1 _FA1
2 PLAC Captain
1 _FA1
2 PLAC Major
1 _FA1
2 PLAC Bishop
1 MISC Storegade, Åkirkeby, Bornholm
1 _FA1
2 PLAC Freeman (Frimand)
1 MISC Coat of arms (Våben): three ants on a white field (tre myrer i hvidt)
From the "Dansk adelsvåbner, en heraldisk nøgle", page 147, by Sven TitoAchen, Politikens Forlag, 1973, København:
Myre "på Bornholm". Tre sorte myrer i hvidt. På hjelmen to hvidevesselhorn. * Uradel, Skåne eller Bornholm. Peder Myre 1429; Hans Myre1518. NDA side 201 og DAÅ 1901 side 229.(The above translated to English:)
Myre "of Bornholm". Three black ants on white. On the helmet two whitevesselhorns. * Noble origins: Skåne or Bornholm. Peder Myre in 1429;Hans Myre in 1518. See: NDA, page 201, and DAÅ, page 229.From "Danske adelige sigiller fra det 13. til 17. århundrede", XV. TreMyrer, page 36:
1. Myre, Hans, V.: s. Hans Myre. 1513 Juli 14, Top. Sml. Perg. VemmenhøgH.(Translation of above:)
1. Myre, Hans, V.: Seal reads: sir hans myre; dated: July 14, 1513; Top.Collection Perg. Vemmenhøg district."Uldall'ske Samlinger 479-4" states that in "Friderich RostgaardsVaabenbog 1687-88", page 68, describes the family's arms differently: "ihvidt felt 3 røde myrer" (on a white field 3 red ants)!
Hans (Pedersen) Myre (mentioned in 1518) had three sons:
(Note: according to Sigvard Mahler Dam, in "De bornholmske væbnerslægterUf og Splid - noget nyt om deres våbener", pub. in Heraldisk Tidsskrift,1982, Hans Myre died in 1518. In "Over hals og hoved", pub. in SAXO,1991, Sigvard states that Hans Myre was mentioned in 1518, and deadbefore 1531.)
1. Peder Hansen Myre was a freeman (frimand), he inherited thefamily-farm, Fuglsangsgård, 6 Vdg. Ibsker. In 1547 he is known to haveowned a farm in Vestermarie parish which was not numbered, it was referedto as "Peder Myhres gaard"; it was later known as Lille Vestergård orFogedagerhuset. He also owned Lille Myregård, 1 Vdg. Åker. OnSeptember 6, 1572 a meeting was held by Bornholm's Parliament toestablish who had the right to the status of "Frimand" (Freeman) onBornholm; Peder Myre is named as being one of the 17 men in attendance atthe "Frimandsmødet". Peder Myre died in 1572, and it appears that he hadno sons; the Myre-family farm, Fuglsangsgård, went to Peder Hansen Uf andhis wife, Mette Hansdatter. Various researcher have incorrectly statedthat "Mette Hans Pedersens Datter" was the daughter of Hans Pedersen Myre- based only on the fact that Peder Hansen Uf and Mette ownedFuglsangsgård in 1574. A court document dated June 15, 1582 concerning adispute over Fuglsangsgård states that Mette Hansdatter was an heir ofHans Myre (died 1518).
2. Jens Hansen Myre. A document dated 1541 confures him the position ofcanon (kannik) in Lund. On July 4, 1574 he sold Myregård (a.k.a. LilleØlegård), 9 Vdg. Østermarie, and one farm in Klinteby, 20 Vdg. Ibsker,to Peder Oxe. He had a crookback (krogrygget) and died in Lund in 1575.Possibly the same person as the Jens Hansen who was chief justice(Landsdommer) for Bornholm circa 1533, who placed his seal on an undateddocument (in 1533?) which was later presented in court in 1537 by HansBorreby's widow Anne with regards to her dispute over the ownership ofMyregård in Åker parish. In 1535 there was an unsuccessful uprising bythe Bornholmers against their Lübeck overlords, and the island's chiefjustice, a Jens Hansen of Nylars parish (possibly one of the farms laterowned by Truid Hansen Myre?), is said to have been involved. Someaccounts state the he was executed by the Lübeckers - but the facts onthis seem inconclusive. Possibly Jens Hansen (Myre) fled the island, andtook up the possition of canon in Lund? Possibly he is the father ofMads Kofoed's first wife Johanne (died circa 1547)?
