Carl Christoffer Gjörwell Sr.

Carl Christoffer Gjörwell (the elder) (born 10 February 1731 in Landskrona, died 26 August 1811 in ), was a Swedish journalist, a prolific editor of some twenty journals and a psalmist whose hymns were published in the Moravian hymnal Sions Nya Sånger ("New songs of Zion") and elsewhere. His name is alternatively rendered as Carl Christoffersson Gjörwell, Carl Christopher Gjörwell or Karl Kristofer Gjörwell.

Gjörwell studied at Lund University and at Germany's University of Greifswald before coming to to become a librarian at the National Library of Sweden.

Gjörwell was an illegitimate son of lieutenant-colonel Christoffer Donatson Feif (b. 1694). Feif had been knighted by the new Queen Ulrika Eleonora in 1719 under the name Ehrensparre for his services in the Norwegian campaign of 1716-1718. He was the grandson of Scottish emigré merchant Donald Fyfe, who had set up business in Stockholm.

Enrolling at Lund University and still unacknowledged by Feif, he consulted with history professor Sven Lagerbring (1707–1787) about what name he should use. The professor replied: "It means little what name you choose. Do well (Swedish: Gjör well, with modern spelling gör väl) what you do, and you will have a good name." The young man liked the advice and, from those two words, devised his last name.

After a few years in Lund, he undertook (1750–51) a scientific expedition to the Netherlands and France, after which he initially wanted to go as a missionary to the Khoikhoi people of South Africa or to the Lenape Native Americans of Pennsylvania. Later he changed plans and in 1756 began service at the National Library of Sweden in Stockholm. From 1755 he was editor of Den Svenska Mercurius, the first significant Swedish journal of literary criticism.

...
Wikipedia