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On 22nd February 1716 the Noble and
Worshipful Magistrates and Councillors of Warsaw elected as Advocate for
the current year the Noble and Worshipful ALEXANDER CZAMER, a
Councillor of the city, who took the customary oath on election.—
Warsaw Archives.
AUGUSTUS THE SECOND,
ETC.—We make known, etc., That compearing in person before the Chief
Chancery of our Realm, the Noble Alexander Ross presented for engrossment
in its Acts Letters of Recognizances and of one Attestation in his favour,
craving that they be adopted. Of these Recognizances and of one parchment
Writ the terms are as follows:—
My parchment, signed below,
is given to Alexander Ross or his representative. That I after an honest
reckoning remain in his debt to the real and true amount of one thousand
six hundred and five zloty and twenty grosz and one, that is to say 1605
and 21 grosz, in good Prussian money, counting in every zloty at the rate
of five six-grosz pieces, which sum of good money, as I cannot pay it out
at the present time, I oblige myself, with my successors, please God, in a
year from the present date of this parchment, without any delay and
counting legal dates, to pay to the said Mr. Alexander Ross, or his
bearer, or his plenipotentiary. And if I do not pay him by the appointed
date, then for better condition and for his safety I will declare the
above-mentioned sum in the Municipal-Council Books of Warsaw in an
authentic manner, and declare that debt as a real and true one, giving as
security my property, real and move-able, and if I were to sell my
personal property, the stone house standing in the Krrywe Kolo, in Warsaw,
from the proceeds of that sale I must pay to the said Mr. Ross or his
bearers of this parchment, before all other creditors, the above-mentioned
sum, and I put myself under the obligation to place upon my successors the
duty of fulfilling this obligation, and I submit to all the costs which
the said gentleman or the legal bearer of his parchment may incur in
connection with this matter. This happened in Warsaw on the 10th of June
in the year 1712. (Signed) KRTJSTINA CZAMEROWA, Alexander Leslie (as a
witness), John Golanowski (as a witness).
The matter of the other
certification is as follows:—I know, from the signature below, that rifles
were bought in Berlin from Mr. Alexander Ross. Item, from this same
gentleman, for the ordering of 250 carabines in Cekawiec in Cracow I owe
nineteen thousand tynfy, which I bind myself to pay, either to the
gentleman himself or the bearer of this paper, please God, by the Feast of
St. John, upon which I sign my name. This happened in Cracow on the 25th
of April 1710. MIER.
The matter of the attestation is as
follows:—To all whom it may concern to know: Whereas a difference has
arisen in the commercial accounts between Mr. Roberson Lau and Mr.
Alexander Ross; Therefore these litigants were agreeable, in the first
place, to a friendly decision by means of a compromise, to which
they invited Mr. Dupert, General Commissioner of the Republic’s Customs,
as chief Arbiter, with a condition to the effect that both parties would
agree to whatever the Chief Arbiter with the other Arbiters might decide.
We thereupon held conclave to effect a compromise between the adversaries,
so that a difference of opinion arose between the Chief Arbiter and the
other arbiters, and as a few decided that some of Mr. Ross’s sums were
against the laws of the kingdom, therefore the Arbiters could not agree
with the Chief Arbiter as to the verdict. Already at a very advanced hour
of the night this postponed their deliberations to the next day. And the
Chief Arbiter, on account of public amusements, could not determine the
meeting for the next days. We likewise cannot stay longer in Warsaw;
partly because of the public charges laid upon us and partly because of
other private and pressing business we must go away from here. We give our
assurance to Mr. Ross that if, by the endeavours of Mr. Law, the Chief
Arbiter and the other Arbiters should pronounce a verdict, then this
verdict shall be null and void; because without us and our consent, yea,
in our absence, it would be by the endeavours of an interested party and
because the verdict of an incomplete number of Arbiters should be
considered of no effect. This same assurance, for the knowledge and belief
of all, we sign with our own hands at Warsaw, 12 May 1712. ALEX. ALLAN,
Over-lieutenant of His Majesty’s Army (Place of the Seal). ALEXANDER
REID (Place of the Seal).—
Warsaw Chief Archives, in the Annals of Old Warsaw.
The Well-famed CHRISTIAN
ROSS, merchant and citizen of Warsaw, on the promotion of the Honourable
John Rudolf to be Assessor, was elected to the Board of Twenty by the
Magistrates and Council. On election he presented himself before them in
compliance with a Constitution relating to bribery; but they did not
enforce it, and returned to him his deposit, thereafter admitting him to
the oath and assigning him his proper seat among the Board of Twenty.
Done at Dantzig on the
Saturday before the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, 20th December 1710.
AUGUSTUS THE SECOND,
King of Poland, etc.
We made known, etc., That
compearing in person before the present Session of the Greater Chancery of
our Realm, the Worshipful Alexander Ross, [In 1699, 1701, and 1712,
Alexander Ross was registered as a communicant of the Tursk Assembly. A
Mrs. Ross is also mentioned as being a member during the same years. In
1719, Alexander Ross, ‘Junior,’ communicated. On March 15th,
1699, the body of William Ross was taken to Tursk, from Cracow, for
burial. In the same register is this entry: ‘1707, Easter Saturday. I
buried the body of Mr. William Ross, who was killed near Myslenice.’ The
annals of the Cracow Protestant Assembly for 1758 mention a legacy left by
one Charles Ross, without stating the amount, or the purpose. In a letter
dated 1780, written from Dantzig by one Gruszczynski to Pastor Gajewski,
notary of the Reformed Church in Little Poland, a will of Charles Ross, by
which the little Polish churches appear to have benefited, is mentioned.
