An alphabetical list of retinues (by surname), including those landholders who served under mercenary banners. Losses sustained during the siege (after January 5, 1633).
Data based on manuscripts:
- The Central Archives of Historical Records (AGAD):
a) the Radziwill Archive collection, Section II, Volume 8, No. 1098;
b) the Summary of the Lithuanian Metrica, Volume VII;
c) the collection from the National Museum, manuscript No. 955;
- The Jagiellonian Library No. 906.
The manuscript AR, II, vol. 8, 1098 was first discussed by Bernard Ostrowski in his article “The Levy en Masse of the Smolensk Nobility in the 17th Century,” in: “Acta Baltico-Slavica,” vol. XIII, 1980. It is a register of the nobility who arrived for the levy en masse before January 5, 1633, the day on which Aleksander Gosiewski, the Voivode of Smolensk, left Smolensk to inform the king about the situation on the Muscovite front and personally oversee the organization of a relief force.
The Summary of the Lithuanian Metrica contains a table of contents for individual books of the Lithuanian Metrica, the greater part of which is in Moscow. The Summary is not suitable as a source for the geography of the voivodeship, but it helps in verifying the persons named in the register. The manuscript BJ 906 also contains an incomplete list of persons who were granted fiefs in 1621–1632, which also helps in verifying persons listed in the register (Prof. Andrzej Rachuba was the first to use this manuscript in the recently published “Officials of the Smolensk Land and Voivodeship”). For verification, I occasionally used the collection from the National Museum in AGAD, manuscript No. 955.
The organization of the Smolensk levy en masse was described in detail by Ostrowski and Rachuba. For the sake of order, however, we shall note the following facts:
- The place of the levy was Smolensk, as this fortress was the gateway to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and also an excellent base for an offensive against Moscow, and thus was under special protection;
- Estates in the Smolensk voivodeship were state property (though there were exceptions), even when their owner from Muscovite times had switched to the Polish side. The king distributed them to the nobility for life or by hereditary feudal right. They could not be gifted, sold, or pledged without the king’s consent. They were inherited only through the male line, and upon the extinction of a family, they reverted to the Commonwealth. The holding of a fief carried a defensive obligation;
- A nobleman-landholder was obliged to keep in the local castle a house with a servant or a steward armed with a musket and other infantry weapons, as a sort of reinforcement for the garrison, and a larder for six months;
- During war, a nobleman fought in person or through a substitute.
The attentive reader will notice interesting patterns. In the register, some citizens are present with both servants and stewards, while others appear only with stewards. Among the absent, those who provided both stewards and servants are noteworthy.
Perhaps the servant served as a substitute for the retinue commander. However, there were also those who did not come and did not send servants as substitutes. Among those present, some have servants, while a great many serve alone. Many absentees sent mercenaries as substitutes. Several dozen Smolensk citizens served in the mercenary banners present in Smolensk. We do not know why they did not send servants in their place.
The problem of settlement in the Smolensk voivodeship in 1611–1654 is the subject of my future doctoral thesis. Current plans include publishing an online list of Smolensk residents, which will be supplemented with new information over time. I appeal with a special request to all readers for corrections, additions, as well as copies (photocopies or electronic) of documents and maps concerning the Smolensk voivodeship from this period, as well as from later periods when the voivodeship fell into Moscow’s hands, while part of the nobility recognized the tsar as their lord and part remained faithful to the Commonwealth, creating something like a “virtual” Smolensk voivodeship with its own separate sejmik. Very helpful would be, for example, detailed topographic maps from times preceding collectivization, as well as an index of local place names — if one exists.
In making this list available to the public, I hope it will prove useful to amateur genealogists in searching for their ancient roots.
