Paus

Paus
Ethnicity	Norwegian
Current region	Norway, Sweden
Earlier spellings	Pauss, de Paus
Place of origin	Norway
Notable members	Ole Paus, Christian Cornelius Paus, Thorleif Lintrup Paus, Christopher de Paus, Bernhard Paus, Nikolai Nissen Paus, Henrik Ibsen (descendant)
Distinctions	Knight ex officio; patricians;[2] in parts papal/Italian nobility, Swedish unintroduced nobility[3] (extinct)
Estate	Trystorp, Herresta

Paus (earlier spellings include Pauss and de Paus)^[4] is a Norwegian patrician family that first appeared in Oslo in the 16th century. According to S.H. Finne-Grønn, it is descended in the male line from Hans Olufsson (ca. 1500–18 September 1570), a member of the royal clergy in Norway before and after the Reformation, who served as a canon at St Mary's Church.^[4][5]

Two branches of the family are descended from the brothers Hans Paus (b. 1587) and Peder Paus (b. 1590), who were born in Oslo and who both became priests. The current family is descended from provost of Øvre Telemark, Peder Paus, and his descendants have been priests, judges, merchants, ship-owners, industrialists and land-owners, and formed a dynasty of priests and judges in Telemark during the 17th and 18th centuries.

Members of the family have founded several enterprises in Norway, including the former industrial company Paus & Paus. Papal chamberlain and land-owner Christopher Tostrup Paus, heir to a timber fortune, was conferred the title and rank of count by Pope Pius XI in 1923, and joined Ointroducerad Adels Förening in Sweden in 1924. Since 1914, members of the family have owned several estates in Sweden, of which the estate Herresta is still owned by the family.

Among the famous descendants of the family are playwright Henrik Ibsen (through both his maternal grandmother Hedevig Paus and his father's step-father Ole Paus, Hedevig's brother). The most famous modern member of the family is the Norwegian troubadour Ole Paus.

In the course of its history, the family has used multiple seals and coats of arms, including a crane in its vigilance in the seal of Povel Paus on the 1661 Sovereignty Act and a bull's head with golden star used in the modern era, including in the comital letters patent. The etymology of the name is uncertain.

Early history

The earliest known ancestor according to the preeminent Norwegian genealogist S.H. Finne-Grønn is Hans Olufsson (born ca. 1500), a canon at St Mary's Church, the royal chapel in Oslo.^[4][5] As indicated by his patronymic, Hans Olufsson's father was named Oluf. Due to his career as a member of the royal clergy, Hans Olufsson almost certainly had a privileged family background. Most canons in Norway at the time were recruited from the lower nobility, and normally studied at universities abroad, which was normally only possible with an affluent background. Hans Olufsson served as a canon at St Mary's Church and a member of its cathedral chapter until it was merged with that of Oslo Cathedral in 1545, following the Reformation. St Mary's Church was a powerful political institution as the seat of government of Norway at the time, as its provost was also the Chancellor of Norway. Its clergy held high aristocratic rank ex officio, as decreed by Haakon V of Norway in a 1300 royal proclamation, with canons holding the rank of Knight^[6] (the highest rank of nobility in Norway since 1308), and were granted significant privileges. Hans Olufsson held a prebend (estate held for his lifetime), the prebend of Saint Mary's altar sub lectorio, also known as the prebend of Dillevik,^[7] that included the income of 43 church properties (36 huder, hides) in Eastern Norway. After 1545, Hans Olufsson served as a priest at Oslo Cathedral, but retained his prebend affiliated with the estate of St Mary's Church. He died on the night between 17 and 18 September 1570 and was buried in Oslo Cathedral on 19 September. Following his death, his prebend passed to Jens Nilssøn, the noted Oslo humanist and later Bishop of Oslo.^[5]

Hans Olufsson's son, as documented by court proceedings from 1602, was Povel Hansson (born ca. 1545–50), who was a wealthy merchant in Oslo. According to one theory, the family name is a patronymic based on his name. He was according to Finne-Grønn^[5] the father of the two clergymen who became the ancestors of two lineages of the family, and who have long been known as the family's earliest certain ancestors.

