Jacob von der Lippe wrote in a letter on 23 March 1783 to his brother-in-law in Bergen, Wollert Krohn,
that it was bad times for shipping and shipbuilding in Skien and he mentioned in particular the losses the owners of Bolvik ironworks, chamberlain and chamberlain von Løvenskiold and his son Jacob Løvenskiold had suffered from shipbuilding.
The dissolution of the old upper class that was represented among the godparents of von der Lippe's children opened up for new actors and von der Lippe specifically mentions "Mr. Von Cappelen, who now plays the bass in Schien". He also adds that Cappelen was generous, helpful and honest and that Cappelen's efforts had been the most important reason for the rapid reconstruction of the church after the city fire in 1777.
In Skien, the Wesseltoften family had long held a leading position among the city's bourgeoisie. They descended from a Norwegian family that took its surname from the place Vesseltoft or Visseltofta in Skåne. The ancestor of the family was the priest Jørgen Simonsen. An important reason for his move to Skåne was that his mother, Johanne or Anne Pedersdatter, was burned as a witch in Stavanger in 1622. Jørgen Simonsen's two sons then had to escape from Vesseltoft back to Norway because they supported Denmark in the Scanian War of Independence. His son Simon came to Skien and his brother Jacob became a priest in Inderøy.
Simon Jørgensen Wesseltoft was for a long time Skien's largest taxpayer and he built a large apartment building by the square in 1732. His sons Jørgen and Zacharias Simonsen became Skien's richest merchants, sawmill owners and shipowners in the 1740s.
One of Zacharias Simonsen's sons, Niels Zachariassen, married Kristine Adtzlev. She was the daughter of Petter Adtzlev, who was an immigrant Danish merchant. Niels Zachariassen and Kristine Adtzlev built house no. 27 in Løvestredet and he invested heavily in the lumber trade, a little too much, because after a few years the crash came – and he had to move in with his brother-in-law Jochum Adtzlev, who had built the large apartment building no. 10 in Kongens gate.
When not only Niels Zachariassen, but also the rest of the Wesseltoften trading house went bankrupt in 1789, Didrich von Cappelen the Elder bought their properties, ships and sawmills and became Norway's largest shipowner and sawmill owner and the most powerful person in Skien.
Wenche von der Lippe died on 13 April 1780 at the age of just 42. Her son, Henrik Johan, was then 15 years old. On 28 July 1789, he was granted citizenship as a skipper and merchant and went to the new "Bas" in Skien, Didrich von Cappelen, to find work. At just 24 years old, he was allowed to take Cappelen's ship Charitas to England with lumber. It was a relatively large ship with a crew of 16 men and his income was correspondingly good. In 1793, he was listed with a tax of 3 rdl.
Through his contact with Cappelen senior, Henrik Johan Ibsen got in touch with his son, Didrich von Cappelen jr, the later Eidsvollsmannen who would become the real "base" in Skien. Through him he also got in touch with the grandson of Niels Zachariassen's rescuer and the heir to the large apartment building no. 10 in Kongens gate and later owner of Søndre Brekke, Petter Adtzlev.
Both Didrich von Cappelen jr. and Henrik Johan Ibsen married a daughter of merchant Knud Plesner – who was not German, as many have claimed, but of a Danish family that can be traced back to Johan Philip Plesner who was a steward at Vejrupgaard on Funen. The first of the Plesner family to come to Skien were also stewards. Johan Glüsing Plesner was a steward at Gimsøy Monastery and his brother became the monastery's timber bailiff in Attrå in Tinn.
One of the descendants of Jacob Wesseltoft who became a priest in Inderøy, Iver von Ahnen Wesseltoft, also later came to Skien and married the widow of Knud Plesner and became stepfather to the two daughters Plesner who married Didrich von Cappelen jr and Henrik Johan Ibsen. So small were the relationships and so close were the connections between the families and the actors in the upper class in Skien. The connections were especially close between the three young actors who were now in the process of establishing themselves as the leaders in Skien, Didrich von Cappelen jr, Petter Adtzlev and Henrik Johan Ibsen.
Didrich von Cappelen jr. first took over Niels Zachariassen's former house at Løvestredet 27, but later moved to Adtzlev's large apartment building at Kongensgate 10 after Petter Adtzlev had taken over Søndre Brekke from his father Jochum Adtzlev in 1791 and moved there. Henrik Johan Ibsen then took over the house at Løvestredet 27. When the large apartment building at Kongens gate 10 burned down in 1813, Didrich von Cappelen jr. moved to the farm Store Mæla in Gjerpen, which he took over from his father, Didrich von Cappelen senior.
Henrik Johan Ibsen, written as Henric Ibsøn, was in 1795 godfather to Didrich von Cappelen jr. and Maria Plesner's son Didrich, and when he himself married Johanne Cathrine Plesner on 24.11.1795, his friend and now also brother-in-law Didrich von Cappelen jr. was best man. Petter Adtzlev was not yet of age, so his stepfather, War Commissioner Grønvold, was best man in his place.
This means that Henrik Johan Ibsen was now, together with Didrich von Cappelen Jr. and Petter Adtzlev, in the process of establishing himself as the new leading players in the decidedly upper class, the patrician class, in Skien.
Both Didrich von Cappelen jr. and Petter Adtzlev were godparents to Henrik Johan Ibsen's youngest son Knud on 3.10.1797. He became the father of Henrik Johan Ibsen in 1828, who was named after a grandfather that neither he nor most Ibsen scholars have any idea about. The reason for this was that Knud Ibsen not only lost his father a few days after he was born, but that he also lost both his financial and cultural paternal inheritance.