Sara Elisabeth Moræa

Biography

Sara Elisabeth Moræa was born in Falun, Sweden, in 1716, the daughter of Johan Moraeus (1672–1742; a physician at Falun mine) and his wife Elisabeth Hansdotter (1691–1769). Her parents had a total of seven children. Both her parents came from the wealthy bourgeoisie and she grew up on Svedens gård outside Falun. She attended school and received a formal education.

In February 1735, Carl Linnaeus proposed to Sara Elisabeth when he was travelling through Dalarna. Her father accepted the proposal on the condition that Carl would travel abroad before his marriage and take his doctorate so that he could support his family.

Carl went to the Netherlands, and during the time Sara Elisabeth was engaged, she lived a good life with many parties and among friends in the bourgeoisie of Falun. This period of her life is preserved in the diaries of friends and acquaintances.

In 1738, Carl Linnaeus returned to Sweden and went to Falun to formalize his engagement to Sara Elisabeth. He then went to Stockholm to take up employment as a doctor, leaving Sara Elisabeth behind again. He did not fare well as a doctor in the capital, but through Carl Gustav Tessin, a Lord Marshal and leader of the Hats Party, he gained employment as a lecturer at Bergs Collegio and later as Admiralty Medicus through Admiral Theodor Ankarcrona. During this time he also helped found the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. After that, in the spring of 1739, his finances had improved enough that he was able to return to Dalarna and marry Sara Elisabeth. They were married on 26 June in what is now known as Linnés bröllopsstuga ('Linnaeus' wedding cottage'), a cottage on Svedens gård.

The marriage is believed to have been a happy one, despite contemporary and recent descriptions of Sara Elisabeth as cantankerous. Her husband's own words, however, are consistently positive, and he wrote in notes intended for their children that God "gave him the wife he most desired, and who kept house while he worked". He wrote this after 27 years of marriage. According to his notes in Nemesis Divina, it also appears that they shared a bed at Hammarby and through letters sent by Carl Linnaeus to his friend Abraham Bäck that they were still kissing when they reunited after Carl Linnaeus' many trips after 20 years of marriage. Together they had seven children, five of whom (a son and four daughters) survived to adulthood.

In 1758, Carl Linnaeus bought the Hammarby estate (today Linnaeus's Hammarby) as his family's summer residence. After her husband's death in 1778, Sara Elisabeth ruled the estate for 30 years until her own death. She was not alone, however, because at the time of her husband's death all five of her children were living at home with them. The only child to marry and move out, Elisabeth Christina, had moved back home with her daughter a few years earlier because her husband had abused her. Carl and Sara Elisabeth wrote their son-in-law out of their wills because of how badly he had treated their eldest daughter and only grandchild.

The eldest children, Carl Linnaeus the Younger and Elisabeth Christina, died a few years after their father. The youngest, Sofia, married in 1781 and moved out. Sara Christina von Linné married 13 years later and moved away with her. Her daughter Lovisa, however, lived with her mother until her mother died.

When her son Carl Linnaeus the Younger died in 1783, Sara Elisabeth inherited her husband's many books, manuscripts, herbariums and correspondence. Due to financial problems, she was forced to sell most of them. According to the instructions in Carl Linnaeus' will, they were to be sold to the highest bidder, which was the Englishman James Edward Smith, who on this basis became one of the founders of the Linnean Society of London.

Sara Elisabeth Moraea died 20 April 1806 in Uppsala. She is buried along with her husband and son Carl in Uppsala Cathedral.