Jelle Kingum, the first of the line

The earliest Kingma we know from the archives is Jelle Kingum. He must have been born around 1450, was probably still alive in 1514 and had probably died by 1529. In 1514 his son Pieter still paid rent to “zyn faer ende moer” (his father and mother); in 1529 Pieter spoke for himself and his brothers and sisters, and no longer for his father. No gravestone of Jelle is known: the oldest Kingma tombstone in the church at Zweins is that of his great-grandson Inte Jelles, who died in 1590. Jelle lived on a sate (farm) called Kingum. His family name was based on the location of the sate: Kingum.

In 1511 the sate was worked by Pieter Jelles Kingum, a son of Jelle, the family’s ancestor. He rented it; the rent went to his father and mother, to Gerrolt Herema (his wife, a granddaughter of Edwer Sjaerda, had inherited an annuity from the property in 1510), to a vicar in Franeker, to the vicar of Peins and to the church of Zweins. In addition, every other year he had to feed a stallion for Swob Sjaerda and Herema.

In 1552 Pieter represented Franekeradeel at the provincial diet. His son Jelle Pieters succeeded him as the farmer on the sate. This Jelle had four sons: Pieter Jelles, Dirk Jelles, Hendrik Jelles and Inte Jelles. Pieter Jelles lived at Kingma, was a member of the Provincial Executive (Gedeputeerde Staten) of Friesland from 1601 to 1606 and died around 1610; Dirk Jelles was a farmer on the Sjaerda state at Dronrijp; and Hendrik Jelles was “tot Peyns wonende” (living at Peins).

The Sjaerda family had strong ties with Kingum. In 1413 Sicke Sjaerda of Franeker was ‘Ruychter van Kinghum’ (judge on behalf of Kinghum) in the rotating court of Franekeradeel; the sate probably belonged at least partly to him at the time. Kingum was a ‘rechtvoerende’ sate, which in turn supplied a judge, and Sjaerda, as a chieftain (hoofdeling), was one of the most important nobles of Friesland.

What was the relationship between these Kingmas and the wealthy noble Sjaerda family of Franeker? In Zorgen voor zekerheid, Dr Hans Mol et al. explain that Frisian chieftains often provided generously for their (plentiful) bastard offspring in their wills. As a result, these bastard heirs often ended up among the eigenerfden, the social elite just below the chieftains. An eigenerfde was a farmer who owned his own land. In 1511 and 1514 Pieter was still a tenant; from the middle of the sixteenth century the Kingmas are recorded as eigenerfden. Could it be that illegitimate blue blood ran in their veins? No source has been found that shows it. In 1529 Gerrolt Herema, on behalf of himself and the Sjaerdas, in fact opposed Pieter’s claim to the hunting rights on the land of the sate.