Jacob Sørensen Severin (27 October 1691 – 21 March 1753) was a Danish merchant who held a trade monopoly on

Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...

from 1733 to 1749.

Biography

He was born in

Sæby Sæby () is a town and seaport located on the east coast of the historical region of Vendsyssel on the North Jutlandic Island in northern Denmark. The town is located in Frederikshavn municipality in Region Nordjylland. It has a population of 8,9 ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

, to Søren Nielsen ( 1655–1730) and his wife Birgitte Ottesdatter. His father was later magistrate (''

byfoged The was a Danish and Norwegian municipal officer. The title is sometimes translated as 'bailiff', 'magistrate', or 'stipendiary magistrate'. History The was originally the king's representative in the local community, dating back to the 13 ...

'') of the community. After attending school to the age of 15, he married at age 22 a woman over forty years his senior, Maren Nielsdatter, the widow of the merchant Segud Langwagen. Using her capital, Severin took over her former husband's monopoly over the Icelandic trade with Denmark and built a thriving company specialized on Iceland,

Finnmark Finnmark (; ; ; ; ) is a counties of Norway, county in northern Norway. By land, it borders Troms county to the west, Finland's Lapland (Finland), Lapland region to the south, and Russia's Murmansk Oblast to the east, and by water, the Norweg ...

and whaling off

Spitzbergen Svalbard ( , ), previously known as Spitsbergen or Spitzbergen, is a Norwegian archipelago that lies at the convergence of the Arctic Ocean with the Atlantic Ocean. North of mainland Europe, it lies about midway between the northern coast o ...

. As a member of Copenhagen's 32 Men, he had the right to an audience before the king. The failure of the Bergen Greenland Company () operated by

Hans Egede Hans Poulsen Egede (31 January 1686 – 5 November 1758) was a Denmark–Norway, Danish-Norwegian Lutheran missionary priest who launched mission efforts to Greenland, which led him to be styled the Apostle of Greenland. He established a succes ...

and of the royal colony in

established by Claus Paarss allowed Severin to convince the new King Christian VI and his council to grant his company a full monopoly over trade with the Greenland settlements, a right King Frederick IV had previously withheld for fear of antagonizing merchants of the

Dutch Republic The United Provinces of the Netherlands, commonly referred to in historiography as the Dutch Republic, was a confederation that existed from 1579 until the Batavian Revolution in 1795. It was a predecessor state of the present-day Netherlands ...

.Marquardt, Ole.
Change and Continuity in Denmark's Greenland Policy
in ''The Oldenburg Monarchy: An Underestimated Empire?''. Verlag Ludwig (Kiel), 2006. The Greenland monopoly ran from 1733 and was renewed in 1740. Severin received the right to fly the Danebrog in 1738 and successfully repulsed the Dutch in 1738 and 1739, seizing four of their ships while losing only one of his own. His company was originally underwritten with an annual subsidy of 2000 rixdollars, but this was increased after he petitioned the king in 1740 and claimed to have already lost 16,000 rixdollars on the trade owing to the smallpox epidemic which had decimated the island between 1733 and 1735.Grove, G.L.
Sewerin Sewerin, Jacob, 1691–1753, Handelsmand
.

Jacobshavn Ilulissat, also known as Jacobshavn or Jakobshav, is the municipal seat and largest town of the Avannaata municipalities of Greenland, municipality in western Greenland, located approximately north of the Arctic Circle. With a population of ...

(modern Ilulissat) was named for him, and Poul Egede called him his dearest friend. Severin married the second time in 1735 to Birgitte Sophie Nygaard of Resen (1704–1739). The same year he purchased Dronninglund Castle from diplomat Carl Adolph von Pless (1747–1810). The estate included a forest subsequently used to equip his ships. A third marriage in 1742 to his niece Mary Dalager required a royal license. In 1749, Severin returned the monopoly, which the king then bestowed on the General Trade Company. Severin then focused his business on trade with

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

. Owing to his friendship with the missionary

Paul Egede Paul or Poul Hansen Egede (9 September 1708 – 6 June 1789) was a Denmark–Norway, Dano-Norwegian theologian, missionary, and scholar who was principally concerned with the Church of Denmark, Lutheran mission among the Kalaallit people in Green ...

; however, Severin remained connected to the Greenland mission work throughout his life. Jacob Severin was one of the most respected, influential and wealthy merchants of Copenhagen. He died on 21 March 1753 at Dronninglund Castle, his estate valued at 9,000 rixdollars, and was buried at Dronninglund Church ().

External links

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Jacob Severin in Pictures
*

''Danish Biographical Dictionary''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Severin, Jakob History of Greenland 1691 births 1753 deaths 18th-century Danish businesspeople People from Sæby Merchants from Denmark–Norway