Jan Dekert or Jan Dekiert (1738- 4 October 1790) was a Polish merchant, political activist and mayor of Warsaw (1789-1790). He was an activist arguing for more rights for the burghers in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, however he was also known as an opponent of Jewish merchants.
He was born in the village of Bledzew.[1] He started out as a clerk in a cloth store in Warsaw.[2] He gathered enough savings to become a cofounder of the Company of Woolen Manufacture in 1766.[2][3] In 1775 the Sejm granted him a request to buy landed estates (a privilege usually restricted only to the nobility).[2] In 1776 he leased from Polish Treasury the Tobacco Monopoly; ten years later, in 1786, he leased the Theatre in Warsaw.[3] He became Alderman of Warsaw in 1769 and also served in the same position for the Confraternity of Merchants from 1771 to 1785.[3]
He was elected a deputy to Sejms of 1784 and 1786, as well as to the Great Sejm (1788-1892) as the representative of Warsaw.[3] In the meantime, in 1789, he was elected mayor of Warsaw; he would be reelected in 1790 (as a mayor of Warsaw, he replaced Wojciech Lobert, and would be proceeded by Józef Michał Łukasiewicz).[1][3] During the Great Sejm, he organized the confederation of 141 cities and towns and was at the forefront of demanding the representations and enfranchisement of the burghers in the Sejm; notably, he helped organize the Black Procession on December 2, 1789 (a march of burghers who delivered a petition to the king).[1][3]
He was a vocal critic of Jews, accusing them of unfair competition.[4]
He spend much of his fortune on political activism, according to some sources, he was nearly bankrupt by the time of his death.[5] He was last seen in public on 31 April 1791.[6] He died on 4 October 1790 in Warsaw.[1] He was buried in the Warsaw Cathedral, and his large funeral was paid for by the City of Warsaw.[7]
He died before the Free Royal Cities Act, enfranchising burghers, was passed next year as one of the reforms of the Great Sejm, next to the Constitution of the 3rd May.
He was the father of bishop Jan Dekert.
Jan Dekert is one of the characters on Jan Matejko's painting of the "Adoption of the Polish Constitution of May 3, 1791".
The north side of the Old Town Market Place, Warsaw is named after him.