Knud Hansen Schiotz, Hans Lorentz Sr.’s Grandfather

POSTED TO KNUD HANSEN SCHIOTZ AND HANS LORENTZ DASTRUP ON FAMILYSEARCH

KNUD HANSEN SCHIOTZ

Maternal grandfather of Hans Lorentz Dastrup, the first Dastrup in America.

Researched and written by Ila D. Childs and Louise D. Wilson

Knud Hansen Schiotz was a midshipman in the Danish Merchant, Marines. The hardships of the life of a sailor on a sailing vessel are well known. Many a ship went down in the treacherous storms of the Baltic and North Seas, and many sailed to distant lands never to return. No doubt, Knud had many a tale of adven­ture to leave us if he had been a writing man.

The nature of the times during which Knud and Anne raised their family was interesting, but not peaceful. Danish statesmen of the early and mid eighteenth century had fostered education, secured peace, and established trade with the American colonies. Denmark was an absolute monarchy at this time, but was guided by a succession of statesmen of great ability. In 1770, Bernstorff was dismissed and power fell into the hands of Struensee, who tried such hasty and violent reforms that he himself died on the block two years later. In 1784 Crown Prince Frederick, under the guidance of the younger Bernstorff’, was successful in bringing about some much needed changes, and serfdom was nominally abolished in 1788. The Danish peasants were freed from the old law of villenage, by which the people were bound to the land. Enabled by the new law to buy their own land, through the establishment of credit banks, they moved from the villages to their own plots, and in fifty years grain crops and grain exports trebled. Great landed estates, of course, were broken up to bring this about. In this way, with relatively little violence, the Danish people accomplished their social revolution.

Elsewhere, as our sea-going ancestor was well aware, the changes came much harder. England’s colonial policy and America’ s freedom were adjusted by the War of Independence (1776-1183), and France evolved from the extravagant reign of Louis XV through the French Revolution which began in 1789, through the Reign of Terror of the Great Committee, then the Directory, and finally Napoleon’s Consulate in 1799, which soon turned into the Empire.

Among the notable people of that time, besides the statesmen including our Washington, Jefferson, and Franklin, we find the musicians Haydn and Mozart, painters Gainsborough, Reynolds, and Goya, writers Hume, Rouseau, Goethe and Schiller, and scientists Cook, Watts, and Volta.

In general this was a period of transition in the arts from the classical period, in which a person wrote or worked according to certain standards and rules, to the romantic period, in which he made his own rules. Many familiar voices were heard in thefreedom that followed.

In times such as these Knud made his living on the seas, and his family awaited his return in Copenhagen city—in Danish, Kobenhavn, or Merchant Harbor — where they, too, no doubt, kept up with the times.

The earliest record we have of any of them is the christening of Mette Johanne 1 August 1777 in Vor Frelsers Kirke (The Church of Our savior) in Christianshavn in the southeast part of old Copenhagen City. The christening of Anne Marie is not recorded there, but in July 1782 Emily Nicoline received her name in the same church..

Christianshavn is surrounded by the harbor, and the records show some evidence that it was not the most desirable residential section — more illegitimate births and fewer of the more desirable occupations. And, as the family grew, Knud and Anne looked for a better place, and on the 5th of January 1784, when Emily was not yet two years old, they acquired the house at 191 Dybensgade near the St. Nicolai Kirke and not far from one of the royal palaces. There on the 5th of next June their only boy, Hans, was born, followed by their last child, Anne Sophia, nineteen months later. The babies were both christened in the st. Nicolai church, and the five children all went to school there as they grew old enough to enter.

In Denmark all the children went to the parish school until they finished at about, age fourteen, when they received confirmation in the Lutheran church if they were Lutherans, as nearly all were. Johanna was confirmed October 1793. Anne Marie and Emily received theirs together 9 October1796. Han’sconfirmation came 7 October 1798.

Then tragedy struck and their happy family times were soon over. Fire completely destroyed their house. They found a place to live back in Chrstianshavn at 240 Dronningensgade, but they were hardly there long enough to feel at home when the mother died at the age of fifty three. She was buried in Vor Freisers churchyard 16 June 1799 5 Knud, the father, was not going to sea now, but was working at whatever he could find to do so as to stay with his family. (Whereas all previous records had designated him a sailor, he was now listed as a laborer).

Anne Sophia was almost through school and they let her go back to St. Nicolai until she finished along with her class the next October. Hans was out of school and needed work. At the age of on1y fifteen he joined the navy in November that year, but ships were in dock for repairs most of every winter, and Hans was at home with his sisters the next spring when, on the 18th of May, 1800, at the age of fifty four, their father followed their mother in death, and they were left without either parent.

