AEMI

MARIA JARLSDOTTER ENCKELL
Each one, governor, naval officer,
sailor/mariner, gold-smith, shoemaker,
tailor, baker, cabinet-maker, shipbuilder,
furrier, Company book-keeper,
and office employee or black-smith etc.,
was at all times aware of his/her place
within his own people, as well as his
place among the diverse linguistic and
ethnic groups within his own parish
membership, and his/her place in the
hierarchy of Imperial Russian society,
as well as where his/her place fell within
this multiethnic Lutheran parish membership,
and his place as part of conquered
people under Imperial Russian
rule.
There were internal crossovers within
this parish too. As Cygnaeus claimed
he wasn’t keen on partaking in such
worldly shop-talk circulating around
tackle, sails and ships, he retired to his
own rooms. However the more likely
reason was he had difficulties holding
his own in conversations held in rapidly
spoken German. Of these four Lindenberg
and Harder remain unidentified
in full. Additionally, of the six only von
Bartram’s valet and Cygnaeus’ first valet
are fully identified.
Considering the fact that Finland
with its small population provided
Russia with a cadre of military men of
which 339 naval officers’ biographical
and professional records have been documented
(Pikoff 1938) of which 9 rose
to the rank of admiral, 21 to the rank
of vice admiral, and 46 to the rank of
rear admiral (Pikoff 1938:4), and in the
military, 1611 officers’ biographical and
professional records have also been documented
of which more than 200 rose
to the rank of general (Schulman 1912.
Nordenstreng 1922. Åkerman 1941.
71
Finska Kadettklubbens Styrelse1960.
Wirilander 1975. Wirilander 1985. Halén
2011a. Halén 2011b).
When considering the even smaller
populations of Estland, Lifland &
Kurland, their numbers of naval and
army officers serving in Imperial Russia
who had risen to the ranks of admirals
and generals within the Imperial Russian
military, has been known to be
far greater than the number of those
from the Grand Duchy of Finland. …
and most all of those hired for Russian
America, or commissioned there to
serve the Russian American Company
had either hired and brought their own
personal valet, or upon arrival the Company
had assigned one to each of them.
These valets were seldom noted, rarely
referred to, hardly ever recorded or
recognized, were kicked and degraded
when their masters considered they had
served poorly, as well as dismissed, but
when needed they were craved for when
not instantly available.
Society’s Invisible Ones
In any society including within the
Evangelical Lutheran world of Europe,
the personal servants and household
ones were always ranked as the lowest.
This too held true to society in Russian
America. These servants were the invisible
ones. Still they were part of those
most necessary underpinnings of society,
no one could be without, and as
with their services they literally upheld
everything and everyone ranked above
them. It would have been unthinkable
to even think that the governor’s wife
would have stood in the kitchen preparing
the multi-course dinners served
every day at the governor’s house, seat-