Thomas Madsen
- Born 1652 -
The first bearer of the Neergaard family name

In the mid 17th century, Christian V, king of Denmark, saw a chance to wrest back from the nobility the power to rule his country.  The authority of the kings had, little by little over the centuries, been whittled away from the throne. Christian's opportunity came when new trade routes opened from the Orient, elevating Copenhagen from a town dependent on fishing to a portal into Europe from Russia, turning the city into a thriving commercial center and giving rise to a wealthy merchant class.

These nouveau riche families hungered for social status, some endowing their children generously to make them desireable matches for the heirs of nobility. The king, shrewdly seeing his chance, called these Copenhagen merchants together and offered them the opportunity to have a direct route to the titles and estates they coveted.  He explained that while he had the authority to give them all their sought-after privileges, he could not, without an army of sufficient strength to take back control of the country, exert the power needed to enforce his decisions.  For that he needed money to hire soldiers.  Would the merchants be interested in funding his army? The answer was Yes.

With the backing of these allies, the king was able to work his will. He declared the old aristocrats’ huge estates forfeit.  He graciously returned small portions to the original owners, but distributed the remainder among his new bourgeois supporters.

One of the 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 politically active peasant in the area, influential for the cause of the king, was the recipient of the Neder Gaard. According to custom, when a family had an estate, its title was taken as the personal name of the family members; thus Thomas Madsen became Thomas of Neder Gaard, the name eventually eliding to Neergaard.

MATTRUP

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 as a peninsula to the European mainland.  (Copenhagen is on an island.) 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.

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The line of "de Neergaard" stems from Madsen’s grandson Peter, the fifth child of Madsen's oldest son Johan. Three of Peter's sons were ennobled in 1780, one having been Denmark’s Minister of War, another 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.