How big a Juchart is depends on where it is, steep land is not as easy to work on and some oxen are lazier than others : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Juchart
Correct
Tagwen = Tagwerk = Tagwan = Mannwerk = Juchart are roughly the same and denotes a size of land which can be mended by one person in a day with an oxen.
That starts to make sense now. Not familiar with Are measure. It also jives closely with the other figure I found, of 1 Juchart = 40,000 square feet (60,000 sf in early times), so .92 acres more current, 1.38 acre earlier.
Oh, neat. Wondered why they gave it number as well.
Hehe.... "No, just a leg and a thigh, please. The wife's making fondue fo dinner."
Wow, wonderful source!
I'd like your opinion, though. My sources list my ancestors Rösli as basically the only occupants of the Eschenberg forest until just before the date of this map, which includes all those places or names, in 1758. The earliest map available on this site is 1844, and all the "names" except "Im Moos" (Moos is on later maps) and "Breite". If no one else was living there then, would they all have "place" names, or would these be descriptions, that later became place names? Hard to tell, but I'd like your thoughts.
I have a question about land ownership, etc. during the time of this text (1400-1740). My ancestors, consisting of 3 separate lines of the same family, farmed Eschenberg pretty much by themselves for this time. They inherited it, supposedly, and also bought and sold the property to other people. Their taxes are often called interest or lease payments, so "ownership" is a bit confusing.
For example:
"Der Wegzug einzelner Rösli machte die Bahn für neue Mitbesitzer frei, wobei auch Einheirat je und je eine Rolle spielte. Im Jahre 1583 verkaufte Christen Rösli seinen Anteil am Haupthofe — Erblehen konnte man ja mit Wissen des Lehenherrn verkaufen — an Konrad Müller, worauf er nach Seen zog. Gleichzeitig veräußerte Martin Rösli das Ernisgütli dem gleichen Interessenten um 1250 Pfund."
"Entweder kauft die Stadt Winterthur diesen die Güter ab, und zwar für 18,000 Gulden, 5o Mütt Kernen und 25 Saum Wein, worauf die Rösli bis Mai 1725 wegziehen müssen, oder sie gibt ihnen das Holz für eine Stube und einige Kammern."
Another site lists 18,000 guilders in 1725 as being worth over $400,000 today.
So, if this was a fiefdom, and if they really didn't own the land but just rented it, why were they able to buy and sell it, especially for so much?
I think the the map on page 65 shows and uses the current names of that areas. .Thez would have been wrtitten differentlz in Ye-Olde-Time. On the old map I linked Roosen is written as "In den Rosen" that shows that the usage and naming has changed over time. It is very usual to name areas, meadows, woods, and such. Specially when you have to work a week or more in one area. "Next week we will go to the Hau and collect wood, there are no fallen twigs left in the Loo". "The oats grow better at Breiti than Gatter". How they came up with the name? Give me a time machine and I will ask them.
«Uß gewüssen Uhrsachen» verliehen am 18. Februar die Schultheißen Hegner und Künzli, Statthalter Forrer, Bauherr Sulzer, Spitalmeister Kaufmann und der Hinwiler Amtmann Hegner zum «Kreuz» den Hofteil an Claus Rösli, den bisherigen Inhaber des Ernisgütlis, das er auch weiterhin behielt.
It was fiefdom. There were two types, "Schenkung" (gift) which was tied to the recipient, and "Erblehen" which was heritable as indicated by its name ("Erb", "erben", inherit). Originally an Erblehen wasn't tradeable but apparently that changed.
A "Lehen" (Erblehen or Schenkung) encompassed not just the land but also the people living on it, if any. Usually the "Lehensmann" (the one holding the Erblehen) owed not just interest In return but also service, and soldiers in case of war.
Sidenote:
Thus no such thing as democracy until after Napoleon, who did away with nobility's privileges after conquering what would become Switzerland. So the Erblehen must have changed fundamentally or disappeared altogether during the 1st half of the 19th century.