BLAIR, LAWRENCE [SSNE 24]

Surname
BLAIR
First name
LAWRENCE, LAURENCE, LORENTS
Title/rank
COLONEL
Nationality
SCOT
Social status
OFFICER

Text source

Lawrence Blair joined the Bergenhus regiment of conscripted soldiers in December 1645, taking over from Colonel James Murray [SSNE 113]. However Hannibal Sehested sent orders to him already on 22-24 May that year when he wanted 400 of Blair's men (along with a squadron of Patrick Dunbar's [SSNE 272]) to be sent to support governor Nils Krabbe. He is listed as colonel, and there was a captain Ludvig Blair also in service who was probably a relative. Three of Bergen's town guards once attacked Blair, after which Hannibal Sehested had them locked up (they petitioned for their release in January 1646). It appears that Blair, lieutenant-colonel Thomas Gray and some other officers and their families arrived in Bergen in May 1646. Lawrence had left the regiment by July that year. In September 1646 he travelled abroad with his wife, children and servants and according to one source they were drowned at sea. By November, Colonel Blair's brother requested that Sehested sort out the peasants who stole the family goods from this wreck and in return he would pay them a small salvage fee. Sehested agreed to sort it out. In March 1653 a Lawrence Blair was noted as 'stedfortroder' with the commandant at Varberg but little else is known of his service and it was perhaps another son, or perhaps Ludovig. 

Sources: Statholderskabets Extraktprotokol af Supplicationer og Resolutioner 1642-1652 (2.vols, Cristiania, 1896-1901), I, pp.270 (January 1646), and 344 (November 1646); J. Wahl, Det Gamle Bergenhusiske Regiments Historie 1628-1720, p.17; O. Ovenstad, Militærbiografier: Den Norske Hærs Officerer (Oslo, 1948), p.106; G. Lind, Danish Data Archive 1573; J.C.W. Hirsch and K. Hirsch (eds.), 'Fortegnelse over Dansk og Norske officerer med flere fra 1648 til 1814 (12 vols. compiled 1888-1907), II, vol.1; N. Nicolaysen, Norske Magasin Skrifter og Optegnelser angaaende Norge og forfattede efter Reformationen, vol.2 (Christiania, 1868), p. 210; Samlinger til det Norske Folks Sprog og Historie, I, (Christiania, 1833), pp.154-5, 159.

Service record

DENMARK-NORWAY, BERGENHUS REGIMENT, NORWAY
Arrived 1645-05-07, as COLONEL
Departed 1646-07-31, as COLONEL
Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY
DENMARK-NORWAY, VARBERG (BERGENHUS?)
Arrived 1646-08-01, as COLONEL
Departed 1646-10-30, as COLONEL
Capacity OFFICER, purpose MILITARY