Early history

The ledgerstone of Mogens Godske in Hørby Church.

The first known owner of Hørbygaard is Else Tuesen who ceded it to her son Niels Tuesen 1314. It was later passed to his sons Peder Nielsen and Karl Nielsen. It was then owned by multiple simultaneous owners as was common at the time until it was acquired by the Diocese of Roskilde in the first half of the 15th century. It was then managed as a fief. Mogens Godskesen (Bielke) was one of the Seignories (lensmann). Godskesen was in 1526 granted the estate for life.

Frederik Reedtz

Crown land

Mogens Godskesen kept the estate after it was confiscated by the Crown after the Reformation in 1536 and he was also granted Dragsholm.^[1]

In 1589, Hørbygaard was granted to Peder Reedtz and his descendants. He was therefore succeeded by his son Frederik Reedtz as lensmann of Hørbygaard. Frederik Reedtz's son, Steen Reedtz, who was deep in debt, breached his obligations as lensmann. This resulted in a lawsuit in which his heirs renounced their right to succeed him at Hørbygaard.

Changing owners

Christen Friis Rottbøll, a medical doctor and botanist, who was born on the estate in 1727

In 1692, Christian V granted the estate to Admiral Henrik Span who was at the same time raised to the peerage. He had been appointed as Head of Nyholm in 1690 where he had reorganized the naval base and modernised the operations at the Royal Danish Naval Dockyards.^[2] He settled on the estate and constructed a tower which enabled him to see the sea from the house.

Volrad August von der Lühe with his family

Span's widow kept the estate after his death just two years later. Their daughter and only child, Charlotte Amalie Henriksdatter Span, inherited it in 1722. The medical doctor and botanist Christen Friis Rottbøll and the bishop Christian Michael Rottbøll were born on the estate in 1727 and 1820. Their father, Christen Michelsen Rottbøll, was manager of the estate. He died in 1820 and their mother later married the manager of nearby Hagestedgaard.^[3] Charlotte Amalie Henriksdatter Span had no children and returned the estate to the Crown in 1730.

In 1744, Hørbygaard was granted to Volrad August von der Lühe. He had also been rewarded with the title of overpræsident in Copenhagen.

The Castenskiold family

Jacoba von Holten, the widow of Johan Lorentz Castenschiold, acquired the estate in 1748. She ceded the estate to their second eldest son Jørgen Frederik von Castenschiold in 1760. He later also acquired Valbygård (1776-1803) and Store Frederikslund in Lille Frederikslund 1787. He implemented many of the agricultural reforms of the time.

Jørgen Frederik von Castenschiold's son Casper inherited the estate in 1813. He adopted the name Grevencop-Castenschiold in 1826.

His son Joachim Melchior Grevenkop-Castenschiold, who had inherited the estate in 1854, constructed a new main building in around 1861. The last copyholds were converted into freeholds in around 1900. The building was in the 20th century from 1935 for a while owned by a family trust and used as a summer camp for children from Copenhagen and a home for working class widows.^[1]