Thomas Madsen (born 1652) - First Bearer of the Neergaard Family Name.
In the mid 17th century, the Danish king saw a chance to wrest back
from the nobility the power to rule the land which, little by little
over the centuries, they had whittled away from the throne.
His opportunity came when new trade routes opened from the Orient,
elevating Copenhagen from a town with a fishing business into a portal
into Europe from Russia. This turned the city became into a
thriving commercial center, quickly giving rise to a new power center -
a wealthy merchant class.
These nouveau riches families hungered for social status.
The king invited them to court and offered them the titles and estates
which they craved - boons which he had the authority but not the
practical power to grant..... at least not until he had the money to
raise an army of sufficient strength to take control of the country
back from the nobles. Would the merchants be interested in
giving him the money to make good his offer to them? Of
course - Yes!
With the backing of these new allies, the king was able to work his
will. He declared the old aristocrats’ huge estates
forfeit, graciously returning small portions to the original owners,
but distributing the remainder among his new bourgeois
supporters.
One of the aristocratic properties thus reapportioned was the General
Estate of Mattrup on Jutland. Mattrup was broken up into
four parts, two of which were named after their topography: the
Over Gaard, or upper farm, and the Neder Gaard, the lower farm,
which stretched for several miles along the banks of the Mattrup River
("neder" means low, as in "nether", and "gaard" means farm or
estate). Thomas Madsen, a peasant, but politically active
in the area and influential for the cause of the king, was the
recipient of this Neder Gaard. According to the custom of the
time, if a family had an estate, the estate's title was taken as the
personal name of the family members; thus Thomas Madsen became
Thomas of Neder Gaard, or finally, Neergaard.
Mattrup and the original Neder Gaard is in the Gredstrup (town), Sogh
(township), Trysting Herred (county), State of Skandenborg, in Jutland,
the portion of Denmark attached to the European mainland.
Madsen leased out Neder Gaard and moved to the island of Seeland, where
he took up a lease on another large estate, Svenistrup, in
Kimmerslø Ramsøe, county, state of Kjobvenhauns
(Copenhagen). He ran Svenistrup successfully, and eventually died
there at the end of the 17th century (subsequently, one of his
grandsons bought the estate, which remains in the family
today). Madsen left five children, among whom were the
three sons who became the founders of the three branches of the
Neergaard family.
The line of "de Neergaard" stems from Madsen’s grandson Peter, the
fifth child of Madsen's oldest son Johan. Two of Peter's sons
were ennobled in 1780, one having been Denmark’s Minister of War, the
other a jurist and member of the state cabinet. They and their
families are buried alongside Waldemar I, first king of Denmark, in the
Neergaard chapel in St Bent's Church (oldest large church in Denmark,
from the 11th century) in Ringstedt, first capital of
Denmark. This branch of the Neergaard family is still
prominent in Denmark today, holding a number of large estates and
chateaux on Seeland, southwest of Copenhagen.
Madsen/Neergaard himself is presumed to be buried in Kinnerslø
Churchyard. There is a verse about him inscribed on an old
stone there that translates as:
A peasant Thomas was and drove the plow
From Jutland to Sjieland made his way
Where he was tenant and at last a wealthy man
His son’s son’s three children are now noblemen.
Pharmacist John William (Johan Vilhelm) Neergaard, born 1810, who
emigrated to America ~1840 and founded our branch of the family here,
is descended from the line of Madsen’s oldest surviving sons:
first Johan; then Johan's oldest son, also Johan; again the
oldest son, another Johan; then his oldest son Henrick, who was
Johan Vilhelm’s father.
John William established a chain of pharmacies in New York City, in
Manhattan. He was one of the founders of Columbia University's
School of Pharmacy, and was the author of The State of New York's Code
of Pharmaceutical Ethics. His chain of pharmacies no longer
exists, but another Neergaard, Julius, from Peter's line, emigrated to
America 50 years later, and quite independently also established a
chain of pharmacies in New York City, this one in Brooklyn. Two
of these Brooklyn pharmacies still bear the Neergaard name, though they
are no longer owned by the family.