Kildehenvisninger
1. [Født: 1510 i Pg. Simblegård, Klemensker, Nørre, Bornholm]
- kilde: Titel: Oplysninger fra Michael Erichsen - GED-fil via mail , i arkivet:
2. [Død: 1574 i Pg. Simblegård, Klemensker, Nørre, Bornholm]
- kilde: Titel: Oplysninger fra Michael Erichsen - GED-fil via mail , i arkivet:
Biografi Oplysninger fra Michael Erichsen - GED-fil via mail
inherited his father's farm Simblegård, a proprietairgård in Klemensker, circa 1530. In 1542 Hans
Olufsen Uf was among the signers of a document written to complain about Bernt Knop, who was
Lübeck's chief representative stationed at Hammershus fortress.
Sigvard Mahler Dam, states in 'Landsdommer Patriciatet på Bornholm',article 2, that Hans Olufsen
Uf's wife may be the sister of Chief Justice (Landsdommer) Jens Hansen Myre.
Contradictorily, Sigvard Mahler Dam also speculates in the article 'De bornholmske væbnerslægter Uf
og Splid - noget nyt om deres våbener' that Peder Hansen Uf's mother might have had a coat-of-arms
with a 'hummerklo'(lobster-claw) on it. This is based on the description by the historian Thurah of
an engraving on a bell donated by Peder Hansen Uf's daughter Margrethe and her husband Jørgen
Gagge: 'Paa den største Klokke findes tvende Vaabener, det ene med et Spende udi, som ventelig er
de Adelige Koefoders; Det andet med en Giedde Kieft udi.' Also based on a description of a pew door
in Klemensker Church found in a journal: 'Clement's Church: door to pew, carved oak framed with
smooth fir planks- showing helmeted coats-of-arms with vesselhorn and the following markings: a
shield with an upside down 'gavlsparre' (chevron) design, and the other shield sporting a half
'hummerklo' (lobster-claw), Chief Justice Peder Hansen Uf and wife Margrethe Hansdatter.
The evidence that Peder Hansen Uf's wife Mette Hansdatter is the daughterof Hans Pedersen Myre, of
Fuglsangsgård, is fairly conclusive. The Uf-family coat-of-arms depicts a chevron, while the
coat-of-arms of the Myre-family depicts three ants, so how does the lobster-claw coat-of-arms fit
in? Since it can not belong to Mette Hansdatter, possibly it belongs to Peder Hansen Uf's mother?
- Norman Madsen, September, 2000.
* * * *
The following is a translation of the article 'De bornholmskevæbnerslægter Uf og Splid - noget nyt
om deres våbener', written by Sigvard Mahler Dam.
A Pew in Saint Clement's Church:
After leafing through numerous journals, I casually looked over the description of St. Clement's
Church (Klemensker parish), when suddenly my eyes caught a poorly done drawing of two
coats-of-arms. The text read:'Clement's Church: door to pew, carved oak framed with smooth fir
planks- showing helmeted coats-of-arms with vesselhorn and the following markings: a shield with an
upside down 'gavlsparre' (chevron) design, and the other shield sporting a half 'hummerklo'
(lobster-claw), Chief Justice Peder Hansen Uf and wife Margrethe Hansdatter. The door was painted
green, the coats-of-arms and the door frame painted red and white. Height 84 centimeters, length 56
centimeters. . .'
An earlier description from 1947 tells more: '. . . the pew-door from the 1700s is made of fir with
three insets: the top one made of oak with two beautifully carved coat-of-arms decorated with
helmets, vesselhorn, andfeathers, and with the inscription: PHMHD. On the back of this inset in the
pew-door can be vaguely seen traces of two black-painted coats-of-arms below a layer of grey paint,
the same as carved on the front.' In a copy of 'Danmarks Kirker' from 1954, the date has been
altered to the end of the 1500s, which better suits the persons involved and the style of the time.
This sounded very enticing! And I decided (in 1979) to approach the clergy of Bornholm, pastor for
Klemensker C.W. Røboe Dam, about these coats-of-arms, and he very kindly sent me some colour-photos
of the pew-door, which had been hung in the entry ot the church. Since the red and white paint on
the door frame sounded a bit odd to me, I decided to pay a visit to the church, which is situated
on top of a hill in beautiful surroundings. And found that it appeared that the pew-door had
received several coats of paint through the years! But you can clearly see that the earliest coat
of paint on the inset was black - later it was covered with a gruesome green color! The Uf
coat-of-arms, both the shield and the helmet, appeared to have been covered with a dark-red
oilpaint - after a fairly thorough removal of the earlier layers of paint; but we can still see
traces of the earliest layer: red on the vesselhorns; and white in the shield; the chevron has
white paint on top of a coat of red. The wife's coat-of-arms shows white paint remnants on the
vesselhorns; her shield has two layers: white over an old layer of red paint, and the 'hummerklo'
(lobster-claw) has red paint on top of an old layer of white. It is peculiar that an upside-down
chevron is shown in the shield - Peder Hansen (Uf) was the only one on Bornholm using an
upside-down chevron. Was the carving done from a faulty design of his seal? Mette Hansdatter was
the last member of the Bornholm Myre-family, she was the daughter of Hans Myre, they had a design
with three black ants on a white shield in their coat-of-arms, and the helmet had two white
vesselhorns (15).