They were Hans Povelsson Paus (1587–1648), who became parish priest in Fredrikstad, and Peder Povelsson Paus (1590–1653), who became provost of Øvre Telemark. Povel probably died in the years immediately following 1602, and his wife Inger remarried to Anders Augustinusen, the parish priest in Fredrikstad and a member of the influential Floor family. Hans Povelsson Paus succeeded his stepfather as parish priest in Fredrikstad, and had a limited number of descendants, including his sons, Magister Povel Hansson Paus (1620–1658), parish priest in Lier, Bragernes and Strømsø, and Anders Hansson Paus (1622–1689), parish priest in Jevnaker.^[5]

The current family is descended from Peder Povelsson Paus (1590–1653). He was the first Norwegian appearing in preserved student records of the University of Copenhagen, and following his studies served as headmaster of Skien Latin School around 1617, parish priest in Vinje and parish priest in Kviteseid and provost of Øvre Telemark from 1633. He was married to Johanne Madsdatter. The tradition of Peder's great physical powers have been handed down in Kviteseid until the modern age. Peder was buried in the upper part of the old Kviteseid Church, where his son Povel placed a beautiful poem in Latin in memory of his father.^[5]

His son Povel Pedersson Paus (1625–1682) was parish priest in Hjartdal and married to Ingrid Corneliusdatter Trinepol (1632–1694), a daughter of timber merchant Cornelius Jansen Trinepol (1611–1678) and a member of the wealthy patriciate of Skien who was notably descended from Jørgen von Ansbach. Povel Pedersson Paus was among the 87 representatives of the Norwegian clerical estate who signed the 1661 Sovereignty Act, Denmark-Norway's new constitution which introduced absolute and hereditary monarchy.^[8] Magnus Brostrup Landstad describes Povel Pedersson Paus as a learned and pious priest who held on to Catholic customs in post-Reformation Norway.^[9] Well versed in Latin, he wrote a Latin poem about his father and personally educated his children. Among his ten children were parish priest in Kviteseid Hans Paus (1656–1715) and district judge in Øvre Telemark Cornelius Paus (1662–1723), from which two living main lines of the family are descended.^[10] During the 17th and 18th centuries, the office of district judge of Øvre Telemark was effectively hereditary in the family for 106 consecutive years and four generations.^[11]

Skien branch

The Skien branch of the family is descended from district judge in Øvre Telemark Cornelius Paus (1662–1723). He married Valborg Ravn (1673–1726), the daughter of his predecessor as district judge Jørgen Hansen Ravn and Margrethe Fredriksdatter Blom (born 1650). His father-in-law was appointed district judge in 1668 and stepped down in favour of his son-in-law in 1696.^[11]

Their son, the procurator (i.e. advocate) Paul Paus (1697–1768) served as his father's deputy judge and as acting district judge for some time, and married Martha Blom (1699–1755), a daughter of forest owner Christopher Blom (1651–1735) and Johanne Margrethe Ørn (1671–1745).^[12]

They were the parents of Johanne Paus (1723–1807), married to provost of Raabyggelaget Johan Christopher von Koss (1725–1778), forest inspector of Øvre Telemark Cornelius Paus (1726–1799), and Cathrine (Medea Maj) Paus (1741–1776), married to Counselor of Justice Anthon Jacob de Coucheron (1732–1802).

Cornelius Paus sold the former district judge's farm Haatvet in Lårdal in 1788 and moved to Skien, where he died in the home of his son-in-law Johan Andreas Altenburg in 1799. He was married to Christine Falck and was the father of Ole, Martha and Hedevig Paus, who all settled in Skien.

Martha Paus (1761–1786) married ship-owner and timber merchant Hans Jensen Blom (1757–1808), and her descendants include supreme court justice Knut Blom.

Hedevig Christine Paus (1763–1848) married ship-owner and merchant Johan Andreas Altenburg, and they were the maternal grandparents of playwright Henrik Ibsen. Among their descendants are also Prime Minister Sigurd Ibsen, film director Tancred Ibsen and the actress Beate Bille.

Ole Paus (1776–1855) became a burgher of Skien in 1798, and has numerous descendants. He married Johanne Plesner, daughter of the wealthy merchant Knud Plesner and Maria Kall, and who had formerly been married to ship's captain Henrich Ibsen (Henrik Ibsen's grandfather). Ole Paus and Johanne Plesner were the parents of procurator (advocate) Henrik Johan Paus (1799–1893), judge, magistrate, Member of Parliament and Governor of Bratsberg Christian Cornelius Paus (1800–1879), and merchant and ship-owner Christopher Blom Paus (1810–1898). Ole Paus also became the stepfather of Knud Ibsen. As Henrik Ibsen pointed out in an 1882 letter to Georg Brandes, the Paus family was one of the patrician families dominating the port town of Skien, where he grew up.^[2][13]

