LESLIE, GEORGE [SSNE 7309]
Text source
Probably a close relative of Peter Leslie [SSNE 8334] († 1617) and Alexander Leslie [SSNE 4947], George (Jürgen) Leslie was born in Aberdeen, although we have no exact date. At some point he migrated to Estonia where he became a burgess in Dorpat (Tartto) in 1624. In the period from 15 September 1623 to 22 July 1624, he - according to a list of merchants' names – did business in the Russian border town of Pleskau (today Pskow), an important base for trade with Russia since Hanseatic times.
In 1626, the Swedish king, Gustav II Adolf, awarded George Leslie the estate of Sackhof (Saka), approximately 30 miles from Narva. Shortly afterwards, he moved to Narva, where George (Jürgen) Leslie was accepted as a citizen on 23 February 1627. In the same year, he married his (presumed) sister-in-law Maria Watson [SSNE 8333], the eldest daughter of John (Johann) Watson [SSNE 8335], also a Scot, and Elisabeth Agnes [SSNE 8336]. Maria had been widowed since the death of her first husband, the Dutch citizen Robert Jacobson from Narva, in 1611. Probably in connection with his marriage, Jürgen Leslie acquired a church pew in the Narva German Church on 28 August 1627.
On 23 February 1627, George had become a burgess of Narva. In 1640, he was noted as owning one of 23 stone-built houses in the town, which he had acquired from the craftsman Hans Rosengarten around 1627. In 1646, he was further noted as a magistrate of Narva. He died in 1651 and was buried on 4 June 1651 in the German Church of Narva. While as godfather and communicant his name is mentioned several times in the church books (beginning in 1644) between 1647 and 1651, there is no reference to his wife, who probably died before 1644. With her, Jürgen Leslie became father of two sons (Alexander Wilhelm [SSNE 7201], Joachim) and four daughters, of whom we know only three by their first names Anna, Catharina and Elisabet [SSNE 7202].
Regarding Alexander Wilhelm and Elisabet, we refer to their separate SSNE-entries. As to George (Jürgen) Leslie‘s second son Joachim, we know hardly anything of him. He probably died young and is mentioned only once, when Jürgen Leslie's mother-in-law in her bridal treasure list refers to him as Jürgen Leslie‘s „sinen Jungen“ (his boy).
Probably first born around 1627, Anna Leslie married Theobaldus Grummer, who, shortly before, had moved from Lueneburg in Lower Saxony to Narva on 9 June 1646. In Germany, where he
belonged to the circle of the Baroque poet Johann Rist (1607-1667), Grummer had made a name for himself as a writer of church songs. In Narva, he worked as council secretary until his death before 1656. Next to the widow Anna, he left behind a daughter Margaretha, born in Narva in February 1649 († 1721). Anna Grummer (née Leslie), died after 1659. Her daughter Margaretha married the Narva citizen and merchant Magnus Lallerus († 1680) around 1665, with whom she had three daughters and two sons.
Magnus Lallerus' mother was the daughter of Jürgen Leslie, whose first name(s) could not yet be determined. She was probably born at the end of the 1620s. In the mid-1640s, she married Magnus Andresson Lallerus, who in some sources was mistakenly called Magnus Wichlerus. He had studied theology at Dorpat University and in 1643 became a schoolteacher in Reval. From 1646-49 he was Swedish chaplain in Narva. There, his second son Andreas († before 1706), who is mentioned in Narva in 1674 as a citizen and merchant, may also have been born. The last mention of Magnus Andressen Lallerus is in 1657 in Wendau (today Vönnu) as field preacher for the regiment of Count Gabriel Bengtson Oxenstierna. An unnamed daughter of Jürgen Leslie, who around 1663 married the widowed master builder Hans Geissler from Kulmbach in Bavaria, is presumably identical with Magnus Andresson Lallerus' widow, who died before 1689.
