Jon Marteinsson's will before the pilgrimage to Rome
DN 16/42 · 14 July 1400 · Sudreim
What the letter says
Jon Martinsson at Sudreim writes his will on 14 July 1400, because he is going on pilgrimage to Rome and perhaps further. He gives chalices, silver cups and money to churches and monasteries in Vadstena, Skara, Dalsland, Romerike and Oslo, and a third of all the land he has bought in Romerike, Hedmark, Follo and Solør is to be divided among four churches in Oslo and Sudreim. Bishop Øystein in Oslo is to supervise the division. Family and friends receive silver-mounted drinking horns, among them his sons Magnus and Sigurd, his daughters Katrine and Ingeborg and his brother-in-law Håkon Sigurdsson.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
In the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, amen. I, Jon Martinsson, have with God's help decided to go on pilgrimage to Rome, and further if God wills. Therefore, in honour of God and His blessed mother Mary, while I am well and in full health, I have made my will as I wish it to stand after my days. First I give to the church of Our Lady and St Birgitta in Vadstena a chalice with paten (altar plate) weighing one lødig mark (a mark of fine silver by weight) of pure gold, and a maiden into the convent, and for their upkeep goods worth 30 marks in cloth, and one noble (gold coin) as consecration gold [uncertain reading], and one lødig mark in white money (silver coin). In return the abbess shall let me go to confession there once and have a mass for my soul every Friday for a whole year. This has been done and paid. Whether the convent is to receive more, God shall decide. Furthermore to the church of Our Lady in Skara 20 marks for the building. This Torstein Snjolsson shall pay from the 140 marks he owes me for a stallion. When this has been paid out, I give my kinsman Torstein the hundred marks he owes me, free from me and my heirs. Furthermore to the Greyfriars' monastery (the Franciscans) in Skara one lødig mark, so that I may once go to confession there and have a mass for my soul every Friday for a whole year. Furthermore to the Blackfriars (the Dominicans) in Skara one lødig mark, so that I may once go to confession there and have a mass for my soul e
Original text (excerpt)
I Nafn faders og Søns og dend Hl. Aands Amen. Hafver ieg Ion Maartensen foresat mig næst Guds hielp en pilegrims Rejse til Rom, og lengere om Gud vil. Hvorfore ieg haver til Guds ære, og hans Velsignede Moders Mariæ, sund og frisk giordt mit Testament, saasom ieg vil det skal staa effter mine dage. Først giver ieg til vor Frue Kirche, og Ste: Birgitte j Vasteen en Kalch med disk, som vejer en lødig march af Klar Guld, samt en Møe i Klosteret, og dennem til ophold saa got som 30 march i Klæde, og
Background
Jon Marteinsson was married to Agnes Sigurdsdatter, daughter of Sigurd Havtoresson and Ingeborg Erlingsdatter, and lived at Sudreim, the manor of the Sudreim family in Romerike. The son Sigurd who receives a horn called Gudrunarstut is Sigurd Jonsson, who later won Giske and became drottsete and regent. When Jon calls Håkon Sigurdsson «brother» and Sir Sigurd «father», he probably means brother-in-law and father-in-law, as was common usage. A will before a long journey was common, because a pilgrimage to Rome took many months and many never came home. The gifts were to secure masses for the soul and an annual commemoration (anniversarium), and they show how much silver, gold, English cloth and land a man in this circle controlled. The gifts to churches in Västergötland and Dalsland suggest that he had family or property in Sweden, but the letter does not say so directly.
People: Jon Marteinsson, Håkon Sigurdsson, Sigurd Jonsson, Katarina Jonsdatter