Settlement over unpaid land rent in Bohuslän
DN 21/383 · 8. mars 1440 · Bottna (i Bohuslän)
Sigurd Jonsson, who owned Giske, had been drottsete (steward of the realm) for half a year. He is present as one of the leading men of the realm while the lawman settles a case about unpaid land rent in Bohuslän.
What the letter says
The squires Engelbrekt Stefansson and Havtor Nilsson bear witness that they were at Bottna church in Viken on 8 March 1440. There Jon Eilivsson, lawman in Tønsberg, made a friendly settlement with Olav of Svenneby, in the presence of the drottsete Sir Sigurd Jonsson and Sir Olav Håkonsson. For twelve years Olav had been Eiliv Torgautsson's estate steward (ombudsmann) over both the Bodeland farms without paying the land rent he owed. Now he was to give Jon Eilivsson a good ox in the autumn.
The letter in modern English
To all men who see or hear this letter, Engelbrekt Stefansson and Havtor Nilsson, squires, send God's greeting and their own, and make known that we were in Bottna by Bottna church in Viken on the Tuesday after Mid-Lent Sunday (8 March) in the year of our Lord 1440. We saw and heard that Jon Eilivsson, lawman in Tønsberg, made a friendly settlement with Olav of Svenneby [uncertain reading], in the presence of Sir Sigurd Jonsson, drottsete in Norway, and Sir Olav Håkonsson. The settlement was that the said Olav shall give Jon Eilivsson a good [full-value] ox this coming autumn, because, as he himself admitted, he had been Eiliv Torgautsson's estate steward over both the Bodeland farms for twelve years in a row, and had not paid the said Eiliv the land rent as he rightly should. In truth of this we hang our seals to this letter, which was made on the day and in the year stated above.
Original text
Ollum monnom theim, som thette bref se æller høre sænder Jnggelbrickt Steffanson oc Hafthor Nielsson af Wapen qvediu Gudz oc sina: kunnukt gerande, at wit worom i Botinom widher Bottna kyrkio i Wikænnæ a tyrs daghenum næst effter midfastu Sunnudagen Anno Domino M.C.D.X.Lo. sagom ok hæirdom a at Jon Eilifson lagman i Tunsberghi giordhæ sinæ wænligh sæmmiu met Olaf i Swineby ok herra Sighurdh Jonson Drotsætæ i Noriæ, oc herra Olaf Hakonson owær wærande, oc i sa matæ, at Olafer forde skal gifva
Background
Sigurd Jonsson had been drottsete (steward of the realm) for half a year, and here we see him travelling in Viken, the land around the Oslofjord and Bohuslän, which then belonged to Norway. He and the knight Olav Håkonsson were present as the leading men of the realm while the lawman settled the case. An estate steward managed land for the owner and was to collect the land rent, the yearly rent from the tenant farmers, and pass it on. Jon Eilivsson was probably a son or heir of Eiliv Torgautsson. That twelve years of unpaid land rent was settled with a single ox suggests that the settlement was a compromise. Svenneby is an uncertain reading, and the editor suggests Sveineby in Kville.
People: Sigurd Jonsson