He was born on 16 June 1790 in Copenhagen, a son of Niels la Cour (no. 02) and Georgia Nicoline la Cour. Peder started at the first level of the Viborg grammar school* in 1800. According to the 1801 census, he lived at the address of St. Ibsgade 24 in Viborg. He graduated from upper secondary school in Viborg in 1809 and was immediately hired as a private tutor at Boltinggaard manor by a lawyer named Johannes Otto Holm, who kept Peder in his household when the family later
moved to the Højrupgaard farming estate. Peder earned a law degree in 1812 and in 1813 purchased the Møllemosegård farming estate in Hillerslev parish from Holm, who by this time was a district judge. Peder lived on the Møllemosegård and worked as a lawyer, was admitted to the lower-court bar in Svendborg county in 1817, and in 1819 moved from the countryside into Svendborg proper. After a long illness, he died suddenly on 10 September 1848 at Frederik’s Hospital in Copenhagen. One of his friends said of him: “The many appointments to judicial offices he received were a sign of his superiors’ esteem and recognition of his legal prowess. All his actions and tireless activity showed signs of the greatest integrity, which, in concert with his loving disposition, caused him to be respected and liked by the many who knew him, and his liveliness and social skills contributed to this reputation.”
Peder married Ane Clausine la Cour (née Haastrup) on 12 June 1811 on the Højrupgaard farming estate. Ane was born on 14 April 1786 in Svanninge Hestehave, and her parents were Hans Håstrup, a gamekeeper, and Margrethe Beate Holm. Like her husband, she worked in the household of District Judge* Holm, first at Boltinggaard manor and then at Højrupgaard. After her husband’s death, Ane lived in Svendborg until her own death on 26 May 1863. (Eight children: nos. 20– 27.)
