Noter : Occupation: Mayor (Borgmester) of Rønne.

Drowned on a seavoyage to Copenhagen.

It is not known with certainty who Mads Jensen Kofoed's (born 

possibly 1513? or 1517?- died before 1573, possibly 1552?) parents 

were: The historian Giessing, in 1786, states that Mads Jensen 

Kofoed was the son of Jens Madsen Kofoed (1481-1519) and grandson of 

Mads Jensen Kofoed of Hasle. According to Julius Bidstrup's 

"Familien Koefoed A og B" (published in 1887) his parents might be 

Jens Madsen Kofoed and Johanne Thygesdatter, but he is not certain. 

Also, Jørn Klindt in his book "På sporet af de første Kofod'er" 

(published in 1979) has his doubts on this matter, and can not state 

for a fact that any of this is true. Current evidence suggests that 

it is likely that Mads Jensen Kofoed was born 1513 in Lund, Skåne 

province; however, his parentage is still far from certain. In 1572 a

meeting was held by Bornholm's Parliament to establish who had the 

right to the status of "Frimand" (Free-man) on Bornholm: Mads Jensen 

Kofoed's sons Jens and Hans Kofoed were in attendance at that 

meeting. Of course, that meeting had a broader purpose: a war in 

which Lübeck and Danmark had fought side-by-side had ended two years 

previously, and there was another three years before the Lübeck 50 

year claim to Bornholm was to expire; although Lübeck claimed that it 

had been given a further 50 years. In this predicament it was wise 

for the King to establish locally situated allies; and Bornholm's 

influential free-men, who normally would have been snubbed by the 

King and the true nobility, were now in a position to receive 

benevolent treatment from the Danish government. At the 

"Frimandsmødet" held on September 6, 1572 there were 17 men named as 

being in attendance: the brothers Jens and Hans Madsen Kofoed, Peder 

Poulsen Kofoed, Oluf Bagge, Peder Uf, Peder Myre, Jørgen Gagge, also 

ten other men only listed by their father's name; and at which 

occassion three Danish Parlimentary advisers (Rigsråder) had been 

sent to preside over the meeting. The Kofoeds had no written proof 

of their free-men status; they were only able to give heartfelt and 

solemn words about faithful service. It seems they had an inkling of 

things to come, and therefore begged the King not to let himself be 

"seduced" by Lübeck's representative Sweder Ketting, "because you 

might expect that Lübeck only plotted to keep our island under their 

yoke." This is the first record in which we find the Kofoeds being 

mentioned as "frimænd". We know that they were related to Oluf Bagge 

and Peder Uf, and probably to several of the others. The question 

remains: did they already have claim to free-man status, or did they 

take advantage of the King's need for loyal followers - seeking 

acknowledgement of that status from their peers on Bornholm? It

seems that they had to make certain commitments to the King in 

exchange for the full rights to free-man status. Two of the newly 

appointed free-men had an important mission to Lübeck the following 

year. On September 6, 1573 King Frederik 2. wrote a letter to Lübeck 

stating: "Our citizens, the brothers Peter and Jens Kofoth" have 

applied to Lübeck's government for verification of their vital 

statistics, so as, among other things, they are free to serve their 

King - who then requests the Lübeck council to give sympathetic 

consideration to their case and verify their births in Lübeck's 

records. We often find such vital statistics proofs attached to the 

documents in probate court cases, they were actually signed by the 

parish "Elders" before the church parish registers (kirkebøger) came 

into use. They were especially essential if disagreement arose among 

the heirs. In the Lübeck family registry for 1573 we find the 

following entry: Kofoedt, Matthias, dead before 1573 on Bornholm, 

his wife: Johanna; their children: Peter, Jens, Boel - married to 

Oluf Bagge; Anneke - married to Michael Abraham. The reason that the 

family is registered in Lübeck exactly in 1573 is of course the 

application the brothers made that same year for their vital 

statistics. According to Jørn Klindt's "På sporet af de første 

