Daily life at the Padise royal manor

he oldest list of the manorial household (Mantalet på Pades Slott) dates from 29 January 1566. The list contains more than 50 members. The bailiff Michel Reijßenär (Resener) lived on the manor with his family of four, his subjects included a deputy bailiff, a steward, an armourer, a granary keeper, a cellarer, a larderer, a cook with an assistant, a blacksmith, a gatekeeper, a miller, a woodcutter, a groom, a brewer, four reeves, a herdsman, a maid, a housekeeper etc. Two squads (Rott) of soldiers were permanently stationed at the manor and about the same number set up camp outside (were quartered in the county?). Other persons mentioned were a castellan or a quartermaster of the stationed soldiers (?) (Borgelige hoffmen) with 22 horses and five grooms. The most interesting entry is at the beginning of the list beside the bailiff: Jören abbot. This cannot but be the last abbot of the monastery Georgius Konradi (1555–1559), who was supported by the Swedish state until the end of his life.

ccording to the 1562–1563 Wackenbuch there were two inns at Padise, their obligations went back to the monastic times. One of inns was kept by Hans Snidekere, his duties included hosting the abbot once a year and feeding a war horse; the other belonged to Holstekan (Christoffer Holstenn), his duties included guarding the monastic cabbage garden (kålgården), heating the sauna once a fortnight and doing the monastery’s laundry. The heritage of the monastery is reflected in the inventory books, where alongside with grain, food and beer supplies, cattle, skins, clothes and boots, goods of tin, brass, copper and iron, including kitchen utensils, blacksmith’s tools, wooden items, furniture and other household goods, there was mention of a gristmill with three pairs of millstones and a sawmill with two large blades. An organ was listed in the inventories of 1571 and 1572: a box with big and small pipes; three large pipes were listed separately. According to the 1569 inventory the church had nine (?!) glazed windows, eight of them two fathoms in height and one fathom in width, and one window one fathom by one fathom. Among the church inventory there was a clock with a working hand (Seijer werckett), together with a big and a small striking clock in the tower (Tijme klocka). A bell in the church tower and a watchclock (wachte klocka) and an altar clock (Altare klocka; vphöghninghz klocka?) were also mentioned. The inventory of 1575 listed a bell in the Nõva manor (i.e. chapel) and a bell of Suur-Pakri and a Niddher kircke klock, which was either a lower church bell or a bell of a church below. In the latter case it may have been the Estonian chapel of St. Anthony, which was situated close by; its mention together with the chapels of Nõva and Pakri seems quite logical. The church was lighted by two brass chandeliers; the listed altar vessels included a gilded silver chalice and a silver paten. Later the paten was made of tin plate (1604) and the chalice was of brass and partly gilded.

s long as the former monastic complex retained its military significance, it was repaired and fortified from time to time, and large amounts of weapons, ammunition, powder, etc were kept within the monastery walls, carefully listed in the inventories every year. In the 1590s (and later) the manor members, who received wages or who were supported by the crown throughout the year, numbered only 11–13. Of them five were the bailiff Trochterssen with his wife, his child, his valet and his maid, and the rest included a labourer, a miller, one or two reeves, a herdsman, a herdswoman, a cellar girl, and a pig boy, as occasion required. Other tradesmen such as bricklayers, carpenters, cobblers, etc were invited to the manor when needed. The bailiff’s wife, who was also on the payroll, played an important role in the manorial household, as the monastic complex, which was situated on an important traffic route, offered board and lodging to the travellers. A baker and a brewer supplied bread and beer, if necessary. The baker Hindrick lived near the church in Harju-Madise in the 1590s and, for example, in 1599, baked bread for Padise every fortnight; the brewer was on the manor for 36 days during that year, while the blacksmith worked on the manor for 16 days. An overseer in charge of threshing and crops lived on the manor seasonally. Very often Estonian trades names were used: (kubijaß, kubis ’reeve’; karis ’herdsman’; Rije Papp ’overseer’) as well as place names and personal names (Soijawhe/Sotawe  Andres’ the military man’).

The inventories listed all the foodstuffs and spices that were bought, the animals annually slaughtered, and all the seeds sown into cabbage and herb gardens on the manor. The manorial management and accounting reports used 5–7 books of paper annually (1 book contained 24 sheets).

The inventories listed all the travellers who stayed at the manor and ate and fed their horses at the expense of the crown. By midsummer the bailiff made a full list of the guests (Gasth-Register). The list included all kinds of local dignitaries, their couriers, clerks, and clergymen (for example, the visitation to the church by David Dubberch) and other travellers, who journeyed from Tallinn to Haapsalu, Hiiumaa and Riga, or the other way round.