3. Truid Myre. He is named in a 1551 lawsuit in Malmö, and in 1555 inanother lawsuit on Bornholm. He complained in 1558 to the king aboutVassal (Lensmand) Lage Urne, who was not pleased at Truid having freemanstatus. Sought in 1552 to lay entire Arnager fishing village beneath hisdurisdiction, this attempt failed. On March 30, 1558 he was thespokesman for Bornholm's freemen to King Christian the 3rd regardingexemptions in payment of the land-assistance-tax (landehjælpeskat), theexemptions were denied. Was probably without any children, as his farms(Store Myregård, 5 Vdg. Olsker; Lille Myregård, 6 Vdg. Olsker; LilleMyregård, 11 Slg. Nylars; Myregård, 2 Vdg. Nylars; Pæregård, 3 Vdg.Nylars) would later become part of Simlegård estate, which was owned byPeder Hansen Uf and his wife Mette Hansdatter. Truid Myre died"Allerhelgens aften" (November 1) 1574, and according to Sigvard MahlerDam, his gravestone was placed in Olsker Church's entrance (Ols kirkesvåbenhus), and although worn the 3 ants of the Myre arms, with twovesselhorns on the helmet, can still be seen; also that the gravestoneshows his wife's coat of arms, which depicts "enhalvbue med noglespidser" (a crescent with several points), with vesselhorns on the helmet- otherwise known as the "hummerklo" (lobsterclaw) or "geddekæft" (pike'sjawbone) arms of the Bjergegaard-family. (Sigvard speculates that shewas the daughter of Hans Pedersen (-1537-1543-) of Bjergegård, 9 Vdg.Vestermarie, however it more likely to me that she was his aunt. -Norman Madsen, March 24, 2003.)
The following has been extracted from a translation of the article"Landsdommer-patriciatet på Bornholm", part 1, by Sigvard Mahler Dam,published in SAXO, 1987:
Jens Hansen:
The Lübeckers helped King Frederik conquer Gotland, and thereafterdemanded payment for their efforts and expenses in the war. So, onAugust 23rd 1525 the king sent an open letter to the inhabitance ofBornholm telling them that they had been mortgaged to Lübeck for the next50 years!About this time a new chief justice appears, someone we do not know muchabout. A legend from 1625, which was revived in a Bornholm journal in1804 (see note nr. 14), tells that the Lübeck commander, Bernt Knop, wasill treating the Bornholmers, which is why "Landsdommeren Hans Jenssøn iNylarsker" travelled to see the king and complain. He returned with aroyal order that they must take care of the commander on their own. Sothey gathered together a band at Egele, south of Åkirkeby, to fightagainst the Lübeckers, but they were defeated and many were slain; thisevent probably happened in 1536. Some stories tell us that the chiefjustice thereafter had his head chopped off.
However, the tradition must have exchanged his given name with hispatronymic, as can be seen from a high court document which display's hisseal. In 1537 there was a fight over Myregård in Åker, and HansBorreby's widow Anne came forth with a high court judgement, the documentwas sealed by Chief Justice "Jens Hansen", we can assume that thisjudgement must have been passed around 1533. (note 15) The insurrectionagainst Lübeck was not in 1536, but in 1535. This might indicate thatthe chief justice's name was correctly Jens Hansen, and that he lost hisposition (possibly executed or fled?) because of his incitement of theuprising - as we know the exact date of the appointment of his successor(more on this later). Furthermore, this dramatic ending to his career(and maybe his life) meant that all his property was confiscated andplaced under the juridiction of Hammershus - so we can not trace hisdescendants by seeing who were his heirs. The connection to Nylarsparish might lead us to Store Myregård (10 Slg.), which is nearby to thesmall fishing village of Arnager, which the Myre-family, and especiallyTruid Myre of Myregård in Olsker, tried to take back from the Lübeckers.Which could mean that Jens Hansen was the brother-in-law of the earlierchief justice, Oluf Ottesen (Uf), and thus the son of Hans Myre ofKlinteby in Ibsker parish. (note 16)
The name "Jens" is quite commonly used by the Myre family. We might alsoconclude that Jens Hansen was the father of Mads Kofoed's first wife,Johanne, the mother of the later chief justice, Jens Kofoed; which wouldexplain whom he was named after.
