Daughter beheaded as victim of incest

On February 16, 1699, exactly 326 years ago, both father and daughter were beheaded and burned at Holmennokken, because of a incest. It is perhaps the darkest day in the city of Drammen’s history, because they should have known better.

Maren Ingvoldsdatter, was happy when she married the chimney sweep at Bragernes, Niels Laurssen. As a single mother, it was not a given that she would be well married. The town’s chimney sweep was well regarded. She was particularly happy because her daughter from a previous marriage, the teenager Barbro Børgesdatter, was also so welcome into the new family. They lived «in Engen» it says in the court record, somewhere along today’s street Engene. At the time the house was a little outside the city center, in rural surroundings.

But when Maren died young in 1691 a lot changed. The sweeper needed a new wife, he believed, and forced his stepdaughter into the role of a wife.. If she didn’t want to share a bed with him, she was beaten and abused.

When the first child was born just before Christmas the same year as her mother died, Barbro knew very well who the father was. Ashamed, she gave a false name, «Johannes». She did not know his last name, she claimed, but said he was a soldier. When the next child came in 1697, she was even more ashamed. This time she gave the child’s father’s name to «the boy Syver Gudmundsen». Whether this was a real or fictional person is not clear from the court records. It only appears that she has confessed to the city bailiff that it is the chimney sweep who is the child’s father. For Barbro, life and the abuse and the relationship with her stepfather became unbearable.

In January 1699 she therefore chose to confide in two neighboring women in Engene, Ingeborg Olsen and Mari Pedersen. She made no secret of the two women who probably hoped and believed in justice. There was good reason for this because incest was often not punished as severely as the penal code of the time, Christian V’s law, said. New thoughts of crime and justice had arrived in several courts and several judges did not want to punish victims.

I accept to die for my serious crime, but I first ask for a priest and communion, so that I may be able to save my soul from eternal damnation.

But there was no mercy for Barbro. The judge told her that she had committed a great sin and had to die. Both father and daughter accepted the verdict, and the daughter said: «I accept to die to die for my serious crime, but I first ask for a priest and communion, so that I may be able to save my soul from eternal damnation.»

The execution took place at Holmen, a small island between the banks of the Drammen river. The judge and the executioner, Niels Flyg wanted to set an example. An old timber house was therefore torn down and broght to the small island. To make it easier to burn, the jugde ordered a lot of barrels of wood to burn together with the timber. Bothe the father and daughter were beheaded by sword and thereafter burned on a fire that could be seen for miles.

The executioner was satisfied with the match. He received a unit price for executions plus 4 riksdaler for travel and accommodation, when he lived in Christiania, and ten daler for each execution and beheading, a total of 44 riksdaler.   The receipt can still be read: «Anno 1699, on 16 February, the Royal Majesty’s town bailiff, Monseigneur Peder Paulssen, paid me to execute two prisoners with the sword, and later burn the bodies, as well as for my journey, 44 riksdaler, why is acknowledged. Bragernes 16 February 1699, Nicolai Flyg.

It’s as if you can still feel the cold from this February day.