Johannes Søbøtker (9 May 1777 – 23 March 1854) was a Danish merchant, planter and colonial administrator who served as Governor of St. Thomas and St. John in the

Danish West Indies The Danish West Indies () or Danish Virgin Islands () or Danish Antilles were a Danish colony in the Caribbean, consisting of the islands of Saint Thomas with , Saint John () with , Saint Croix with , and Water Island. The islands of St ...

. His former country house Øregård in

Hellerup Hellerup () is a very affluent district of Gentofte Municipality in the suburbs of Copenhagen, Denmark. The most urban part of the district is centred on Strandvejen and is bordered by Østerbro to the south and the Øresund to the east. It compr ...

now serves as an art museum.

Early life and education

Johannes Søbøtker was born on St. Croix in the

, the son of planter and later General War Commissioner Adam Levin Søbøtker (1753–1823) and Susanne van Beverhoudt (1761–1811). His father owned the estates Constitution Hill and Høgensborg on

Saint Croix Saint Croix ( ; ; ; ; Danish language, Danish and ; ) is an island in the Caribbean Sea, and a county and constituent Districts and sub-districts of the United States Virgin Islands, district of the United States Virgin Islands (USVI), an Unin ...

and was for a while the largest landowner on the islands. Søbøtker was sent to

Copenhagen Copenhagen ( ) is the capital and most populous city of Denmark, with a population of 1.4 million in the Urban area of Copenhagen, urban area. The city is situated on the islands of Zealand and Amager, separated from Malmö, Sweden, by the ...

where he received a commercial education first in De Coninck & Co. and later his future father-in-law Lars Larsen's trading house.

Career in Copenhagen and the Danish West Indies

He was granted

citizenship Citizenship is a membership and allegiance to a sovereign state. Though citizenship is often conflated with nationality in today's English-speaking world, international law does not usually use the term ''citizenship'' to refer to nationalit ...

as a merchant and began trading on the

with his own fleet of merchant ships under the name Søbøtker & Co.. In 1804, Søbøtker became a partner in Vilhelm Duntzfelt's trading house, Duntzfelt & Co. He moved to the Danish West Indies and in 1821, he sold the house in Hellerup. When his father died in 1823 on St. Croix, he inherited the plantations, Constitution Hill and Høgensborg. In 1835, when Peter von Scholten was appointed to Governor General, he took over the position as governor of St. Thomas. He introduced the first steam mill in the Danish West Indies on his plantation Høgensborg.

Personal life and legacy

Søbøtker married on 2 March 1796 to Johanne Margrethe Larsen, daughter of timber merchant

Lars Larsen Lars Kristinus Larsen (6 August 1948 – 19 August 2019) was a Danish businessman, owner and founder of the Jysk retail chain. Career Larsen was also known under the name Dyne-Larsen (Duvet-Larsen) and was the founder of the Jysk retail chain ...

. The couple had four children. Søbøtker constructed the country house Øregård in 1806. The house was designed by

Joseph-Jacques Ramée Joseph-Jacques Ramée (April 26, 1764 in Charlemont, France — May 18, 1842 at the Chateau de Beaurains, Noyon) was a French architect, interior designer, and landscape architect working within the neoclassicist idiom. He was a student of the a ...

. He was known for his extravagant life style. He ran into economic problems. In 1848, Søbøtker returned to Copenhagen. He died in

Frederiksberg Frederiksberg () is a part of the Capital Region of Denmark. It is an independent municipality, Frederiksberg Municipality, separate from Copenhagen Municipality, but both are a part of the region of Copenhagen. It occupies an area of less tha ...

on 23 March 1854. He is buried at

Assistens Cemetery An Assistens Cemetery () is a cemetery that functions as an expansion of another, older cemetery often in relation to a city church. Already by the end of the 17th century, Danish authorities deemed that the conditions for inner-city cemeteries we ...

. He became ''kammerherre'' 1830, Knight of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1826, Dannebrogsmand and finally Commander of the Order of the Dannebrog in 1837. His former country house Øregård opened as a museum in 1821. The park is also open to the public. Søbøtkers Allé, located a few streets from the park, is named after him.

References

External links

Johannes Søbøtker
at geni.com
Source

{{DEFAULTSORT:Soeboetker, Johannes 1777 births 1854 deaths 19th-century Danish businesspeople Businesspeople from Copenhagen Danish planters 19th-century Danish landowners Danish slave owners Danish sugar industry businesspeople People from the Danish West Indies 19th-century Danish farmers Sugar plantation owners 1820s in the Danish West Indies