Ericus Björk, born 13 January 1668, was a 29-year-old bachelor when he arrived in America in 1697 and became pastor of the Swedish congregation at Crane Hook, Delaware. Within two years he had inspired his congregation to build a new church at Christina (present Wilmington), which was consecrated in 1699. In 1702, at the age of 34, he married Christina Stalcop, then 16 years old. Their first home was a house on Red Clay Creek, on land owned by her father, Peter Stalcop. Finally, on 20 January 1710, his family moved into the “slowly-built, and now but little more than half-finished” parsonage next to the church. Two years later, in May 1712, the Björks received three new bachelor guests at the new parsonage. All had newly arrived from Sweden. They were Rev. Andreas Hesselius, 36, who had been sent to replace Björk at Holy Trinity Church; Rev. Abraham Lidenius, who was to be assistant minister; and Gustavus Hesselius, 30, already an accomplished portrait painter, with training in both Sweden and London, England. Gustavus Hesselius remained as a guest of the Björks for a “few weeks” before he moved on to Philadelphia to begin his American career as a painter. It seems likely that he made the portraits of Ericus and Christina now at the Nordic Museum during this period, while living with the Björk family. See Spring 2002 issue at: http://www.colonialswedes.org/Publications/SCNews.html In Philadelphia, he rented space in the heart of the city and launched his business. In a letter to his mother in Sweden, dated 26 June 1714, he wrote that his business was brisk because “there is no other portrait painter here.” After moving to Philadelphia, Gustavus Hesselius also made frequent trips to Christina to visit his brother Andreas. Undoubtedly he was present when his brother Andreas married Sarah Walraven at Holy Trinity Church on 3 May 1713. At that time, the Björk family vacated the parsonage and moved back to the house they had formerly occupied on Red Clay Creek. On 14 April 1714, Gustavus Hesselius was married to Lydia Gatchell, a native of Boston, at Gloria Dei Church, Philadelphia. Andreas Sandel, who had married Ericus Björk and Christina Stalcop at Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) in 1702, was the minister. When Lydia became pregnant with their first child, the couple moved to Andreas Hesselius’s parsonage at Christina by 22 April 1716, when both took communion at Holy Trinity Church. The baby was born 28 July 1716 and baptized as Andreas Hesselius the next day. The Björk family started its journey from New Castle County to Sweden on 29 June 1714. On the same day, Andreas Hesselius wrote in the Holy Trinity church book that Björk “left his own and his beloved wife’s portraits.” It has been presumed that these portraits were a gift to the church. However, in retrospect, they seem to have been treated as a loan, with the expectation that some later Swedish pastor would bring them back to Sweden and return them to the Björks. Rev. Andreas Sandel returned to Sweden in 1719 and presided over Christina Stalcop’s funeral on 12 April 1720. Andreas Hesselius returned to Sweden in 1724. Subsequent to 1714, there was no mention of the two paintings in Holy Trinity Church records. When Israel Acrelius arrived in 1749, he asked for an inventory of church possessions at the time of the death of Peter Tranberg a year before. He was told “that what was left by him was of so little value that it was not worth while to require any account of it.” The American record thus establishes that (1) Gustavus Hesselius was the first and only portrait painter in the area during the period 1712-1714; (2) that he resided with the Björk family for a “few weeks” on his first arrival; and (3) that when the Björk family left in 1714, they left portraits of Ericus Björk and his wife Christina Stalcop under the care of Andreas Hesselius. That Gustavus was the creator of these portraits seems self-evident. There was no one else who could have made them.