- At the 'Frimandsmødet' held on September 6, 1572 there were 17
men named as being in attendance: the brothers Jens and Hans
Madsen Kofoed, Peder Poulsen Kofoed, Oluf Bagge, Peder Uf,
Peder Myre, Jørgen Gagge, also ten other men only listed by their
father's name; and at which occassion three Danish Parlimentary
advisers (Rigsråder) had been sent to preside over the meeting.
This special meeting was held to establish who on Bornholm had
the right to call themselves 'Frimand' (Free-man), a title which
conveyed the upper-class standing of the landed-gentry. {#13}Hans
Kofoed, named as a 'Frimand', was one of the delegates who on
May 6, 1608, in København, selected and confirmed Prince
Christian as the future King of Danmark. He also, along with
Peder Poulsen Kofoed (1548-1616), took part in the following
festivities in Lund, Skåne (now part of Sverige/Sweden), where the
nobility swore their allegiance to Prince Christian in the year 1610.
{#13}Their written authorization to attend is stated as follows:
'We, the hereafter stated signatories: Jens Kofoedt of Kyndegaard,
Hanns Kofoedt of Blykobbegaard, Peder Koefoedt of Bagisgaard,
Matz Koefoedt of Eskiilsgaard, and Niels Berilldsen of
Gadebygaard, all Free-men of Borringholm, and present here
together hereby declare . . . . . The honest and noble man: Hanns
Lindenow, Commander of Hammershus Fortress, has according to
our consent, requested these two persons: the honourable Hans
and Poffuill Koefoedt to travel to Kiöbenhaffn with our authorized
document and be our representatives (at Prince Christian's
election) . . . . as further documentation we have in our own
handwriting signed and sealed this our open-letter.' {#13}Dated:
Borringholm, May 6, Anno 1608 With the signatures of: Jenns
Koefoedt, Hans Kofod, Peder Koefoedt, Matz Koefoedt, Jacob
Køller, Hans Berillsenn, Niels Berendtzen. (Jørn Klindt notes that
Hans Kofoed's signature is not like that of his brother the Judge
Jens Kofoed - the Judge was experienced and fluent at
handwritting - while Hans Kofoed, being a farmer, was
unaccustomed to feather and ink, which easily made blotches!)
{#13}From the seven seals affixed we can see that Hans, Jens and
Mads Kofoed used the Kofoed coat-of-arms in their seals, but
Peder Kofoed did not -- his seal was simply marked 'P.K.' Also,
note that 'Borringholm' and 'Kiöbenhaffn' are the old style
spellings of Bornholm and København (Copenhagen). {#13}In
1595 Hans Kofoed had incorporated the image of a truss
(gavlsparren) in his seal; this later became the most widely
incorporated image in later Kofoed seals and coats-of-arms. A
truss is that part of a building which forms the foundation upon
which its roof is built. As depicted in the Kofoed coat-of-arms it
looks rather like an upside down 'V', i.e. the two beams of a roof's
supporting structure. That image was used to convey the idea that
the Kofoed family was a foundation upon which others could rely
for strengh of leadership. His oldest son Mads Kofoed used this
image from 1608, and his descendants (the 'Rønne family' or
'branch B' as this line of the family was referred to by Julius
Bidstrup) used it as well. {#13}Hans Madsen Kofoed at one point
held the position of church warden (kirkeværge) for Nyker Church.
He lived long enough to see his children prosper; they were
privileged to have been born as free-men and have wealthy and
influential relations. Through marriages they further built up their
family position. It has been put forward that Hans Madsen
Kofoed's wife was the daughter of Claus Köller (c.1525-after 1586)
and Margrethe von Schinckel (c.1535-1598) of Skovsholm, Ibsker,
however I know of no supporting evidence for this assertion.
{#13}The 'Danish Coat-of-Arms' registry includes no less than 18
families carrying the truss as part of their coat-of-arms. The image
of the truss seems to have come from the Uf family of Skåne
province. Noblemen of the Uf family settled on Bornholm around
the year 1400, and quite a few of the native Bornholmer Kofoeds
married into that family, and it seems that they adopted the Uf's
coat-of-arms with its depiction of a truss. Later, as the 'Rønne
family' and the 'Østermarie family' began to inter-marry the image
of the 'truss' can be seen together with the 'cow-foot' image of the
Østermarie line descended from Poul Kofoed (before 1520-before
1584). {#13}Blykobbegård is classified as a 'friegård', later called a
'proprietair' farm. On Bornholm there were three classes of farms:
1] Proprietairgård (Propr.), earlier called a Friegård - meaning
property owned by a 'free-man' ('frimand', later called a
'proprietær'); 2] Selvejergård (Slg.) - meaning a farm owned
independently, free of obligations to a property owner - it could be
occupied by its owner or rented out to a peasant farmer (bonde); 3]
Vornedegård (Vdg.), also spelled Vårnedergård - meaning a farm
leased out long-term by a land-owner (proprietær) to a tenured
peasant farmer; these farms were 'attached' to a proprietairgård,
and entailed accompanying work obligations by the peasant for the
proprietår who held the rights on the farm's lease. These rights
were known as the 'Herlighedsright' (Glory-right). {#13}On
Bornholm the farms (in Danish 'gård', or old style 'gaard') had long
standing official names and numbers. A map drawn in 1851
shows 17 estate-farms classified as Proprietair: 3 in each of Åker,
Ibsker and Nyker parishes; 2 each in Østermarie and Klemensker;
and 1 each in Pedersker, Bodilsker, Østerlars, and Olsker. There
were hundreds of farms comprising the other two classifications.
The typical farm is arranged in a joined U shape, with the
farmhouse, barn, pig-stall, and utility-shed all built around a
square cobble-stone courtyard. {#13}This database researched and
compiled by Norman Lee Madsen, Toronto, [:CR:]
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