Żydzi tykocińscy a młynarstwo w XVI–XVIII wieku
Tykocin Jews and Milling in the 16th–18th Centuries

Summary/Abstract: Jews settled in Tykocin in the 16th century. There were more than a dozen mills operating in the vicinity of the town, and all the millers were Christians. In 1571, 12 of the 15 mills were leased by Tykocin Jew Abram. He subleased three of them to a Jew named Icko. In addition, he leased, among other things, the broom tax. He was most likely a servant of King Sigismund Augustus, and after the monarch’s death he lost the lease of the mills in the starosty. After the Swedish Deluge, many Jews settled in and around the town. There were still no Jews engaged in the profession of miller. In 1661, the town became the private property of the Branicki family. In 1663, a Jew named Prochownik, living in Frącki, produced gunpowder in the fulling house next to the mill. The Branickis leased the general tenancy of the Tykocin estate to the kehillah. It included fees from millers and sometimes also encompassed the mill in Frącki. In the second half of the 18th century, the Branickis signed general demise agreements with in dividuals. At that time, Jews leased the mill in Frącki. Equipped with a fulling mill for making cloth, it was the most modern in Tykocin County. There were several instances of Jews also leasing a second mill in the same period. They employed Christians as millers. The Tykocin kehillah granted its citizens a chazakah for the lease of a village. In addition to an inn, the lease sometimes included a mill or several mills operating in that village. There are no entries in the pinkas of the Tykocin kehillah suggesting that there were any Jews working as millers, nor do the records indicate any problems with purchasing flour for Passover matzah over the 16th–18th centuries. It was impossible for a Jew to become an apprentice of a Christian miller due to religious and moral objections.

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