Court clerks of the department / civil chamber of the Vilnius Main Court in 1802–1853

Abstract

The years of Partitions were a time of transformation of all areas of the former Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Processes of assimilation with the occupying countries took place in every part of the partition. The unification of the state administration in the Polish territories incorporated into Russia proceeded in stages. It took relatively the longest in the legal system and judicial administration. By the decision of Catherine II in the Vilnius governorate, the 3rd Statute of Lithuania remained the most important source of law, the official language was still Polish, and the nobility gathered every three years for election assemblies in order to select candidates for land offices. These rules were confirmed by successive tsars sitting on the Russian throne.

Inevitable changes in the judiciary took place during the reign of tsar Nicholas I, and the complete abolition of Polish-Lithuanian legal norms in western governorates finally took place in 1840.

The purpose of this article is to trace the composition of the officials of the civil department (then chamber) of the Vilnius Main Court and to draw a collective portrait of them. The analysis will take into account: origin, education, religion, property, career history, received awards and achieved levels of promotion according to the rank table in force in the Russian Empire. Interpretation of the collected material will also allow to trace the processes taking place in the judiciary of the Vilnius Governorate under the influence of the changing political situation resulting from the progressive Russification.