Johan Lorentz Castenschiold (13 May 1705 – 19 June 1745) was a Danish nobleman, landowner and planter.

Early life

Johan Lorentz Carstens was born on 13 May 1705 on the island of Saint Thomas in the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies ( da, Dansk Vestindien) or Danish Antilles or Danish Virgin Islands were a Danish colonization of the Americas, Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, Saint Thomas ...

. His parents were a Danish planter named Jørgen Carstens and his wife Margrethe Volckers. Margrethe was the daughter of Governor

Johan Lorensen Johan Lorensen (d. 1702) was a Danish colonial administrator who twice served as governor of the Danish West Indies from October 1689 to 17 September 1692 and 7 April 1693 to 19 February 1702. Little is known about his career or personal life outs ...

, a wealthy man who whose financial status benefitted that of Jørgen's via the marriage. Prior to the marriage, Jørgen had already acquired a

sugar plantation A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...

known as Mosquito Bay.

Plantation-owning career

Carstens inherited the Mosquito Bay plantation in 1720 after his father died. He married a woman named Jacoba von Holten in 1728, who was the daughter of former governor Joachim Melchior von Holten. As a result of the marriage, Carstens acquired ownership over two plantations formerly owned by the von Holten family, the Pearl and Crown estates. Carstens also acquired 400 ''tønder'' of land on

Saint Croix Saint Croix; nl, Sint-Kruis; french: link=no, Sainte-Croix; Danish and no, Sankt Croix, Taino: ''Ay Ay'' ( ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an unincorpo ...

when Denmark-Norway purchased the island from

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

in 1733.

Later life and death

Carsten's family moved to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( or .; da, København ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a proper population of around 815.000 in the last quarter of 2022; and some 1.370,000 in the urban area; and the wider Copenhagen metropolitan ar ...

in 1739, where they lived in a

townhouse A townhouse, townhome, town house, or town home, is a type of terraced housing. A modern townhouse is often one with a small footprint on multiple floors. In a different British usage, the term originally referred to any type of city residence ...

in Store Kirkestræde. Carsten continued to manage his slave plantations and dealings in the Danish sugar trade. Von Holten gave birth to two sons during her marriage to Carsten; first was Carl Adolph Carsten, who was born in 1740, and the second was Joachim Carsten, who was born in 1743. Castenschiold died from

smallpox Smallpox was an infectious disease caused by variola virus (often called smallpox virus) which belongs to the genus Orthopoxvirus. The last naturally occurring case was diagnosed in October 1977, and the World Health Organization (WHO) c ...

on 19 June 1747. He purchased

Knabstrup Manor Knabstrup Manor is a manor house located near Holbæk on the Danish island of Zealand. It traces its history to before 1288. History Knabstrup is one of the oldest manor houses in Denmark. It is first mentioned in 1288 when it was confiscated fr ...

in 1745 and was

ennobled Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy (class), aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below Royal family, royalty. Nobility has often been an Estates of the realm, estate of the realm with many e ...

under the surname Castenschiold on 12 March that same year. His widow purchased the property of

Hørbygaard Hærbygaard is a manor house and estate located on Tuse Næs, Holbæk Municipality, some 80 kilometres west of Copenhagen, Denmark. The current main building was constructed for Melchior Grevenkop-Castenskiold in 1861-62 and later expanded with a ...

in 1748. She lived on the estate until her death in 1751.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Castenschiold, Johan Lorentz 1705 births 1747 deaths 18th-century Danish landowners Castenschiold family Danish planters Danish slave owners Danish sugar plantation owners Deaths from smallpox People from the Danish West Indies