Zamoyski Family Fee Tail

The Zamoyski family entail (Polish: Ordynacja Zamojska) was one of the first and largest fee tails in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. It was owned by the Zamoyski family, the richest aristocratic family in Poland. It was established upon the request of Crown Hetman Jan Zamoyski, on 8 July 1589. The fee existed until the end of World War II, when it was abolished by the communist government of the People's Republic of Poland, which in 1944 initiated an agricultural reform. Background For more information about fee tails in Poland, see Fee tail in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth In the Kingdom of Poland and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, fee tail estates were called Ordynacja (landed property in fideicommis). Ordynacja was an economic institution for the governing of landed property introduced in the late 16th century by King Stefan Batory. Ordynat was the title of the principal heir of an ordynacja, and each new ordynat was obliged to uphold the statute of the fee tail. Creation Chronologically, Ordynacja Zamojska was the second fee tail in the Commonwealth, after the Radziwiłł family estate. At the beginning, Jan Zamoyski had four villages, which he inherited from his father, Castellan of Chełmno Stanisław Zamoyski. At the moment of its creation, this estate consisted of two towns and thirty nine villages. At the end of Zamoyski's life it included as many as 23 towns and together with 816 villages, it was called the Zamość State (Państwo zamojskie). Its total area was app. 17,500 km2., and it included estates both in the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, and Livonia, with main centers around Zamość and Podolia. Annual income of Zamoyski was estimated at 700,000 zlotys (by comparison, the cost of Siege of Połock in 1579 was some 330,000 zlotys). According to another source, Jan Zamoyski's estates generated a revenue of over 200,000 zlotys in the early 17th century.