interest can give us valuable data to the genealogy of serfdom, what has been in utter neglect so far. The author goes into a detailed analysis of the socages in the village and compares them with the national arrangement and legal rules. The 18th century is of special interest with its several socages — one from the period following the suppression of Rákóczi’s insurrection, another one from after the bloody suppression of the famous „danger of Apátfalva” /a revolt of the villages belonging to the Seminary of Eger with the leadership of Apátfalva/, and a third one from the period of Maria Theresa’s limitation of rights. The socages and the research into their being collected indicate exactly the unchanged or sometimes growing burdens of Apátfalva, which had developed into a market-town in the meantime. The chapter written about the administration and housekeeping in Apátfalva furnishes data unknown so far not only to local history but to the history of the Hungarian administration, as well. The author has found a village regulation in the archives of the Seminary of Eger, which was issued in connection with the socage by a squire at the beginning of the 18th century, and this regulation, after being checked with other data, draws a clear picture of the administration system and the auhority of organs in the village /market-town/. This is completed by an analysis of the village accounts for three years at the end of the 18th century, and it points to the fact that there used to 315
