LYALL, JAMES [SSNE 4934]

Surname: LYALL, LYELL, LEIJEL, LEIJELL, LEYEL, LEYELL
First name: JAMES, JACOB, JAKOB
Nationality: SCOT
Region: ARBROATH, ANGUS

Text source

James Lyell (known as Jacob Leijel) was born in Arbroath, Scotland on 10/09/1612, the son of Patrick. He arrived in Sweden in 1638 with his brothers Adam [SSNE 6493], David [SSNE 824] and Henry [SSNE 3614]. In 1639 on 27 April, James became a burgess of Stockholm. The previous year, on 21 December, he sought citizenship for his servant James Reiff (Feiff?). It was apparently as a result of his second marriage that James came to own some ironworks. The brothers became important factory owners in Alvkarled, Rockhammar, Gottbohl (in Ununge Parish) and Harnas. James also had some financial transactions with the Momma-Reenstierna family in Sweden. The brothers also engaged in the Swedish iron trade, Jacob exporting 55,290 shipounds and David 12,706 shipounds between 1651-60, making them together the third largest exporter of the commodity from Sweden (behind the Momma-Reenstierna brothers and Abraham Bex). They also co-operated with Adam Raddou, the forth largest exporter who was Jacob Leijel's brother-in-law (adding his exports, the kin group of Leijel and Raddou exported the largest amount of iron, 130,000 ship pounds). The family partership also saw Raddou and Jacob lease all the Crown's forges and mines in the district of Nora and Linde during the 1660s. In the period between 1661-70, Jacob exported 33,465 ship pounds while David exported 21,980 ship pounds worth of iron, placing them above the Momma-Reenstierna brothers once more, highlighting their status within the iron export market. By 1674, James served as one of the 48 the 48 elders (äldste) of the city of Stockholm. In a letter from Jacob Fahlgreen to Jacob David on 26 June 1677, Leijel was noted as working with 'Callendar' and employing a factor called John Harwitz. That man shipped 300 pieces of copper money plate to London for Leijel on board the ship of Captain Heil (Englishman). Jacob got his birthbrieve from Scotland on 15/03/1655. He raised a case against James Feiff [SSNE 4779] on 14 September 1661. In 1688, he received a tax free house "skattehemman" in Knutby parish, Stockholms län. Leijel married Margaretha Eden (1627-1653) in Stockholm in January 1644 and had two daughters, Gertrude (b.7 May 1645) and Margareta [SSNE 7553] (b. 25 March 1647), a son Jacob [SSNE 822](b.19 March 1649), and two further daughters, Eva Maria (b. 12 July 1650) and Catharina (b.13 August 1651). After the death of his first wife he remarried to Barbera Maria Dress (1632-1694) whose father Andre came from France and mother, Elisabet Schaeij came from the Dutch Republic. James and Barbera had a son, Adam [SSNE 836] who was ennobled in 1719 and a daughter Maria [SSNE 7552]. After Leijel's death in 1678, he was buried in the St Nicholas church in Stockholm around 18 August, his widow Barbera took over the running of the Rockhammar factory. For Raddou to have been Leijel's brother-in-law, he must have married a sister of Jacob, or there was another wife, or one of the names of the wives is not complete. It should be noted that an important member of the Eastland Company was James sr's brother, Adam, who became a member in 1666 in London.

Sources: Swedish Riksarkiv, Förteckning över Momma-Reenstierna Samlingen, part C: brev till Bröderna Momma-Reenstierna ingångna skrivelser, section 3, Affärer och processer med nedan nämda enskilda personer, E2595, 127, no date; Swedish Riksarkiv, Bergskollegii skrivelser till Kung. Maj:t. 1640-1840 - Jakob Leijel 1665; Swedish Riksarkiv, Landshövdingarnas Skrivelser till Kung. Maj:t. Uplands Län - Jacob Leijel, Bruksförvaltare i Knutby sn, Stockholms län, 11/06/1688, 21/10/1690; Stockholm Stadsarkiv: Borgare i Stockholm, Register 1601-1650, p.45; C. Dalhede, Handelsfamiljer pa Stormaktstidens Europamarknad (3 vols, Partille, 2001), II, p.420; Svenska Adelns Ättartavlor, vol. 4, p.521; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.181-182; Carl von Linné 'Nemesis Divina' (1770), p.287. We thank Peter Leyel for this last reference.

Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar. Personhistoria https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069813_00435#?c=&m=&s=&cv=434&xywh=2215%2C1545%2C3608%2C2080

https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0069813_00459#?c=&m=&s=&cv=458&xywh=1355%2C1625%2C3614%2C2084

In relation to the Strang family: https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0073901_00236#?c=&m=&s=&cv=235&xywh=765%2C2199%2C4760%2C2609

Service record

SWEDEN, STOCKHOLM, ROCKHAMMAR: Arrived 1638-01-01; Departed 1690-10-21; Capacity ALDERMAN, FACTORY OWNER, IRON MERCHANT, purpose CIVIC, MANUFACTURING, MERCANTILE, TRADE