A Historical and Archival Guide to Székesfehérvár (Székesfehérvár, 2003)

THE HISTORY OF SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR TOWN ARCHIVES

in the corridor, and at the same time a decision was made to protect the archives with iron window shutters and iron bars.

3 Prior to this, in 1727 on the occasion of the election of officials the Hungarian Treasury also dealt with the issue where the archival files should be placed. The town-clerk was charged with the supervision of the archives in the 1 730s; he had the disposal of the keys as well, which emerges from the conflict between town-clerk Ádám Fribeisz and the mayor. Mayor János Nagy did not receive the keys from the town-clerk. The mayor brought the case before the council meeting, where he demanded satisfaction for his offended official authority. The case resulted in great discord. The council suspended town-clerk Fribeisz and asked the Chamber to discharge him from duty. Eventually, the case ended with the apology of the town-clerk. Not only were the council- and court documents kept in the archives, but also the town seal was placed there. Sometimes the town's revenue, later the letters of nobility were stored here as well. Hereupon we do not have data about the placement of the archives for several decades. In 1 770 a new chancellery was built;

4 earlier it had been reported to the Hungarian Treasury that the offices were so unusable that the chancellery clerks could not perform their duties.

5 The sources report on the furnishing of the archives from the second half of the I 780s, when cabinets were made for copying documents, but leather bags were also used for storing files.

6 From the time the Turks were forced out, until the reorganisation of the Joseph-era the town-clerk was in charge of supervising the archives. In the 18

th century a council member, sometimes one of the clerks handled the archives. However, the actual tasks were managed by one of the clerks in the town-clerk's office. Written administration was carried out by the scribes. They had various tasks, apart from their duties in the chancellery they were in charge of collecting tithes, supervising the vineyard cellars, etc. The scribes were employed by the council, most of the time they were chosen from applicants. Two scribes worked in the town chancellery at the same time.