Jan Dekert

Jan Dekert or Jan Dekiert (1738 – 4 October 1790) was a Polish merchant of German descent and political activist. Starting in the 1760s, he rose to become one of the most prominent merchants in the Polish capital of Warsaw. He was an activist arguing for more rights for the burghers in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth while opposing Jewish merchants. As the representative of Warsaw, he was elected a deputy to the Sejms of 1784 and 1786, as well as to the Great Sejm (1788–1792). He was the mayor of Warsaw (1789–1790), during which period he organized the Black Procession on 2 December 1789 (a march of burghers who delivered a petition to the king). This was a major step towards the passing of the Free Royal Cities Act enfranchising burghers, as one of the reforms of the Great Sejm and part of the Constitution of the 3rd May, 1791.

He was born in 1738 in the city of Blesen. The exact date, and information about his family are unknown, as any relevant documents have been lost. He likely had beyond basic education, and some sum of money when he left Bledzew and traveled to Warsaw.

In December 1756, Dekert was admitted to the Warsaw "youth" Confraternity of Merchants (warszawska konfraternia kupiecka "młodziańska"). He started out as a clerk in a cloth store of Kazimierz Martynkowski (or Marcinkowski), in whose house he also stayed. In April 1761 he married his patron's daughter, Róża Martynkowska. By 1762 he had taken over the cloth store, moved from the "youth" Confraternity of Merchants to the "senior" ("starsza") one, and become a full citizen of Warsaw. Some time before 1786, Róża died, and Dekert married Antonina Dembska (Dębska). He had several children from his two marriages, among them Jan Dekert, future bishop of Warsaw.

Dekert's rise to mayor began with his first official positions in the Warsaw merchant organizations in the 1760s. In the early 1760s he was among the steering group of the "youth" Confraternity, which he resigned in 1762 upon joining the "senior" one. There is some confusion regarding his exact positions and the dates he held them. According to Zienkowska, in 1767 he received a position (gminny) in the magistrate of Warsaw. According to Jędruch, he became Alderman (a position usually known in Polish as "radny") of Warsaw in 1769, but this is contradicted by Zienkowska; according to her, it was only in 1776 that he reached the rank of "ławnik" in the magistrate. He also served an elder ("starszy"; Jędruch translates this as an alderman) for the Confraternity of Merchants from 1771 to 1785.

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