| Notater |
- Hans Olufsen (Uf) must have inherited his father's farm Simleg?rd, a "frig?rd" (freeman's estate) in Klemensker, circa 1530. He is likely the same person as the Hans Olufsen who in 1542 was among the signers of a document written to complain about Bernt Knop, who was L?beck's the chief representative stationed at Hammershus fortress. Hans Olufsen likely died sometime between 1542 and 1547, as he is not named in the court case disputing the inherited property from Otte Pedersen brought by Mogens Uf against Gunhild Uf and her under aged co-heirs (Oluf and Peder Hansen) in 1547. Possibly Mogens Uf brought the law suit as a result of Hans Olufsen Uf's recent death? As a member of the "Sparre-Uf" branch of the Uf-family he probably used the chevron image in his seal; however, there is no documentary evidence showing that he used this image.
Sigvard Mahler Dam, states in "Landsdommer-Patriciatet p? Bornholm", part 2, that Hans Olufsen's mother may be the sister of Chief Justice (Landsdommer) Jens Hansen Myre. Contradictorily, Sigvard Mahler Dam also speculates in the article "De bornholmske v?bnersl?gter Uf og Splid - noget nyt om deres v?bener" (Heraldisk Tidsskrift, 1982) that Peder Hansen's mother might have had a coat of arms with a "hummerklo" (a lobster-claw, a.k.a. "geddek?ft" - a pike's jawbone) on it. This is based on the description by Laurids de Thurah ("Omst?ndelig og tilforladelig Beskrivelse over Bornholm og Christians?e", 1756) of an engraving on a bell donated by Peder Hansen's daughter Margrethe and her husband J?rgen Gagge: "Paa den st?rste Klokke findes tvende Vaabener, det ene med et Spende udi, som ventelig er de Adelige Koefoders; Det andet med en Giedde Kieft udi." (On the large bell you find two coats of arms, one carries the chevron, the emblem of the noble Koefod-family, the other carries the pike's jawbone.) Also based on a description of a pew door in Klemensker Church found in a journal: "Clement's Church: door to pew, carved oak framed with smooth fir planks - showing helmeted coats of arms with vesselhorn and the following markings: a shield with an upside down "gavlsparre" (chevron) design, and the other shield sporting a "halv hummerklo" (half lobster-claw), Chief Justice Peder Hansen and wife Margrethe Hansdatter.
Conclusion: I know of no documentation that proves that Mette Hansdatter inherited the Myre-family properties which had previously belonged to two Myre-family brothers: Peder Hansen Myre (died 1572) and Truid Hansen Myre (died 1574). All that is known is that Peder Hansen (Uf) and his wife Mette Hansdatter owned these farms, and that they later passed this property down to their daughter and her children inherited them from her. So, it seems quite reasonable to consider that Peder Hansen (Uf) might have obtained the Myre-family estates through his unknown mother - that she was in fact a member of the Myre-family. Possibly Peder Hansen (Uf) was named after his mother's father: the above mentioned Peder Hansen Myre (died 1574)! - Norman Madsen, June 11, 2005.
The High-Court in K?benhavn met on August 12th 1559 regarding a dispute between the nobleman Schweder Ketting and "Oluf Hansen, Frimand" of Klemensker parish regarding documentation on 2 farms on Bornholm. (Source: Judgment Book 8, folio 13V-15R)
Oluf Hansen had a number of chief justices among his ancestors, and was probably therefore respected at the council assembly. He would help a supposed relative, Peder Nielsen, in a case about the Duebjergg?rd and others in Klemensker parish, and presented a document on the county council to Peder Nielsen advantage. It's hard to say whether it was because of the documents lost when Mads Kofoed went down with all hands in 1552, but parliament discovers that Oluf Hansen had scrub something out on a parchment and written something else as well! Peder Nielsen had since have found his own evidence, but the county council wished to see Oluf Hansen's document again. The document has been preserved, he refuses to present it as Peder Nielsen had presented his own evidence. Forgery was a serious offense that could be punishable by death. We do not know the end affair, but we hear no more of Oluf Hansen after this case, so maybe he was beheaded!
