Thomas Kerr (Major General)

Thomas Kerr († 1637 ) was a Swedish major general and actor in the Thirty Years War .

Life

Kerr served in 1621 with the rank of lieutenant with self- recruited troops from the States General in the foot regiment of Philipp von Mansfeld . In 1622 he was promoted to captain and by 1623 he was lieutenant colonel in the James Seaton court and garrison regiment in Riga . Seaton had lost a leg in the storming of Riga in 1621 and died at the beginning of 1625. Now Melchior von Wurmbrand took over the regiment. In 1629, Kerr, who had just been promoted to colonel and given a land donation by the Swedish crown , took over the regiment, probably initially as commander . In autumn 1632, he went to Stralsund with 788 men after losing many men in Riga through marriage. He then stayed in Stettin in March 1633 and from there to June 1634 went to Freistadt in Silesia . On August 11, 1635, Kerr was named among the high-ranking Swedish officers who signed a mutual loyalty agreement with Axel Oxenstierna and Johan Banér in Magdeburg after the Peace of Prague , but was not personally present. In May 1636 he was already in Werben with the rank of major general. With his contingent he took part in the battle of Wittstock , which was victorious for the Swedes on October 4, 1636 . Kerr is said to have died in 1637.

Letters

• 1633 to Johan Banér ( [1] )
• 1633–1636 to Axel Oxenstierna af Södermöre ( [2] )
• 1635 to Alexander von Erskein ( [3] )

Web links

• Jan Glete: Värvade regiments i svensk tjänst 1618-1631 , 2005, p. 2 (Swedish)
• Bernd Warlich: Kerr (Carr, Karr), Thomas on: The Thirty Years War in personal testimonies, chronicles and reports (accessed on August 16, 2014)