Johan Classon Risingh (1617 in Risinge – 1672) was the last governor of the Swedish colony of New Sweden.
Biography
Risingh was born in 1617 in Risinge, Östergötland, Sweden. His father was a pastor named Reverend Clas Botvidi. After gymnasium at Linköping, he attended the University of Uppsala and University of Leyden. From 1651 to 1653, he held the office of secretary of the Commercial College of Sweden under Erik Alexsson Oxenstierna. He wrote the first treatise on trade and economics ever compiled in Sweden in the autumn of 1653. Receiving knighthood, he set out from Sweden early in 1654, to take up his duties in New Sweden. Risingh was appointed assistant councilor of New Sweden under Governor Johan Printz.
Upon arrival in 1654, Risingh expressed concerns about the loss of Native alliances due to declining trade. This relationship was in decline due to rising hostilities over trade competition in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. Risingh wrote that the loss of Native alliances could severely impact the territorial integrity of New Sweden against the English colony of Maryland and Dutch colony of New Netherland.
His first act was to cause the seizure of the Dutch Fort Casimir, which the Director-General of New Netherland, Peter Stuyvesant, had erected just below Fort Christina (near New Castle, Delaware) in 1651. Risingh claimed that Fort Casimir had been built on land that New Sweden had purchased from the local Native Americans.
