Wachtmeister (Swedish family)

Wachtmeister is a Swedish noble family from Livonia, who immigrated to Sweden in the 16th century. The name Wachtmeister is German for 'sergeant'.

Coat of arms of the Wachtmeister family

The family branched out in 1683, and was "introduced" at the Swedish House of Nobility in 1689,[1] in a baronial and a comital main branch; Wachtmeister af Björkö no. 31 and Wachtmeister af Johannishus no. 25. The baronial branch was dissolved on the "sword side" (svärdssidan, literally "on the side of the sword" meaning without any male heirs) in Sweden on 11 July 1889, but survives in Germany, where the principal is the Prussian Count Axel-Dietrich von Wachtmeister (born 1941). A branch of the Wachtmeister af Björkö was elevated on 17 January 1816 into a Prussian, comital dignity.

History

The Swedish noble families of Wachtmeister, which originated from Hans Wachtmeister, who from Livonia came to Sweden and was ennobled in 1578. His grandson Hans became a Friherre with Björkö (in Karelia) in 1651 and is the progenitor of the baronial family of Wachtmeister af Björkö. Two of his sons became counts, namely Hans in 1687, progenitor of the comital family of Wachtmeister af Johannishus, and Axel in 1693, progenitor of the comital family of Wachtmeister af Mälsåker (in Södermanland), which dissolved on the "sword side" (svärdssidan, literally "on the side of the sword") in 1708. The aforementioned Friherre ("Baron") Hans Wachtmeister's grandson Karl Adam received count's dignity in 1799. His nephew, Friherre Karl Axel Didrik (1780–1837), who left Swedish service in 1806 with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel and settled in Pomerania, became a Prussian count in 1816.[2]

Count Hans Wachtmeister af Johannishus' grandson's son, the Lord High Steward Carl Axel Wachtmeister, adopted, with the support of a royal letter on 5 April 1808, after his mother he took up the entailed estate of Trolleberg, the name Trolle-Wachtmeister. This name, along with the Trolle coat of arms in conjunction with that of the Wachtmeister coat of arms, must be borne by his descendant of the Wachtmeister family, who holds the mentioned entailed estate (the right of the entailed estate was transferred in 1830 from Trolleberg to Ljungby, later called Trolle-Ljungby).[2]

Wachtmeister af Björkö no. 31

Wachtmeister af Johannishus no. 25

Wachtmeister af Mälsåker no. 39

Others

References
  1. Anrep, Gabriel (1887). Sveriges ridderskap och adels kalender för år 1888 (in Swedish). Stockholm: Kunskapsförl./Norstedt. p. 1095. SELIBR 3683597.
  2. Westrin, Theodor, ed. (1921). Nordisk familjebok: konversationslexikon och realencyklopedi (in Swedish). 31 (New, rev. and richly ill. ed.). Stockholm: Nordisk familjeboks förl. pp. 221–222. SELIBR 8072220.
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