Axel Mowat (1592 – 27 January 1661) was a Norwegian naval officer and land owner. Mowat was born in Sunnhordland, probably on the Hovland farm at Tysnes which his father had acquired ca. 1590. Mowat was the son of Anders Mowat til Hovland (–1606) and Else Christoffersdatter til Seim (–1622), daughter of Danish-Norwegian Navy officer Kristoffer Throndsen. His father was engaged in trade between Norway and

Shetland Shetland, also called the Shetland Islands and formerly Zetland, is a subarctic archipelago in Scotland lying between Orkney, the Faroe Islands and Norway. It is the northernmost region of the United Kingdom. The islands lie about to the no ...

. Besides Hovland, his father acquired several other farms within the vicinity of Bergen. Axel Mowat was a naval officer in the

Royal Danish-Norwegian Navy The history of the Danish navy began with the founding of a joint Dano-Norwegian navy on 10 August 1510, when King John appointed his vassal Henrik Krummedige to become "chief captain and head of all our captains, men and servants whom we now h ...

and from 1631 he was in command of various naval units in the North Sea. He had acquired property both through inheritance and marriage. After he retired from the admiralty in the 1640s, he started acquiring additional properties, mainly within Sunnhordland. He became the largest landowner in Western Norway at the time. Axel Mowat married Karen Bildt (d. 1662), daughter of Knud Danielssøn Bildt til Morland og Lungegården. He was the father of

Karen Mowat Karen Mowat (c. 16301675) was a Norwegian noblewoman, an heiress, and landowner of Scottish origins. Biography Probably born in Tysnes in present-day Hordaland, Karen Mowat was the daughter of Admiral Axel Mowat (15921661) and Karen Knudsda ...

(d. 1675) and father-in-law of Baron

Ludvig Rosenkrantz Ludvig Rosenkrantz (18 April 1628 – 23 August 1685) was a Danish-born noble, military officer, civil servant, and land owner who settled in Norway. He was a member of the noble Rosenkrantz family and the first Baron of Norway. Biography Lu ...

(1628–85). In time, his properties would form the basis for the estate, Barony Rosendal.

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