The General at Bringsvær and the grave in Fjære church

Erasmus Dietrichson became commander of the 1st Vesterlen Regiment in 1724 and lived from then on at the farm Bringsvær in Fjære. The farm was spelled Bringsverd at the time. His predecessor, Colonel Steen Christensen Blix, had lived there and died there in December 1722. In 1729 Dietrichson bought the farm from the Crown. The local historian Johan Anton Wikander writes in «Begravelser i Fjære kirke» from 1988 that he is still remembered as «the General at Bringsverd».

The grave. When the general died in 1737 he was placed in the church’s burial vault on 15 August. The space under the floor of Fjære church is not a proper burial vault. It is divided in two by the foundations of the old chancel arch, with a large cellar under the nave and a smaller one under the chancel. There are 26 coffins, ten under the chancel and sixteen under the nave. Dietrichson was given a new burial place under the south wall, and the church received 20 riksdaler. Wikander believes that the burial place was paid for by the general himself as a family grave and was first used when he died.

The banner. Over the grave hung a banner with a long inscription until 1876. It called him major general, brigadier and colonel, and told that he was born in Copenhagen in 1673 and died at Bringsvær in 1737. It also has a verse, with the line «Fear God, be true to the King». The family register of 1882 says that the banner fell apart and that the remains were to be sent to the university.

Who lies there. During the restoration in 1951–52 some sand was dug away from the burial place, and a tin plate was found on coffin no. 25. It belongs to his son Johan Peter Dietrichson, a first major in the 1st Vesterlen Regiment, who died in Grimstad on 14 November 1760. The plate now hangs in the church porch. It says that he was born at Gudum Abbey in Jutland in 1717, while the family register of 1882 has 1712. The two other coffins in the burial place, nos. 24 and 26, are women’s coffins. Wikander believes they are the general’s wife, Edel Hylleborg Grubbe, and their daughter Anna Hedvig, but not which is which. Anna Hedvig died at Bringsvær on 11 November 1759 and was buried 15 days later, which suggests that the body was embalmed to be placed in the vault. Edel Hylleborg died at Bringsvær on 24 May 1762. According to the estate settlement she died poor, and she was buried on 7 June.

The general’s own coffin is probably gone. When the architect Holger Sinding-Larsen examined the church in 1937, there were four adult coffins in two layers and two children’s coffins in the burial place. Now there are three adult coffins. Earlier, no. 26 was taken to be the general and no. 24 the general’s wife with a small child in her arm, but Wikander explains that the child was taken from another coffin. He believes the general’s coffin was removed when the vault was cleared, and that the remains of an unpainted coffin from the 1700s under the nave may be it. The general himself has then probably ended up in the common grave under the pulpit. That is an inference, not something documented.

People could go down into the vault and see «the embalmed» until around the year 1900. The poet Vilhelm Krag wrote about such a visit in a short story from 1930.

The traditions. Wikander heard several stories about the general. They are tradition, not documented history. The general’s wife is said to have demanded respect and kept the postmaster in Arendal waiting for two hours, as he had kept her maid waiting. She complained to the government in Copenhagen, and the postmaster had to travel to Bringsvær and apologize. The general is said to have released pike into the lake Temsevann and ruined the trout fishing. On his deathbed he is said to have kicked the foot of his bed to pieces and shouted: «It is no way to die without bullets and gunpowder!» «The General’s diary» is said to have been in the district, but nobody has found it.

Wikander also reproduces drawings of the general and his wife from the late 1800s, made after paintings. Where the paintings are now is not stated in the article.