Christian Cornelius Paus (18 October 1800 – 8 April 1879) was a Norwegian lawyer, civil servant and politician. He was Governor of Bratsberg (now

Telemark Telemark is a traditional region, a former county, and a current electoral district in southern Norway. In 2020, Telemark merged with the former county of Vestfold to form the county of Vestfold og Telemark. Telemark borders the traditional ...

) and a Member of the

Norwegian Parliament The Storting ( no, Stortinget ) (lit. the Great Thing) is the supreme legislature of Norway, established in 1814 by the Constitution of Norway. It is located in Oslo. The unicameral parliament has 169 members and is elected every four years bas ...

Background

He was born at

Skien Skien () is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county in Norway. In modern times it is regarded as part of the traditional region of Grenland, although historically it belonged to Grenmar/Skiensfjorden, while Grenland referred the ...

, Norway. He belonged to both the Norwegian

patrician Patrician may refer to: * Patrician (ancient Rome), the original aristocratic families of ancient Rome, and a synonym for "aristocratic" in modern English usage * Patrician (post-Roman Europe), the governing elites of cities in parts of medieval ...

Paus The Paus family () is a Norwegian family that first appeared as members of the elite of 16th-century Oslo and that for centuries belonged to Norway's "aristocracy of officials" as priests of the state church, judges and other higher government of ...

and Plesner families. He was the son of ship-owner

Ole Paus Ole Paus (born 9 February 1947; full name ''Ole Christian Paus'') is a Norwegian singer, songwriter, poet and author, who is widely regarded as the foremost troubadour of the contemporary Norwegian ballad tradition ( no, visebølgen). During th ...

and Johanne Plesner (in her first marriage married Ibsen), and was the uncle of playwright Henrik Ibsen. He was both the half-brother of Henrik Ibsen's father, Knud Ibsen, and the first cousin of Henrik Ibsen's mother, Marichen Altenburg.

Career

Career in the civil service

Paus obtained the cand. jur. degree in 1825. He was employed in the Norwegian central government at the Ministry of the Navy from 1822 to 1836, as a senior adviser from 1826. He was bailiff in

Lista Lista is a former municipality located in the old Vest-Agder county in Norway. The municipality existed from 1838 until its dissolution in 1965. The administrative centre was the village of Vanse where Vanse Church is located. Lista munici ...

Vest-Agder Vest-Agder (; "West Agder") was one of 18 counties (''fylker'') in Norway up until 1 January 2020, when it was merged with Aust-Agder to form Agder county. In 2016, there were 182,701 inhabitants, around 3.5% of the total population of Norway. I ...

from 1836 until he was appointed as city judge (''byfogd'') in Skien in 1847. In that capacity, he also held the offices of magistrate (''magistrat''), chief of police (''politimester'') and city recorder (''byskriver''), thus making him the main representative of the state in the city. He held all four offices until 1874. He was

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

of Bratsberg three times (1862–1863, 1864 og 1868–1869), during the absences of Hans J. C. Aall.

Member of Parliament

He served three terms as a Member of

between 1848 and 1861. He was a member of the Committee on Finance in 1858 and of the Lagting from 1857 to 1860.

Personal life

He was the owner of the manor at Rising in

Gjerpen Gjerpen is a former township which is now part of the municipality of Skien, in Telemark county, Norway. Location The parish of Gjerpen was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). According to the 1835 census t ...

(''Rising i Gjerpen''), which he inherited from his father. In 1845 he married Edvarda Margrethe Qvale (1807–1880) from

Vega Vega is the brightest star in the northern constellation of Lyra. It has the Bayer designation α Lyrae, which is Latinised to Alpha Lyrae and abbreviated Alpha Lyr or α Lyr. This star is relatively close at only from the Sun, a ...

, a daughter of parish priest Andreas Qvale (1779–1820). She was the widow of the physician Lauritz Johannes Irgens (1807–1837), himself a son of the politician

Lars Johannes Irgens Lars Johannes Irgens (9 October 1775 – 22 April 1830) was a Norwegian jurist and public official. He served as a representative at the Norwegian Constitutional Assembly. Lars Johannes Irgens was born in Hof in Solør, Hedmark, Norway. He was ...

and a brother of the Minister of the Navy

Nils Christian Irgens Nils Christian Irgens (10 October 1811 – 25 April 1878) was a Norwegian military officer and politician. He was born in Sogndal as the son of Lars Johannes Irgens, founding father of the Norwegian Constitution. Nils Christian Irgens became a mi ...

. Christian and Edvarda had one daughter, Edvarda Margrethe Paus (1847–1903), who was married from 1870 to the military physician Jørgen Magnus Grønn (1843–1914).

Honours

*Knight of the Order of St. Olav

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paus, Christian Cornelius 1800 births 1879 deaths Members of the Storting Norwegian judges Christian Cornelius People from Skien