STRANG (junior), WILLIAM [SSNE 6643]

Surname

STRANG (junior)

First name

WILLIAM

Nationality

SCOT

Text source

William Strang [SSNE 807] was a Scot who was made a burgess of Stockholm in 1649 and who was engaged in the iron trade and was married to Margaret Pattillo [SSNE 6495]. There are numerous records relating to Strang in the Swedish archives. From these letters it emerges that William Strang had a son of the same name who became a burgess of Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic (this man). 

He certainly had many trading links with other Scots, although one of these letters erroneously implies that William might have been English. He had a brother David [SSNE 4927]. The letters contained in Biographica give an idea of a Scottish trading network and also directly links the Scottish trading community in a network covering Stockholm, Copenhagen and Amsterdam. Members included William Strang [SSNE 6643], Johan Strangh, Jacob Strang, David Strang [SSNE 4927], Alexander Waddell [SSNE 835], William Halliday [SSNE 787]. [Non Scots included Magnus de la Gardie and Jurgen Schot]. 

He also traded in Christiania in Norway, from whence he left in 1669 without paying the appropriate tolls. In this letter he is again called an Englishman and the authorities instructed to catch up with him to get the money. Another reference from the 1670s relates to William Strang merchant of London and it is probable that he is the same as the Amsterdam merchant, although that is yet to be confirmed. He owned goods aboard the ship The Calmar. The skipper carried insufficient passes while skipper and some crew were Dutch so she fell to Scottish privateers. The ship was judged prize despite cargo belonging to “Sir Francis Clerck and William Strang tuo famous merchants of London”. Their depositions noted that pitch, tar and wood belonged to Strang while other parts of loading belonged to Clerck. 

Sources:

National Archives of Scotland, AC7/3 Register of Decreets, 1672-1673, ff.235-280. 4 October 1672, Captain Andro Smeaton against Dirik Jacob of The Calmar; Swedish Riksarkiv, Biographica Microcard, E01946 1/8. Letter to the Swedish king dated Haffnia [Copenhagen] 6 August 1675 and signed by Alexander Waddel. Reference here to '(engelska?) Willem Strang Amsterdams borgare' and 'svensk född David Strang'; R. Fladby (ed.),Norske Kongebrev (6 vols., Oslo, 1962), I, p.333, 9 November 1669; T. Fischer, The Scots in Sweden (Edinburgh, 1907), p.216; A. Reid, The Royal Burgh of Forfar a local history (Paisley, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Forfar, 1902), p.136, pp.417-8 (with thanks to Dr David Horsburgh for this reference); Leos Müller, The Merchant Houses of Stockholm, c.1640-1800 (Uppsala, 1988), pp.87 and 182; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.164, 166, 180.

Service record

SWEDEN, LONDON, AMSTERDAM

Arrived 1670-01-01

Capacity MERCHANT BURGESS, purpose MERCANTILE, CIVIC, TRADE