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BRITA BEHM . 659
day, and is preserved in the University -Library of Upsal.” Rudbeck
was married three times; his second wife was Anna Catharina
Schönström , Swedenborg’s first cousin (see Document 9, A, Table III,
2). He was also at one time joint-owner with Swedenborg of the
Schillon iron -works, at Skinskatteberg (see Document 130).
NOTE 50.
BRITA BEHM.
Brita Behm, daughter of Assessor Albrecht Behm, was born in
1670, and hence was a younger sister of Swedenborg’s mother. In
1684, she married Professor Johan Schwede of Upsal university,
who died in 1697 ; and she followed her husband in 1755, in her
eighty -fifth year. During a protracted illness of her only brother,
Captain Albrecht De Behm , she had charge of his estate, which
consisted mainly of mining property at Axmar in Helsingland. That
her management was most judicious is admitted by Bishop Swedberg
in Document 21, where he says, “ If there had been any other to super
intend, there would certainly have been much less to divide.” She seems
on the whole to have been endowed less with feminine grace than with
masculine will and energy; at all events, in her intercourse with De
Behm’s heirs, and afterwards with Emanuel Swedenborg, she manifested
a most stubborn and even vindictive spirit. In the first place, on
account of some irrelevant objections, she refused to proceed with
the division of De Behm’s property, until compelled by law to do
so ; and after she had become joint owner with Swedenborg of Axmar,
she was an endless source of vexation and trouble to him, so that
he was twice forced to go to law with her. Particulars of these
transactions will be found in Document 132. According to an entry
of Swedenborg’s in the manuscript volume containing his " Spiritual
Diary ,” Brita’s abettor in these matters was one the initial of whose
name was B, and who, as we have shown in Note 8, was no other
than Lars Benzelstierna, Swedenborg’s own brother-in-law. Of this
B. he says in the passage mentioned (see “Swedenborg’s Drömmar,"
p. 72), that Brita Behm admitted she had been instigated by him ;
and he rther adds, that B. himself was convicted of having incited
Brita Behm to begin a law-suit about the division of Axmar. Later
in life Swedenborg’s relations with Brita Behm seem to have been more
amicable; in the “ Drömmar,” p. 47, he mentions a very pleasing
incident he had with her in a dream , and the only other reference
he makes to her in the "Spiritual Diary ” (No. 5837), is to the effect
that he conversed with her three days after her death. Brita Behm
42*
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