A
miles (
knight) Geroslaus (
Jarislav) Taditz ("son of Thaddeus") was first mentioned in a 1334 register of the
State of the Teutonic Order in the lands of the former
Samboride dukes of Pomerelia at
Danzig. The family's ancestral seat was
Tadden (present-day Tadzino in the Polish
Pomeranian Voivodeship). The dynasty's territory was part of
Lauenburg and Bütow Land, which after the Order's defeat and the
Second Peace of Thorn in 1466 was held by the Imperial
Dukes of Pomerania as a
Polish fief. Early on, the family split into two branches with different arms: The
Nesnachow Branch: first mentioned in the course of the 1493
enfeoffment of one Matthies with the lordship of Nesnachow (present-day Nieznachowo) north of
Lauenburg (Lębork) by Duke
Bogislaw X of Pomerania. The seats of the second branch were Tadden-Enzow and
Rybienke in the east of Lauenburg, but also in the adjacent Pomerelian lands of
Puck: a first reference in 1469 mentions Peter Tadde, Lord of
Rutzau (Rzucewo), other members called themselves Lords of
Polchau (Połchowo) and
Klanin (Kłanino). In 1527 the Ribienke branch also received the fiefs of
Dzinzelitz (Dzięcielec),
Bonswitz (Bąsewice) and
Reddestow (Redystowo) from the hands of the Pomeranian dukes. When upon the extinction of the ducal
House of Griffins the Lauenburg and Bütow fief had passed to
Brandenburg-Prussia according to the 1657
Treaty of Bromberg, several members of the family became
Prussian officials and commanders in the
Prussian Army. == Notable members ==