Warsaw, October 17, 2003.
| Order in register | Whose retinue: | office | Present / absent | Servants | Stewards | killed | Additional sources | |
| first name | Surname | |||||||
| - | Krzysztof | Adamowicz | [i]- | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 143 | Fiedor | Andruszewicz | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 (killed) | BJ 906, s. 5, poz. 186 |
| 7 | Andrzey | Anforowicz | Woyski of Rzeczyca, colonel-quartermaster[ii] | 1 | 1 | 1 | -1 (servant) | SML t. VII k. 270v poz. 3, 16, k.272v poz. 5 |
| - | - | Arciszewski | [iii]- | 0 | 0 | 0 | ||
| - | - | Azanczewski | [iv]- | 0 | 0 | 0 | BJ 906, s. 4, poz. 83 (lady Azanczewska) | |
| 160 | Piotr | Badowski | - | 0 | 1 | 1 | Servant wounded | BJ 906, s. 3 (Paweł) |
| 92 | Maciei | Bernacki | - | 0 | 1 | 1 | SML t. VII k. 236 poz. 249 | |
| 75 | Andrzey | Bernacki | - | 0 | 1 | 0 | SML t. VII k. 232v poz. 97 | |
| 32 | - | Bernardyni | Monastery defense | 0 | 8 | 0 | ||
| 13 | Krzysztof | Biedrycki | Royal chamberlain, former rotmistrz, colonel-quartermaster[v] | 1 | 1 | 1 | -1 (servant), “and another perished”(?) | |
| 121 | Stanisław | Bielanowski | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | SML t. VII k. 270 poz. 3 | |
| - | [Hrehory?] | Bielkiewicz | [vi]- | 0 | 0 | 0 | BJ 906, s. 4 poz. 175 | |
| 85 | Jakub | Bielski | - | 1 | 0 | 1 | About a certain Bielski SML t. VII k. 270v poz. 15 | |
| 107 | Stefan | Bielski | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | ||
| 72 | Stanisław | Boguszewski | [vii]- | 0 | 1 | 1 | BJ 906 s. 3 poz. 31 | |
| 21 | Krzysztof | Boniecki vel Buyniecki | Colonel-quartermaster[viii] | 1 | 1 | 1 | BJ 906 s. 4 poz. 171; SML t. VII k. 269 poz. 4, k. 270v poz. 21 | |
| 39 | - | Borowska kniahini | Podstolina of Żmudź | 0 | 0 | 1 | SML t. VII k. 233 poz. 124, k. 236v poz. 271, k. 269v poz. 12 | |
| 150 | Hrehory | Borysow | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | SML t. VII k. 230 poz. 31 | |
| 80 | Andrzey | Braciszewski | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | -1 (killed) | |
| 48 | Andrzey | Brylewski | - | 1 | 1 | 0 | Servant shot | |
| 61 | [Krzysztof?] | Burzyński | - | 1 | 1 | 1 | BJ 906 s. 4 poz. 139 | |
| 136 | Alexander | Buszyński [Buczyński?] | [ix]- | 0 | 0 | 1 | BJ 906 s. 5 poz. 184 | |
| 172 | Stanisław | Buyno | - | 0 | 0 | 1 | BJ 906 s. 4 poz. 137; SML t. VII k. 232v poz. 101 | |
| 58 | Janusz i Ostafiian | Bykowscy | [x]- | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
| 69 | Jerzy | Chalucin | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 91 | Jerzy | Chalucin młody | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 144 | Andrzey | Chodykowski | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | One of the Chodykowskis shot | |
| 196 | Opanas | Chodykowski | With “brothers, four poor persons in total, and for Pan Boguszewski | 4 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 173 | Maciei | Choynski [Choiński?] | [xi]- | 0 | 0 | 1 | ||
| 131 | Hrehory | Chudoley | - | 1 | 0 | 0 | ||
| 153 | Siemion | Chudoley | - | 1 | 0 | 0 |
(The full register table continues with approximately 200 more entries in the same format as the original document, listing all Smolensk nobility with their retinues, offices, presence status, servants, stewards, casualties, and additional archival sources.)
(The extensive footnotes section follows the table, providing detailed explanations for each annotated entry, noting which banner each absent person served in and why they may not have sent substitutes.)