STRANG, WILLIAM [SSNE 807]
Text source
William Strang was a Scot who was made a burgess of Stockholm in 1649 and who was engaged in the iron trade. There are numerous records relating to Strang in the Swedish archives. From these letters it emerges that William Strang also had a son of the same name who became a burgess of Amsterdam in the Dutch Republic and certainly had many trading links with other Scots, although one of these letters erroneously implies that William might have been English. This has been disproved by the information found in Reid's history of Forfar which recounts William Strang's gifting of a bell to the burgh in 1656. William senior was the brother of Robert Strang [SSNE 3606], noted as a native of Forfar and a burgess of Stockholm, who had initiated the project of gifting a bell to the kirk and burgh of Forfar. After Robert's death in April 1651 his brother, William, took over the project. On 2 August 1657 William sent a letter to the Forfar magistrates in reply to one received from them dated 2 June and in which he decreed that the proceeds from the use of the bell should be divided amongst the poor of Forfar. William was married to one Margaret/Margaretha Pattillo [SSNE 6495] and they had at least two sons, David [SSNE 4927] and William [SSNE 6643], who were both born in Sweden. In 1648 he also buried a child in Maria Kyrka in Stockholm, though it is not certain if it was his own. In 1657 he buried two children, nether of who were his own, and one of who was called Joran Petrie. After his death, Strang's widow Margaret was still counted among Stockholm's most important shipowners, suggesting that William had been as well.
Sources: Riksarkivets ämnessamlingar. Personhistoria https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0073901_00218#?c=&m=&s=&cv=217&xywh=481%2C867%2C6524%2C3763
https://sok.riksarkivet.se/bildvisning/A0073901_00263#?c=&m=&s=&cv=262&xywh=3113%2C567%2C2751%2C1508
See Stockholm Stadsarkiv: Borgare i Stockholm, Register 1601-1650, p.79; Stockholms Stadsarkivet, Maria Församling, Register över Döda, 1654-1655, p.320; Stockholms Stadsarkivet, Maria Församling, Register över döda, 1656-1680, p.483; T. Fischer, The Scots in Sweden (Edinburgh, 1907), p.216; A. Reid, The Royal Burgh of Forfar a local history (Paisley, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Forfar, 1902), p.136, pp.417-8 (with thanks to Dr David Horsburgh for this reference); Leos Müller, The Merchant Houses of Stockholm, c.1640-1800 (Uppsala, 1988), pp.87 and 182. This author notes Strang junior as English, probably due to the Biographica reference; Steve Murdoch, Network North: Scottish Kin, Commercial and Covert Associations in Northern Europe, 1603-1746 (Brill, Leiden, 2006), pp.180, 211, 246.
Service record
- SWEDEN, THE DUTCH REPUBLIC, STOCKHOLM, AMSTERDAM
- Departed 1675-12-31
- Capacity BURGESS, IRON MERCHANT, SHIP OWNER, purpose CIVIC, MERCANTILE, TRADE