Some Notes on the Leijel Family at Älvkarleby Ironworks

The remarkable growth of mining and industry in Sweden in the mid-seventeenth century was due in large part to the arrival of men with substantial capital and experience in these fields, such as Louis De Geer, “the father of Swedish industry”, Siegroth, Grisbach, members of the De Besche family, and others. Most of these immigrants were probably Germans and Netherlanders (Walloons), but a number also came from England and Scotland. Among them were the Leijel brothers, who belonged to a Scottish noble family that was later naturalised and admitted to the Swedish House of Nobility in 1719. They first settled in Stockholm as merchants, and probably continued as such even after acquiring interests in Älvkarleby Ironworks. The eldest brother, Jacob, born in 1612 and died in 1678, had a son, Adam, born in 1658 and died in 1729, who became the ironmaster at Hammarby in Örebro County. As he left no children, the eldest branch of the family died out with him.

David, born in 1621 and died on 26 March 1676, was the brother whose name is most closely associated with Älvkarleby Ironworks. Claes Depken, who died in 1702 and was ennobled under the name Anckarström, was the principal founder of the works. He succeeded in securing the Leijel brothers’ interest in the venture, particularly that of David, who became Depken’s partner and helped establish and manage the works. I shall give an account of David’s descendants below.

Henrik, born in 1627 and died in 1710, the third of the immigrant brothers, had a son, Adam, born in 1669 and died in 1744, who became a mining superintendent, an assessor on the Board of Mines, and finally a councillor on that board.

Besides these three brothers, who are listed in Anrep’s genealogies of the nobility, I have found another brother named Adam. His year of birth is unknown, as is the year of his death, although he cannot have died later than 1688, when his widow is mentioned.

Let us now return to David Leijel’s descendants. According to Anrep’s genealogies, he had two sons: David the younger, born in 1660 and died on 19 April 1727, and Johan, born in 1664 and died in 1744. Documents in the Uppsala Regional Archives show, however, that there was a third brother, named Petter, who probably died in 1713. In a description of Älvkarleby parish by A. N. Sandén, I found that an altarpiece was donated to Älvkarleby Church in 1702 by “the brothers Jakob and Petter Leijel”. This would seem to establish beyond doubt that David Leijel had four sons, rather than only two.

The eldest of David Leijel’s sons, David the younger, was both an ironmaster and an official in the mining administration, serving as a mining superintendent and eventually as a councillor on the Board of Mines.

Johan became a city councillor and eventually mayor responsible for trade in Stockholm. His son Carl, born in 1718 and died in 1789, became a mining superintendent, continuing the family tradition of involvement in mining and ironmaking, whether as owners of ironworks or as officials in the mining administration.

Petter, the ironmaster at Älvkarleby, was probably the brother who effectively ran the “family company” from the 1690s until his death, although all the brothers held shares in the works. This appears from several letters in the Uppsala Regional Archives addressed to the governor of Uppsala County and signed by Petter Leijel “on behalf of the shareholders in Älvkarleby Ironworks”. It is also unlikely that the elder brother, David, could have combined his government duties with the effective management of the works. He does, however, appear to have taken on this role after his brother’s death, since he signed letters in the same way. During his final years, David Leijel had retired from government service and was therefore able to devote his remaining days entirely to managing the works until his death in 1727. His eldest son, also named David, succeeded him as director of the works, but died unmarried in 1737.

Älvkarleby and Harnäs remained in the hands of members of the Leijel family until 1772, when the works were sold to Thomas Tottie, a wholesale merchant in Stockholm.

The fourth of David Leijel’s sons, Jakob, who donated the altarpiece to Älvkarleby Church together with his brother Petter, probably pursued his career elsewhere, even if he held a share in the works. He became manager of the Crown-owned Ortala Ironworks and owner of Vällnora Ironworks in Knutby parish, Uppland. His years of birth and death are unknown.

David Leijel’s branch of the family survived the longest, dying out only in the early twentieth century with a great-great-great-granddaughter of David Leijel the elder.

As the account above shows, the Leijels can rightly be described as a family of mining men and ironworks owners who undoubtedly made a substantial contribution to the development of this industry in Sweden. From the second half of the eighteenth century, members of the family seem mostly to have entered government service, either military or civil, although without attaining any of the higher ranks.

I could end here, after this brief overview of the Leijel family’s history in Sweden. However, since certain documents in the Uppsala Regional Archives show that relations among family members were not always harmonious, I shall add a few details as a contribution to the history of both the family and the period.

