How the estate began

Introduction

The village of Zweins lies three kilometres east of Franeker. To the southwest of Zweins, there is a wooded area of about 2 hectares known as ’t Hofke. From the Middle Ages to the 19th century, this was the location of the Kingma State estate. Initially, it was a farm built on a raised mound, surrounded by farmland.

The location of Kingma State, southwest of Zweins, can be seen on the cadastral map of 1832 in HisGIS (Fryske Akademy and KNAW Humanities Cluster): the large area of the garden, the woods, and the driveway and access canal running southeast alongside the Franeker canal.

The area in which this state was located was, more than two thousand years ago, a large tidal wetland, a delta of the Oer-Boorne river. This area consisted of channels through which seawater flowed in at high tide and moved back out at low tide. Between the channels, salt-marsh ridges formed that fell dry at low tide. In times of lowered sea levels these salt-marsh ridges were suitable for simple farming. Here, over time, human settlements arose, primitive farmsteads. After some time the sea level began to rise and the people living here had to raise their dwelling place to keep dry feet. They did this raising with soil, but also with the manure of their animals. In this way, series of higher-lying, fertile terpen arose on the salt-marsh ridges. The salt-marsh ridges in this area mostly run east–west. Kinghum was one of the terpen on such a salt-marsh ridge. North of Kingma State lie other rows of terpen, including the row Franeker–Schalsum–Peins–Slappeterp. To limit flooding from the sea, people began building simple dikes around the terpen. Over the centuries these little dikes were joined together and continuous polders arose. Near Peins, the oldest sea dike of the Netherlands was excavated. It consisted of stacked sods of grass.

The Salverderweg, which for centuries connected Franeker to Leeuwarden, more or less follows the salt-marsh ridge on which Kingma State lies. On that ridge there are four named terpen: Edum, Sjaarda, Salverd and Kinghum. During a coring survey in June 2009 at the former site of Kingma State, a lot of pottery was found where the terp had been dug away in the 19th century. Some of it closely resembles pottery from the Late Iron Age; according to the report it may also date from the late Merovingian or early Carolingian period (7th to 9th century). Charcoal was also found in several places, which may point to early habitation. How old the settlement at Kinghum itself is, we do not know.

In a previous exploratory archaeological survey performed in 2003, it proved to be possible to trace the contours of the state and moat based on finds. At that time, no clear foundations were found of the state, although some debris consisting of red, orange and yellow bricks and pottery fragments were found from after 1500.

Around 1400, the farms on this salt marsh were owned by the Syaerda (Sjaarda) family. In the "Ordinance of Legal Procedure in Franekeradeel" and in the corresponding registry, which covers the period from 1406 to 1438, we come across Kinghum as the (only) state in Zweins with the right to appoint one of the eight judges of Franekeradeel once every few years. One of these eight judges was appointed grietman, a precursor to what we would now call a mayor.

Kinghum had the right to appoint a judge once every 7 years. Sikke Syaerda was the judge of Salverd in 1408, the judge of Syaerda in 1409 and the judge of Kinghum in 1413.

In 1413 Sicke Syaerda was therefore probably the owner, or a co-owner, of Kinghum, and probably of Salverd and Syaerda as well. Syaerda was a powerful family in Westergo from the 13th to the 15th century. In 1449, the Syaerda's had a castle built within the moats of Franeker.

When the state was built is not known exactly, but in 1413 Kinghum was already a ‘rechtvoerende’ sate: a sate that supplied a judge to the rotating court in turn. At that time, the sate was probably owned, at least in part, by Sicka Syaerda from Franeker, who was one of the most prominent nobles in Friesland at the time. He sat as judge for Kinghum.

The oldest known inhabitant of the sate was Jelle Kinghum, who would have been born around 1450.

Pieter, Jelle’s eldest son, is named as the user of the sate in 1511. According to the Register van den Aanbreng, a kind of tax register, he paid rent that year to his father and mother (16 florins), to the priest Johannes Petri in Franeker for a church prebend (14 florins), to Gerrolt van Herema (9 florins) and small sums to the vicar of Peins and the church of Zweins. Whether the share of Jelle and his wife was ownership or a rent charge, historians read differently. Herema’s share came from the noblewoman Edwer Syaerda: in 1510 she had left her share in the Kingum sate to her granddaughter Lutke, who was married to Gerrolt van Herema. This Herema might have lived at Heerma (or Herema) state, which was near Kingum in Zweins.

This Pieter, or his son Jelle, would later acquire ownership of the sate, after which the family name changed from Kingum via Kinguma to Kingma.