Ancestors

Peter Gunnarsson Rambo

Peter Gunnarsson Rambo was born in 1612 on Hisingen, the island at Gothenburg that is now part of the city. He was the son of Gunnar Petersson. Gunnarsson means son of Gunnar. Rambo was the name he chose, taken from Ramberget, "raven's mountain," a hill on Hisingen overlooking Gothenburg harbour.

He was hired as a farm hand for New Sweden, the Swedish colony on the Delaware River. He sailed on the second voyage of the Kalmar Nyckel, in 1639 and 1640. It was the first voyage to bring permanent settlers to the colony. He planted tobacco for the colony's company and became a freeman in 1644, meaning his service to the company was done and he farmed for himself.

After that he married Brita Mattsdotter, from Vasa in Finland. The wedding is dated 7 April 1647. They settled first at Kingsessing. About 1664 they moved to Passyunk, and on 1 October 1669 Governor Francis Lovelace confirmed 300 acres there to him by patent. Their eldest son, Gunnar, was born in January 1649. In 1671 six children were still at home: Gunnar; Peter, born 1653; Catherine, about 1655; a daughter born about 1657 whose name is not known; Andrew, 1658; and John, 1661. There was also a daughter Gertrude. His son Gunnar married Anna, and his son John married Brigitta, both daughters of his fellow justice Peter Larsson Cock.

He rose with the colony. Under Johan Rising, the last Swedish governor, he served as a deputy, and he was with Rising when the Dutch besieged Fort Christina and ended Swedish rule on the river. In 1658, by a note in the 1860 printing of the Upland court record, he was one of four magistrates who met the Dutch governor, Peter Stuyvesant, at Tinicum "with a petition for various privileges." From 1668 he sat on the English governor's council, and from 1674 he was a justice of the peace. On 14 November 1676 he was sworn a justice at the court at Upland, now Chester, Pennsylvania, under the new commission of Governor Edmund Andros. Peter Cock, Israel Helm, Lace Andries, Oele Swen and Otto Ernest were sworn with him.

In 1682 William Penn arrived to found Pennsylvania. Peter Rambo was one of the Swedes who met him, and he witnessed Penn's purchases of land from the Indians.

In 1693 he wrote a letter to his sister in Gothenburg. It survives in the Riksarkivet, the Swedish national archives. Brita died between 1693 and 1697. For many years he was a warden of the Swedish church at Wicaco.

He made his will on 30 August 1694. It gives "my son Gunner Rambo three hundred acres of land in West New Jersey on Homans Creek" and asks that his body be buried "at ye burying place at Wicacoe." Wicaco was the Swedish settlement on the Delaware that is now part of South Philadelphia. Lasse Cock, the brother of his son Gunnar's wife, was a witness. He was buried at Wicaco on 12 October 1698, at the age of 85 years and almost eight months, in the churchyard of what is now Gloria Dei, the Old Swedes' Church. The will was proved on 19 November 1698. The present church building was raised in 1700, after his death.

If Peter Gunnarsson Rambo is in your family, start your own tree.

Cite: Heirology, "Peter Gunnarsson Rambo (1612-1698)", https://heirology.com/ancestors/peter-gunnarsson-rambo-1612-1698-82db93.