Nicolai Wergeland

Nicolai Wergeland (9 November 1780, in Hosanger (now Osterøy) – 25 March 1848, in Eidsvoll) was a Norwegian priest, writer and politician, and a member of the Norwegian Constituent Assembly at Eidsvoll that wrote the Constitution of Norway on 17 May 1814. He was elected as one of two delegates from Christianssand to the Eidsvoll Assembly in 1814. He represented the unionist side, and came very well prepared to Eidsvoll, bringing his own constitution draft. Along with him from Christiansand came wholesaler Ole Clausen Mørch.

Wergeland's family hailed from Brekke in Sogn. His father was Halvor Lassesen, a teacher and parish clerk in Hosanger.

Wergeland's daughter Camilla Collett, author of the novel Amtmandens døttre ("The Governor's Daughters", 1854, anonymously), is regarded as Norway's first feminist writer.

The son Henrik Wergeland is often characterized as Norway's national poet, and a symbol of the country's independence. Wergeland was also father of military officer Oscar Wergeland, and proprietor Harald Titus Alexis Wergeland. His nephew, mountaineer, lieutenant general and government minister Harald Nicolai Storm Wergeland grew up with the family, when the young mother, Wergeland's sister, became a widow.

Wergeland studied theology in Copenhagen. As he did not come from a wealthy family, his economic conditions were so difficult that he considered enlisting as a soldier. He became a cand.theol. in 1803, served as a curate in Christianssand from 1812, a vicar to Eidsvold from 1816, and rural dean in Eidsvold from 1822.

He became well known for winning a contest arranged by Selskabet for Norges Vel in 1811, coming up with the best writing arguing for a separate Norwegian university in Christiania, with Mnemosyne (published 1811).

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