Holmger Torkelsson (Båt)

Holmger Torkelsson (Båt)

• Son of Torkel Andersson and Kristina Ulfsdotter (Ama)
• The abutment of the perimeter wall's eastern range against this tower shows that the wall was added at a later date, along with (we now know) a northern tower. These additions were made no later than 1480, by which time Stensö was a tenant farm. The earliest textual evidence for the farmstead is from 1369, when Stensö seems to have been the seat of Holmger Torkelsson of the Boat family and his wife Sigrid Karlsdotter of the Stubbe family, a recently married couple in Sweden's top-level nobility (Dipl. Suec. 6108 & SDHK 7573). Lord Holmger's maternal grandfather Ulf Holmgersson was the son of Lady Kristina who owned Landsjö in c. 128

Ama Nobility

Holmger Ulfsson (d.), Also called Holmger Ama (son of Ulf Holmgersson, tab. 2). Is probably the "scolaris" Holmger, who along with his brother Lars 1288 is remembered in his "cognatus" archbishop Magnus Bosson's will. Incidentally, the earliest mentioned 1291. Became a knight by 1303. Was 1305 King Birger's camerarius. Died earlier in 1307 but before 1.2 1308 and buried in Alvastra monastery. Owned property in N. Vedbo and Tjusts hd in Småland and Boberg's hd in Östergötland, in Hanekind's hd in the same landscape, in Villåttinge hd in Södermanland and at Västerås in Västmanland. Was married in 1307 to Ingegärd, who owned land in Västergötland and lived another 1308 and chose a burial ground in Alvastra monastery. - https://www.adelsvapen.com/genealogi/Ama#TAB_2

Children

• Kristina Holmgersdotter, Was remembered in her grandfathers Will, SDHK No: see;4146

Swedish Diplomatarium's National Archives of Medieval Letters

SDHK No: 7574

• Dating: 1359 July 30, of Issue: Stensö

Holmger Torkelsson announces that he and his brother the knight Magnus Torkelsson and several others' consent as a morning gift have given his wife Sigrid Karlsdotter 13 ½ öresland land in Norrlänna in Länna parish in Åkers district and 1 land land in Vävelsta in Husby-Oppunda parish and a mill in Djupvik with two villagers in (Ö.) Husby (now in Kvarsebo) parish in Östkinds district. If they have children, the morning gift should be counted as the children's mothers. If Sigrid dies (childless) before Holmger, the morning present returns to him. If Holmger dies first, the morning present will be Sigrids. Advice has been obtained from Mr. Magnus Torkelsson and Harald Ernilsson and Karl Tuveson. - https://sok.riksarkivet.se/dokument/sdhk/7574.pdf

SDHK No:7573

• Dating: 1359 July 30, of Issue: Stensö

Holmger Torkelsson announces that he gave his wife Sigrid Karlsdotter a morning present on the right obstacle day according to the country's law. The "difference man" was the letter issuer's brother, the knight Magnus Torkelsson and the deputies the knights Magnus Nilsson (Röde) and Rörik (Tordsson) Bonde. Fasting were Sigrid's maternal uncle Mr Bengt Filipsson and Mr Ulf Håkansson, knights, and Johan Kristinason, Holmger Ama, Bengt Fadersson, Nils Ragnvaldsson, Birger Tureson, Magnus Nilsson, Johan Nilsson, Håkan Johansson, Inge Ingeson and Peter Guldsmed from Nyköping. The issuer seals. - https://sok.riksarkivet.se/dokument/sdhk/7573.pdf

SDHK No:7556

• Dating: 1359 May 17, of Issue: Skanninge

Holmger Torkelsson sells to the knight Magnus Nilsson all his estates in Västerlösa in Rogslösa parish (Dals district) for 200 marks Swedish money according to the country's law.
The issuer and Mr. Magnus, Bengt Filipsson and Magnus Torkelsson, knights, and Mr. Harald, parish priest in Skänninge, Sjunne Klemensson, councilor in Skänninge, Harald Ernilsson and Karl Tuveson seal. - https://sok.riksarkivet.se/dokument/sdhk/7556.pdf

SDHK No:4146

• Dating: 1335 April 5

Ulf Holmgersson, kanik in Uppsala and Västerås, bequeaths to the building of Uppsala Cathedral, where he chooses to be buried, a farm in Helgestad, and to the improvement of the prebenda he held in Västerås 6 öresland in Ulsa and 1 öresland in Vikby. He decides on numerous gifts in the form of money and other things, among other things. a. Strängnäs Cathedral, Linköping Cathedral, Vårfruberga Monastery, Kristina Holmgersdotter, Alvastra Monastery, Nydala Monastery, Varnhems Monastery, Julita Monastery, the Preacher Brothers in Strängnäs, Sigtuna, Västerås, Skara, Lödöse, Skänninge, Uppsala, Kalbr, Nöra Söderköping, Linköping, Jönköping, Skara, Arboga, Enköping, on to Sko kloster, Askeby kloster, S: ta Klara kloster in Stockholm, helgeandshuset in Uppsala, spetälskehuset in Enköping, hospital in Strängnäs, Söderköping, Skänninge,

King Magnus, Torkel Andersson, Birger Magnusson, and the issuer seal, SEAL
The seal: N: o 1-5 away, the strips left; N: o 6, Ulf Holmgerssons (3 plugs). - https://www.geni.com/photo/view?album_type=photos_of_me&id=6000000049027095883&photo_id=6000000140042367915&position=0

Aardvarchaeology – by Dr. Martin Rundkvist

Castle Owners

My excavations this summer will target the ruins of two Medieval castles near Norrköping. Christian Lovén and I have selected these two because unusually, both have curtain walls (Sw. ringmur) but do not seem to have belonged to the Crown. The High Middle Ages in Sweden are poorly documented in surviving written sources, but in one of these cases we actually have a pretty good idea who built the castle and when.

