Pécsdevecser in the Baranya
A Short History
(The following translation finds its source in Deutsche Kolonisten im Komitat Baranya in Ungarn 1688-1752 Teil II by Ferdinand Hengl.)
ThevillageofDevecherwas confiscated by the Imperial Royal Chamber inViennain 1687.
In 1695 there is a reference to the fact that the village was part of the Zrinyi Domains. In light of the lack of any heirs in the Zrinyi family the ownership reverted back to the Royal Imperial Chamber. The inhabitants of the village paid three Gulden of the Hungarian land tax to the Zrinyis. The Turkish owner, Nadasdy Desdar Aga, was paid one Gulden annually by each of the inhabitants. They also delivered 100 Okka of flour to the Turkish sultan. The inhabitants were Hungarians. They were all Calvinists.
In the year 1700 Count Adam Batthyányi took possession of the Bóly Domain which included thevillageofDevecser.
In the year 1701 the Inspector of the Batthyányi’s carried out an audit and census of the Domain and reported the inhabitants of Nagy (Larger) Devecser were Hungarian and had lived there prior to the time of the Batthyányi takeover of the Domain. The village now consisted of six houses and households. The fields under cultivation were extensive as well as were the meadow lands. The village had one mill with one wheel paddle which was powered by the Peterd Creek. The mill was only operational during the rainy season. It belonged to the inhabitants of the village. There were chestnut trees to be found in the forest. The villagers had the right to gather firewood in the forest. There was also a ruined church with a tower that remained standing. It was in need of a roof and floor.
In the year 1702: Kiss Devecser Puszta (Small Devecser Prairie) was settled earlier by eight farmers who lived out on the prairie. The prairie now consisted of ploughed fields as well as meadows but it was overgrown with reeds and bull-rushes. There was also a not too tall mountain. A damaged mill stood along the bank of the Peterd waterway and was owned by the inhabitants of Ratz-Petre (Serbian-Petre) but because the dammed water flooded the meadow the mill was to be taken down even though it had only been recently built. The meadowlands were sown with maize (corn) from Kassa (Kisskassa) and Nagy Devecser and one ninth of the crop was the Domain’s portion. In the forest there were both chestnut and oak trees.
The Rákoczi Rebellion that took place between the years 1704 to 1711 and the later destruction wrought by the Serbs saw to the complete obliteration of the village.
1709: Nagy Devecser: Five Hungarian peasant families settled here and they had five houses but had no livestock. The Serbs burned down their houses. The peasants scattered and the vineyards rotted. They had built a small mill that had also been burned down.
1709: On the Kiss-Devecser Puszta a village was established before the Rebellion with seven houses and households all of whom were Serbs. In the face of the attacks of the Kurucz rebels of Rákoczi the Serbs fled across theDravaRiverintoSlavonia. They had oxen for five ploughs and each required a team of six oxen. They also had vineyards. The rest of the prairie was reverting back to a forested wilderness.
1732: The first German settlers arrived in thevillageofDevecserand they were later joined by others in 1733 and 1735. The Domain Conscription Records of 1736 include this information:
The families in the villager were assessed a raise in taxes in three year intervals from 1734 to 1752. The number of German families was listed as follows:
In 1734 there were 8 German households; 1737 there were 20; 1741 there were 21; 1744 there were 21; 1748 there were 34 and in 1752 there were 32 families.
The Conscription Record of this period and the Church Records of the parish of Újpetre (1745-1752) and the years following enables us to provide the list of names of the German colonists. From this listing of names we can identify the following tradesmen up until 1752 who did not work any land:
Brust, Stephen 1745-1748 Miller
Einsidler, Johann Kirch 1748 Swine Herd
Hagen, Jakob 1745-1751 Shoemaker
Holter, Johannes 1748-1752 Shepherd
Keller, Heinrich 1741 Shoemaker
Koch, Michael 1748-1750 Miller
Kornfeld, Johann 1752 Miller
Munth, Anton’s wife 1748-1752 Midwife
Reder, Stephan 1751-1752 Miller
Schatdorff, Johann Georg 1745-1748 Shoemaker
Tilper, Josef 1748 Potter
For the names of settler families living in the community in that time frame contact the author of this website.
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