Israel Acrelius
{{Short description|Swedish Lutheran missionary and priest}}
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| name = Israel Acrelius
| image = File:Israel Acrelius by John Sartain.jpg
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1714|12|04}}
| birth_place = Österåker, Sweden
| death_date = {{death date and age|1800|04|25|1714|12|04}}
| death_place = Fellingsbro, Sweden
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| religion = Lutheran
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{{lutheranism}}
Israel Acrelius (December 4, 1714 – April 25, 1800) was a noted Swedish Lutheran missionary and priest.
Early life and education
He was born in Österåker, Stockholm County, Sweden, in 1714 to Johan and Sara Acrelius ({{nee}} Gahm).{{cite web|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0100004 |title=Acrelius, Israel |last=Russell |first=Thaddeus |website=American National Biography |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |doi=10.1093/anb/9780198606697.article.0100004 |access-date=August 22, 2022}} His brother was the surgeon Olof af Acrel.{{cite book | last = Kastrup | first = Allan | title = The Swedish heritage in America: the Swedish element in America and American-Swedish relations in their historical perspective | year = 1975 | publisher = Swedish Council of America}} He attended Uppsala University and was ordained as a priest of the Church of Sweden in 1743. He served as the pastor of churches in Riala, Sweden starting in 1745.
Ministry
Beginning in 1749, Acrelius took a post in Wilmington, Delaware, site of a Swedish Lutheran congregation which dated to the time of the New Sweden colony. At that time, Holy Trinity remained a Swedish Lutheran parish. The church would remain so until placed under the jurisdiction of the Protestant Episcopal Church in 1791. Acrelius served simultaneously as both pastor and provost to the Swedish congregations in the area. He was a minister at St. Paul's Church in Chester, Pennsylvania in 1756.{{cite book|last1=Ashmead|first1=Henry Graham|title=History of Delaware County, Pennsylvania|date=1884|publisher=L.H. Everts & Co.|location=Philadelphia|page=[https://archive.org/details/cu31924006215655/page/n395 340]|url=https://archive.org/details/cu31924006215655|accessdate=2 February 2018}}
He learned English and provided aid to German Lutherans in Pennsylvania. He also made notable zoological, botanical, and geological collections.
Because of health concerns, Acrelius returned to Sweden in 1756.{{Cite AmCyc|wstitle=Acrelius, Israel}} The king gave him a large pension, and he received the lucrative pastorate of a church in the parish of Fellingsbro in the province of Västmanland during 1758. Shortly thereafter in 1759, he published his History of New Sweden, which dealt with the religious and secular history of the area. This book was translated into English by William Morton Reynolds, who learnt Swedish for the purpose, and published in 1874.Townsend Ward, "Memorial notice of the Rev. William M. Reynolds, D.D." in The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. 1, [https://books.google.com/books?id=qDMUAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA107 p. 107]
Notes
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References
- Who Was Who in America, Historical Volume, 1607-1896. (Chicago: Marquis Who's Who, 1963)
- [http://www.colonialswedes.org/Churches/HolTri.html Holy Trinity (Old Swedes') Church (The Swedish Colonial Society. Wilmington, Del.)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121018112200/http://www.colonialswedes.org/Churches/HolTri.html |date=2012-10-18 }}
- Burr, Horace The Records of Holy Trinity (Old Swedes) Church, Wilmington, Del., from 1697 to 1773 Holy Trinity Church. Wilmington, Del. Published by Historical Society of Delaware, 1890)
- Wallington, Nellie Urner Historic Churches of America (New York: Duffield & Co., 1907)
- {{Cite Appletons' |wstitle=Acrelius, Israel |year=1900 }}
- Israel Acrelius, A History of New Sweden; or, the Settlements on the Delaware River, translated by William M. Reynolds (Philadelphia: Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, vol. 11, 1874)
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Category:People from Österåker Municipality
Category:18th-century American Lutheran clergy
Category:18th-century Swedish Lutheran priests
Category:Swedish Lutheran missionaries
Category:Lutheran missionaries in the United States
Category:Uppsala University alumni
Category:Clergy from Wilmington, Delaware
Category:Lutheranism in Delaware