Jon Skak sells an inheritance and claims in the Faroe Islands
DN 1/802 · 16 Oktbr. 1447 · Tönsberg
What the letter says
In Tønsberg on 16 October 1447, Jon Nilsson Skak sells to the knight Sir Erland Endridsson the whole inheritance after Elin Eriksdatter in the Faroe Islands, both movable goods and land. Included in the sale is the right to claim sheep that Sigurd Jonsson wanted to buy, unpaid land rent from Sudervåg and compensation for a horse which Jon Skak's mother-in-law Ulvhild lent Sigurd Jonsson for the journey to Oslo and never got back.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
To all men who see or hear this letter, I, Jon Nilsson, who is called Skak, send loving greeting with God. I make known with this my open letter that I have sold to the well-born man Sir Erland Endridsson, knight, the whole inheritance, with the right to claim it, which fell after Mistress Elin Eriksdatter, God have mercy on her soul, movable goods and fixed property, all that can be traced in the Faroe Islands. In particular this concerns the right to claim the sheep that Sigurd Jonsson wanted to buy from me when he was last here. Further, the right to all the land rents (annual rent for land) from Sudervåg that have not been paid. And further, the right to compensation for the horse that my mother-in-law, Mistress Ulvhild, lent him for the journey to Oslo, and which she never got back from the said Sigurd Jonsson. The said Sigurd Jonsson had paid for the horse with land rent from the lease that applied from before [uncertain reading]. In witness of this I hang my seal on this letter, which was made in Tønsberg on the Monday before the day of St Luke the Evangelist (16 October) in the year of our Lord 1447. Endorsement: On the back: About Jon Skak and Sigurd Jonsson.
Original text (excerpt)
Ollom monnom them som thette bref se eller høre helser iek Jon Nielson som kallæs Skak kerlighe med gudh kungør jek thet med thette mith opne bref ath jek hafuer sælt welboren man herre Erland Endridson riddære all then arf med rettæfar som thømdes eftir hustru Ælinæ Eriks dotter hwes siel gudh nadhe laust oc fast oc vp kan spørges i Ferøyr och serdeles ath søghe the saudher som Sigurder Jonsson wildæ hafuæ køpt af mik tha han hær sidert war och ther med rættæ far af swa mangte landskilder som v
Background
The letter was included because it names a Sigurd Jonsson, and in 1447 Sigurd Jonsson of Sudreim, owner of Giske, was drottsete (steward of the realm) and one of the most powerful men in the kingdom. It is nevertheless uncertain whether it is him, because the name was common, and nothing in the letter refers to titles or to Giske. It is a deed of sale for an inheritance and a series of monetary claims: Jon Skak sells claims he himself finds hard to collect in the Faroe Islands to a more powerful man who has better means. Land rent was the annual rent a tenant farmer paid for the land he used. The letter shows that even distant island communities such as the Faroe Islands were linked to the Norwegian nobility through inheritance, land and sheep farming.
People: Sigurd Jonsson