MINGES, THOMAS [SSNE 3087]

Surname

MINGES, MIENGEISS, MENZIES, MENGES

First name

THOMAS, TOMAS

Title/rank

LIEUTENANT

Nationality

SCOT

Social status

OFFICER

Text source

Thomas Menzies (aka Mingis, Menges), entered service as a reformed ensign with Jakob Duwall's [SSNE 1623] regiment in 1629, then an ensign in Alexander Leslie's [SSNE 1] regiment in 1630. Menzies transferred to John Ruthven's [SSNE 191] regiment in 1631, then became a lieutenant in 1632. After the Swedish king Gustav II Adolf died at Lützen in November 1632, he apparently changed sides and entered service with the Imperial army. Probably taking part in the campaign of King Ferdinand Ernst, later Emperor Ferdinand III (1608-1657) against the duchy of Wuerttemberg, he, around 1636, arrived at the small town of Schwieberdingen (20 miles northwest of Stuttgart) where he met Anna Caecilia von Stockheim (*1617), a daughter of the local lord Johannes Heinrich von Stockheim (+1647) and his wife Anna Benedicta von Nippenburg (+1630). Shortly after, probably in 1637, the couple married. Although not recorded in the Schwieberdingen church books, the marriage certainly took place as is shown by an entry in the church books of Markgroeningen, a neighbouring town, where both “Thomas Mengeis, a born Scotsman and lieutenant colonel (Thomas Mengeis, ein geborener Schottländer und Obristlieutenant)” and his wife “Anna Cecilia von Stockheim” are registered as godparents on 29 December 1640. That year, the couple's only child, the daughter Anna Kunigunde von Menges (1640-1716) was born in the county of Veldenz where her father, who now preferred to call himself Thomas von Menges, seems to have served the Electorate of Trier which governed the Veldenz-county at that point. The Thirty Years’ War having ended - and according to an entry in the baptismal registers of Speyer, dated 13 June 1649 – we find Thomas von Menges as captain in Ludwig von Schmidberg's (1594-1657) regiment and under the supreme command of the French general marshal Henri de Turenne (1611-1675). Only a few months later, Thomas von Menges and Anna Caecilia von Stockheim seem to have separated. Records of divorce don't exist, yet she gave birth on 5 October 1650 to a son Christoph Heinrich who according to the Schwieberdingen marriage register had been fathered by a certain colonel lieutenant Uriel Witz von Arnholtz. Christoph died in infancy. The following year his ex-wife moved with her new husband and the daughter to the Duchy of Palatinate-Neuburg to start a new life there, nothing is known of Thomas von Menges' whereabouts during the next fifteen years.

On 21 April 1664 a “Major Menges” appears among the officers of a newly raised army of the Elector Palatinate Charles Louis (1617-1680). Four years later, Thomas von Menges is seen to be promoted to lieutenant colonel and commander of the Elector's “German Lifeguard” at Heidelberg Castle. It seems that he had married again, as he is mentioned with a wife Johanna Maria (last name unknown) in church books, i.e in Heidelberg on 16 February 1670 as godparents to a soldier's child,  and in Kirchheim on 12 April 1672 as godparents to a granddaughter. Thomas von Menges seems to have died after 1 April 1677, for that is the last time that he got mentioned in the Palatinate's army quarterly statements. According to his daughter, he was buried in Schwieberdingen.

Speculating about his origins, Thomas Menzies might have reached the age of 20 when he entered Jakob Duwall's regiment in 1629. His birth year thus being 1609, he could have been the same Thomas Menzies who was baptized in Aberdeen's St. Nicholas Church on 10 February 1609, the son of Walter Menzies and Elspet Moresone. If so, he was the great-grandson of Gilbert Menzies, called “Banison Gib” who was several times provost of Aberdeen. A great-granduncle of his would have been Thomas Menzies, who in 1525 succeeded his father “Banison Gib” as provost of Aberdeen and who in 1520, by marriage of Marion Reid, united the lands of the Reid- and Menzies-families in the free barony of  Menzies of Pitfodels.

Swedish Krigsarkiv, Muster Roll, 1629/22,23; 1630/35,38; 1631/22,24; 1632/31.

THis article was kindly written by Rainer Bunz, He provided the following references.

Ancestry.com. Württemberg, Deutschland, evangelische Kirchenbücher, 1500-1985 [database on-line]: Schwieberdingen Taufen, Tote, Heiraten, Notizen u Totenindex 1558-1810. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2016; Armgart, Martin (bearb). Archiv der Freiherren von Mentzingen, Schlossarchiv Menzingen. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2007; Bezzel. Geschichte des Kurpfälzischen Heeres von seinen Anfängen bis zur Vereinigung von Kurpfalz und Kurbayern 1777 nebst Geschichte des Heerwesens in Pfalz-Zweibrücken. Bd. 4,1. Geschichte des bayerischen Heeres. München, 1925; Bunz, Rainer. „Die Freiherren von Leslie aus Speyer - Ein Nachtrag”. Mitteilungen des Historischen Vereins der Pfalz 108 (2010): 95–120; C., B. „Aus den Acten des Großh. General-Landes-Archivs zu Karlsruhe”. Mittheilungen zur Geschichte des Heidelberger Schlosses, hrsg. v. Heidelberger Schlossverein 1 (1886): 161–221; FamilySearch.org. Scotland Births and Baptisms, 1564-1950,” [database on-line]. Genealogical Society of Utah, Salt Lake City; FHL microfilm 991,133.

 

Information provided by Dr Fabian Persson siggests a Thomas Menzies was a courtier of Queen Christina by 1648, though the service record of this man seem it was unlikely to be him.

Service record

SWEDEN, JAKOB DUWALL

Arrived 1629-01-01, as REF. ENSIGN

Departed 1629-12-31, as REF. ENSIGN

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY

SWEDEN, ALEXANDER LESLIE

Arrived 1630-01-01, as ENSIGN

Departed 1630-12-31, as ENSIGN

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY

SWEDEN, JOHN RUTHVEN

Arrived 1631-01-01, as LIEUTENANT

Departed 1632-12-31, as LIEUTENANT

Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY