once to take up his teaching duties at Pitea, but took 

 priest's orders in September of the same year and was 

 presented to the perpetual curacy in his native parish 

 in 1666; there he remained till 1690, when he was pro- 

 moted to the living of Nordmaling. 1 This P. M. Arc- 

 t^edius married a certain Anna Grubb, who bore him 

 five children, two of them sons, Olaus and Marten. 



The former of these two sons, whose date of birth 

 was probably 1670, studied like his father at Abo Uni- 

 versity, where he matriculated in 1692. Four years later 

 he was ordained at Hernosand and in 1701 he obtained 

 the perpetual curacy of Anundsjo. 2 In that year he 

 lost his first wife, Dorothea Djupedia. Not long after- 

 wards he married again, his second wife being Helena 

 Sidenia, a daughter of Petrus Sidenius, of Stockholm, a 

 Master of Philosophy and a Court Chaplain. There 

 were five children of this marriage, of whom Peter, the 

 future scientist, was the oldest but one. The date of 

 his birth, according to the Anundsjo Parish Register, 

 was February 27 (O. S.) or March 10 (N. S.). The fam- 

 ily continued to reside at Anundsjo for upwards of 

 ten years, but in 1716 a document was addressed to the 

 Crown by the Consistory at Hernosand, stating that, 

 whereas the incumbent of the living of Nordmaling, 

 Petrus Martini Arct^edius to wit, was of advanced age, 

 had been blind for over two years, and was in great 

 bodily distress, they, the Consistory, sought leave to 

 approve an application made by the said incumbent, 

 praying that his son Olaus might be empowered to suc- 

 ceed him in the discharge of his duties, which applica- 

 tion had, moreover, received the unanimous support of 

 the congregation of the parish. In reply thereto an 

 authorisation conferring the father's living on the son, 

 was signed by King Charles XII in Lund on the 26th 

 of September 1716. 



1 A small place 'on the coast, about 50 miles SW. of Umea. 



2 Anundsjo lies about as far (50 miles) from Nordmaling as 

 that place is off Umea; it is inland, being almost due W. of Nord- 

 maling. 