When their father died Johanne was employed as a hired girl somewhere in the neighborhood, the others were all at home , They signed their names on the probate the next day, all four in a similar style of handwriting, round and even. Their ages were given: Johanna 22, Anne Marie 20, Emily 18, Hans 15, and Anne Sophia 14.  According to the census of 1787, Anne Marie and Emilie would be a year younger than that. They were six and five respectively at the time.

That is all we know about the girls for the next few years, except that in the 1801 census Johanna was working for a Wilhelm Conradsen in Copenhagen, The others were probably employed close around, too, but the census-taker didn’t always bother to write the last names of the hired girls.

Hans had trouble in the navy. The record shows he was disciplined twice – 10 September 1800 and again 7 July 1801. Once he was in the hospital. On the 16th of July 1801 he ran away (as Director Fabricius of the National Archive said, probably to America. or Australia). Searches in Danish marriages and deaths failed to locate him.

Nothing more was found about Mette Johanne.

Emilie was married 31 July 1807 in the Trinitatis church to Anton Just Lifland. Their son, Peder Solmon, was born in Copenhagen 12 February1808 in the same house where a Nicolai Sehiotz and his wife had four children born in the dozen years previous. What relationship there was, if any, is not know. Emilie and Anton were both sponsors at christenings in the textile factory town of Usserod in Horsholm Parish in the autumn of 1809. Usserod was probably Anton’s home town, as there were a number of Liflands living there. Their daughter, named Anne Marie for Emilie’s sister was christened there 6 January 1810. Their joy was short-lived; however, as the record shows that Anton Lifand was buried there 12 October 1810, together with his “new-born baby.” Emilie went back to Copenhagen where she died of tuberculosis three years later. She had no surviving children.

When Anne Marie married is not known, except that her husband, Hans Jorgen Dastrup, came out of the army unmarried in 1810, presum­ably the 3rd of July as he had entered the army for eight years on that date in 1802. The record picks them up only at his death when he was buried in Horsham 11 April 1813. He had been employed as a laborer in the old textile mill at Usserod, about four miles north of Horsholm. A fourteen year old boy named Christian Lorentz Dastrup had been buried there the previous January, listed as foster child. He was probably their foster child as there are no other Dastrups in the Horsholm record. Their own baby was not born until the next October. Hans Jorgen didn’t live to see his son and Anne Marie faced her new motherhood alone. Hans Lorentz Dastrup, telling his own story, said his mother lost a two year old son about a month before this event, but no record of it has been found.

To end this unhappy year, Anne Marie attended to her deceased husband’s probate on the 4th day of December, and hardly more than a week later was in Copenhagen doing the same thing for her sister Emilie, who died 9 December 1813, and was buried on the 13th. She then went back to Horsholm, where she married Jens Hostrup on the 2nd of January 1814. The baby was christened Hans Lorentz Dastrup the same day.

When the Yule season came around again they had another son, Henrik Wilhelm Hostrup, christened the day after Christmas. Their other son was born 12 September 1817. Finally, on 7 February 1823 was born a daughter. They waited until June 1st for her christen­ing and had Anne Marie’s sister come out from Copenhagen to be the God-mother, and the baby was named Anne Sophia for her.

Ann Sophia Schiotz had married Anders Paaske (or Paaskensen) 17 March 1820. She was thirty-four.  They had only one child, Anne Christine, although two other Paaske children lived in their home part of the time.

Anne Christine was an actress. In Oslo, Norway, she married Adolph Marius Rosenkilde, an actor of the Royal Theatre. They have a brief biography in the Danish Biografisk Lecksikon. The following is a partial rough trans1ation:

Anne Kristine Paaskesen was born 25 February 1825 of humble parents. Her father Hoker Anders Paaskesen died 3 December 1858, 68 years old. Her mother, Anne Sophie Schiotz, died 31 December 1859, Anne Kristine was married 15 October 1844 in Christiania, Norway to Adolph Rosenkilde (There a list of the plays she appeared in– some Shakespearian and some musicals). In 1850 she went to the Kasino Theatre in Kobenhavn. In the five years she worked there she was popular and much admired — a vaudeville primadona, a charming and clever person. She retired in 1865, August 3rd. After that she became ”hus moder” — she stayed home and was nurse to her husband. She outlived him and died 28 May 1885.

Both of her parents lived with them during the last years of their lives

To return to Anne Marie and her family, there may have been financial difficulties and maybe trouble of step-son brother with boys so near the same age, because about the time his sister was born, when Hans Lorentz was ‘ten years old he went to live with his Uncle Peter Dastrup in Egeberg in Holbaek county, where his four cousins, the daughters of Sophia Magdalena Dastrup and Matthias Berg, had already found a home. His story is found in the Dastrup Book of Remembrance

Henrik Wilhelm finished his schooling in 1829 when he was fourteen. He had the distinction of being rated a “very good” student.  Jens Peter Ferdinand was confirmed three years later and was rated “fairly good” like most of the others.

