Virginia Christina Sofia af Forselles (née Carlskjöd) (26 April 1759 – 7 October 1847 at

Ruotsinpyhtää Ruotsinpyhtää (; sv, Strömfors) is a former municipality of Finland. Ruotsinpyhtää, Pernå and Liljendal were consolidated to Loviisa on January 1, 2010. It is located in the province of Southern Finland and was part of the Eastern Uusima ...

(Strömsfors) in

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

) was a

Swedish Swedish or ' may refer to: Anything from or related to Sweden, a country in Northern Europe. Or, specifically: * Swedish language, a North Germanic language spoken primarily in Sweden and Finland ** Swedish alphabet, the official alphabet used by ...

ironmaster, owner and manager of the local ironworks (''

ruukki Ruukki is a former municipality of Finland. It is located in the province of Oulu and is part of the Northern Ostrobothnia region. The municipality had a population of 4,505 (31 December 2006) and covered an area of of which is water. The popu ...

'' or '' bruk'') of

, a municipality in

.Juhani Aho:
Antti Ahlström, hans liv och verksamhet
', 1904 She was referred to as Her Grace by the locals during her lifetime.

Biography

Born in Sweden in 1759, she became the manager of the ironworks in the municipality of Ruotsinpyhtää in Finland in 1790 after the death of her husband Henrik Johan af Forselles, who left her with two children. In 1808, during the

Napoleonic wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

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n troops crossed the border (which was near her estate during that time) and plundered the village and the ironworks and made her pay for the upkeeping of a detachment of soldiers. After the war Virginia's plead for a tax relief was refused despite the big damages the war had caused. However, she was capable of doing many improvements to the ironworks, e.g. she installed a drop hammer in 1810. Sometimes she used questionable methods to get what she wanted; in 1816 she had to face the court for illegally removing timber from the nearby forests. Virginia was concerned about the low quality of craftsmanship especially after the death of the last guild-trained master smith which left no one who could train apprentices. In 1829 she mentioned that "because of the unskillfulness of smiths for many years we have not smithed more than 400 shippounds a year, sometimes a little more." In 1838 the production of iron bars increased, which was due to the hiring of Swedish smiths, and because of the increased domestic demand of nails, a new nail shop was built in 1846. Virginia died in 1847 leaving her eldest son, the almost 62-year-old Jacob Henrik af Forselles, as the manager of the ironworks.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Forselles, Virginia af 1759 births 1847 deaths 18th-century Finnish women 18th-century Finnish businesspeople 19th-century Finnish businesspeople Swedish ironmasters