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The following is a translation of the article "De bornholmske v?bnersl?gter Uf og Splid - noget nyt om deres v?bener", written by Sigvard Mahler Dam, published in Heraldisk Tidsskrift.
A Pew in Saint Clement's Church:
After leafing through numerous journals, I casually looked over the description of St. Clement's Church (Klemensker parish), when suddenly my eyes caught a poorly done drawing of two coats of arms. The text read: "Clement's Church: door to pew, carved oak framed with smooth fir planks - showing helmeted coats of arms with vesselhorn and the following markings: a shield with an upside down "gavlsparre" (chevron) design, and the other shield sporting a half "hummerklo" (lobster-claw, aka "geddek?ft" = pike's jawbone), Chief Justice Peder Hansen Uf and wife Margrethe Hansdatter. The door was painted green, the coats of arms and the door frame painted red and white. Height 84 centimeters, length 56 centimeters. . ."
An earlier description from 1947 tells more: ". . . the pew-door from the 1700s is made of fir with three insets: the top one made of oak with two beautifully carved coat of arms decorated with helmets, vesselhorn, and feathers, and with the inscription: PH - MHD. On the back of this inset in the pew-door can be vaguely seen traces of two black-painted coats of arms below a layer of grey paint, the same as carved on the front." In a copy of "Danmarks Kirker" from 1954, the date has been altered to the end of the 1500s, which better suits the persons involved and the style of the time.
This sounded very enticing! And I decided (in 1979) to approach the clergy of Bornholm, pastor for Klemensker C.W. R?boe Dam, about these coats of arms, and he very kindly sent me some colour-photos of the pew-door, which had been hung in the entry ot the church. Since the red and white paint on the door frame sounded a bit odd to me, I decided to pay a visit to the church, which is situated on top of a hill in beautiful surroundings. And found that it appeared that the pew-door had received several coats of paint through the years! But you can clearly see that the earliest coat of paint on the inset was black - later it was covered with a gruesome green color! The Uf coat of arms, both the shield and the helmet, appeared to have been covered with a dark-red oilpaint - after a fairly thorough removal of the earlier layers of paint; but we can still see traces of the earliest layer: red on the vesselhorns; and white in the shield; the chevron has white paint on top of a coat of red. The wife's coat of arms shows white paint remnants on the vesselhorns; her shield has two layers: white over an old layer of red paint, and the "hummerklo" (lobster-claw) has red paint on top of an old layer of white. It is peculiar that an upside-down chevron is shown in the shield - Peder Hansen (Uf) was the only one on Bornholm using an upside-down chevron. Was the carving done from a faulty design of his seal? Mette Hansdatter was the last member of the Bornholm Myre-family (myre=ant), she was the daughter of Hans Myre, they had a design with three black ants on a white shield in their coat of arms, and the helmet had two white vesselhorns (15).
An Old Church-bell:
Peder Hansen (Uf)'s coat of arms seem to have brought some confusion for researchers, because it appears that J?rgen Gagge and his wife Margrethe put up yet another memorial to honour Peder Hansen (Uf) and Mette Hansdatter. In 1601 they had cast a new large church-bell (which later disappeared) for Klemensker Church. Thurah quotes the following (12): "Paa den st?rste Klokke findes tvende Vaabener, det ene med et Spende udi, som ventelig er de Adelige Koefoders; Det andet med en Giedde Kieft udi." (On the large bell you find two coats of arms, one carries the chevron, the emblem of the noble Koefod-family, the other carries the pike's jaw.) The engraving reads: "Anno 1601 Lod Claus Kames denne Klokke st?be til St. Clemmens Kirke paa Bornholm, efter Velbyrdige Hr. J?rgen Gages og Hr. Lars Nielsens i den Tiid Sogne-Herres Befalning, af Rheinholt Benning i L?beck". (In 1601 Claus Kames had this bell cast for St. Clemen's Church of Bornholm after the request of the Well-Bred Mr. J?rgen Gage and Mr. Lars Nielsen. . .)
