Johan Hadorph

Johan Hadorph (May 6, 1630 – July 12, 1693) was a Swedish director-general of the Central Board of National Antiquities. In 1667, he was appointed assessor at the government agency for antiquities, and in 1679, he became its director-general. Hadorph documented ancient monuments during extensive voyages in Sweden, and he collected a great many older manuscripts, such as collections of laws. He also made many drawings of runestones, and supervised the production of more than 1000 woodcuts of runestones.

He was born at Haddorp in Slaka parish in Östergötland to Nils Johansson (or Jonsson or Jönsson) and his wife Anna Hansdotter. His father was the head of a kronohemman. In 1664, he married in Skänninge Elisabeth Dalin, the daughter of a clergyman. In 1671 and in 1674, his estate received exemption from taxation and in 1672, he, his wife and their descendants were ennobled, a patent that was confirmed in 1681. Like many people newly arrived among nobility, he was eager to provide an honourable origin for his family, but the only distinguished descent that can be confirmed by critical scholars is the fact that his wife was the niece of a bishop with close personal ties to the royal family.

Calling himself Hadorph or Hadorphius, after the farm on which he grew up, he began to study at Uppsala University, where he was appointed secretary of the academy in 1660. He was then noticed for his strong interest in national antiquities by Magnus Gabriel De la Gardie and Lindsköld. In 1666, he received a part of the salary of the director-general of the Central Board of National Antiquities, and he was appointed to be the last of the its seven assessors, in 1667. In 1669, he was promoted to be the secretary of the National Archives. In the same year, he and Brenner joined de la Gardie on an excursion through de la Gardie's fiefs, and Johan Hadorph made drawings of all the ancient monuments the party encountered. He also had access to de la Gardie's extensive library and made a Swedish verse translation of the history of Alexander the Great, which was published in Visingsborg in 1672. In the same year, he joined King Charles XI of Sweden on his Eriksgata through central and southern Sweden during which he was obliged always to be present and explain all the ancient monuments and curiosities that caught the king's attention.

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