Fish-rights

Stories about fish-rights and bounderie-rights

In 1672 Ola Lægreid summoned the users on Hæreid to hear witnesses about how fishing was carried on in the old days. The first witness was Ola Sjurson. His father lived on Hæreid for about 40 years, and Sjur was home with his father. At that time Ola Robertson had a "boat landing' below Hæreids-hølen, but there were no fish wardens. There had been a warden but he was old and "avrådden". Hæreid people owned land on the other side of the river from Lægreid and the river was so narrow that one could with a pole vault over the river to Lægreid. Sven Midtun who was also born on Hæreid gave the same testimony. I see no more about this case.

In 1696 there was a lawsuit between Ola Lægreid and Jens Ørbech who were both owners in Lægreid, against Gutorm Prestgarden who they claimed logged too much of Lægreid's forest. Gutorm had the right to log the 18 mrk. worth he had paid for to Lægreid, but now he had logged as if he had a big part of the farm. The 18 ark. was called "Kannikeparten," and lay on the boundary with Eldegard, with the river the boundary on the other side. There should Gutorm log and not go out beyond. It was said in the lawsuit that Endre Mælheim one time had seen that Lægreid forest lands so far up that one could see far out in the lake.

In 1780 there was a ("Stenings- og uddelingsforretning") agreement and dividing business on Lægreid. Anders Tomasson had summoned a neighbor, Ola Knutson, that his home place, fields, and boundaryese could be changed between them, so they "could come out of the annoying argument." It was decided that all should be dealt with in 2 big deal-, so that Ola also became joint owner in Tolsgard and Langvoll. But after that Ola had a bigger land tax than Tomas did, should Tomas share with Ola and pay more than Tomas? There was a 3rd man who owned something in Tolsgard. This was Stevelin Lem. The three then decided that Lem should have ownership control of 4 of the 8 parcels that up to that time had been "årskifte". (shifted yearly). And so he should have the fields that he had held previously. Lem should also have his part in the birch forest on Resnes, and the right to pasture for his goats in Bogaviki, spring and fall. Likewise he should have a tenth part of milk making.

In the Geitsdalen (goat valley) Lem should have the birch forest that lay between the first groves in front of Kjørfoss, and the cutting mark found there. In the milking field was a part called Hestmorki, there Lem should have the woods on the slope, but where the level and slope meet shall the woods higher on belong to Lægreid. With the water rights "vandgangen" (vassveiti?) it shall be so that as long as Lægreid has a house on Tangen, the house rents and water rents shall vary. But when the houses have been taken away, Lem shall pay 12 skil. to each of the Lægreid men.

So now about the fishing rights. It should be so that all 3 should have fishing places together. No one should fish without informing the 2 others, and they should be held accountable if they failed to do this. They should likewise not take sardines. No one should take more that they can use at home." on this they shook hands and agreed between themselves." So one can see that Lem came out the best in all of this. The dealing between the 2 users on Lægreid was written up in a much longer document, but I am not going to discuss it here.

But even if all this was settled in 1780, nevertheless the time came when there was disagreement over the fish. In 1792 there was a new case about this. Then it was Anders Tomasson who would disagree with neighbor Tomas Olson. Anders knew what they had agreed to in 1780, and this was that the people on Tangen could get fish for themselves, so also should the people on Lægreid do the same. After the owner of Tangen for a long time had been separated from Lægreid, so Anders in 1786 told the neighbor on Lægreid he must not fish on his property, not on the strip along the river, and which by "understanding" had been Anders. Likewise Ola and also Tomas had rights from the old customs, to fish both with net in the river and set nets in fjord, all on what was Anders' property. Therefore he now feels he must disagree with this.

After some discussion it was agreed as so: To the 2 places called Lægreid there are now 2 fish places, the one in the river and the other in the fjord. Fishing in the river should be the same as before. But neither of them must fish without out consulting the other and the fish should be shared with the town. They shall both bear the fishing costs such as nets, seines, bait, equipment, and fence yard (place to hang and repair nets). About fishing in the fjord they were in the same agreement as follows: Tomas should have the right to set nets from the boat landing on the south side of the fence that was there, and straight on to below the stone markers. There from on a stretch on the land, a long fathoms, against north in a straight line from the stone markers.

Anders shall have his fish place on the north side of the river to the "Center depth." There is only one more time when I can see something about Lægreid having trouble over land rights. That was the month of December 1743 that there was a disagreement over the farm that created so much trouble that the land rent was lowered to 2 pd. butter, or between a six and seventh part of all Lægreid. In 1773 it is said that the users of the farm had not increased in wealth since about 1743. During this time the whole farm had known nothing but trouble.