Jürgen Witte (abt. 1590 - bef. 1652)

Born about 1590 in Vollerbenhof Witte, Fiestel, Wallenhorst, Iburg, Osnabrück, Heiliges Römisches Reich [uncertain]

Descendants

Died before 31 Mar 1652 before about age 62 in Vollerbenhof Witte, Fiestel, Wallenhorst, Iburg, Osnabrück, Heiliges Römisches Reich

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Biography

Jürgen Witte was born in the Prince-Bishopric of Osnabrück

This profile is part of the Wallenhorst, Niedersachsen One Place Study.

Jürgen Witte was identified in a record dated 22 December 1623, compiled by Wallenhorst's bailiff, Jost Helberg.^[1] This document detailed the farms that had been plundered earlier that year by riders from Westphalia, including the amounts of money they had extorted. According to the list, Jürgen Witte fell victim to five riders who stole ten thalers from him.^[1]

In 1630 Jurgen Witte was mentioned in the head tax register of Wallenhorst parish together with other inhabitants of his farm:^[2]

• Jurgen Witte (himself)
• uxor (his wife)
• filius (a son)
• filia (a daughter)

Bailiff Elverfeldt reported an interesting episode of resistance by the rural population against the high tax and contribution payments during the Thirty Years' War in a letter dated 9 November 1635 to the governor and the councillors in the city of Osnabrück.^[3] The bailiff could not collect the required contributions from the inhabitants of the parishes of Wallenhorst and Rulle, especially as various inhabitants had left their homes and were now begging elsewhere. Instead, the bailiff's servants were insulted and beaten, and the orders of the authorities were disobeyed.^[3] In this context, special mention is also made of the farm operator Witte and his "indignant wife", because after farmer Witte and his wife had refused to pay three times, the woman had come to the bailiff's house at midnight and had made a lot of trouble (="allerhant unruhigkeit und schmehe vorgenommen") there.^[3]

After the couple was arrested, the two freed themselves again and later insulted the bailiff, as he reported that the Wittes had ‘trained him to throw plugs’, that the ‘woman’ had ‘scratched’ his face and used abusive language, claiming that the bailiff was embezzling income and secretly concluding contracts, all for his own benefit.^[3] In return, she had ‘called him a rogue and thief, trained as a bawrenschinder’ and claimed that Everfeldt was not acting lawfully in his affairs.^[3] The bailiff then asked the government to punish the Wittes, but according to Martin Joseph, the file does not provide any information about the progress of the proceedings.^[3] However, it shows the precarious situation in which the rural population in the parish of Wallenhorst must have found themselves at this time, and this did not stop at the Witte family.

Research Notes

Name

What do we know about the name of Jürgen Witte?

Since the spelling variations for given and last names might have varied across the different sources and their authors, the following sourced list provides the variations known to date:

• 22 December 1623: Jürgen Witte
• 1630: Jürgen Witte^[2]

Birth/Baptism

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Marriage

What do we know about the marriage of Jürgen Witte?

Children

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Death/Burial

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Sources

1. ↑ ^{1.0 1.1} Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv Osnabrück: Schäden der Bevölkerung durch verschiedene Truppen, here: Verzeichnis über Kriegsschäden in Wallenhorst, NLA OS Rep 100 Abschnitt 248 Nr. 1, foils 63R-65L, images 69-72 in the digital copy at Arcinsys, accessed 23 January 2024.
2. ↑ ^{2.0 2.1} Niedersächsisches Landesarchiv Osnabrück: Schatz- und Kontributionsregister des Amts Iburg here: Personenschatzung 1630 Wallenhorst, NLA OS Rep 100 Abschnitt 88 Nr. 20, foils 147-155, images 150-158 in the digital copy at Arcinsys, accessed at 26 June 2023.
3. ↑ ^{3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5} Joseph, Martin (1998): Die Vogtei Wallenhorst im Dreißigjährigen Krieg: 1618-1648 Ereignisse, Folgen und Auswirkungen des Westfälischen Friedens, Hrsg. Gemeinde Wallenhorst, Steinbacher Druck, Osnabrück.