These documents reveal that extensive litigation followed David Leijel’s death in 1676. None of his sons had yet come of age. The two paternal uncles, Adam and Henrik, appear to have taken advantage of this situation in order, as the catechism puts it, to “obtain their neighbour’s inheritance or house under the pretence of law and justice”.

Tracing the course of the lengthy proceedings between David Leijel’s heirs and their two uncles would undoubtedly be a time-consuming and unrewarding task. After several years, probably as the case was drawing to a close, the heirs submitted a lengthy petition to the King, setting out their grievances point by point.

Its opening is reproduced here in full: “Since our paternal uncles, Adam and Hindrik Leijlel, have cast aside all natural affection and, in various ways, have treated us, their brother’s children, very badly, contrary to the law and lawful statutes, giving us, God help us, cause for complaint, we have wished to set out these matters in the following statement and its accompanying supporting documents, together with our most humble petition. We most humbly beseech Your Royal Majesty, in your innate kindness, graciously and patiently to hear and consider them.”

One of the most serious accusations against the two uncles was undoubtedly that, a few days before David Leijel’s death, when he lay dying, they had exploited his weakened condition to persuade him to sign an acknowledgement of debt to them in which the amounts owed were greatly overstated. They had thrown into the fire a contract by which David Leijel had leased Älvkarleby Ironworks to his son-in-law, Anders Holm, so that they could run the works as they pleased and dispose of its assets as self-appointed guardians of the underage heirs. Most of the heirs, perhaps all of them, did, however, come of age during the lengthy proceedings. The eldest son, David, at least, came of age not long after his father’s death and was able to bring the case on his own behalf and that of his fellow heirs.

As already mentioned, it would take too long to give an account of every accusation. Apart from what has already been said, I shall therefore confine myself to quoting the end of the petition, which also contains several points of interest.

“We are therefore”, it states, “compelled by the gravest necessity to appeal most humbly to Your Royal Majesty for support. From this most humble statement, may you be pleased to see how orphaned children and a grieving household have been treated by our uncles, who by natural duty ought to have protected our rights. Under the pretext of guardianship and other authority they have assumed, they have, as already stated, sought through one ruling after another, without hearing or summoning us, to forestall our claims and bring the landed property rightfully belonging to us under their own and their families’ control. In addition to various substantial quantities of iron which they have appropriated from time to time, they still retain some of the movable property and household goods they took and have not properly accounted for them. For all this they refuse to answer before either court, instead raising procedural objections and invoking the rulings they have obtained unilaterally. We therefore beseech Your Royal Majesty in the deepest humility, as one who possesses power and truth, out of your innate royal kindness and grace and your concern for the unhindered course of holy Justice, to help us secure our rightful entitlement to what God and Nature have granted us. For such exalted royal favour and assistance, we shall remain indebted until our dying hour, etc.”

This petition, a draft of which is held in the Regional Archives, is undated, but was probably submitted around 1685.

Although one is naturally inclined to favour David Leijel’s heirs, who were so badly treated by their uncles, I have nevertheless thought it right to hear “the other side” as well, though only as briefly as the complainants. A letter to the county governor dated 1688, also held in the Regional Archives and signed by Henrik Leijel and the widow of his now deceased brother Adam, contains a detailed response to the accusations. In many cases, these are dismissed as wholly unfounded or at least unproven. As for the “self-appointed guardianship”, the letter states that David Leijel himself, during his lifetime, had asked his brothers to become guardians of his underage children, but that after a couple of years, when the disputes began, they had requested and received the King’s permission to relinquish the responsibility. The principal accusation that the brothers had all but forced David Leijel on his deathbed to sign the fateful acknowledgement of debt is answered with the assertion that he had been shown it several weeks before his death and had found nothing to object to. Nor, they maintained, had David Leijel been so entirely deprived of his senses and reason when he signed it as the complainants alleged.

Although the defendants seem quite skilful in presenting themselves as wholly innocent of the accusations, which they adroitly rebut or evade, it nevertheless seems impossible to escape the conclusion that David Leijel’s brothers exploited his weakened condition to persuade him to sign the document so often mentioned.

The documents in the Regional Archives do not reveal the final judgment. Yet the fact that David Leijel’s heirs remained in undisturbed possession of Älvkarleby Ironworks presumably allows us to conclude that they won the case, at least in its essentials, and that the opposing party failed in its malicious design to dispossess their brother’s children of the works if that was indeed their intention.

Source: Personhistorisk tidskrift Year 1926, number 3-4. Author: G. O. Berg

Link to Personhistorisk tidskrift

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