Name: Torbjørn
Knudson SVINALI1,2
Sex: Male
Father: Knud Helgesen
TYSVÆR/GRINDE/SVINALI (1719 - 1766)
Mother: Martha (Marta) Sjursdtr.
SVINALI/AUKLAND (1732 - 1794)
Individual Facts
Birth 1765 Svinali,
Tysvær, Rogaland, Norway
Notes (Individual)
General: He has been called "the Quaker
pioneer," because he was one of the first to bring these beliefs to
Norway. The following is from the
Tysvær bygdebok, vol. 4, p. 22, with translation help from Rotraud Slogvik:
It might surprise us that
none of the children of Marta's from her first marriage to Knut Helgeson took
over the farm. It was them who belonged
to the old owners with roots at Ile. Many of their children were established at
other places when Marta died. Once
again other places than the "home-farm" were preferred.
The youngest male and bachelor Torbjørn
Knutson had, on the other hand, had not established himself permanently. He entered the military service and went to
sea. He ended up in English captivity
(on a prison ship!) as a result of Napoleon's wars. He got well known for taking back home the Quaker religious
beliefs. Well after he was back from
prison in England, he lived not only at the
home farm here (Svinali Nedra), but also at Bringedal in Tysvær, in Sandnes "near Stavanger" and at Høye, also in the
south of Stavanger area. He died at the
farm Meling at Talgje in Finnøy, at the home of married Marta Knutsdotter,
daughter to his half-brother Knut Størkerson.
There Torbjørn took himself "flet-føring", that means that he could live with Marta's family on
the condition of inheritance.
Torbjørn did bring the Quaker religion to his closest relatives.. Siri Eriksdotter from Kringeland, the wife
of half brother Knut Størkerson, had a
sister which was married at Stakland and another sister which was
married at Årek. These two farms came
together with Nedra Svinali to become the "Quaker farms" in Søra
(south) Skjold.
These new thoughts, that Torbjørn did
import, met resistance and many of the adherents did not see any other solution
for themselves, but to export them again by emigrating to America. Many of Torbjørn's relatives were going to
emigrate. It is a possibility that all children of his half-brother Knut
Størkerson did emigrate. The exception
was Størker Knutson, who took over after his father and did run the home farm.
(Tysvær bygdebok #4)
In the historical novel Cleng Peerson written by Alfred Hauge
and translated into English by Friis, the following is said about Torbjørn as
if Cleng were speaking: "... a fellow from my home district, had been
imprisoned at Chatham -- on board a ship called the 'Belliquer.' At that time he had been a Haugean, but
during his imprisonment he had converted to the teachings of the Quakers."
Sources
1. Østrem, Nils Olav. Tysvær, Gard og ætt 4, Skjoldastraumen (Vol. 4 of "Tysvær
Bygdebok" or local history book for "farms and families" for
Skjoldastraumen, Tysvær kommune, Rogaland county, Norway). Stavanger, Norway: Tysvær Kommune, 1999. pp. 22,26.
2. Hauge, Alfred. Cleng
Peerson, Volume 1 & 2, Translated from the Norwegian by Erik J. Friis.
(Historical novel/fictionalized biography originally published in 3 volumes by
Gyldendal Norsk Forlag, Oslo.). Boston:
Twayne Publishers, 1975. Vol. 1, p.
239.
Prepared by:
O. Keith Wheeler
Mad River, CA 95552
(707) 574-6595