Ross’s heir was a Councillor Bastyn. The legacy was put into Mr. Tepper’s
bank. The amount was 4000 florins.] citizen and merchant of
Dantzig, presented and offered for registration our Letters of Protection,
to this effect :—
Augustus the Second, by the
Grace of God King of Poland, Grand Duke of Lithuania, etc., to the
governors of the towns of our Kingdom and the Provinces belonging thereto,
being above the citizens of the knightly class and all conditions of
people who are, by our grace, subjects of our kingdom.
Not without our great
indignation have we learned at manifold times, through the supplications
of poor people, that those employed by the treasury of our Republic treat
those entering our good kingdom regardless of our laws, and do not
indemnify the damage done to our and the Republic’s Treasury, whence, for
the sake of extortion, the Customs, at manifold times, unjustly and
voraciously fall upon the Crown merchants and other poor people who,
unable to bear these unjust charges laid upon them, must avoid the
customs; whereby the duties, which might be given to our and the
Republic’s Treasury, go into other hands.
Therefore, to prevent all
inconvenience and damage to the Republic, whereas we have been told that
the noble ALEXANDER ROSS, Elder Citizen and Merchant of Dantzig
doth at certain times send his son to certain countries and especially to
Hungary for wine, and likewise his apprentice, we take him under our Royal
and complete protection in order that he may bring his merchandise without
any let, hindrance, or molestation whatsoever. We desire that none of your
servants in places set aside for taking customs shall dare to take the
least amount more than that prescribed by our laws and ancient usage as
duty on his merchandise, and that they should not allow the least
extortion or illegal charge upon his merchandise and wine whether by land
or whether by water; and this under pain of losing their place at the
customs and of paying a penalty of four thousand red zloty, of which our
Royal Treasury shall take one half and the other half shall go towards
paying the Royal Army. Such is the penalty for violating this letter of
ours to be paid by every guilty one, and he shall be instantly brought
before our own Royal Court of Justice. And whereas there are those who,
forbidden by the laws of the kingdom, still run after some merchants and
the others for revenge, thereby hurting the innocent by illegal means;
therefore no citizen of noble class on any protest whatsoever shall dare
to stand in the way of the above-mentioned Alexander Ross or his
apprentice with the object of plundering him, because we shall hold such a
one responsible under the rigour of the above command.
This Our letter of
Protection we order all the Governors of Our towns to publish and further
to give to the above-mentioned Noble Ross their full help and protection.
Given at Dantzig on the
11th day of December A.D. 1710, the fourteenth year of our Reign.
AUGUSTUS REX.
[Seal of the Greater
Chancery of the Realm.]
These Letters of Protection
we have authorised to be adopted in the present Acts, and authentic
extract thereof to be delivered to the party demanding the same.
In witness whereof, etc.—
Warsaw Archives.
Augustus the Second makes
known that in presence of the Session of the Chancery of the Realm, the
Noble ALEXANDER ROSS, merchant to the Court, recognised that he appointed
the Noble John Iness his Attorney and Mandatary, ‘giving and granting to
him full faculty and general power to claim and recover lawfully in a
competent court from their successors a certain debt in favour of the
constituent contracted by the late Honourable Philip Saccres, Assessor of
Warsaw, and his wife, and to uplift the sum due, and to grant them a
receipt therefor; and in so far as it might be necessary to institute a
process for the said debt, to assume, appoint and substitute in his place
another attorney to prosecute this suit, with general faculty to act,
prosecute, offer his oath, move for decrees, and to accept them if
favourable, but if unfavourable to appeal to a higher court, and pursue
the appeal,’ undertaking to accept as valid all lawful acts of the said
attorney or his substitute.
At Warsaw on 18th June,
1712. Augustus the Second makes known that in presence of the Session of
the Chancery of the Realm, the Noble ALEXANDER ROSS, merchant to the
Court, for himself and in name of Sophia French his wife, recognised that
he granted to Martin Zamoyski, Captain of Bolechow, in perpetuity, ‘his
own stone house built and situate in the centre of the square in the city
of Tarnow, called French’s House, acquired by the granter in name of dowry
with his foresaid wife, and still possessed by him, with all his
proprietary and hereditary rights thereto in their entirety, and all the
buildings, furnaces, rooms, vaults, cellars, kitchens and yards of the
said stone house, and with the use, enjoyment, profits and advantages, and
all the pertinents in general belonging thereto,’ reserving nothing for
himself or his successors, and securing the said Zamoyski against all
impediments arising from claims to the house by undertaking to defray the
costs of such out of his own estate, under penalty of 4000 Polish florins
for contravention of this writ.
Inventory and Valuation of
the Estate left by the Late Well-famed John Czamer
Augustus the Second makes
known that in presence of the Chancery of the Realm the Noble ALEXANDER
ROSS, merchant to the Court, recognised ‘that he granted and resigned to
the Venerable William Roberson, Clerk to the Canon of Posen, and Secretary
to the Chancery of the Lesser Seal of the Realm, two sums, one of 1300
tynfy acknowledged clearly due by the Noble and Honourable Magistracy of
Cracow, and liquidated or secured in the registers of that city, for wine
supplied by the Granter for the public needs of the said Noble Magistracy
of Cracow; the other a sum of 1115 tynfy accruing and due to the Granter
from the High-born Stephen Maijchrowicz, His Majesty’s Secretary, and
Clerk to the Session of the Lesser Chancery of the Realm,’ renouncing for
himself and his successors all title or claim to the said sums. [No note
appears as to where these papers about the Ross family were found. Most
likely they are among the Warsaw archives.] |
