Excerpt from the family register about the Eckendorf manor
Eckendorf, located in the Free State of Lippe-Detmold, lies on the road from Bielefeld to Salzuflen. It covers an area of approximately 275 hectares and features a beautiful park with a thousand-year-old oak tree, as well as extensive woodlands, fields, and meadows. It was first mentioned as Akamanictorp in 1036, then as Eckwordingtorp in 1360, as Eckentorp in 1497, and as Eckentrup in 1529.
It was originally an outlying estate of the Berghusen manor, now the Niederbarkhausen knight’s estate near Oerlinghausen in Lippe, which the Bishop of Paderborn transferred to the Busdorf monastery in Paderborn in 1036. Eckendorf was a Meierhof (farmstead) belonging to this monastery, whose Meier (steward) managed the monastery’s economy and exercised a certain degree of judicial and administrative power over the local population. Together with the administrators of the other outlying estates of Uralankhusen (Oerlinghausen), Meginghusen (Menkhausen), and Hepim (Heepen), these stewards formed a collegiate body of administration and justice under the administrator of Barkhausen. The office gradually became hereditary within the family.
In 1591, Meier Heinrich zu Eckendorf provides his son Bernd with a dowry for his marriage. He gives him 450 talers, a horse, a foal, a small cow, two pigs, and his table. However, he is clearly in poor financial circumstances, as his creditors seize a meadow as early as 1592.
On February 25, 1602, he asks the sovereign, Count of Lippe, to transfer the property to his son because of the heavy debts. As Dominus directus, the sovereign must intervene to help. On March 1, 1603, the widow of the mayor, who marries Adolf Kirchmann, finds the children from her first and second marriages. The son Bernd from the first marriage receives 500 talers, a horse, and a ceremonial robe; the daughter receives 400 talers and a bridal carriage. The two children from the second marriage retain their share of Hovedissen; Kurt receives 300 talers, a horse, and a ceremonial robe, while the daughter receives 300 talers and a bridal carriage. The estate is later sold to the master hunter Arnold Schmerheimb or Schmeriemen, and on March 16, 1632, Count Simon Ludwig zur Lippe grants the estate noble freedom.
The estate had to pay annually: two fat pigs, one cow for slaughter, 10 talers in service fees, 1½ talers in permanent rent, 3 talers, 20 silver groschen, and 1 pfennig in small cow fees, 1 taler in malt fees, 3 castle guard duties, 6 local duties, and military service. Schmerheimb cedes a meadow near Pöppinghausen worth 1000 talers. In return, he is freed from all burdens with the exception of pig fattening; only the noble land tax is to be paid by the estate. In return, he receives the noble freedom of the estate with hunting and fishing rights.
In 1617, the knight’s tax amounted to 13 talers. In 1677, Eckendorf had to provide a saddle-free horse. On September 13, 1677, the Schmerheim children, who were under guardianship, sold the estate to their stepfather Bonorden for 17,300 talers, subject to repurchase.
In 1696, Bonorden transferred the estate back to Schmerheimb in exchange for payment of 15,000 talers. On March 9, 1708, Lieutenant Colonel Schmerheimb was granted noble freedom for the estate.
In the past, Eckendorf had to pay blood tithes to the Bishop of Paderborn and fruit tithes to the church in Busdorf in Paderborn. In 1306, it paid the Busdorf monastery 4 ½ Pader maltera and 18 denare et obolum pro minuta Decima.
When Privy Councilor von Borries Eckendorf purchased the property, it included the following: the old and new stately residences, the dairy farmhouse with pigsty and cowshed, coach house, carriage house and bakehouse, wagon shed, sheepfold, grain mill, hunter’s lodge, 17 Arröder houses, manorial and domestic church pews with a total of 15 seats in the church in Heepen, burial vault in this church, and a place in the churchyard. It comprised 32 bushels of garden land, 477 bushels of arable land, 76 bushels of meadows, 503 bushels of woodland, and 16 bushels of ponds. Eckendorf was entitled to claim 31 ½ bushels of rye, 32 ¼ bushels of barley, 44 bushels of oats, and 6 bushels of salt from the salt works in Salzuflen from the farmers, and finally 150 talers in ground rent. It had hunting rights, namely paddock hunting in the entire district of Lippe and the county of Ravensberg, and, jointly with others, fishing rights on the Windweh from the Arrode of the Schuckenhof estate to Lübbrassen.
To be continued.