If this hypotheses about Jens Hansen's origins is correct, it wouldappear that he was the last male descendant of the "gamle Myrer" (oldMyre-family), which carried the arms depicting the three"myrer" (ants) ontheir shield. The "yngre Myrer" (younger Myre-family) was in fact abranch of the Kyrning family of Skåne, whose arms depict a star. HansMyre's seal of 1513 shows a shield depicting three crawling ants, and ahelmet with two vesselhorns. The colours of which are known from variouspublications about coat of arms: on a white background are three red antsand a helmet with two white vesselhorns. (note 17)
Notes:
6) "Bornholms Frimænd" by M.K. Zarthmann in "Bornholmske Samlinger",volume 16, Rønne, 1920, pages 120-159, is a bit better, although stillout of date. Some of the Væbnere (Officers) have been incorrectlydocumented, something easily avoided if the author had checked theirseals. He insisted that it was impossible to trace a BornholmVæbner-family over three generations, which is indeed nonsense. Furthermistakes include Jacob Køller's coat of arms (see later), where he statesthat Jacob carried the Brahe-family coat of arms (which is displays apole instead of a half fleur-de-lis!). Also, that Captain Anders Hansen(in the 1600s) belonged to the Lang-family (three oak-leaves), eventhough it had been over 100 years since the family had been on Bornholm,and that Anders Hansen carried a rose in his arms. A further mistake isthat of Mette Hansdatter's coat of arms (the wife of Chief Justice PederHansen Uf), he changed her half lobster claw (aka pike's jawbone) to oneant in order to make her fit into his faulty hypothesis, etc., etc.14) Dean Jens Pedersen's description of "some strange happenings onBornholm", written in 1625, and printed in "Bornholmske Samlinger",volume 17, Rønne, 1926, page 65, provides the chief justice's name, andin P.N. Skovgaard's "Bornholms Beskrivelse", 1804, page 293, there is anauthentic rendering of the dean's account from 1625. The decapitationwas mentioned by Zarthmann (see note nr. 6) in 1920, page 140, source forthis account unknown; later complaints by Bornholmers about the Lübeckersincludes one from a peasant farmer that his brother, Hans Jensen, hadbeen decapitated; if this was Zarthmann's source it seems very unlikelythat such an event took place: peasants were not the targets, andfurthermore, the chief justice's name was incorrect!
15) "Det Kongelig Rettertings Domme. . . i Christian III' Tid", volumeI, København, 1959, page 217.
16) Several members of the Myre-family had renounced their family-name:among them were the brothers Esbern and Niels Truidsen of Klemenskerparish from 1530-1542; farms named Myregård were not always owned by theMyre-family, as is commonly presumed, rather, some owed their name to thefact that they were adjacent to a "myr" (bog). For instance the Myregårdin Åker parish never belonged to the Myre-family (as wrongly stated byZarthmann and others), but rather to the Bing-family of Skåne. Even in1625 the adjacent bog was still known as "Bingsmyr"! While conversely,the farm in Klinteby (in Ibsker parish), which for many years belonged tothe Myre-family, never went under the name "Myregård"; on the other handlater, when the farm was owned by the Gagge-family, it was called"Gaggegård" throughout the 1700s and 1800s census records!
17) For Hans Myre's coat of arms see "Danske Adelige Sigiller", by A.Thiset, L.XV. nr. 1. A photo of the seal, and several details about thefamily, can be found in "Heraldisk Tidsskrift", nr. 46, October 1982,page 280. "Uldall'ske Samlinger 479-4", in the Royal Library, under"Friderich Rostgaards Vaabenbog 1687-88" on page 68 can be found thefamily's coat of arms: "i hvidt felt 3 røde myrer" (on a white field 3red ants); not black ants, as shown in "Nyt Dansk Adelslexicon" by Thiset& Whittrup (København, 1904), and in "Danske Adelsvåbner" by S.T. Achen(København, 1973). A slightly altered seal is shown in "Kall'skeSamlinger 124-fol", folio 70 (Royal Archives), but there we find onlymembers of the later Myre-family who in reality was a branch of theKyrning-family - perhaps they had inherited their separate seal from thematernal side? Thott'ske Samlinger 1104-2 (Royal Archive) under "DanskeAdelige Vaabener med genealogiske kommentarer", folio 45, names themembers of the later Myre-family ("Kyrning"), and shows their new coat ofarms: "i hvidt felt 3 blå bølger" (on a white field 3 blue waves)!
This database researched and compiled by Norman Lee Madsen, Toronto,Ontario, copyright 2006.