Background
Even Thorsen was born at the Bjornes farm at Austre Moland (now Moland), in Arendal in Aust-Agder, Norway.
Even Thorsen was born at the Bjornes farm at Austre Moland (now Moland), in Arendal in Aust-Agder, Norway.
In his youth, he went to sea working as a deckhand. During the Napoleonic wars, he was a prisoner of war in England from 1807, returning to Norway in 1810. As an adult, he lived with his family at Blekestrand, a farm in Flosta in Aust-Agder.
He represented the Royal Norwegian Navy (Sjødefensjonen) at the Norwegian Constituent Assembly in 1814.
Thorsen sympathized with the Independence Party (Selvstendighetspartiet). In 1857, the Norwegian Parliament granted him an annual honorary pension three years prior to his death.