Up
until 1918, a duke and several knights ruled Mecklenburg. The knights ruled their properties without government restrictions.
Farmers rented properties from the knights.
There
were no Molls living in Kalsow in 1751 but by 1753 there were three families
with this name. As there were only seven families living in the area,
it would appear that they arrived together from another district. By 1819, one of our ancestors was mayor of
the village. Even in 1873 of the
three families left, two had the surname Moll.
In 1790 the knight, Von Both, intended to disown
the farmers to enlarge his own property. He chased them off their land
and pulled down their houses. He declared the land as his own and employed
the farmers as day labourers. The farmers protested. They wrote to the
duke and asked him for help. Here is a synopsis of a 19 pages sent to
the duke.
v Petition
to the duke from the remaining farmers; Friedrich Moll, Christian Gaeveke
and Jochim Heinrich Moll with the description that four from the seven
original farmers were cheated by the landowner Von Both in 1790, the cattle
were sold and the barns demolished.
v
In
a new petition to the duke in 1797 the farmers requested that they get
their jobs back. They were:- Jochim Hinrich Moll Senior, Peter
Gevcke, Adolph Kroeger, Hartig Wendler, Christian Gevcke, Friedrich Moll
Junior, Jochim Hinrich Moll Junior. v
A
renewed request from the farmers to re-establish the jobs as farmers and
indicating that the landowner Von Both, had put them through a long and
expensive trial which bankrupted the farmers.
v
Finally
the duke who up to now only referred them to the government bodies wrote
a letter to Von Both telling him that he has no right to reduce the size
of Kalsow and ordered him to preserve the last three farmers for the government.
v
In
1796, a renewed petition to the duke from the farmers requesting a reduction
of the rent of the farm as the requested price is not possible to raise
from these 'worst fields'.
v
In
1798 Von Both wrote to the duke requesting for additional permission to
sack four farmers from Kalsow and not to
re-instate their jobs as he had already built a new farm.
Obviously the farmers were allowed to stay. |