Treschow (noble family)

Fritzøehus, built for Michael Treschow and completed 1898. It is today inhabited by Mille-Marie Treschow.
The coat of arms adopted by Michael Treschow's family in the 19th century, and based on the coat of arms of the unrelated noble German Tresckow family. Here seen on the portal to Fritzøehus.

Treschow is a Norwegian family. A member of the family, Michael Treschow, was ennobled by letters patent in 1812, wherefore his branch of the family became members of the nobility of Denmark and Norway. Members of this family have been industrialists and landowners, notably in Vestfold.

General history

Origin

The family may be followed back to Niels Hansen († 1593), who lived in Næstved, Denmark. His son was Rasmus Nielsen Træskomager († 1633). He and many of his descendants were merchants. His son Giort Rasmussen Treschow (ca. 1623–1665) was a shipowner and a merchant.

The family came to Norway with Giort Treschow's sons Gerhard Treschow (ca. 1659–1719), an industrialist who ran a shipping company, a sawmill and a papermill in Oslo, and Herman Treschow (1665–1723), who was his brother's general manager in Trondheim. Herman Treschow was the grandfather of Michael Treschow (1741–1816), who was district governor in Roskilde.

1812 ennoblement

Michael Treschow, son of parish priest Herman Treschow in Søllerød, Denmark, was in 1812 ennobled by letters patent, thus becoming part of the untitled nobility. By the provisions of the patent, the patrilineal descendants of Michael Treschow, including unmarried females, were considered noble. However, as most of the family members were Norwegian subjects, persons born after the 1821 Nobility Law were not considered as noble in Norway. The family's most prominent living member, Mille-Marie Treschow, would have forfeitet her noble status by marrying a commoner if official nobility still had existed. Also her children bear the surname Treschow, but would not have been considered as noble according to the letters patent, as noble status is inherited only patrilineally. The agnatic descendants of Michael Treschow are nevertheless included in the Yearbook of the Danish Nobility, which is published by a private organisation.

Name

The family's name, Treschow (modern orthography: tresko, i.e. wooden shoe) is a shorter/corrupted variant of the older name Træskomager (i.e. wooden shoe-maker), referring to the occupation of the family's ancestor.

Coats of arms

Family members previously used various arms, including one with a clog, referring to the occupation of their ancestor (Nissen and Aaase, p. 143).

In the 19th century, Michael Treschow for himself and his descendants adopted a coat of arms which is nearly identical to that of the German Uradel family of Tresckow. The Norwegian Træskomager/Treschow family is unrelated to the noble German family, and the name has a completely different etymology. Some other Norwegian families are known to have adopted coats of arms (or variations thereof) of unrelated families with similar names.

Description: On silver background three (two over one) black jackdaw heads with a golden collar each. On the helm a noble coronet. Above the coronet a black jackdaw head with a golden collar, and on the top three peacock feathers.

The new coat of arms includes the motto Pie Candide Constanter.

Members

See also

Sources

    This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the Sunday, January 17, 2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.