May family
The May family (also spelled Maj) was a prominent Danish family that belonged to the clergy and thus the legally privileged elite in Denmark-Norway. It was descended from the priest Søren Nielsen May (died 1679), a native of then-Danish Helsingborg in Scania, and Catharina , the daughter of the noble Copenhagen wine merchant . Catharina Motzfeldt's sister was the mother of Peder Griffenfeld, the de facto ruler of Denmark-Norway in the early 1670s, and the May family, along with Griffenfeld's other close relatives, thus rose to significant prominence with their nephew's rise to power.[1][2][3]
Søren May and Catharina Motzfeldt had ten children. Their daughter Maren May was married to the Bishop of Christianssand Ludvig Stoud; Else May was married to the priest Poul Munkgaard; Gundel May was married to the priest Herman Arentsen, a son of Arent Berntsen; Cathrine Marie May was married to the priest Rasmus Andersen Montoppidan; Ellen May was married to the judge Poul Pedersen Fabritius; Bertel Sørensen May (died 1711) was priest in Tystrup and Haldagerlille.
The Søren May House in Holbæk, built for Søren May in 1669, is currently the seat of Holbæk Museum.[4]
References[]
- ^ Søren May og Ludvig Stoud : To Holbæk-Præster i 1600'erne, 1926
- ^ Almindelig dansk præstehistorie, S.V. Wiberg, p. 656, no. 470, Holbæk og Merløse, Sjællands Stift
- ^ Motzfeldt, Ernst, Stamtavle over Familien Motzfeldt, Steenske Bogtrykkeri, Christiania 1890
- ^ Satans mønter i Holbæk, sn.dk
- Danish families