Henrik Johan Paus, a procurator who owned the estate Østerhaug in Elverum for some years, married Sophie Lintrup, a daughter of county chief physician (amtsfysikus) Christian Lintrup. They were the parents of Major and War Commissioner Johan Altenborg Paus (1833–1894), who married his second cousin Agnes Tostrup, a daughter of timber merchant Christopher Tostrup. They were the parents of land owner, art collector, philanthropist and papal chamberlain Christopher Tostrup Paus (1862–1943), who inherited much of his family's shares of the Tostrup & Mathiesen company and who owned the Trystorp and Herresta estates in Sweden. A convert to Catholicism, Christopher Tostrup Paus was conferred the hereditary title of count by Pope Pius XI on 25 May 1923, and joined the Ointroducerad Adels Förening in 1924, thus becoming part of Sweden's unintroduced nobility.^[3] He died in 1943 without issue. Among Henrik Johan Paus' descendants are also Director at the Directorate of Public Roads Hans Wangensten Paus (b. 1891) and Ambassador in Iran, Brazil and Mexico Thorleif Lintrup Paus (b. 1912).

Christopher Blom Paus was the father of iron and steel wholesaler, factory-owner and banker Ole Paus (1846–1931) and engineer Carl Ludvig Paus (1856–1953).

Ole Paus was married to Birgitte Halvordine Schou (a cousin of Halvor Schou), and their children were Martha Marie Paus (b. 1876), married to historian Otto von Munthe af Morgenstierne, businessman Christopher Blom Paus (1878–1959), Consul-General in Vienna and businessman Thorleif Paus (1881–1976), Else Margrethe Paus (b. 1885), married to businessman Nicolay Nissen Paus (her distant relative), and Fanny Paus (1888–1971), married to businessman Trygve Andvord (1888–1958).

Christopher Blom Paus (b. 1878) was the father of businessman Per Christian Cornelius Paus, married to his distant cousin Hedevig, Countess of Wedel-Jarlsberg, who owned the Esviken manor, and Else Birgitte Paus, married to Danish lawyer and papal chamberlain Gunnar Garth-Grüner (1903–93). Per and Hedevig were the parents of Cornelia Paus, businessman Peder Nicolas Paus and businessman Christopher Paus, married to Cecilie Wilhelmsen, whose family owns the Wilh. Wilhelmsen shipping company. Their daughter is designer Pontine Paus.

Thorleif Paus was married to Ella Stein and secondly to Countess Ella Moltke née Glückstadt. He was the father of General Ole Otto Paus, the grandfather of troubadour Ole Paus and the great-grandfather of composer Marcus Paus. Else and Nicolay Paus were the parents of Lucie Paus, married to land-owner Axel Løvenskiold, and Fanny Paus, married to Ambassador Henrik Andreas Broch.

Herresta branch

Carl Ludvig Paus (b. 1856) was the father of land-owner Herman Christopher Paus (1897–1983), who bought Herresta, one of the largest estates of Södermanland County in Sweden, from his relative, Count Christopher Tostrup Paus, in 1938. He was married to Countess Tatyana Tolstoy, a granddaughter of Leo Tolstoy. Their descendants own several estates in Sweden and form the Herresta branch of the family. Today, Herresta is managed by their grandson Fredric Christopherson Paus.

Many family portraits from the 17th century until the 20th century are found at Herresta, including a silhouette of members of the Altenburg and Paus families from shortly after the Napoleonic Wars, including Marichen Altenburg—the only existing portrait of any of Henrik Ibsen's parents.

Drammen branch

The Drammen branch is descended from Hans Paus (b. 1656). He was married to Susanne Morland (1670–1747), who was the daughter of provost of Øvre Telemark Amund Morland (1624–1700) and the granddaughter of land-owners Christen Andersen and Anne Gundersdatter, who owned Borgestad Manor. Hans Paus wrote the poem Stolt Anne about his wife's first cousin Anne Clausdatter, which is noted for being the first written in dialect in Norway. Their son Peder Paus (1691–1759) succeeded his uncle Cornelius as district judge of Øvre Telemark in 1723, and was in turn succeeded by his son, Hans Paus (1720–1774) in 1751. Peder Paus married Danish-born Cathrine Medea Maj Hermansdatter Arentsen (died 1736), daughter of the parish priest in Ølsted northwest of Copenhagen Herman Arentsen,^[14] and secondly his cousin Hedvig Coldevin Corneliusdatter Paus. Hans Paus, a son of the first marriage, was married to Danish-born Andrea Jaspara Nissen (1725–1772), daughter of Captain Nicolai von Nissen and Christence Groll and a member of a prominent and partially ennobled Danish family of land-owners who were descended from most of the Danish Uradel including Banner-Høeg, Kaas, Grubbe, Ulfstand, Bille, Reventlow, Juel, Lykke, Gyldenstierne, Rosenkrantz, Walkendorff, Ulfeldt, Rantzau and Brahe. Numerous of their descendants were named for the Nissen family until this day.

