Christoph Wenski

     Christoph Wenski, son of David Wenski and Susanna Splittgerber, was born circa 1712.^1,6 He married Anna Welke.⁷

After the death of his first wife, Christoph married Maria Elisabeth Osten.⁸

In 1783, Christoph felt his strength ebbing, and was unable to continue the management of his entire estate. For this reason, he transferred to his son, Johann, one half of the estate, along with four oxen, two horses, forty sheep, a wooden wagon with accessories, a plow with accessories, two scythes, an ax, hatchet, pitchforks, shears, wooden chain, etc. Johann was to inherit the other half of the estate after his father's death. Johann had to pledge to pay a total of 500 Taler to the younger children, which meant that Helena, Anna Dorothea, Marianna, Martin and Gottfried each received 100 Taler. Further Johann was to pay a total of 300 Taler to all the children of both marriages, to be divided equally. Martin and Gottfried were to receive oxen, horses, sheep and farm tools. These payments were not to occur until each heir was married and well established.^9,1

On 10 August 1793, Christoph died at Schwente (Święta), Flatow (Zlotów), Preußen (Germany), leaving Maria as a widow.^1,10 Even though Christoph had given one half of his estate to his oldest son, Johann, before his death, this was retracted. According to the distribution of Christoph's estate on 7 December 1793, Martin received the estate for a payment of 3400 Taler. The estate contained a house, several barns, three orchards, four kitchen gardens, six enclosures, a small lake to the right of a mountain, a meadow of two morgan, called Kuppel, and a meadow of four morgen called Czersch. There were no mortgages on the property. Martin had to pay out to Gottfried his portion of the inheritance, which he did promptly, except for 105 Taler, which he paid him in 1815. Christoph's widow received her dower portion of 1997 Taler, 5 Groschen, and 3 1/2 Pfennig. She gave Martin one quarter of this, and the remainder was divided equally among the remaining heirs. Martin rounded up the amount they would receive to 300 Taler. He therefore received 500 Taler in advance, and then the 300 Taler, bringing the total to 800 Taler.¹¹