Stones on the Prairie: Acculturation in Texas

Registering Land Titles in Muscovy

Rude & Barbarous Kingdom Revisited: Essays in Russian History and Culture in Honor of Robert O. Crummey. Chester S. L. Dunning, Russell E. Martin, and Daniel Rowland, eds. Bloomington, IN: Slavica Publishers, 2008, 441–57.       Registering Land Titles in Muscovy George G. Weickhardt The  concept  that  there  should  be  some  public  record  of  the  transfer  of  land   titles  is  an  ancient  one.  In  the  book  of  Genesis,  it  is  stated  that  Abraham  pur-­‐‑ chased  land  from  Ephron  the  Hittite  for  400  shekels,  and  that  the  land  was   “deeded  to  Abraham  as  his  property  in  the  presence  of  all  the  Hittites  who   had  come  to  the  gate  of  the  city.”1  The  purpose  of  proclaiming  the  transfer  to   the  Hittites  at  the  city  gates  was  obviously  to  secure  clarity  and  notoriety  as  to   who  owned  the  land  and  perhaps  even  to  give  other  claimants  to  it  an  oppor-­‐‑ tunity  to  challenge  the  transaction.  These  purposes  of  clarity  and  notoriety  of   title   are   achieved   today   by   recording   or   registering   one’s   deed,   which   in-­‐‑ volves  depositing  the  deed  with  a  governmental  authority,  which  maintains  it   and   other   similarly   deposited   deeds   in   a   permanent   record.   The   recorded   deeds  usually  contain  a  description  of  the  boundaries  of  the  property,  or  ref-­‐‑ erence  a  survey  from  which  they  can  be  determined.   In  the  Middle  Ages  in  Europe  the  Church  and  its  monasteries  acted  as  re-­‐‑ positories   of   various   documents   of   legal   importance,   including   records   of   births,  deaths,  marriage  and  sometimes  conveyances  of  property.2  By  the  late   Middle  Ages,  many  of  the  Hanse  cities  also  recorded  similar  documents.3  The   first  modern  national  recording  system  was  established  by  the  English  Parlia-­‐‑ ment  in  1535,  when  it  enacted  the  so-­‐‑called  Statute  of  Enrollments.4   By  the  middle  of  the  17th  century  Muscovy  had  also  developed  a  compre-­‐‑ hensive  system  for  recording  land  titles.  Through  this  system  landowners  en-­‐‑ joyed  substantial  security  in  title  and  protection  from  invalid  claims.  Indeed   the   system   of   title   recording   in   the   Muscovite   tsardom   was   as   advanced   as   those  in  some  of  the  nations  of  Western  Europe.  The  party  whose  title  was  re-­‐‑ corded   with   the   Service   Land   Chancellery   (Pomestnyi   prikaz)   would   be   rec-­‐‑                                                                                                                           1  Genesis   23:18   (New   International   Version).   The   King   James   Version   reads   “made   sure  unto  Abraham  for  a  possession  in  the  presence  of  the  children  of  Heth  before  all   that  went  in  at  the  gate  of  his  city.”     2  Hans   Hattenhauer,   Die   Entdeckung   der   Verfügungsmacht   (Kiel:   Hansischer   Gilden-­‐‑ verlag,  Joachim  Heitman  &  Co.,  1969).     3  Paul  Rehme,  Lübecker  Ober–Stadtbuch  (Hannover:  Helwingshe  Verlagsbuchhandlung,   1895),  passim.   4  Statutes  of  the  Realm,  11  vols.  (London:  The  Record  Commission,  1810–28),  3:  549  (the   official  citation  of  this  statute  is  27  H.8  c.  16).     442 GEORGE G. WEICKHARDT ognized   by   the   Chancellery   courts   as   the   legal   owner   of   the   property.   The   boundaries  to  property  could  likewise  be  determined  from  cadastral  surveys   on  file  in  the  same  chancellery.  In  other  words,  recording  one’s  title  with  the   chancellery   became   the   means   for   gaining   legal   recognition   by   the   tsardom   that  one  owned  the  land  in  question.  Priority  of  title  was  given  to  the  first  to   record   his   deed.   This   system   of   recording   titles   had   slowly   developed   over   the  preceding  four  centuries,  but  it  was  revamped  and  perfected  in  the  second   quarter  of  the  17th  century.  This  study  shall  address  the  origins  of  this  sys-­‐‑ tem,  and,  in  particular,  whether  a  foreign  model  was  used.   No  previous  study  has  addressed  the  recording  of  deeds  in  Muscovy,  al-­‐‑ though  there  has  been  some  attention  to  related  subjects.  Much  attention  has   been  devoted  in  the  literature  to  the  history  of  land  cadasters  (pistsovye  knigi)   and  surveys  and  to  the  history  of  the  Service  Land  Chancellery,  which  even-­‐‑ tually  became  the  registry  of  deeds.5  No  attention,  however,  has  been  directed   to   how   the   Chancellery   and   the   cadasters   and   other   records   it   maintained   were  transformed  into  a  system  for  resolving  disputes  between  private  par-­‐‑ ties  over  who  held  title  to  property.   The  origins  of  the  Muscovite  recording  system  can  only  be  understood  in   relation  to  the  development  of  land  cadasters.  The  Mongols  had  conducted   three  censuses  in  the  13th  century.  Nothing  remains  of  these  records,  which   were  probably  little  more  than  headcounts  for  purposes  of  taxation  and  army   recruiting.  Local  princes  eventually  assumed  responsibility  for  collecting  the   Horde’s  tribute,  which  was  levied  on  the  basis  of  a  half  grivna  per  sokha.  Sokha,   of  course,  literally  meant  the  wooden  plow  commonly  used  in  Rus’,  but  for...