Hans' and Andrea's grandson was shipmaster in Drammen Isach Nicolai Nissen Paus (1780–1849), the father of ship-owner and shipmaster Nicolai Nissen Paus (1811–1877) and Gustava Hanna Andrea Paus (born 1815), married to ship-owner Hartvig Eckersberg (born 1813). Nicolai Nissen Paus was married to Caroline Louise Salvesen, a granddaughter of wealthy ship-owner and timber merchant Jacob Fegth (1761–1834), who contributed to the establishment of the University of Oslo. Their children were ship-owner Ismar Mathias Paus (1835–1907), Nicoline Louise Paus, married to ship-owner Peter Hannibal Høeg, and cand.theol. Bernhard Cathrinus Paus (1839–1907), who became the owner of Nissen's Girls' School, a private girl's school in Oslo which served the city's higher bourgeoisie. He also established the first tertiary education for women in Norway, a women's teacher's college. Ismar Mathias Paus' sons founded the Paus & Paus industrial company, which existed 1906–2001.

Bernhard Cathrinus Paus was married to Anna Henriette Wegner (1841–1918), a daughter of industrialist and land-owner Benjamin Wegner of Frogner Manor and Henriette Seyler, whose Hanseatic family owned Berenberg Bank. Henriette Seyler was mostly descended from Hamburg Hanseatic families such as Berenberg/Gossler and Amsinck and families of the Basel patriciate such as Merian, Burckhardt and Faesch, and more distantly from the Welser banking family. Bernhard and Henriette were the parents of surgeon and President of the Norwegian Red Cross Nikolai Nissen Paus (1877–1956), engineer and CEO of Akershus Energi Augustin Thoresen Paus (1881–1945), and lawyer and Director at the Norwegian Employers' Confederation George Wegner Paus (1882–1923).

Nikolai Nissen Paus was the father of surgeon and Grand Master of the Norwegian Order of Freemasons Bernhard Paus (1910–1999), who was married to humanitarian Brita Collett (1917–1998), daughter of land-owner Axel Collett. Their children included Secretary of State Lucie Paus Falck, former CEO of NCC in Norway Nikolai Bent Paus and surgeon Albert Collett Paus.

Seals and coats of arms

Parish priest in Hjartdal Povel Pedersson Paus (1625–1682), who signed the 1661 Sovereignty Act—the new Constitution of Denmark-Norway—as one of the 87 representatives of the clerical estate, used a seal with a reversed crane in its vigilance. His name is written in Latin as Paulus Petri Windius, i.e. with his patronymic and place of birth, Vinje.^[8] He used the same seal on the 1664–1666 census.^[15] Pliny the Elder wrote down the ancient legend that cranes would appoint one of their number to stand guard while they slept. The sentry would hold a stone in its claw, so that if it fell asleep it would drop the stone and wake the other cranes.

Hans Krag includes two coats of arms used by family members in the first volume of Norsk heraldisk mønstring with arms of Norwegian higher officials from Frederick IV's reign: Povel Paus' son, district judge in Øvre Telemark Cornelius Paus (1662–1723) used a coat of arms featuring a wild man, and Cornelius' nephew and successor as district judge, Peder Paus (1691–1759), used a coat of arms featuring a dove with olive branch standing on a serpent.^[16]

The modern coat of arms was adopted in the late 19th century, as an interpretation of an ambiguous seal from the 14th century used by the lawspeaker of Oslo, Nikolas (or Niculos in some sources) Sigurdsson Paus, at the time believed (but never verified) to be related to the same family, and was later given its current design by Hallvard Trætteberg, Norway's preeminent heraldic artist in the 20th century. It is blazoned in Trætteberg's book Norske By- og Adelsvåben as "in red, silver bull's head with neck, at the top dexter [six-pointed] golden star."^[17] This coat of arms is also used in the comital letters patent of Christopher Paus.^[3]

In his book Heraldisk nøkkel, Herman Leopoldus Løvenskiold mentions four arms associated with the name Paus, including the two arms mentioned in Krag's book, the arms with a bull's head and star, and an arms with six roundels (3.3) under a fess.^[18]

• 

  Povel Paus (1625–1682) used a reversed crane in its vigilance in his seal on the 1661 Sovereignty Act. Stylized modern drawing.

