Anker (family)
Encyclopedia
Anker, also spelled Ancher, is a Danish
Danish nobility
Nobility in Denmark was a leading social class until the 19th or 20th century. Danish nobility exists yet and has a recognized status in Denmark, a monarchy, but its real privileges have been abolished....

 and Norwegian noble family
Norwegian nobility
Norwegian nobility are persons and families who in early times belonged to the supreme social, political, and military class and who later were members of the institutionalised nobility in the Kingdom of Norway. It has its historical roots in the group of chieftains and warriors which evolved...

 living in Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

. The name means anchor
Anchor
An anchor is a device, normally made of metal, that is used to connect a vessel to the bed of a body of water to prevent the vessel from drifting due to wind or current. The word derives from Latin ancora, which itself comes from the Greek ἄγκυρα .Anchors can either be temporary or permanent...

.

Name and origin

The family came to Norway
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...

's capital Oslo
Oslo
Oslo is a municipality, as well as the capital and most populous city in Norway. As a municipality , it was established on 1 January 1838. Founded around 1048 by King Harald III of Norway, the city was largely destroyed by fire in 1624. The city was moved under the reign of Denmark–Norway's King...

 with Erich Olufsen Ancher (1644–1699), who was a representative for merchant Peter Bahrum in Lübeck
Lübeck
The Hanseatic City of Lübeck is the second-largest city in Schleswig-Holstein, in northern Germany, and one of the major ports of Germany. It was for several centuries the "capital" of the Hanseatic League and, because of its Brick Gothic architectural heritage, is listed by UNESCO as a World...

. His parents were trader Oluf Erichsson († 1682) and Kirsten in Gothenburg
Gothenburg
Gothenburg is the second-largest city in Sweden and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated on the west coast of Sweden, the city proper has a population of 519,399, with 549,839 in the urban area and total of 937,015 inhabitants in the metropolitan area...

. In Christiania, which was Oslo's name in those days, Erik Ancher became a wealthy trader, and through his marriage with Maren Lauritzdatter, he entered the city's circles of rich merchants.

Among their sons, priest Bernt Erichsen Ancher (1680–1724) got the sons Erich Berntsen Ancher (1709–1785) and Christian Berntsen Ancher (1711–1765). Due to big trade, purchase of estates, and wealthy spouses, the family became a prominent family within the trade patriciate in Eastern Norway.

Members of the two principal branches above, were on 14 of January 1778 ennobled under the name Anker. They claimed to descend from the Swedish noble family Anckar, but this is not proven. The family name likely derived from their progenitor Oluf Erichsson in Gothenburg, who was an anchor smith.

Estates

Most of the family member's businesses and properties left their possession during the 1800s. The Anker Entailed Estate (Norwegian: Det ankerske Fideikomiss) in Oslo went bankrupt in 1819, and the estate complex related to Bogstad Head Farm and Nordmarka
Nordmarka
Nordmarka is the mostly forested region which makes up the northern part of Oslo, Norway. The area called "Nordmarka" also extends into the municipalities of Hole, Ringerike, Lunner, Jevnaker and Nittedal. It is the largest part of the Marka borough. The forests are popular sites for hiking and...

 was through women inherited by the families Wedel-Jarlsberg
Wedel-Jarlsberg
Wedel-Jarlsberg is a Danish and Norwegian noble family. It is also a branch of the family von Wedel, which comes from Pomerania, Germany...

, Løvenskiold
Løvenskiold
Løvenskiold is a Dano-Norwegian noble family. Members of the family now live primarily in Norway.-History:The Løvenskiold family descend from merchant Herman Leopoldus , who immigrated from Lübeck to Christiania. His son, also named Herman Leopoldus , became very rich and was in 1739 ennobled by...

 and Egeberg. Bogstad Head Farm and Rød Head Farm became foundations in the latest part of the 1900s.

Coat of arms

Description: On a red shield with a narrow golden egde, a black anchor with a golden anchor stick, and through a black anchor ring three crossed black arrows. On the helm a noble coronet, and above this a six-pointed star between buffalo horns divided in red, gold, and black, vice versa, respectively. Supporters: On the dexter side a bear, and on the siniter side a wolf. Both have natural colours, and their heads are directed away from the shield.

Before the ennoblement, some family members used arms displaying an anchor under two stars, and above the helm the allegorical character Spes between two hart horns.

The noble arms were brought closer to the extinct Swedish noble family Anckar's arms, which displayed an anchor with two arrows.

Literature and sources

  • Haagen Krog Steffens (1889): Stamtavle over Familien Anker
  • Haagen Krog Steffens (1911): Norske Slægter 1912
  • S.H. Finne-Grønn (1926): Om slegten Ankers herkomst. Oplysninger om familier i Oslo og det gamle Christiania, in Norsk Personalhistorisk Tidsskrift, III, pages 218-221
  • Hugo Høgdahl (1946): Norske ex libris og andre bokeiermerker
  • Danmarks Adels Aarbog (1952).
  • Hans Cappelen (1969): Norske slektsvåpen
  • Herman Leopoldus Løvenskiold (1978): Heraldisk nøkkel
  • Harald Nissen & Monica Aase (1990): Segl i Universitetsbiblioteket i Trondheim
  • Per Holck (2006): Bernt Anker – Samtid, liv og forfatterskap
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