Jacob Stolterfoht was a German :de:Evangelisch-lutherische Kirchen |Lutheran theologian and leading pastor in Lübeck during and directly following the Thirty Years' War.
Life
Stolterfoht was one of the youngest of the ten children of the Lübeck pastor :de:Johann Stolterfoht | Johann Stolterfoht and his wife, born Margaretha Bacmeister, the only daughter of another north German theologian. In the first part of 1620 Jacob enrolled at the University of Rostock to study theology. He moved on to :de:Leucorea| Wittemberg in 1621 and from there to Greifswald, where he studied between 1622 and 1623. He then returned to Rostock, where he concluded his university-level education and in 1624 received his Master's degree. On 2 June 1626 he was appointed a deacon and joined the team of preachers at Lübeck's Marienkirche, the principal church inthe city. On 27 September 1649 he was selected to succeed :de:Michael Siricius |Michael Siricius as chief pastor of the Marienkirche. Stolterfoht was an important priest and theologian: his reputation meant that he was offered a number of senior church posts in other north German cities. He was offered the post of Chief Pastor at Schwerin and that of the regional superintendent for Schleswig. He rejected all these offers because he wished to remain in Lübeck. Despite the persistence of post-war economic austerity across western Europe, he was well paid in his existing posts, and loved by the city community.
Family
Jacob Stolterfoht was married three times. On 2 October 1626 he married Dorothea Kirchmann, daughter of the Lübeck polymath-philologist :de:Johann Kirchmann|Johann Kirchmann. She died on 18 June 1637, by which time the marriage had yielded seven recorded children. Three further recorded children resulted from Stolterfoht's second marriage, which took place on 25 June 1638 and was to Anna Hackhusen. His third marriage, on 3 August 1664, was to Gertrud Steinmann who the following year also predeceased him. Jacob Stolterfoht is known to have died in Lübeck on 4 March1668. His portrait, by :de:Matthias Black|Matthias Black, bore his epitaph and survived in the Marienkirche till 1942. Matthäus Stolterfoht, a son of Jacob Stolterfoht, became secretary to the powerful :de:Bergenfahrer#Lübecker Bergenfahrer| Bergenfahrer association of Lübeck merchants. Another son, Jacob, became a leading pharmacist in the city and was himself the father of the physician :de:Johann Jacob Stolterfoht |Johann Jacob Stolterfoht.
