Iš Žemaitijos vyskupo stalo valdų istorijos: Pašvitinio valda, miestelis, vyskupo rezidencija 1639 m

ENExamined in this article are the components of Pašvitinys holding - the rural district, the town, and the bishop's residence - that belonged to the Samogitian bishop's table in 1639. The holding used to be in the powiat of Upytė and was formed through the efforts of several Samogitian bishops in the late sixteenth-early seventeenth century. It consisted of the town of Pašvitinys and thirteen villages. Topographially, the holding was not one-piece: it spread as far as the Duchy of Courland and meandered between the lands of the ruler (Šiauliai economy) and those of the nobles. The holding that at the taime covered the area of about 200 voloks (4270 hectares) was one of the most profitable estates of the Samogitian bishop's table. Its maintenance rested on the system of landowning administration common for that period: the administrator of the bishop table's holdings Jonas Pavlikovskis and several of his assistants at the top of the local administration apparatus consisting of the elder of Pašvitinys and the peasants servitors (vogt → sub-vogt → lay judges). Personal names of the residents of the rural district characterise the inner life in the vilalges: their practical nature (shortenings of the names), vivacity (nicknames), inclusion of new members into families (husbands coming to live in their wives' families, sons-in-law) and into communities (the case of the personal name Gudas). Also, personal names reveal migration processes within the rural district. In the environs of Pašvitinys, along with the decreasing personal names of the Balt and dominating Christian origin, we come across individuals who had come from Samogitia (with the Bilevičius family), and an even more significant number of people from the territory of present Latvia.The latter were intensively drawn into the communities of Lithuanian villages and assimilated, the proof of which is the addition of the Balt patronymic suffix -aitis to the personal names of Germanic origin (e.g., Armonaitis, Enziulaitis, Plekaitis, Kronaitis). Meanwhile, the patronymic suffix -aitis that used to be prevalent in the region and characteristic of Samogitia, suggest some questions regarding demographical and cultural connections between Samogitia and Northern Lithuania. The town of Pašvitinys that had recently evolved and grown by the time discussed developed originally (it had 85–120 inhanitants) and was closely connected with the bishop's estate. It features the usual elements of a small town: a church (funded by bishop Merkelis Giedraitis), a parish school, a hospital for the poor, and around ten inns that used to activate the daily life of the rural district. The bishop's estate conformed to the conventional type of a noble's residence that featured the elements represening the bishop's social and clerical status (multicoloured tiles, the manor's chapel). Beer brewing nurtured at Pašvitinys estate confirms the specific nature of this region of Northern Lithuania. All these aspects render this holding original among other holdings of the Samogitia bishop's table.