Matr. Nr. 63 Frette

Original Norwegian pages:

(photo courtesy of http://www.etne.kommune.no/?cat=147990&folderid=62927)

translation by cousin Tone (also a Frette descendant)


Any certain interpretation of the name Frette is not given. It might  be a combination of the river name Frett and the female word vin, meadow. Frett should have connection to the verb å fretta, to ask. So the river roar could be taken as a omen or prediction. If it is the river Hellaug it is thought of , this explanation gives a special good meaning, because Hellaug was a holy water in pagan times.
    Frette lies on the big, flat areas by the higher end of Stordalsvatnet and was the biggest farm higher up than Rame. The old land rent  was 4 lauper butter and 2 barrels of grain, and tax rent was set to 5 1/3 laup. In addition came the two deserted farms further up the valley which was used under Frette. Klokkarteigen on the south side of the river by Skjold was valued to 1/3 laup butter and belonged to Skånevik prestebol (the church).  Late in the 1600s  it was under Grindheim church. Volme further in the valley was vallued ½ laup butter and was owned by Halsnøy monastery. Both pieces of land was fenced and used for haymaking. The two farms were the source of two court actions late in the 1700s.
The first came when Gotskalk Skjold in 1779 complained that the cattle from Frette came over the river from Klokkarteigen into his field before he had finished harvesting. The users of Frette answered that the cattle from Skjold sometimes grazed on their side. But the judgement was that Frette should keep their cattle away from the Skjold field ”in illegal time”, that is before cutting was finished.
The second case came in 1790 and was about the grazing land in Øyfjellet on the south side of the river. Frette claimed this to be old mountain pasture under Volme, but after a long process  the claim was denied and the pasture given to Øyno (p.15 and 423).
    In old times Munkeliv kloster (monastery) owned Frette, and the users were tenant farmers. About 1660 the monastery farms were sold, and the priest Elias Andersen in Skånevik bought Frette. From his heirs, Rasmus Nilsson bought  his part of the farm in 1708 and 1711. Hans Rasmussen Håland bought the other part  in 1711 and took it over in 1723. From then on both parts had freeholders. When Halsnøy monastery sold in 1758, the two users bought Volme and split the farm between themselves.

In the1700s floods and avalanches damaged Frette several times. In 1743 the rivers dug out much of the farms best field. The river from Hellaug took out several bridges and destroyed the road to the summer farm. At the same time, two avalanches had come down by the so called Kleive-barn and destroyed both pasture and good hayfield. Both Klokkarteigen and Volme had  damages from flooding, and several smaller avalanches had destroyed most of these hayfields. In 1747 this damage was so serious that the farms tax (the deserted farms included) was reduced from 6 to about 3 ½ laupar. The biggest reduction was on now part no 1-5. After the next accident in 1770 it was only Kristen Hansson on the other part who applied for reduction. The water had rissen so high that his fields and meadows along the waterfront were spoiled. An avalanche from Fretshovda had ended up in his home field. He now got a reduction so that the two parts of Frette were again equal. The total tax was now on the small side of 3 laupar. It was only the half of the tax the farm had gotten in 1667.  The land rent was reduced accordingly.
”Good field, thin and long windy meadow”, it says in the land register 1667. It estimated the farms seed grain to 13 barrels and the farm could winter feed  6 horses, 50 cattle and 60 sheep and goats. Land register 1723  says on the contrary that the field is not annual for  grain, but meadow and rough grazing are good. Seed grain was now  17 ½ barrels and the gross crop about 80 barrels. The farm was good enough to winter feed 4 horses, 70 cattle and 66 sheep and goats. To compare it can be mentioned that after the last damage in 1770 the farm could only feed 20 cattle and 20 sheep and goats and sow 7 barrels! But it soon appeared that Frette was not all that reduced.
The users of Frette had a mill each and one mountain dairy farm together 5 km from the farm.
USERS
Part(farm) nr 1-5: See I p.470
1. Nils is mentioned as user  here from 1620, but he is for sure the same Nils who is known from the years 1605-17 at the same farm. The bailiff`s accounts inform that in 1617-18 Nils was married to Randi Torsdatter who was fined  ”of her outermost property ” 70 dalar after having hit her maid servent with a stick, and the same girl was found dead in the river (according to tradition in Slokabekken) some days later. Randi is most likely  the daughter  of the previous  user Tor. Nils can be the son of the user Halldor (or Hallvard) on the neighbouring part on Frette.  Nils must be dead  about  1655-1660.
Married to Randi Torsdaughter  f. on Frette, mentioned 1617-18 and 1645.
Children: a. Kari, mentioned 1645
           b. Synneva, mentioned 1645    
2.Nils Eriksson f. 1622 on Frette, d. 1696 on Frette, was born on the neighbour farm and was the son of the brother of the previous user. He took over the farm some time in the middle or the end of the 1650s. Nils was a wealthy man who in the 1680s owned parts in the farms Vinja, Flokatveit and Kaldheim in Etne. In 1695 he was mentioned as a seller of a part in Nordheim.


            






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