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Willkommschatzung
(Welcome Tax Assessment)
1498/1499
The oldest references to the Gerwing - Gerwer family in
Alstaette are found in the registers of the
"Willkommschatzung" from 1498/1499 which were published
in a 1976 study conducted by Joachim Hartig.
In the late Middle Ages it
was customary that a one time special tax called
"Willkommschatzung" was granted to a newly elected
bishop so as to cover the extra expenditures associated
with church government.
This special tax had to
be paid by all who were subjects
of the bishop of
 Muenster. The tax applied to all adults eligible to take
communion. Therefore it applied to everyone 12 years of
age and older. Excluded from this special tax were the
members of the aristocracy (nobility), the clergy and
civil servants. The head of the household was
responsible for the payment of the "Kopfsteuer" (head
tax). All households including the number of persons in
the household were registered on this tax list except
for the groups specified before. The "Willkommschatzung"
list is recognized today as the standard directory of
all the farms in Münsterland during the latter part of
the 15th century.
The legislature of Münsterland granted the bishop
(Conrad von Rietberg) a head tax in the amount of 2
schilling 6 pennies, which was to be collected in two
payments. The first payment had to be made in 1498, the
second in the next year. Under supervision of the priest
in each parish, a list of persons subject to the tax was
developed. For the year 1498 the following person is
recorded in the municipality of "Alstede" list:
Bernt Gerwerdinck
Six persons live in this
household. The list of the following year records a
household with four persons headed by:
Margareta Gerwertinck
There
is no reference to other families with the name Gerwer
or Gerwing in the Alstaette "Willkommschatzung ". The
recorded roots of the family Gerwing in Alstaette
therefore begin in the year 1498. According to later
sources it is clearly evident that this farm is the
original farm of the Gerwing family in Alstatte.
*note the later sources are:
- Church Register of Alstatte
- Census of 1749
(Ludwig Knaus - Mud Pies
- public domain photo/painting
above)
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