Selius Marselis (15 December 1600 – 20 March 1663) was a Dutch-born Norwegian tradesman. He was also a major land owner whose possessions included ownership of

Frogner Manor Frogner Manor (''Frogner Hovedgård'') is a manor house and former Estate (land), estate in today's borough of Frogner in Oslo, Norway. The estate comprised most of the modern borough of Frogner, which has been named after the estate, and Frog ...

. Marselis was born in

Rotterdam Rotterdam ( , ; ; ) is the second-largest List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city in the Netherlands after the national capital of Amsterdam. It is in the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of South Holland, part of the North S ...

, the son of merchant Gabriel Marselis Sr. (c. 1575–1643). He was the brother of

Gabriel Marselis Gabriel Marselis (1609 – buried 5 April 1673) was a wealthy Danish tradesman and land owner. Biography He was born in Hamburg, the son of the immigrated Dutch merchant Gabriel Marselis Sr. (c. 1575–1643), and was a brother of Seli ...

and Leonhard Marselis. Along with his brothers he brought his father's trading company in 1631 and traded in grain, weapons, copper and lumber. He settled in Christiania (now Oslo) in 1644 after he was granted a number of special privileges. He had contracts for delivering several ships to the Danish–Norwegian fleet. He and his brother Gabriel gave the king a considerable loan and received as consideration interests in several mining operations. From the 1640s, the brothers dominated lumber exports from Norway to the Netherlands. Marselis became director of the Norwegian Postal Service in 1653. In time, he and his brother Gabriel Marselis became the largest property owners in Norway. He was the owner of Frogner Manor in the

Oslo Oslo ( or ; ) is the capital and most populous city of Norway. It constitutes both a county and a municipality. The municipality of Oslo had a population of in 2022, while the city's greater urban area had a population of 1,064,235 in 2022 ...

borough of

Frogner Frogner is a residential and retail borough in the East End and West End of Oslo, West End of Oslo, Norway, with a population of 59,269 as of 2020. In addition to the original Frogner, the borough incorporates Bygdøy, Uranienborg, Norway, Urani ...

from 1659.

Personal life

Selius Marselis married into one of the larger Dutch merchant families. In 1634 he married Anna van der Straaten (1608–1654), daughter of Jan Fransz van der Straaten and Sara Moncks. They were the parents of five children.

References

1600 births 1663 deaths Businesspeople from Rotterdam 17th-century Dutch businesspeople Norwegian merchants Norwegian landowners 17th-century Norwegian businesspeople Emigrants from the Dutch Republic Immigrants to Denmark–Norway {{norway-business-bio-stub