Michael Fabritius

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Michael Fabritius (2 May 1697 – 13 November 1746) was a Danish merchant, shipowner and shipbuilder from Copenhagen. With Johan Friederich Wewer he ran Fabritius & Wewer, a trading house that supplied the Danish government and owned a large fleet. He helped found the Danish Asiatic Company and was one of its first directors. He was among the first Danish merchants to send ships to China and helped start Det Kinesiske Societet. In 1735 he bought Grønnegård Harbour in Christianshavn, and in 1738 he helped found Kurantbanken, serving as its managing director for a time. He loaned money to the government, helped outfit ships for overseas voyages, and supplied saltpeter for gunpowder. He was made a justitsråd in 1743.

He married Anna Maria Köster in 1726; they had two sons, Michael and Conrad Alexander, who were later ennobled as Fabritius de Tengnagel. Their daughter Anna Elisabeth married Reinhard Iselin and Charlotte married Peter van Hemert. In 1734 he bought the Enrum country house north of Copenhagen. Fabritius died in Copenhagen in 1746 and was buried at Holmens Cemetery. After his death his widow married his partner Wewer, and later Jean Baptiste Descariéres de Longueville; she died in 1775.