Jürgen Leslie's third daughter Catharina, born around 1629, married in 1647 the merchant Hinrich Sattler from Reval, who, only three years later, died in 1650. Being mother of three daughters Anna, Lucia and Maria, the widow Catharina entered into a second, childless marriage on 20 August 1650 with the Scottish-born merchant Robert Braun, also widowed, who was buried eight years later in Narva in the German Church. From his first marriage, he left behind a son Wilhelm, born in 1643, who, after reaching adulthood, started crossing paths with his stepmother Catharina demanding from her the payback of over 1,100 Riksdaler which Catharina‘s brother, captain Alexander Leslie, had borrowed from Wilhelm Braun‘s father Robert, once. While he was able to win this long, bitter dispute, he lost a second lawsuit, when, twelve years later, he sued Margaretha Lallerus née Grummer, the widow of Magnus Lallerus, who died in 1680, and her brother-in-law, the citizen and merchant Anders Lallerus from Narva († before 1706), for the intended participation of his stepmother's property. The object of dispute was a silver jug which Catharina Leslie had received from her father Jürgen Leslie, who was also the father of the mother of the Lallerus brothers and of Magnus Lallerus' mother-in-law Anna Grummer née Leslie. Catharina Leslie had sold this jug to the Lallerus brothers after the death of her second husband Robert Braun in the mid-1660s, which in Wilhelm Braun's opinion she should not have done. The court took the opposite view and finally rejected Wilhelm Braun's claim on August 20, 1689.
Catharina Braun née Leslie died a few months later and was buried in Narva on January 28, 1690. Still during her father's lifetime, Catharina and her first husband Hinrich Sattler had received a house, which Jürgen Leslie had inherited from his mother-in-law Elisabeth Watson née Agnes, who died in or before 1646. Later Catharina was to leave the house to her daughters Anna and Maria or their husbands, the sworn council chancellor and lawyer Nicolaus Kohl and the merchant Jürgen Herwig. Also during her father's lifetime, Catharina had received a stone house in bonis from him, which was sold for 400 Riksdaler to Lieutenant Johann Ståhlkling, the son of Catharina's sister Elisabeth.
Sources:
Rahvusarhiiv Tartus, Sünni-, abielu-, surmameetrika ja muud andmed koguduse kohta Record EAA.4380.1.1 1644-1724; Rahvusarhiiv Tartus EAA.1.2.375
und Enn Küng. 2000. Narvaer Bürger- und Einwohnerbuch 1581 - 1704. Vol. 64. Veröffentlichungen der Forschungsstelle Ostmitteleuropa an der Universität Dortmund. Dortmund, pp. 71, 94, 118, 190; Hueck, Walter von. 1973. Die Herkunft der ritterschaftlichen Geschlechter in Wierland zu schwedischer Zeit: Material zu e. Gütergeschichte Estlands. Wedemark: Hirschheydt, pp. 130 and 229; Klöker, Martin. 2005. Literarisches Leben in Reval in der ersten Hälfte des 17. Jahrhunderts (1600-1657): Institutionen der Gelehrsamtkeit und Genese städtischer Gelegenheitsdichtung. Tübingen: Max Niemeyer, p. 751; Koerber, O. 1934. „Baltische Namen im Helsingforser Stadtarchiv“. Baltische Familiengeschichtliche Mitteilungen 4: 28–31; Recke, Johann Friedrich von, und Karl Eduard Napiersky. 1966. Allgemeines Schriftsteller- und Gelehrten-Lexikon der Provinzen Livland, Esthland und Kurland - Nachträge und Fortsetzungen. Neudruck der Originalausgabe Mitau 1859/1861, vol. 2. Berlin, p. 1.
Bunz, Rainer. 2018. Von Leslie – Schottischer Adel in Deutschland und Österreich. Norderstedt: BoD – Book on Demand, pp. 143-147.
This article was revised on 18 June 2020 by Rainer Bunz.
Service record
- ESTONIA, DORPAT
- Arrived 1624-01-01, as BURGESS
- Purpose TRADE