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

THE HISTORY OF SZÉKESFEHÉRVÁR TOWN ARCHIVES

posed the royal commissioner that the archivist post should be filled.

59 A few days later, on 15 September 1 849 Ignácz Heringh royal commissioner appointed scribe János Szabó as the town's archivist.

60 The archives were under the supervision of the town-clerk during this period. In the first years of the neo-absolutism a part of the documents from the time of the revolution were made illegible. The entries about the revolution were erased from the committee's minutes of the meetings. The County Chief Officer (head of the county administration appointed by the king) sent for some important documents of the town, which could be reclaimed only much later. During this period the charter of Székesfehérvár, which was issued on 23 October 1 703 was also thought to be lost. Imre Palugyai in The Latestdescription of Hungarian Histoiy, Land-register and State mentions the Diploma Leopoldinum as: "the original was destroyed just a few days ago with wicked deed, which has not been detected yet

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61 The administration system that was worked out by the towncouncil functioned till 16 December 1859. Then the mayor József Drucker introduced a "new order and procedure". He divided the town-council's administrational functions into three parts: the first one was the economic and financial matters; the second part was the police, military and legal matters - he charged the municipal attorney with it -; administration, industry and commerce belonged to the third part. The town-clerk, János Faster directed the latter, archivist János Niczky was assigned as his assistant. Niczky had been working as archivist since 1857.

62 When the officials were re-elected on 10 January 1 861 József Egyed was appointed the new archivist.

63 Just as at the re-election in 1848 electors voted on the position. There were three candidates for the position, and Egyed defeated the others. We know little about his work, but great emphasis was put on making archival indexes during this period, because the council-meeting records were finished by the end of the year. The town officials resigned on 3 November 1861. According to the letter of resignation administration as such ceased to exist; the unsettled files, the pay-office key and the town-seal were given to the archives. The