Kobuzev family


The Kobuzev family is an ancient Russian noble family descended from boyar scions. The Kobuzev family was listed in the part 6 of the genealogical book of Ryazan, and the parts 2 of the genealogical books of Tver, Saratov and Tambov.

History

The family's name stems from the name of the founder – Kobuz. Kobuz was a personal male Slavic Pagan name meaning 'hawk'.. The name has Lechitic origins. In the form of Kobus it is still found in Pomerania. Poles still refer to the Eurasian hobby as ':pl:Kobuz|kobuz'. As a personal name or a nickname, Kobuz is found in written sources of the region of the Oka river, particularly the area of Ryazan. However, it is uncertain what status the family's progenitor had, while the Kobuzev family appears by the late 15th – early 16th centuries in the surviving written sources already with their last name and members of the local landed aristocracy.
The earliest Kobuzev mentioned so far was 'Vasily Ananyin syn Kobuzev', mentioned in 1491 as a witness on a report to the boyar of the Grand Duke of Ryazan Ivan IV of Ryazan, Ivan Ivanovich 'Inka' Izmaylov, who was then the viceroy in Pereyaslavl of Ryazan and the commander of the Ryazanian troop.
In 1514, Semyon Ivanov syn Kobuzev was mentioned in as a witness on a deed of land purchase of the family. In 1524, his brother, Afanasy Ivanov syn Kobuzev was mentioned as a witness on a deed of land exchange.
It is also possible that the Kobyzewicz boyar family that appeared in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania in the early 1500s could be the same family that owned the extinct village of Kobuzevo in the Principality of Odoyev. In the early 17th century, during the partition of the former Principality of Odoyev, the Dobrinsky monastery mentioned an extinct village called 'Staroe Kobuzevo' that had by then been tilled. The village was likely destroyed by Tatars in the 15th century. During the 15th century the Horde and, later, the Crimean Khanate, made regular attacks against Russian principalities. In 1414, they destroyed the principality of Yelets. In 1422 Khan Barak was defeated near Odoyev, while in 1423 Khan Kuidadat also attacked Odoyev and was defeated. In 1507 Odoyev was attacked by Crimean Tatars again.
Ivan Kobyzewicz, the younger brother of the Mozyr boyar Fyodor Kobyzewicz, recording his late relations for commemoration in the synodik of the Kiev-Pechersk Monastery in the 1520s, stated his name as 'Ivan Kobyzev.
By the 17th century the Kobuzev family of Ryazan had at least two allods: the village of Timofeevo, sold to the Birkin family in 1601, and the village of Tyutkosvoe, passed to the Likharyov family for overdue mortgage, in Perevitsky stan. Wnen the Duchy of Ryazan lost its independence to Moscow, the family had turned into provincial boyar scions. In the late 16th century, Ivan the Terrible reformed the Muscovite feudal system. He created the new rank of , i.e. a candidate to the Moscow court, to distinguish the court servants from the landed gentry. The rank of boyar scion was put below the rank of dvorianin''. By the 17th century the rank of dvorianin had been acquired by the Yelets, Kursk Livny and Ryazanian branches of the family.
The Kobuzev family served to both the Grand Dukes of Ryazan and the Ryazanian archbishops. In the late 16th century, with the establishment of the unified Moscow government, the family began to serve to the Dukes of Moscow. The Kobuzev family is mentioned in all of the surviving Ryazanian lists of serving gentry : 1604, 1648, and 1676.
Already in the 16th century some of the family members served as Cossacks. In 1551, Ivan the Terrible moved the entire garrison of to the east to provide military forces for the new citadel of Sviyazhsk for his campaign against Kazan. One of the Sviyazhsk Cossack atamans was Alexey Kobyzev, who led a Cossack troop in a battle with the Chuvashy in 1552. The battle was lost and the Cossacks had 70 men fallen.
Later, in the 17th century, after the Turmoil, many families of gentry were so impoverished that they could not afford to serve in the gentry militia which required large outlay on horses, equipment of servants and provisions. Many of such boyar scions chose to serve as streltsy, cannoneers, reitars, dragoons and lancers, as, unlike service at the gentry militia, it did not require equipping armed servants and horses. Many descendants of the family moved to the Steppe region, where new strongholds were planned to be built. After the Mongol invasion of Rus in the 13th century, the steppe was abandoned. In the late 16th century, during the reign of Ivan the Terrible, the government decided to reinforce the frontier from the attacks of the Crimean Tatars who captured many Muscovites and sold them at slave markets. The Kobuzev family was amongst the first boyar scions of such cities as Yelets, Kursk, Oryol, Voronezh, Livny, Tambov, and Stary Oskol. Most of the southern branches of the family had, however, ended up as odnodvortsy by the 19th century.
In the 18th century some of the family descendants had remained in nobility, while many turned into odnodvortsy or merchants. The family had become one of the first Muscovite settlers of Saint-Petersburg, the Northern Azov region and Crimea. Amongst the Kobuzev merchants two are the most notable:, who became the founder and the first mayor of Berdiansk, and, who was a famous Saint-Petersburg merchant, participated in the construction of the building of the.
Many Kobuzevs served in the army and imperial guard, but few reached major ranks. There were only two generals in the family, one of which,, was the head of the artillery at the Warsaw military district of the Russian Empire.

Some historical landed estates