Unfortunately nothing is noted about an upside-down chevron, but there is a reference to the Kofoed-family, who carried a blue chevron on a red background with 2 white vesselhorns. "Danmarks Kirker", volume 7, Bornholm, tells the same, but lists those coats of arms as the property of the Gagge and Splid families.
M.K. Zarthmann (well versed in all the Bornholm-families) writes (16): "J?rgen Gagge gave a beautiful memorial in honour of his parents-in-law Peder Hansen Uf and Mette Hansdatter Myre, because in 1601 he had cast a large church-bell, engraved with the Uf-family's chevron-emblem and the Myre-family's crawling ant." Yes, Zarthmann knew very well which families this pertained to, and has deliberately made the correction from the "Giedde Kieften" (pike's jawbone) to one (1) crawling ant - but as we know the Myre coat of arms carried three (3) black ants! Zarthmann never did see the bell for himself, so we must believe Thurah's impartial account of the above, and say that the very same set of coat of arms which today can be seen on the pew-door must have been engraved on the church-bell! Thus we are ensured that it can not be a mistake incurred later if the pew is a copy of the original.
But who then is the rightful owner of the pew's sinister coat of arms? We are not entirely clueless: the Splid-family carried a half (or sometimes a whole) lobster claw (hummerklo) in their coat of arms, but how do they enter the picture here? Since the above coat of arms can not belong to Peder Hansen (Uf)'s wife, maybe it could belong to his mother? The initials could possibly have been carved later; we do not know anything about his father Hans Olufsen (Uf)'s wife (17). She might have been of the Splid-family - which would have been the last chance! For the last member of the Splid-family, Jep Splid, was mentioned in 1508 as deceased, whereupon his widow gives 200 L?beck-Mark to Lund Cathedral for purchase of land in Sk?ne. Among the witnesses signing the document is Peder Hansen Uf's grandfather Oluf Ottesen Uf, who at that very time had just succeeded Jep Splid as chief justice of Bornholm (18). Therefore the timing disproves the theory of the coat of arms belonging to another wife of Peder Hansen (Uf) - maybe the pew carried the emblems of both his parents?
The Splid-family was not very prolific - neither did they leave very many written accounts compared to other Bornholmer-families. We have already met the first Splid on the island: Jacob Splid, known to be King Valdemar Atterdag's commander (hovedmand) for Hammershus fortress in 1361 and 1362. The Splid-family did not likely originate from Sk?ne (where the archbishop recruited his commanders), but from another region. On Sj?lland and in Norway we find two (inter-connected?) families, both carrying the so called "hummerklo" in their emblems. In Norway the most important was Siewerd Bj?rnsen, known to be a bishop in 1458. On Sj?lland we have a Jep Nielsen (Splid) in Guml?se in 1492, his seal with the helmet is from 1503, his seal from 1492 looks like the Bornholmer Splid-family's "hummerklo". A Jep Splid was chief justice of Bornholm in 1497. On a document dated the 10th of August 1497 we find him using his father's seal - the inscription states: "andreas split". The colours on the coat of arms are not known, but now we can see that the "hummerklo" (lobster claw) was white on a red background - if we accept the identification of the female's coat of arms from Klemensker church.
12) Thurah's "Bornholmskbeskrivelse" (see note 8).
15) The family known as "Myre on Bornholm" and the coat of arms is known from Hans Myre's seal. He died in 1518 as the last male of that family on Bornholm, but he had a sister, Bodil, who married a man named Jacob of the family Kyrning-Myre. Their descendants took the name Myre only, and some of them resided on Bornholm as well.
16) M.K. Zarthmann: "Optegnelser om Almeg?rd i Knudsker sogn", in "Bornholmske Samlinger", volume 21.
17) Not to be mistaken with the Hans Olufsen (Uf), mentioned in note 11, as being the Uf-family's last male. This man is his father's father.
18) A. Thiset's files in State Archives under Jep Splid. The original is said to be in the Swedish State Archives.
This database researched and compiled by Norman Lee Madsen, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 21 July 2015.
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1510 - 1546 (~ 36 år)
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