Martos

Martos. A family of Cossack starshyna in the Poltava region. Its Lubny branch originated with the Lokhvytsia Cossack Vasyl in the 17th century. His sons were Martyn (d 1708), a captain of Lokhvytsia company (1693–8) and a judge of Lubny regiment (1698–1706), and Pavlo (d 1745), a captain of Lokhvytsia company (1699–1708, 1710–20) and quartermaster (1712–37) and acting colonel (1728–30) of Lubny regiment, who was imprisoned in 1708–9 for siding with Hetman Ivan Mazepa against Peter I. Later an Andrii Martos was osaul of Lubny regiment (1772–81), and Petro Martos (b 1809), a noble with estates in Lokhvytsia and Lubny counties, paid for the publication of Taras Shevchenko's Kobzar in 1840 (Shevchenko dedicated his poem ‘Tarasova nich’ [Taras's Night] to him). The Pryluky branch of the Martos family originated with Petro, an otaman of Ichnia company (1756). His son was the sculptor Ivan P. Martos, and his grandson was the historian Oleksii Martos. Other members of the branch included the government official Ivan R. Martos and the political leader Borys Martos.

[This article originally appeared in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine, vol. 3 (1993).]