Kofod'er" it appears that Gunhild Uf and Mads Kofoed were already 

married by 1547. The Lübeck legal-registry of 1573 states that a 

woman named Johanne was Mads Kofoed's wife and mother to four of his 

children; so accordingly it is not absolutely certain who was the 

mother of which of Mads Kofoed's children. The fact that in 1573 

Johanne was stated as the mother of Mads Kofoed's children may be a 

reflection of their legal relationship, rather than blood ties. Nor 

is it known for a fact which wife came first: Gunhild Uf or Johanne 

Jensdatter Myre? The exact birth years of his children are not 

known, but they are all thought to have been born between 1540-50. 

Jørn Klindt further writes that more information about Mads Kofoed is 

surely there to be found in the archives of København, or in Gottorp 

and Potsdam - where the remnants of Lübeck's archives are now held. 

As mayor for Rønne township Mads Kofoed was an influential man on 

Bornholm, so it would be rather peculiar if there weren't more traces 

of him to be found. It could be that he is the same person as the 

Mads Kofoed known to have died during a sea-voyage to København in 

1552. Part of the difficulty in answering this question lies in the 

fact that one Lübeck entry states he died "before 1573" and another 

states "in 1573"; which is correct and which in error? Mr. Klindt 

asks the following questions: What was the case of the vital 

statistics about? Why was it that Hans Kofoed, who on Bornholm was 

considered to be Jens Kofoed's brother, did not appear on the 1573 

Lübeck registry as part of the family? But, of course, who will 

research this? Who has the ability, resources, inclination, and 

time? His son Jens Kofoed is known to have died in 1625, an old man 

around 80 years old. The same is said of Hans Kofoed who died in 

1623, and he is with greater certainty considered to be the son of 

Gunhild Uf, as he is not mentioned in the Lübeck registry of 1573 as 

a son of Johanna and Mads Kofoed. Hans Kofoed has been listed by 

Bornholm's first historian Rasmus Ravn (who lived from 1603-77) to be 

the brother of the Judge Jens Madsen Kofoed; that he was not listed 

in the Lübeck family registry of 1573 makes for a stronger case that 

he was in fact half-brother to Jens Madsen Kofoed. Further proof that 

the two men were brothers can be seen by the fact that Hans Kofoed's 

sons were made the heirs to Jens Madsen Kofoed's property. Chief 

Justice Jens Kofoed had no direct heirs at the time of his death, so 

the four sons of his brother Hans Kofoed, and a certain Albert Hansen 

- on account of his wife Karina Mikkelsdatter, were made heirs to his 

reportedly large fortune. For who else was there left in 1625 to 

inherit? His brother Peder had long since died, as well as his 

children. His sister Boel's children with Oluf Bagge had left the 

island. His sister Anneke had married a Michael/Mikkel Abraham, a 

common Bornholm name, and so a daughter from their marriage would 

have been known as "Mikkelsdatter", which leads us to Karina being 

Jens Kofoed's niece. Working from the facts as I know them leads me 

to the following two possible senarios: 1) That Johanne Jensdatter 

Myre was Mads Jensen Kofoed's first wife, they probably married 

around 1540; they had four children and before 1547 Johanne dies. 

Around 1547 Mads Kofoed marries Gunhild Uf - they have a son, Hans, 

born around 1547-50. 2) That Gunhild Uf was Mads Jensen Kofoed's 

first wife, they probably married around 1540; within a year of 

giving birth to Hans, around1542, Gunhild Uf died. Mads Kofoed then, 

around 1543, marries Johanne - with whom he had at least four 

children who lived to adulthood. The first senario is generally 

thought to be the most likely, but that is just a guess. The key to 

this question is: Were Gunhild Uf and Mads Jensen Kofoed married 

before or in 1547? In the land-registry testimony of Bornholm's Land-

Register, dated May 22, 1522, is mentioned a P. Kofod as mayor of

Rønne; but whether or not he was related to "Familien Koefoed A or B" is not known. (Høbertz, Documentation of Bornholm's History, p. 63)