Landsjö in Kimstad parish enters the record in about 1280 when an old woman writes her will. She’s Kristina, daughter of a certain Faste who had borne a plant device on his coat of arms and is otherwise forgotten, and she signs Landsjö as her sätesgård manorial seat. Lady Kristina’s late husband, dead since about 1255, had been a well-known and powerful man: Lord Holmger, son of Folke jarl and male originator of the Ama family.

The late 13th century saw the first major wave of masonry castle construction in Sweden, and so Landsjö castle is unlikely to pre-date 1250. On the other hand, after the Black Death in 1350 Landsjö was farmed by tenants and thus no longer a manor of the nobility. Lady Kristina’s will marks a likely point in time when the castle would originally have been completed. In 1630 Landsjö again became a manor, a new säteri building was constructed elsewhere and the old castle was heavily quarried for building materials. Since then little seems to have happened on the castle islet.

Things are less clear at Stensö in Östra Husby. This castle starts as a single round kastal-type tower with no entrance from ground level, most likely about 1200. But the first written mention of the farmstead occurs only in 1359, when it is the manor of Holmger Torkelsson of the Boat family. The castle has a curtain wall with some brick in it which is likely to have been added at some time during the preceding century. No later than 1480 this property too loses its manorial status and is farmed by tenants.

This 14th century Lord Holmger belonged to the high nobility. Both his father and his maternal grandfather were members of the Royal Council. The grandfather was Ulf Holmgersson of the Ama family, and wouldn’t you know it, the son of Lady Kristina of Landsjö! Christian points out that the sources tell us Lord Ulf owned property near Stensö among other places, but we do not know where his seat was. A possible scenario is that the Ama family handed down both ambitious castle-building traditions and the name Holmger from Lady Kristina’s time on. Today Stensö castle boasts one of Sweden’s best-preserved kastal towers, and it is particularly accessible since the 19th century when a landowner had most of the rubble cover carted away as lime-rich soil improvement.

Neither of these sites have seen any documented excavations. I believe my team will be able to contribute a lot of interesting data in our four weeks of fieldwork.

Links

• https://www.adelsvapen.com/genealogi/Ama#TAB_2
• https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stens%C3%B6_borg
• https://sv.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ama_(%C3%A4tt)
• http://arkeologiostergotland.blogspot.com/2014/06/utgravningar-i-st...
• https://www.academia.edu/12445562/Excavations_in_2014_at_Stens%C3%B...
• https://aardvarchaeology.files.wordpress.com/2015/05/stenso-2014-re...
• http://archaeology-unearthed.blogspot.com/2015/
• https://www.scribd.com/document/427445080/At-home-at-the-castle

Sources

• Medieval transcriptions: A 8, fol. 97v, RA 0201
• Post-medieval transcriptions: Peringskiöld: E 100; E 31; Örnhielm: I, p. 833
• Photocopy: PA Wiktorsson, Södermannalagens B-manuscript (1976), Pl. In: AB
• Medieval transcripts: Transcript in vidimation on perg. 1383 25/7 (SDHK No. 12450 ), RA
• See ÄSF I, p. 57 and further literature in print (DS 6108).
• Cf. SDHK No. 7573 .
• Medieval transcripts: Transcript in vidimation on perg. 1383 25/7 (SDHK No. 12450 ), RA
• Literature and commentary, See SDHK No. 7574.

Holmger Torkelsson (Båt)

" (Ulfsdotter (Ama)) torde ha haft en son med namnet Holmger, uppkallad efter någon av sina tidigt avlidna morbröder".

https://www.adelsvapen.com/genealogi/Ama#TAB_2

Stensö borg är lämningarna efter en medeltida kastal och borg på Vikbolandet i Östra Husby socken, Norrköpings kommun. Borgruinen ligger alldeles nordväst om Stensö gård vid Bråvikens strand, den del som kallas Lönöfjärden. Få skriftliga uppgifter finns om borgen, vars äldsta del tros vara uppförd omkring år 1200. Första kända ägaren är Holmger Torkelsson (båt) år 1359, en dotterson till Ulf Holmgersson (Ama).

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stens%C3%B6_borg

Holmger Torkelsson (Båt)

" (Ulfsdotter (Ama)) torde ha haft en son med namnet Holmger, uppkallad efter någon av sina tidigt avlidna morbröder".

https://www.adelsvapen.com/genealogi/Ama#TAB_2

Stensö borg är lämningarna efter en medeltida kastal och borg på Vikbolandet i Östra Husby socken, Norrköpings kommun. Borgruinen ligger alldeles nordväst om Stensö gård vid Bråvikens strand, den del som kallas Lönöfjärden. Få skriftliga uppgifter finns om borgen, vars äldsta del tros vara uppförd omkring år 1200. Första kända ägaren är Holmger Torkelsson (båt) år 1359, en dotterson till Ulf Holmgersson (Ama).

https://sv.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stens%C3%B6_borg