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  Coat of arms as used by count Christopher Paus, drawn in the older style.

• 

  Arms with comital heraldic crown as used by Christopher Paus, e.g. in the painting seen above, drawn in the modern style.

Name

The Paus name is first documented in 1644, when it was used in an oration in Greek, printed by Ulrich Balck at the University of Franeker, where Anders Hansson Paus (b. 1622) thanked his father Johannes Paulinus Pausius (i.e. Hans Povelsson Paus b. 1587) and four other benefactors (Chancellor Jens Bjelke, Bjelke's son-in-law Sten Willumsen Rosenvinge, Daniel Bildt and Bishop of Oslo Oluf Boesen) who paid for his education. A copy is held by The Royal Library, Denmark.^[5] Until the 17th century, Norwegian families rarely used family names—as Scandinavians traditionally only used patronymics—and this custom was only gradually adopted by a small number of families prior to around 1900. It is uncertain when the name was actually first adopted, and the etymology of the name is also uncertain. The name has an "exotic" form for a Norwegian name according to Halvdan Koht, who suggested it could nevertheless be of Norwegian origin and a patronymic based on the first name Paul.^[19] In that case it would necessarily refer to Povel Hansson (born ca. 1545–50) or (less likely) an earlier person. The genealogist S. H. Finne-Grønn has suggested that the name originated in a (possibly related) family in the 14th century, possibly under influence from German in late mediæval Norway.^[5] The researcher Ivar Utne has suggested that the name is cognate with the word pave, the Norwegian word for pope (Latin for "father", also "paus" in Dutch means pope), being used as a nickname.^[20]

Several other spellings of the name have been used, including Pauss. The spelling de Paus was sometimes used by Christopher Tostrup Paus, especially abroad, and is used in the Acta Apostolicae Sedis, the Annuario Pontificio^[21] and the Adelskalender of Ointroducerad Adels Förening.^[3] This spelling was used both before and after he was conferred a comital title by the Pope.

Several individuals in Oslo in the 14th century and around 1400 also had the name or nickname "Paus." Their possible relation, or a relation to the family that appeared in the 16th century, remains unknown. There was also a farm in Oslo called "Pausen" in the 14th century.^[5]

In fiction

In Norway, the fictional character "Jennings" was named "Stompa", an acronym of "Stein Oskar Magell Paus Andersen."

Henrik Ibsen modelled and named many literary characters for his relatives, including the character of "Hedvig"—a name derived from his grandmother Hedevig Paus and his sister Hedvig Ibsen—in The Wild Duck. Episodes in plays such as The Wild Duck and Peer Gynt were also based on events that took place in the Altenburg/Paus household and the Paus household at Rising, Skien in the early 19th century.^[22] In an earlier draft of Hedda Gabler, Ibsen used the name "Mariane Rising," obviously named for his aunt Mariane Paus from Rising, but later renamed "Juliane Tesman," and the warm portrayal of her in the final edition is also based on his aunt.^[23] His uncle Christian Cornelius Paus, who was both the magistrate, chief of police and district judge in Skien, is a possible inspiration for the character of Peter Stockmann, the magistrate, chief of police etc. in An Enemy of the People; they were also both descended from the real Stockmann family of Telemark.^[24]

Quote

• "When the Pauses are dead, they are dead, but my name will live on." (Knud Ibsen, father of Henrik Ibsen, referring to his and his wife's relatives following his own bankruptcy)^[25]

References

v t e Titled unintroduced nobility of Sweden Princely Bernadotte Cantacuzino Ducal d'Otrante Marquisal Joussineau de Tourdonnet Lagergren Comital Bernadotte af Wisborg Crapon de Caprona Fouché d'Otrante von der Groeben von Hallwyl Joussineau de Tourdonnet Lagergren Landberg Moltke Moltke-Huitfeldt de Paus von Platen zu Hallermund Révay Reventlow Stolberg Tolstoy von (af) Trampe Baronial von Bonsdorff von Bredow von Buddenbrock von Buxhoeveden Cronstedt von Grothusen von Gussich von Leithner von Mecklenburg von der Osten-Sacken von der Pahlen von Rosen (från Hoch-Rosen) Rosenørn-Lehn von Strauss von Wangenheim de Wendel Families that have been included in Kalender öfver i Sverige lefvande ointroducerad adel (1886–1899), Sveriges ointroducerade adels kalender (1912–1944) and/or Kalender över Ointroducerad adels förening (1935–)