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Did descendants of Dutch migrants on Amager (DK) marry amongst themselves to a degree it influenced their fecundity? In 1759, the 63-year-old bailiff of the Dutch parish Store Magleby, Jacob Bacher, married 20-year-old Gertrud Hansdatter; allegedly to alleviate this issue (1/16)
[2] Their marriage was such a sensation, it even made it into the Copenhagen newspaper, Kjøbenhavns Adresse Comptoirs Efterretninger, which expressed its hope that this would finally lead to the complete unification of the Danish and Dutch families on Amager (2/16)
![[2] Their marriage was such a sensation, it even made it into the Copenhagen newspaper, Kjøbenhavns Adresse Comptoirs Efterretninger, which expressed its hope that this would finally lead to the complete unification of the Danish and Dutch families on Amager (2/16)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfsNwN0XoAARoog.png "[2] Their marriage was such a sensation, it even made it into the Copenhagen newspaper, Kjøbenhavns Adresse Comptoirs Efterretninger, which expressed its hope that this would finally lead to the complete unification of the Danish and Dutch families on Amager (2/16)")
The Dutch on Amager were invited by Christian II in the early 16c and received generous privilegesto make them successful. Unlike the most Danish farmers, they owned the land they farmed, but only if the owner was “Dutch”. This privilege in particular led to endogamy (3/16)
Their marriage pattern attracted contemporary comments: Holger Jacobæus, a Danish priest detailing his journey through Denmark, went as far as to claim that when one of the Dutch migrants married a girl from Copenhagen in the late 17c, the community considered stoning him (4/16)
Some years later, the British ambassador to Denmark, Robert Molesworth, also found the marriage practice in Hollænderbyen worth to mention in his ‘An Account of Denmark as It was in the Year 1692’: “[N]either will they mix with the Danes, but intermarry with each other.” (5/16)
![Some years later, the British ambassador to Denmark, Robert Molesworth, also found the marriage practice in Hollænderbyen worth to mention in his ‘An Account of Denmark as It was in the Year 1692’: “[N]either will they mix with the Danes, but intermarry with each other.” (5/16)](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EfsO85vWAAE3m-6.png "Some years later, the British ambassador to Denmark, Robert Molesworth, also found the marriage practice in Hollænderbyen worth to mention in his ‘An Account of Denmark as It was in the Year 1692’: “[N]either will they mix with the Danes, but intermarry with each other.” (5/16)")
Other studies of migrant communities show that it was common practice for migrants to marry among themselves for the first couple of generations, as for instance seen in a study by @jellevanlottum ottum and Sølvi Sogner examining Norwegian sailors in Amsterdam. (6/16)
The Dutch in Store Magleby parish did marry Danes from the adjacent parish in Tårnby, but those owning or inheriting the farms and the land were always “Dutch” couples. By 1759, this practice had existed for 243 years. (7/16)
David Warren Sabean and others have found a general tendency towards consanguine marriage in 18c Europe to keep wealth in the family, but Store Magleby developed slightly differently. They experienced a decrease in consanguine marriages in the same period. (8/16)
Following the 1711 plague, which killed 1/3 of the population on Amager, the Dutch parish struggled to regain vitality. The Dutch parish was still wealthy and first age of marriage was low, which would support increasing fertility. (9/16)
However, the parish did not experience an increase in fertility unlike the neighboring Tårnby parish. Instead fertility decreased slightly in Store Magleby during the second part of the 18c (fertility = born per 1000 inhabitants; not adjusted for age or gender). (10/16)
Were they “inbred” as some contemporary sources claimed? Not when considering the petitions sent to the king seeking permission to marry close kin (cousins). Only 6.6% of the 570 marriages 1700-1800 were between close kin, which would not affect a healthy population. (11/16)
They were not a healthy population: plague, wars (bloody Swedes) and poor harvests took its toll on the population, which was small to begin with. Even if they weren’t directly related, 243 years of endogamous marriage effectively meant they were related nonetheless (12/16)
The much-celebrated marriage between Jacob and Gertrud in 1759 did not create a trend. The following two years another two influential men married “Danish” women, but in the 1801 census, there were only Dutch/Danish couples on 2.6% of the farms. (13/16)
Economic and political incentives greatly influences marriage patterns then as well as now: Not until the Dutch farmers’ privileges were rolled back during 19c did the pattern change, but even today there’s a strong connection to the Low Countries in Store Magleby. (14/16)
This is taken from my new article ‘Hollænderne på Amager i 1700-tallet: Et samfund i krise?’ out in a special issue on Danish-Dutch connections. It also includes contributions from @PoulsenBo, @LouiseSebro, Hanne Kolind Poulsen, Mette Guldberg, Jakob Ørnbjerg and others. (15/16)
This article has been as long time coming: It began its life as my master thesis in 2011 and during my years in the UK, I didn’t find enough time to work on it. So it feels soooo good to finally see it in print! (16/16)
P.S. here's the link to the special issue (with abstracts in English): http://www.temphist.dk/?page_id=273
