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Willkommschatzung
(Welcome Tax Assessment)
1498/1499
The
oldest references to the Gerwing - Gerwer family in Alstaette are found in the
registers of the "Willkommschatzung" from 1498/1499 which were
published in a 1976 study conducted by Joachim Hartig.
In the
late Middle Ages it was customary that a one time special tax called
"Willkommschatzung" was granted to a newly elected bishop so as to
cover the extra expenditures associated with church government. This special tax had to be paid by all who were
subjects of the bishop of Muenster. The
tax applied to all adults eligible to take communion. Therefore it applied to
everyone 12 years of age and older. Excluded from this special tax were the
members of the aristocracy (nobility), the clergy and civil servants. The head
of the household was responsible for the payment of the "Kopfsteuer"
(head tax). All households including the number of persons in the household
were registered on this tax list except for the groups specified before. The
"Willkommschatzung" list is recognized today as the standard
directory of all the farms in Münsterland during the latter part of the 15th
century.
The
legislature of Münsterland granted the bishop (Conrad von Rietberg) a head tax
in the amount of 2 schilling 6 pennies, which was to be collected in two
payments. The first payment had to be made in 1498, the second in the next
year. Under supervision of the priest in each parish, a list of persons subject
to the tax was developed. For the year 1498 the following person is recorded in
the municipality of "Alstede" list:
Bernt
Gerwerdinck
Six
persons live in this household. The list of the following year records a
household with four persons headed by:
Margareta
Gerwertinck
There is no reference to other families with
the name Gerwer or Gerwing in the Alstaette "Willkommschatzung ". The
recorded roots of the family Gerwing in Alstaette therefore begin in the year
1498. According to later sources it is clearly evident that this farm is the
original farm of the Gerwing family in Alstatte.
*note
the later sources are:
-
Church Register of Alstatte
-
Census of 1749
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