Margareta Nilsdotter



Margareta Nilsdotter also called Margareta Hybertsson (d. 1630) was a Swedish businessperson and shipbuilder. In 1627, she completed construction of the Swedish warship Vasa.

She has been called Margareta Hybertsson, however both the last name of herself and her husband was patronymics, so the male patronymicon Hybertsson would not strictly have been hers, even if she is sometime mentioned as such.

She was first married to Dutch born master shipbuilder Henrik Hybertsson (dead 1627) who was engaged to build the Vasa in 1625. When she was widowed in 1627, she took over the share of her late spouse and the responsibility to complete the building of the Vasa a task she fulfilled the following year. She handled a strike and a period of inflation during her tenure. Aside from the Vasa, she was also more successfully involved in business as the owner of the estate Viby herrgård in Sollentuna.

When the Vasa sunk in 1628, it was deemed to be wrongly constructed and she was bankrupted. She retired to the Viby estate and married the Swedish envoy to France, diplomat and nobleman Lars Nilsson Tungel (1582-1633).

Other sources

 * Du Rietz, Anita, Kvinnors entreprenörskap: under 400 år, 1. uppl., Dialogos, Stockholm, 2013