Our best understanding is that the word cateia was the name, originating in an older language but imported into and preserved in Latin, for a wooden weapon with a bent or angular shape. A cateia could be thrown or could be used as a club or mace. Perhaps something similar to a leangle or non-returning boomerang as used by First Nations warriors in New Holland/Australia. The word shows up in Kategatt, the bent or angular gateway or sea channel to the east of Danmark.
Hegne, meaning fence or hedge, is cognate with an obsolete English word, hain, meaning to enclose or protect something (such as pasture, especially to protect it from freely-grazing cattle) with a fence or hedge. The soft 'g' in spoken Danish means the pronunciations of hegne and hain are not too different (apart from the terminal vowel on the Danish word).
The hut with a bent fence, Katshegne Huset, stood until 1891 near the intersection of Tokkerudvej and Skovvej, on the outskirts of Morud and about 15 kilometres north-west of Odense on Fyn.
In the 18th and 19th centuries, Katshegne was just a small part of the estate owned by the baron of Langesø manor. A cottage, known naturally as Katshegne Huset, was home to a peasant family who worked on the baron's farmlands.
In the 19th century, the baron of Langesø began reafforesting his land. The baron was in the vanguard of those Danish landowners who realised that forest clearing had gone too far (to the point that only 4% of Danmark was still forested in 1800). He introduced new tree species, especially from North America, and returned much of his lands to forest.
Reafforestation put additional economic pressure on the peasant farmers at Katshegne, reducing their opportunities to find employment as day labourers, on Langesø estate lands. Emigration to cities in Danmark or overseas, became important to those living at Katshegne.
The
In mid-1778, Maren Jørgensdatter (daughter of Jørgen Nielsen and Maren Nielsdatter from Rødeleed) married a cavalry soldier Lars Jensen (the first son of Jens Larsen - who had been a soldier with Major Chremor's Company - and Karen Jørgensdatter) and Lars became the tenant farmer of Katshegne. In addition to Lars's parents (who became dependent on parish alms in their later years), Katshegne Hus was home to Lars and Maren's children:
Jørgen Larsen (baptised in 1779);
Jens Larsen (baptised in 1781);
Niels Larsen (born in 1783, moved to Nyborg);
Hans Larsen (born in 1786, died in 1787);
Marie Catherine Larsdatter (born in 1788);
Hans Larsen (born in 1791, was a soldier with Prinz Ferdinand's Dragoons in France in 1818)
Lars Jensen died in 1818. An official from the manor found that the family was without debt and their possessions (including a table, chairs, a bed and two sheets, shoes and socks, a loom, a seven-year-old cow, a sheep and its lamb, and a pig) were worth a total of 103 rigsdalers 1 mark and 8 skillings. The burial cost 19 rigsdalers, and other expenses, including taxes for the baron, were 9 rigsdalers 1 mark and 8 skillings. The manor official distributed the remaining 75 rigsdalers according to a traditional formula: one-half to the widowed spouse and one-half shared among the children on the basis that sons received a full share and daughters a half-share. Each son therefore received 8 rigsdalers worth of goods, not enough for any one of them to inherit the cow, which had been valued at 10 rigsdalers.
Jens Larsen became the next tenant farmer of Katshegne, with spouse Anne Margrethe Andersdatter (baptised in 1778, a daughter of Anders Hansen and Maren Hansdatter of nearby Komigen). Jens and Anne's children included:
Anders Jensen (baptised in 1805, became a small holder of Veflinge Gård);
Lars Jensen (born in about 1809, became a small holder at Havre);
Hans Jensen (born in 1814, became a small holder at Bredbjerg); and
Maren Jensdatter (born in 1818).
Anna Margrethe Andersdatter died in 1842. A manor official drew up the list of the assets in Katshegne Hus, showing a total value of 128 rigsdalers and 5 marks, 20% higher than in 1818. The family's assets included a clock (valued at 4 rigsdalers), chairs, a wood-fuelled heater (6 rigsdalers), a mirror, a down-filled doona (4 rigsdalers), storage chests, beer-brewing equipment, a spotted 5-year-old cow (20 rigsdalers) and red calf (5 rigsdalers), an old work wagon (10 rigsdalers), two wheelbarrows (7 rigsdalers), shovels, spades and axes, two ewes and a ram (7 rigsdalers 3 marks). In addition, God's holy name was invoked to declare that Maren Jensdatter owned her bed and bedcloth, a large chest and a chest for clothes, a cow and a sheep, while Hans Jensen owned his bed and bedcloth, a chest for clothes, a cow and two sheep.
Expenses were also higher, however. The burial cost 25 rigsdalers, plus 30 rigsdalers for additional expenses. And the manor charged 6 rigsdalers, 5 marks and 15 skillings for the paper used to record the assets. That left only 66 rigsdalers, 5 marks and 1 skilling to be inherited, less than that available in 1818 after Lars Jensen's death. The elder two sons, Anders and Lars, declared they made no claim on the estate, leaving it all to their father and their younger siblings.
With his mother dead and his father aged 60, Hans Jensen became the effective farmer at Katshegne. He was therefore able to marry, which he did with Karen Rasmusdatter later in 1842 (6 months after his mother died and 5 months after the manor distributed the family assets). Hans and Karen left Katshegne for a small-holding at nearby Bredbjerg and had seven children:
Rasmus Hansen (born in 1843, emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, in 1869, and later returned to Fyn to buy land and marry);
Jens Hansen (born in 1846, emigrated to Melbourne, Australia, in 1866 and later married Mary Ellen Williamson of Loddon, Australia);
Anders Hansen (born in 1848, emigrated to Melbourne, Australia in 1869, married Susannah Catherine Leggett of Adelaide, Australia);
Lars Christian Hansen (born in 1851);
Niels Hansen (born in 1854);
Anna Marie Hansen (born in 1857); and
Hans Peder Hansen (born in 1861).
My thanks to Mr Sven Rask, formerly of the Lokalhistorisk Arkiv for Søndersø kommune, for his help reading Langesø manor records and the church books of Vigerslev sogn; Mr Jørgen Pedersen, of Tværskov, for his help locating the original site of the Katshegne Huset; Ms Lisa Meta Erbs Jensen of Middelfart for her help tracing the parental lines of Maren Jørgensdatter and of Karen Jørgensdatter; and Mrs Birgit Eggert & Mr Bent Eggert of Slagelse for information on the family of Jens Larsen and Karen Jørgensdatter.
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