Abraham Skalle is an important part of this project. researching him was fairly easier in comparison to the rest of the family, the reason why is because he was quite known in the Kingdom of Norway and the Kingdom of Denmark. The reason for why he was known is because he was a pirate. He owned a few ships through his career and they were all built in the town of Lillesand or the town of Kristiansand by friends or acquaintances of him.

The documents in the wall contain letters from Abraham Skalle to family, friends and the Queen of England at the time due to his Piracy. They are sent from all over the world when he was out on missions, one of the most exciting ones are the letter from the Bahamas. But the documents are also business documents, and my father has spent a great deal of time analysing and looking at these documents. The one shown on the picture above is paperwork from one of his ships, it’s not known which ship but it was one of the ships he was the captain on. 

Information known about him is that he was born in 1775 and he died in 1854. He married Margareth Skalle, born Smith from the Isle of Man (Born 1775, Dead 1812) and they had a daughter together Maren Elisabeth Abrahamsdatter Skalle. It is believed that he met Margareth (also called Mary) on one of his missions. She moved to Skalle farm after their marriage. It is believed from parts of her diary that she was deeply unhappy on the farm due to her husband being away for long periods of time. The generations after have been told that she might have died on the front steps pictured in the photograph shown in this post. he later remarried after her death in 1812 but they were buried in the same grave. after his voyage with the Kingdom of England, he started working for the King of Denmark and was later knighted.

The picture as previously mentioned is taken in the 50s but the document was written the 22. July 1834 and was sent to Skallegård from Abraham Skalle. They are hard to read due to the condition the paper is in, but also the state of the writing and of how old the letter is. They were found on the walls of the second floor. most likely where the house has been extended in late 1800, it is clear from some of the letters that Abraham was close to the Johan at the time and they exchanged letters from wherever he was in the world at the time. The letter from the Bahamas ended up in the wall due to its importance for Abraham Skalle´s legacy and his importance.

These papers are important for this project because it sparked my fathers interest for the family history and due to these letters and documents he started asking questions and looking for answers. He id what I´m doing, researching on the internet first, but due to the lack of information online he went around asking instead. And now his love and care for his families birthplace lay deep in the work he does.

why were the documents places in the walls?

In many cases especially in Norway, old documents, newspapers, letter and items are found in the walls during restorations of old houses. It is more common that many people think. The Norwegian historian Frode Sprauten explains in a Norwegian newspaper article that in regard to this that in many cases things are placed in the wall as isolation and also during the second world war they were placed in walls and floor because they wanted to hide certain things from the Germans. Cases like the one experienced in our case are to keep things in the walls for later generations to find it because it might bare meaning for those who placed it there.

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Please note that some of these sources might only be accessed with a Norwegian IP address.

Information about Abraham Skalle: Knudsen, O., Larsen, P., Vennesland, E. and Larsson Fedde, H. (n.d.). Abraham T. Skalle – Sjøhistorie.no. Available at: https://www.sjohistorie.no/no/sjofolk/52047/ [Accessed 1 Jan. 2019].

information about hidden documents and things: Veka, C. (2015). Interessen for slektsforskning har eksplodert etter NRK-serie. [online] Dagbladet.no. Available at: https://www.dagbladet.no/kultur/interessen-for-slektsforskning-har-eksplodert-etter-nrk-serie/60805254 [Accessed 1 Jan. 2019].

book where the privateer letter was posted: Eide Johnsen, B. (2017). Lillesands historie 1800-1850. 1st ed. Oslo: Cappelen Damm As, p.83.