Witnesses about the deserted farm Lider and Sir Sigurd of Giske
DN 3/797 · 2 April 1448 · By
What the letter says
On 2 April 1448 at By in Fylkeshaug parish, lawman Ravald Niklisson of the Uplands receives witnesses in a dispute between Jon Gyrdsson and Øystein Godensson about the deserted farm Lider in Hedmarken. Jon has no witnesses and wants to bring them before the lawthing at Eidsvoll on 17 June. Øystein's witnesses swear that the farm had been lent out by Sir Sigurd of Giske, father of Cecilia, who was married to Ingjald of Oo, and that Ingjald, Cecilia and their son Gyrd took land rent from the farm until Gyrd sold it to Øystein's father Goden Leiksson.
The letter in modern English (excerpt)
Be it known to all good men who see or hear this letter that I, Ravald Niklisson, lawman in the Uplands, was at By, which lies at Vældrom in Fylkeshaug parish, a proper place of summons, in the year 1448, the Tuesday after Easter week (2 April). Then Jon Gyrdsson on the one side and Øystein Godensson on the other came before me at the hearing. Both fully acknowledged that this was their proper and agreed day of evidence according to the lawful ruling that had summoned them there to bring evidence on this day. They were to let their evidence be heard on both sides, while many good men who were there with me listened to their words and acknowledgements. The case concerned the claim Jon Gyrdsson said he had against Øystein Godensson for a deserted farm called Lid that lies in Fylkeshaug parish, as his letter says. Øystein Godensson answered thus: «There are said to be two deserted farms called Lid here in this same parish, but I have nothing to do with them and will not defend them, as is known to honest men. Excepted is Lider, which lies just north of Berg in Fylkeshaug parish. Your father Gyrd of Oo sold it to Goden Leiksson, my father. That one I will hold by right and defend according to the law, as the letter that was made about it itself bears witness.» Thereupon Øystein Godensson demanded that Jon Gyrdsson should first bring his evidence, his grounds and proofs of how the person on whom he bases his claim is related to him, through father or mother, as it stands in his letter h
Original text (excerpt)
Thet see ollom godhom monnom kunnikth som thetta breff sea ædher høra ath æk Raffwaldh Niclisson logman a Vplandom var a By som ligger a Vældrom i Fylkæsaukx sokn rettom stempnaby anno domini mcdxlviij tysdaghin nest æpther pasca vikuna komo þær þa a stempno ffor mik Jon Gyrdhzsson a æinne halffwo æn a annare Østen Godhensson ok fwlla vidhergango væitto ath þa var þæira rette samtykkæliken proffsdagher æpther laghar orskurdh ath þæir tiith dømdo varo tiil proffs þær ath wæra a førnempdom dæghi o
Background
Sir Sigurd of Giske is Sigurd Havtoresson of Sudreim (died c. 1392), who was married to the Giske heiress Ingeborg Erlingsdatter. The letter is a letter of witness from a provsting (a hearing of evidence), where the parties presented oaths and oral tradition before the case was to be judged. The witnesses tell what parents and neighbours had said two and three generations earlier, and in this way the letter shows how land was proven at a time when many had no written papers. According to the letter, Sigurd had a daughter Cecilia who took the farm with her into her marriage; the letter does not say who her mother was. That there were three deserted farms with almost the same name in one parish suggests that many farms were left deserted after the Black Death in 1349 and were used for haymaking and grazing. Land rent is the annual rent a tenant farmer paid to the owner, here paid in hay.
People: Sigurd Havtoresson