Nielsen Hayden genealogy

Andrew Mowat

Male - 1609


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  • Name Andrew Mowat 
    Birth of Hugoland in Northmaven, Shetland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this location  [1
    Gender Male 
    Death 1609  [1, 2
    Person ID I20774  Ancestry of PNH, TNH, and others | Ancestor of TWK
    Last Modified 7 Dec 2021 

    Family 1 Karen Axelsdatter Gyntersberg 
    Family ID F21726  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 7 Dec 2021 

    Family 2 Elsie Tronds Christofferson Rustung 
    Family ID F21727  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 7 Dec 2021 

    Family 3 Ursula Tulloch   d. Between 1577 and 1587 
    Marriage Bef 15 Oct 1558  [2
    Children 
    +1. John Mowat,   b. of Hugoland in Northmaven, Shetland, Scotland Find all individuals with events at this locationd. Aug 1617
    Family ID F12369  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
    Last Modified 21 Dec 2018 

  • Notes 
    • From The Biggings, Papa Stour, Shetland (citation details below):

      [I]n the period after the death of Fru Inger (1555) [...] there was probably some uncertainty among the five heiresses and their husbands as to continuation of previous administrative arrangements. Certainly there is some evidence that Robert Cheyne, who later had a lease of 'Vaila and Vaila guids', had come to an agreement with the Norwegian proprietors over the Papa property, on which he acted to eject Andrew Mowat and Ursula Tulloch from the island and overturn their right to assume continued control of the income of 'Papa and Papaguids'. The evidence for this comes from letters written by Queen Mary to Jens Split as the chief proprietor (proprietario primario) and to the Norwegian authorities on behalf of Andrew Mowat and Ursula Tulloch in September 1566. These refer both to Ursula and Andrew's rights of possession (per te et heredes tuos ex veteris locationis prescripto) and to Robert Cheyne's negotiations, which had enabled him to eject Ursula and Andrew with the proprietors' sanction (titulo vestro) The documents make it clear (in a very tortuous Latin) that there had been attempts to turn people off their lands, causing a very inflamed situation in the island, and it is requested that the accustomed renders (mercede solita) be retained and that the farmers should not have to pay any increase in the annual rent (annue mercede).

      Queen Mary's letters must have had the desired effect, for a few years later Ursula and Andrew acquired the necessary confirmation of their rights in the lands of 'Papa and Papaguids' from the four proprietors, some of whom by this date were grandsons of Fru Inger. The confirmations were granted at different times between 1570 and 1576 by the four different proprietors at their properties in Norway, and one imagines Andrew Mowat travelling round these various places in order to persuade the heirs of Fru Inger separately to grant him and his wife the right to hold the different parcels of land, on payment of 'certane yearly maill and dewitie'. These arrangements were then confirmed in the Scottish courts 'as they had been in James V's time', and a grant was also acquired under the Great Seal in the same year ensuring the Mowats' firm legal right of the lands of 'Papa and Papa guids' according to Scottish law. There are records of other disputes over the lands of the 'lords of Norroway', and it is remarkable how the Scottish crown acted to ensure that peace was maintained in circumstances where the owners of these estates were subjects of another king.

      One of the privileges granted to Andrew Mowat in 1577 was the right to 'build a house and fortress upon the said lands of Papa' and there is no doubt that the Mowats did at some time build themselves a residence at Northouse: Hibbert in the early 19th century describes the gateway of an old mansion of the Mowats and their coat of arms which could still be seen there. But the Mowats do not appear to have taken up residence at Northouse in the 16th century, or indeed in the first half of the seventeenth. Andrew Mowat himself was drawn into the Norwegian social scene (perhaps through his relationship with the 'lords of Norroway'), acquiring lands in Hardanger and making two Norwegian marriages. The first was to a daughter of Axel Gyntersberg of Mel in Kvinnherad and the second to Elsie Trondsdatter Rustung, daughter of Admiral Christopher Rustung--thus founding the powerful family which eventually established the Rosendal barony. In the 1590s Andrew appears to be residing at Gjersvik, his wife's estate in west Norway, and his place of residence in Shetland was usually Ollaberry, Northmaven, and never in Papa Stour as far as the documents reveal.

      The number and variety of documents which have survived show the wide range of administrative and economic activities which Andrew Mowat was involved in (in Norway and Shetland) right up to 1609, when he must have been a good age. In 1591 he claimed that the king of Denmark, whom he calls his 'soverain lord', had written letters to Elizabeth I of England on his behalf because of piratical attacks on his ships and his house at Ollaberry. In 1609 he and his son and heir, John, drew up a contract with Mr James Pitcairne, the minister of Northmaven, in which they disponed to the minister all the rents and duties of their lands in Shetland 'togidder with the lordis of Norways landis presentlie in thair possession' for him to redeem and recover certain lands which were wadset and apparently in danger of not being recovered. A certain income ('landsettertoun') from Papa Stour, as well as 'the fishings in Veaskerie', were omitted from this and kept by Andrew. It is notable that the requirement for the paying of the debts and dues to the 'lords of Norroway' was stipulated as having to take priority.

  • Sources 
    1. [S6149] The Biggings, Papa Stour, Shetland: The Excavation of a Royal Norwegian Farm by Barbara E. Crawford and Beverley Ballin Smith. Society of Antiquaries of Scotland Monograph Series number 15. Edinburgh: Society of Antiquaries of Scotland and Det Norske Videnskaps-Akademi, 1999.

    2. [S376] Janet and Robert Wolfe Genealogy.