A son of Pierre la Cour and Margrethe Susanne la Cour, Jacob was born on 14 July 1760 at Strandet manor and was living at home at the time of his father’s death. He started school in Viborg in May 1775: by the time he reached the last level of grammar school*, he had read 40 chapters of Hebrew, the Novum Testamentum, Cornelius, Curtius, Cicero’s De Senectute and De Amicitia, Phaedrus and eight books of Ovid’s Metamorphosis, and he had studied history, theology and catechesis. He had no food allowance, but in 1775 he was awarded a grant of six barrels of rye and six barrels of barley. In 1776, with a comment of “pretty good hope, but destitute”, he received eight barrels of rye and eight barrels of barley. After graduating from upper secondary school in Viborg in October 1777, he had Møllmann as his private tutor. He immediately began assisting Rasmus Bagge, the pastor for Holme and Trandbjærg, with his church sermons, and he was recorded as being among those taking communion in the parish on 24 October 1779 and 30 April 1780. When Jacob became engaged to the pastor’s only daughter, Karen Bagge, a woman born in October 1758 in Holme, her parents objected because he was too young and had no degree. She was sent to Constantinsborg manor for a year to forget him, and he went to Copenhagen, where he passed his university entrance examination* in 1780. He probably worked for a time as a private tutor at Østergaard, a farming estate outside Aarhus. He received a master’s degree in theology, but died immediately afterwards, on 12 March 1784, in Copenhagen – according to legend either of smallpox or measles. (No children.)
