Noble, Ultimately Baronial Family Kurki, in Sweden Known As Kurck
Elin Klasdotter, sister of bishop Arvid Kurk, and heiress of the medieval Kurki family, is the ancestress of the next male-line family that used the surname Kurki. The Swedish formulation of the name - Kurck - was manifested as the family was registered under that name in 1625 at the Swedish House of Nobility when that institution was established.
Lady Elin's father was lord Klas Jeppesson Kurk. Her husband was lawspeaker Knut Eriksson (died in 1539 at great age), a member of the Privy Council of Sweden and since 1511 lagman of Northern Finland (Elgenstierna gives him as a scion of the Smålandic family of petty gentry holding the manor of Näs; but Gillingstam opines him being of Finnic extraction).
Elin's son Jöns Knutsson Kurck (1503-c 1577) was also member of the royal council (PC) and his father's successor as lawspeaker. The family continues through a son of Jöns' second marriage with Ingeborg Tott:
- Canute Jönsson (died 1598). His wife was Bridget Benedictsdotter of the Gylta family, who inherited the Hedensö manor in Näshulta, Södermanland. That manor became the Kurki family's seat in Sweden.
Colonel Axel Kurck 1555-1630 was a soldier whom revolting Cudgel men (nuijamiehet) wanted to make their chief, but he did not consent. Axel became later military governor of the entire Finland.
Jöns Kurck (1590-1652), member of the Royal Council and president of Court of Appeals of Turku, was created friherre (baron) in 1652, and he started the baronial family that survived to 20th century. The baronial Kurck family held the Laukko manor yet over a century, but settled chiefly in Sweden in the area of Stockholm, because they were of high nobility and often among the important officials of the kingdom.
The unmarried baron Axel Gustav Kurck (1728-1800) established Laukko as a fideicommiss for agnates of the Kurck family.
Arvid Fredrik Kurck (1735-1810) was in 1797 created count but did not bother to register it at the Swedish House of Nobility. He succeeded in 1800 as owner of Laukko fideicommiss.
His distant cousin and successor, baron Klas Arvid Kurck (1769-1834), Lord Justice of the Supreme Court of Sweden, and Lord President of the Chamber Court of Sweden (the supreme administrative court), had to sell (ultimately in 1817) the ancestral manor of Laukko when Finland had become a separate grand duchy attached to Russian Empire, because the Kurck family wanted to stay in Sweden, and the Finnish government did not allow foreigners to possess landed properties.
Baron Klaus Arvid's only son's only son, Dr. Phil, baron Klas Karl Gustav Kurck (1849-1937), cultural historian, was the last legitimate agnate of this Kurck family. Female-line descendants of the baronial lineage live, mostly in Sweden, including branches of families von Friesendorff, Stjernswärd, Wrede, von Nolcken, and Procopé.
Read more about this topic: Kurki Of Laukko
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