Biorck, Tobias E. (1668 - 1740)

Tobias E. Biorck (1668 - 1740) was an American historian of Swedish descent active in New Jersey the late 17th century. Biork was born in the Americas near what is today Wilmington, Delaware. His father, Ericus Biorck, was a minister who immigrated to the former Swedish colony of New Sweden in 1667 with the intention of preaching to the colonists. By 1655 the Swedish crown had given up all claims on the region and the colony was absorbed into the lands administered by the Dutch West India Company in New Amsterdam. Shortly afterwards the Dutch themselves were ousted by the numerically superior British who quickly rose to social and political dominance in the region. Though Biorck was ethnically Swedish he most likely lived and thought in English. His primary work, a history of New Sweden in America, is also partially in English though it was published in Sweden. The short volume, though extremely rare, is exceptionally important as one of the few windows into the early Swedish experience in the Americas.