An Old Church-bell:
Peder Hansen (Uf)'s coat-of-arms seem to have brought some confusion for researchers, because it
appears that Jørgen Gagge and his wife Margrethe put up yet another memorial to honour Peder Hansen
(Uf) and Mette Hansdatter. In 1601 they had cast a new large church-bell (which later disappeared)
for Klemensker Church. Thurah quotes the following (12): 'Paa den største Klokke findes tvende
Vaabener, det ene med et Spende udi, som ventelig er de Adelige Koefoders; Det andet med en Giedde
Kieftudi.' The engraving reads: 'Anno 1601 Lod Claus Kames denne Klokke støbe til St. Clemmens
Kirke paa Bornholm, efter Velbyrdige Hr. Jörgen Gages og Hr. Lars Nielsens i den Tiid Sogne-Herres
Befalning, af Rheinholt Benning i Lübeck'.
Unfortunately nothing is noted about an upside-down chevron, but there is a reference to the
Kofoed-family, who carried a blue chevron on a red background with 2 white vesselhorns. 'Danmarks
Kirker', volume 7, Bornholm, tells the same, but lists those coats-of-arms as the property of the
Gagge and Splid families.
M.K. Zahrtmann (well versed in all the Bornholm-families) writes (16): 'Jørgen Gagge gave a
beautiful memorial in honour of his parents-in-law Peder Hansen Uf and Mette Hansdatter Myre,
because in 1601 he had cast alarge churchbell, engraved with the Uf-family's chevron-emblem and the
Myre-family's crawling ant.' Yes, Zahrtmann knew very well which families this pertained to, and
has deliberately made the correction from the 'Giedde Kieften' (lobsterclaw) to one crawling ant -
but as we know the Myre coat-of-arms carried three ants! Zahrtmann never did see the bell for
himself, so we must believe Thurah's impartial account of the above, and say that the very same set
of coat-of-arms which today can be seen on the pew-door must have been engraved on the church-bell!
Thus we are ensured that it can not be a mistake incurred later if the pew is acopy of the
original.
But who then is the rightful owner of the pew's sinister coat-of-arms? We are not entirely
clueless: the Splid-family carried a half (or sometimes a whole) lobster-claw (hummerklo) in their
coat-of-arms, but how do they enter the picture here? Since the above coat-of-arms can not belong
to Peder Hansen (Uf)'s wife, maybe it could belong to his mother? The initials could possibly have
been carved later; we do not know anything about his father Hans Olufsen (Uf)'s wife (17). She
might have been of the Splid-family - which would have been the last chance! For the last member of
the Splid-family, Jep Splid, was mentioned in 1508 as deceased, whereupon his widow gives 200
Lübeck-marks to Lund Cathedral for purchase of land in Skåne. Among the witnesses signing the
document is Peder Hansen Uf's grandfather Oluf Ottesen Uf, who at that very time had just succeeded
Jep Splid as chief justice of Bornholm (18). Therefore the timing disproves the theory of the
coat-of-arms belonging to another wife of Peder Hansen (Uf) - maybe the pew carried the emblems of
both his parents?
The Splid-family was not very prolific - neither did they leave very many written accounts compared
to other Bornholmer-families. We have already met the first Splid on the island: Jacob Splid, known
to be King Valdemar Atterdag's commander (hovedmand) for Hammershus fortress in 1361 and1362. The
Splid-family did not likely originate from Skåne (where the archbishop recruited his commanders),
but from another region. On Sjælland and in Norway we find two (inter-connected?) families, both
carrying the lobster-claw in their emblems. In Norway the most important was Siewerd Bjørnsen,
known to be a bishop in 1458. On Sjælland we have a Jep Nielsen (Splid) in Gumløse in 1492, his
seal with the helmet is from 1503, his seal from 1492 looks like the Bornholmer Splid-family's
'giedde kieft'. A Jep Splid was chief justice of Bornholm in 1497. On a document dated the 10th of
August 1497 we find him using his father'sseal - the inscription states: 'andreas split'. The
colours on the coat-of-arms are not known, but now we can see that the 'hummerklo' (lobster-claw)
was white on a red background - if we accept the identification of the female's coat-of-arms from
Klemensker church.
12) Thurah's 'Bornholmskbeskrivelse' (see note 8).
15) The family known as 'Myre on Bornholm' and the coat-of-arms is known from Hans Myre's seal. He
died in 1518 as the last male of that family on Bornholm, but he had a sister, Bodil, who married a
man named Jacob of the family Kyrning-Myre. Their descendants took the name Myre only, and some of
them resided on Bornholm as well.
16) M.K. Zahrtmann: 'Optegnelser om Almegård i Knudsker sogn', in 'Bornholmske Samlinger', volume
21.
17) Not to be mistaken with the Hans Olufsen (Uf), mentioned in note 11, as being the Uf-family's
last male. This man is his father's father.
18) Thiset's files in State Archives under Jep Splid. The original is said to be in the Swedish
State Archives.