Ove Gjerløw Meyer (c. 1742 – 4 November 1790) was a Norwegian jurist and government official, best known for founding the

Norwegian Society The Norwegian Society (''Norske Selskab'') was a literary society for Norwegian students in Copenhagen active from 1772 to 1813. Its members included authors, poets and philosophers. The Norwegian Society was formed in 1772 by Ove Gjerløw Meyer ...

Career

He was born around 1742, probably in

Frederikshald Halden (), between 1665 and 1928 known as Fredrikshald, is both a town and a municipality in Viken county, Norway. The municipality borders Sarpsborg to the northwest, Rakkestad to the north and Aremark to the east, as well as the Swedish muni ...

(now Halden in

Østfold Østfold is a traditional region, a former county and a current electoral district in southeastern Norway. It borders Akershus and southwestern Sweden (Västra Götaland County and Värmland), while Buskerud and Vestfold are on the other side o ...

, Norway). His father was headmaster and priest Edvard Offesen Meyer (1713–1760); his mother is not known. Meyer attended Christiania Cathedral School between 1759 and 1762 together with Norwegian folk poets

Johan Herman Wessel Johan Herman Wessel (6 October 1742 – 29 December 1785) was an 18th-century Danish-Norwegian poet, satirist and playwright. His written work was characterized by the use of parody and satiric wit. Biography Wessel was born and raised at Vest ...

and

Johan Vibe Johan Vibe (also Wibe) (16 April 1637 – 20 February 1710) was a Danish military officer and engineer, who was appointed Governor-General of Norway from 10 April 1708 until his death. Biography Johan Vibe was born on as one of two illegitim ...

. He then enrolled at the

University of Copenhagen The University of Copenhagen ( da, Københavns Universitet, KU) is a prestigious public university, public research university in Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark. Founded in 1479, the University of Copenhagen is the second-oldest university in ...

and took both the

cand.jur. Candidate of Law (Latin: ''candidatus/candidata juris/iuris'') is both a graduate law degree awarded to law students in the Nordic region as well as an academic status designation for advanced Law School students in German-speaking countries. ...

and

cand.theol. Candidatus theologiæ (male), Candidata theologiæ (female), abbreviated cand. theol. is an academic degree with a long tradition, awarded after a six-year higher education in theology in Iceland, Denmark, and Norway. In Norway, the title has re ...

degrees. After this he worked as a writer and private tutor in

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 ...

. During the "de facto regency" of royal physician

Johann Friedrich Struensee Lensgreve Johann Friedrich Struensee (5 August 1737 – 28 April 1772) was a German-Danish physician, philosopher and statesman. He became royal physician to the mentally ill King Christian VII of Denmark and a minister in the Danish government. ...

(between 1770 and 1772), royal censorship was lifted and Meyer marked himself as a Norwegian patriot. He is recognized as the founder of the

(''Det Norske Selskab''), a literary society for Norwegians in the city. The first meeting of the society took place on 30 April 1772. Among Meyer's primary concerns was that Norway did not have a university of its own. Like many members of the Norwegian Society, Meyer also wrote poems, but these have not stood the test of time, according to professor and literary historian

Harald Noreng Harald Noreng (25 April 1913 – 7 February 2006) was a Norwegian literary researcher and lexicographer. Personal life He was born on the island of Hisøya in the municipality of Hisøy in 1913. He was the son of boat builder Johan Wilhelm Ha ...

. In 1778, he returned to Norway to become

stipendiary magistrate Stipendiary magistrates were magistrates that were paid for their work (they received a stipend). They existed in the judiciaries of the United Kingdom and those of several former British territories, where they sat in the lowest-level criminal ...

of Tønsberg and Holmestrand. In December 1779, he married Susanne Fredrikke Hansen (1761–1785), daughter of a merchant in Holmestrand. From his seat in Tønsberg, Meyer wrote the publication ''Noget om Kjøbstaden Tønsbergs Forfatning'' in 1788. He wrote of the city's long history as well as its contemporary situation, and proposed the establishment of a Norwegian university in Tønsberg—however, this was first printed in 1822, eleven years after the Royal Frederick University was established in Christiania. Meyer would not live to see this happen; in 1790 he was promoted to presiding judge of Tønsberg and

Fredrikstad Fredrikstad (; previously ''Frederiksstad''; literally "Fredrik's Town") is a city and municipality in Viken county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Fredrikstad. The city of Fredrikstad was founded in 15 ...

, and to

assessor An assessor may be: * ''Assessor'' (fish), a genus of fishes * Assessor (law), the assistant to a judge or magistrate * Assessor (Oxford), a senior officer of the University of Oxford * Assessor (property), an expert who calculates the value of pr ...

of the court trial in Christiania in the same year. He had barely assumed the latter position before he died in November 1790. He was buried in Tønsberg.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Meyer, Ove Gjerloew 1740s births 1790 deaths People from Halden People from Tønsberg University of Copenhagen alumni Norwegian expatriates in Denmark Norwegian jurists Norwegian civil servants 18th-century Norwegian poets Norwegian male poets 18th-century male writers