Khorostkiv is 115 years older: a division of estates in 1449

The entry, as printed

Fratribus iunioribus Nicolao, Stanislao et Iohanni ville: Podbohwrodzicze, Roczchwany, Na[s]taszow cum attinenciis, eciam Przemylow, Myeszkowcze, Chrosthkow.

In English

To the younger brothers Mikołaj, Stanisław and Jan, the villages of Podbohwrodzicze, Roczchwany and Nastasiv with their appurtenances, and also Peremyliv, Myshkivtsi and Khorostkiv.

A history that began with magnates

The official history of Khorostkiv begins in 1564, when a royal privilege passed the settlement to the magnates Jakub and Jerzy Strus. Anniversaries are counted from that date, and the community's own history and the Wikipedia card both repeat it.

But in the court books of the Halych land Khorostkiv appears 115 years earlier, and not in a royal privilege but in a family story: a stepfather dividing an inheritance among six stepsons.

A stepfather, a voivode and six brothers

In the summer of 1449, on 16 July, a deed of perpetual division of estates was drawn up in Terebovlia. Its author was Hryczko Kierdejowicz of Pomoriany, voivode of Podolia and starosta of Terebovlia, one of the most powerful men in the region: he held both the office of voivode of Podolia and the royal castle at Terebovlia. What he divided was not his own. It was the inheritance of his stepsons, the sons of the late Janusz of Oryniv, chamberlain of Kamianets, whose widow he had married.

A “perpetual” division meant a final one, so that the brothers, once grown, would not go to law with one another over every village. So the deed lists everything by name.

Who received what

Zygmunt received Davydkivtsi, Chornokintsi and three more villages with all that belonged to them. Hryczko received the family seat, Oryniv, except for one hamlet that went to the younger brothers. Jan received Sokil, Hrynkivtsi and several more small villages. And the three youngest, Mikołaj, Stanisław and a second Jan, received Nastasiv with its appurtenances and two more villages, “and also Peremyliv, Myshkivtsi, Khorostkiv”.

These villages are scattered from Kamianets to Terebovlia. This is what the family wealth of the Podolian nobility looked like in the mid-15th century: not one estate, but dozens of villages, divided, exchanged and pledged in every generation.

How the deed survived

The deed was made in Terebovlia and entered in the Terebovlia land books. Those books have not come down to us. But later Zygmunt asked for the deed to be copied into the Halych land book, and it is the Halych books that survived, were kept in Lviv and were printed in the 19th century. Without that request by one of the brothers we would know nothing of early Khorostkiv.

One curious detail: in the printed edition the deed stands among the entries of 1452, because that is when it was copied. This is why neighbouring Peremyliv is dated 1452 on Wikipedia. The deed itself is dated 16 July 1449.

How we know it is this Khorostkiv

There was more than one Chrostków in medieval Galicia: the same volume, under 1447, names a Chrostków among the villages around Halych castle. So the name alone proves nothing.

But in the deed of 1449 Khorostkiv is paired with Peremyliv, and Peremyliv lies beside Khorostkiv to this day. A hundred and fifteen years later, in the tax register of 1564, the two settlements again appear on neighbouring lines: Khorostkiv with twelve peasant households and a priest, Peremyliv with sixteen households.

What this date changes

The earliest written mention of Khorostkiv that can be shown on the page of a printed source is 16 July 1449. That is 115 years earlier than the community's own history says. The privilege of 1564 did not open the history of Khorostkiv; it opened its next chapter, the age of the magnates.

The deed says nothing about what Khorostkiv was like in 1449, how many people lived there or whether it had a church. Only that it was a village with owners, worth dividing carefully among brothers. The Wikipedia article also mentions the year 1340, but without any source, so it cannot be checked. After 1449 the documents fall silent until 1564, and that gap is what we are searching now.

Sources

• Akta grodzkie i ziemskie, vol. XII (Lwów, 1887), pp. 217–218, no. 2528 (16.07.1449).
• A. Jabłonowski, Źródła dziejowe, vol. XVIII, part 1 (Warsaw, 1902), p. 99: the 1564 register.

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