A Pest Megyei Levéltár. Levéltárismertető (Budapest, 2004)

Seventeen thousand meters of historical source/Introduction of the main archives

appellate authority. The committee designated the ctirator, took measures regarding the orphan property administration and its ablocation. Another task of the committee was to supervise the management of possessions distrained by judicial decision. Our Archives preserves the Documents of Pest-Pilis-Solt County Orphan Committee from 1803 to 1848. Last but not least in the incomplete sequence of the committees we mention the PestPilis-Solt County Theatrical Committee. The role of Pest County in establishing the first theatre in the country, then in starting its operation is well known. Prior to the establishment of the theatre there had been efforts made for several decades to achieve this goal. Hereby it must be mentioned that besides the documents of the committee produced between 1837 and 1842 there is a so called Archival Collection of Theatrical Documents (1792-1837) saved separately in the collection is worth reviewing for those who intend to study the theatrical history of this era. The documents and the settlement of accounts of the Hungarian Theatrical Company of Pest, the Buda Theatre and later on the Hungarian Theatre of Pest were put into the latter collection. There will be two of the county offices operating at the beginning of the 19

th century mentioned below. First of all the office of the Vice-Lieutenant of Pest-P HisSolt County is to be introduced. The Vice-Lieutenant governed the county administration, executed the orders and measures of superior authorities and the county convention. As being the head of the municipality he also arranged cases in his own jurisdiction. He directed the district judges, ordered investigation, ensured about the accommodation and feeding of the passing armed forces, ordered judicial executions, made complaints to be investigated, ruled warrants, dealt with issues of landlords and workers. Regarding this later one the tasks of the Vice-Lieutenant's office has significantly increased in 1848. The documents of the Tax-Collector Office of Pest-P HisSolt County preserves all the registers, assessments, accounts related to taxation that we have written about formerly. The office maintained the documents regarding the country population records. The documents of the so-called Archival Collection of Convention Register fond is closely related to the documents provide a good view about the tasks of the office. This latter one contains all the recordings of damages caused by lire, the copyholding records, the socage conscriptions and the army related registers. The detailed registers regarding military service provision between 1812 and 1843 had been completed almost every year. The houses and their population were registered settlement by settlement. The males were registered according to the following "classification": if they were married, single or widowed, from the country, demobilized soldiers or not, etc. Out of the institutions of justice administration we call attention to the documents of the Pest-Pilis-Solt Cowity Lawcourt. The reports contain the judgements and the juridical decrees. The lawcourt had 5-8 meetings annually having the first or the second ViceLieutenant as the Chairman, and with the participation of 5-6 district attorneys, the head clerk, 1-2 head judges, 1-2 jurymen and 1-6 public prosecutors. During the reign of Joseph II the lawcourt had meetings weekly. They delivered judgements in civil cases, criminal actions, and in socage cases in cotirt of second instance. The subject of the document 165