Anne Marie died 23 April 1833, twenty years after her husband Hans Jorgen Dastrup. Her age was given as sixty, about seven years more than she really was.  Her later husband survived her a year. On November 10, 1834, he died in a poorhouse.  There was no property.  Some misfortune must have befallen him  — sickness, accident, or maybe just too much time in the tavern.  He was a carpenter, and his fellow carpenters stood with them at the christening of their sons, but when his wife died he was listed as a laborer. His ten year old daughter was taken to live with the family of Borge Christensen, who had a daughter two years older, The two sons were not listed in the parish census.

The first Sunday after Easter 1837 Anne Sophia Hostrup, fourteen years old, was confirmed in Horsho1ms. That same  year the military roll reports that Henrlk Wilhelm Hostrup, age twenty-two, was trans­ferred from Horsholm to Copenhagen, Roll N3897. In the 1840 roll Jens Peter Ferdinand Hostrup, age twenty three, was transferred to Copenhagen also, to roll 4030. Cabinet maker Li.ftland was named as his sponsor in place of his father. Their names were recorded at the respective numbers later. In 1843 Hans Peter was reported to be in Slage1se, and in 1839 Henrik was a shoemaker in Copenhagen. They were not in the 1845 census there. Henrik was still on the military roll until 1856.

When AnneSophia was nineteen the Holbaek parish record said she went from to Copenhagen, but it did not name the parish, and she has not been located there either. When she went to Holbaek from Horsholm is not known, but her brother, Hans Lorentz Dastrup had been living there since he became a master cabinet maker. She may have gone there to be with him and stayed until he was married that same year.

Of the history of this period, let me quote:

“During the European upheaval of the closing years of the eighteenth century, a provident pacific policy kept Denmark clear of all complications till December 16, 1800, when she joined the armed neutrality of the North. England sent a fleet to the Baltic the Baltic, which on April 2, 1801, under Nelson and Parker, bombarded Copenhagen. By way of retaliation, Denmark refused to accede to the third coalition against France 1805, whereupon England in 1807 sent her navy into the Kattegat and bombarded Copenhagen for three days, September 2-4, and carried off the entire Danish fleet.  This act of violence threw Denmark completely into the hands of Napoleon. As a result Denmark lost Norway, and became an unimportant power of the third rank. The people criticized the absolute monarchy, and began to demand a constitution, which was put into effect June 5, 1849. The Schiots sisters lived in Copenhagen during these two bombardments.

In1814, educational reform brought free compulsory education to all between the ages of six and fourteen, but as we have seen, people availed themselves of the privilege voluntary before that.

The period from 1814 to 1855 is known as The Golden Age in Danish annals. That is almost exacty the span of Hans Lorentz Dastrup’s life there until heemigrated, also the early lives of the other members of the fami1y.  It has been said that great men develop only in an environment in which all the people are awakened and enlightened.  Anna Christine Paaske was apart of it and Hans Lorentz Dastrup made himself’ a violin in a pioneer country, besides his fine cabinet work was a part of it. Among the great men of Denmark in this golden age Berthal Thorvaldsen the sculpture, Adam Oehlenschlager the poet, Steen Steensan Blicker the writer of stories of peasant life, N.F.S. Grundtvig the poet, historian and educator, Soren Kierkegaard the religious philosopher, and Hans Christian Andersen the writer of fairy tales.

Concerning the family of Knud and Anne Schiotz, Mette Johanne probably died, Hans disappeared, Emilie’s children all died as babies, Anna Sophia’s only child died childless, and, of Anne Marie’s four children, we are the only descendants we know about. Fortunately we turned out to be a big family. Let us hope they are proud of us

PETER DASTRUP at Egebjerg

Hans Lorentz Dastrup lived with his Uncle Peter Dastrup at Egebjerg on the north of Sjaelland after he was ten years old. The book HISTORIES OF PRIESTS by Wiberg — Danish Priests and Parish Histories Vol. 2 & Supplement page 298 gives the following:

“Egebjerg parish is a peninsula between Isefjorg and Sidinge Fjord. It is a beautiful country with rolling hills and big forests and popular picnic grounds, Fertile”

“The respected priest, Rehling, was parish priest there from 1174-86” He built the priest’s residence, and later became the priest ofthe castle in Frederiksberg. From 1817-47 Peter Dastrup was parish priest here, a very righteous man, conscientious, but undoubtedly stern and strict. He had good church habits. His curator, Walther, did a wonderful Job with the youth, and was praised by Mynster.

“Egebjerg church has beautiful surroundings with a view toward Isefjord. Built in Roman Style, The priestly alter and preacher’s font and deacon’s chair date from about 1525.”