Born: 1665, Norway
Died: 1736
Country most active: Norway
Also known as: Anna Colbjørnsdatter Arneberg
The following is excerpted from “400 Outstanding Women of the World and the Costumology of Their Time” by Minna Moscherosch Schmidt, published in 1933.
Anna was the daughter of a minister by the name Kolbjorn Thorstensen (Arneberg). At seventeen years of age she married a young Magister, Jonas Ramus, who later became minister to Norderhov Church for Ringerike. During the war with Sweden in the year 1716 the Swedish Colonel Loven with six hundred soldiers came to the parsonage at Norderhov around ten o’clock in the evening. They were on the way to the city Kongsberg where the silver mines are found.
They declared their intent of obtaining new shoes for their horses, not of iron but of silver. The minister’s wife Anna received them kindly and a big bonfire was made in her yard and a great dinner was served the hungry and frozen officers; out of her cellar came the best of drinks. In the meantime, she smuggled her young daughter out of the house, in the night, with a note concealed in her stocking, to her son-in-law, Sheriff Lars Michelson. He came with two hundred men and took the Swedish soldiers by surprise. Colonel Loven and thirty of his men were captured, forty were killed and the rest escaped. So Anna, Kolbjors’ daughter, thru her cunning action saved Norway from this threatening disaster. She died a very rich widow and was embalmed and can still be seen in Norderhov Church. A large painting of herself and also her husband, Rev. James Ramus, are hanging on the wall in the same church.