Brønngata 6 - Gnr 3020 Bnr 119

This is the story about a home at Langestrand in Larvik which has the 8th and the 9th generation living in the house. Based on old deeds and fire taxation documents as well as on dendrochronology of old timbers in the walls of the house facing Bekkegata, the building has been estimated to have been erected sometime in the period of 1710-1715.

We can document the history of the property down to 1740. During the last years of eighteenth century it was connected to furnace worker Christian Tygesen. We are finding references in the probate register in 1744 referring to a administration of estate after Tyge Andersen. In this process document Christian is mentioned together with his sister Anna Christina and brother Anders, Iens and Henrich. Iens is an old Norwegian spelling of Jens. I find a trilling coincident in that 300 years later, a person named Jens Henrik is again living in the house, but he is named after two total different persons.

In the census of 1801 Christian shared the house with his son-in-law, eldest daughter and grand children. In 1806, the son-in-law died, petty officer Søren Andersen. The widow was then alone with the children, among them Søren (1) who will in due time inherit the property.

Further more we find the property again mentioned in a administration of property in 1806 after the death of  Søren Andersen. In fire property value taxation from 1809 is the widow Elen Kristine Christiansdatter mentioned as the heiress.

Petty officer Christian Isachsen, married to the widow’s sister, became the protector of the estate and the famliy. He is therefore incorrectly named as owner of the estate in the fire property value taxation from 1809.

During the Napoleonic Wars there was a blockade of Norway and together with cold summers hunger swept the country. Norways was very reliant on iron and timber exports and this trade was also stopped. Christian Isachsen was born in 1775 and married to two years younger sister Karen Christiansdatter. In 1820 Christian Isachesen was an elderly man and transferred the estate back to his nephew Søren. Christian was given a clause that he and his wife was given residence for the rest of their lives. In the census of 1825 we find that Christian Isachsen has past away and and Søren Sørensen with his wife Ingeborg Marie Christensdatter, a newborn daughter and his aunt Karen

Søren had five children and the household had in many years three generations living. All of them close related.

In the fire property value taxation from 1820 the estate had a  living room, bed room and kitchen with fireplace and bakers oven. The two story iron stove heated the living room and the bedroom.

The building was 7,5 x 5,5m. The small wall against Bekkegaten is the building's original width. The timber logs was covered with wood board and the roof had tiles. The foundation was of hand laid nature stones. Their structural design reveals their age even covered in concrete plaster because is inclination from the wood board outwards toward the soil.

In the fire property value taxation from 1809 the estate value is given at 160 spesidaler including a fence. In the tax of 1820 the value has been reduced to 80 spesidaler including the same fence.

In the 1820s, the export of timber are reaching new heights and therefore hard to get timber on the local marked. If you take a close look at the proportions on west wall of this building and the south wall of Bekkegata 8 from the map from 1802 and correlate with the measurement from the buildings today, we can conclude that the building at Bekkegata 8 is the building drawn to the east of Brønngata 6 in the 1802 map. Setting this in context that Bekkegata 8 never got a full fire property value taxation until 1862. This gives us the hypothesis that this was the building on the property located east of Brønngata 6, now been disassembled and reassembled in today's plot in during the period from 1850 to 1861.

In administration of estate document from 1864 after the widow Ingeborg Maria and her son Søren Sørensen Røsserød (born 1833) inherit estate number 59. And, we find Søren's older brother, Christian living at estate number 59b (Bekkegata 8).

Ingeborg Maria her son Søren Sørensen Røsserød (born 1833) inherits estate number 59 And we are finding his elder brother Christian at estate number 59b (Bekkegata 8).

In 1871, both Christian and Søren Sørensen Røsserød transfer parts from their estates to Mason Johannes Horst who is the father in law to Christian's son Christoffer. This new property get the estate number 59c. The estate changes ownership several times until 1883 when Hans Larsen buys it. His son Johan Larsen had the estate until late 1970. The address for this estate to day is Bekkegata 10.

The Sørensens were iron workers, fishermen, and seamen. They had reputation of excellent seamanship and fishery. During 1700 and the first half of 1800 they had the right to produce and sell liquor as many other people at Langestrand. After the liberation from Denmark in 1814 the liquor production came out of control and the government established taxation on the size of the jars for liquor production. This reduced the numbers of producers and the government could get control over the lesser number of producers. (Ref.: NOU report "Alkoholpolitikken i endring?" from 1995:24 page 22.)

In the generation following Søren Sørensen, the Sørensen decendents stopped producing alcohol and became leaders in the movement to establish an alcohol prohibition movement within the churches in Larvik and Skien and establish dissenter churches in Larvik.

Brønngata 6 is carries the heritage of workers from the old Langestrand. The property has been continuously in the same family's ownership.