Simon Nielsen Saxild

1702-1750

Born 1702

Died 1750

Children include Niels

Simon Nielsen Saxild was a merchant and timber dealer at Risør, the shipping town on the Skagerrak coast of southern Norway. The Søndeled og Risør historical society's yearbook for 2002 gives his life in outline. He was born in 1702 and came to Risør in the 1720s, probably from Saxild, a village near Århus in Denmark. Norway and Denmark were then one kingdom under one king.

His name carries its own history. Nielsen was a patronymic, son of Niels. Saxild was the place he came from. His son was christened Niels Henrich and grew up as Niels Simonsen, after his father, and the family kept Simonsen as its surname from then on. The yearbook calls him "Den første Simonsen i Risør", the first Simonsen in Risør.

In 1747 he stood godfather at a Risør baptism, entered as Simon Nielsen. The same year he married Elisabeth Marie Henriksdatter of the Moss family, a rich merchant family of Drammen. The wedding was not at Risør. The Risør church book for 1747 says "Ingen Trolovede i Riisøer 1747", no one betrothed in Risør that year. Drammen, her home, is the likely place.

Their son was baptized in Risør church in December 1748. The entry reads "Baptizatus Niels Henrich. Forældre Simon Nielsen Saxild": baptized Niels Henrich, parents Simon Nielsen Saxild and his wife. The godparents came from the town's official and merchant households. They included a customs controller, the wife of controller Pedersen, a Jomfru Scharenholt, Monsieur Peder Ellifsen and Monsieur Claus Fiell. Monsieur and Jomfru were the courtesy titles of merchant men and of unmarried women of standing.

He died at Århus, back in Denmark, in 1750, when his son was about a year old. By the yearbook's account he left the boy 1,000 riksdaler. His widow married again in 1751, to the timber merchant Claus Christophersen Winther, and it was Winther who brought the boy up in the trade.

Children

Niels Simonsen b. 1748

Sources

Risør church book 1747-1812, baptisms 1748, p. 13, Digitalarkivet source 9816

Risør church book 1747-1812 (source 9816), at Digitalarkivet; Søndeled og Risør historielag, Årbok 2002 (vol. 27), article "Kraft/Simonsen-familien, eller geniets forutsetninger", p. 44, after Arild Stubhaug, Et foranskutt lyn (1996), at the National Library of Norway

If Simon Nielsen Saxild is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Simon Nielsen Saxild (1702-1750)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/simon-nielsen-saxild-1702-1750-376d42.