2
Bergman and Scheele: Childhoods
Torbern Olof Bergman
1 was born on March 20, 1735. As Sweden used the older
Julian calendar until February 1753, Bergman’s birthday was March 9 by that
calendar. He was born on the Katrineberg royal residence (kungsgård; Fig. 2.1),
which Bergman’s father had rented at the time. Katrineberg is located in the Låstad
hamlet between Mariestad and Skövde in the Västergötland province of Sweden.
Carl Linnaeus travelled through Västergötland in the summer of 1746, and
described Mariestad as “small, but pleasant, lying on the eastern side of great lake
Vänern, built with small, but pleasant wooden houses. Streets are straight and light”
[1]. Mariestad has a cathedral, but no bishop since 1647. As Linnaeus noted, it is
located on the shore of Vänern, the third-largest lake in Europe (after Ladoga and
Onega in Russia). Linnaeus never passed Bergman’s childhood home, but later
arrived in Skövde, “a very small spot located on the eastern side of [table hill]
Billingen without lake or any particular situation, houses were small and the streets
irregular and the churchyard surrounded by beautiful ash trees” [2].
The Bergman family has been traced to Michel Esbjörnsson, a district scribe
(häradsskrivare) in the Kålland district of Västergötland, who lived in the
mid-seventeenth century [3]. He had four children, Esbjörn, Jonas, Torbjörn (or
Torbern), and Lars. Little is known about Lars, but the other three sons followed in
their father’s steps and became district scribes; Esbjörn finally became Mayor in
Borås. It was these three sons who started to use the name Bergman around 1700;
the first documented usage of the name is by Jonas in 1694. There are still
descendants of Michael Esbjörnsson named Bergman in Sweden, but it should be
1
Pronounced [“bærjman”]. The correct spelling of his family name is “Bergman”, but he was
frequently referred to as “Bergmann” in German literature, and several translations were published
under that name. On his first publications, he spelt his first name “Thorbern” rather than “Torbern”.
His middle name, Olof, was only used on his first dissertation in 1755.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Lennartson, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman, Perspectives on the
History of Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49194-9_2
11
Bergman and Scheele: Childhoods
Torbern Olof Bergman
1 was born on March 20, 1735. As Sweden used the older
Julian calendar until February 1753, Bergman’s birthday was March 9 by that
calendar. He was born on the Katrineberg royal residence (kungsgård; Fig. 2.1),
which Bergman’s father had rented at the time. Katrineberg is located in the Låstad
hamlet between Mariestad and Skövde in the Västergötland province of Sweden.
Carl Linnaeus travelled through Västergötland in the summer of 1746, and
described Mariestad as “small, but pleasant, lying on the eastern side of great lake
Vänern, built with small, but pleasant wooden houses. Streets are straight and light”
[1]. Mariestad has a cathedral, but no bishop since 1647. As Linnaeus noted, it is
located on the shore of Vänern, the third-largest lake in Europe (after Ladoga and
Onega in Russia). Linnaeus never passed Bergman’s childhood home, but later
arrived in Skövde, “a very small spot located on the eastern side of [table hill]
Billingen without lake or any particular situation, houses were small and the streets
irregular and the churchyard surrounded by beautiful ash trees” [2].
The Bergman family has been traced to Michel Esbjörnsson, a district scribe
(häradsskrivare) in the Kålland district of Västergötland, who lived in the
mid-seventeenth century [3]. He had four children, Esbjörn, Jonas, Torbjörn (or
Torbern), and Lars. Little is known about Lars, but the other three sons followed in
their father’s steps and became district scribes; Esbjörn finally became Mayor in
Borås. It was these three sons who started to use the name Bergman around 1700;
the first documented usage of the name is by Jonas in 1694. There are still
descendants of Michael Esbjörnsson named Bergman in Sweden, but it should be
1
Pronounced [“bærjman”]. The correct spelling of his family name is “Bergman”, but he was
frequently referred to as “Bergmann” in German literature, and several translations were published
under that name. On his first publications, he spelt his first name “Thorbern” rather than “Torbern”.
His middle name, Olof, was only used on his first dissertation in 1755.
© Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2020
A. Lennartson, Carl Wilhelm Scheele and Torbern Bergman, Perspectives on the
History of Chemistry, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-49194-9_2
11