The Sheptakivska volost as a part of a complex of hetman rank estates (the second half of the XVII – the first third of the XVIII centuries)

In the article we have analyzed the process of hetman rank estates complex formation. We have proved that all hetmans beginning from Bohdan Khmelnytsky attempted to expand the amount of lands which belonged for «macehead and kitchen» and eventually pass them to their heirs. As during the Ruin most hetmans had forcedly been removed from their posts, there were no problems with inheritance. Though Ivan Skoropadsky managed to receive a tsar grant-charter and assign the rank estates as the private property of his wife and children, which caused significant inconveniences for his successor Danylo Apostol who was not able to maintain his court adequately due to the absence of a sufficient number of estates. The Sheptakivska volost, having been joined the rank estates during the reign of Ivan Briukhovetsky, was one of the most measurable estates for a hetman court. The volost government was conducted by special stewards who accounted directly to the hetman and dealt with both household and law issues concerning the estates population. The volost specialized in cultivation and delivery of agricultural products to the court and in the beginning of the XVIII century it rendered more than a half of all pecuniary profit from rank estates to hetmans, which defined its significance within the whole complex of hetman estates.