The Swedish Connection

From Coley Park in Reading, a well-documented thread runs straight into the Swedish nobility of the early eighteenth century. Françoise ("Frances") Vachell (b. 6 August 1674, St Mary's, Reading) married the Swedish diplomat Christoffer Leijoncrona (c.1662–1710) of the noble house Leijoncrona (introduced 1654, no. 591). Leijoncrona served first as Sweden's resident in London (1697–1703) and then as envoy to the Court of St James's (1703–1710). Their London milieu overlapped with that of the Swedish-born court painter Michael Dahl, whose sensitive portrait of Françoise—shown playing the lute in the English fashion of the day—was painted around 1700 and is now in the Nationalmuseum, Stockholm. After Leijoncrona's death in London on 8 April 1710, Françoise settled with her children at Kråkerum in Mönsterås, bringing the Coley–Vachell story firmly onto Swedish soil.

The daughters who reached adulthood all married into titled Swedish families, weaving the Vachell name into several house-histories recorded at the Riddarhuset. Most prominent for present purposes is Hedvig Leijoncrona (1698–1770), who in 1716 married Lieutenant Erik Rappe (1695–1737) of the noble house Rappe (introduced 1697, no. 1284). Their sons were later elevated to the baronial house Rappe (no. 287), and this Vachell-to-Rappe line is the pathway by which a number of modern Swedish noble families—including the Rappe—trace descent back to the Vachells of Coley. Hedvig's sister Eleonora (1700–1770) married Captain Tomas Georg Rudebeck of the noble house Rudebeck (introduced as no. 872), while their sister Dorotea married Major Peter Berg, ennobled Lilliehorn—the noble (and later baronial) house Lilliehorn (introduced 1720, no. 1671). Together these marriages anchor the Coley connection across multiple Swedish lineages and explain why the Vachell name appears repeatedly in eighteenth-century Swedish genealogies.

Further Reading:

• Elgenstierna, Gustaf (ed.) (1925–1936). Den introducerade svenska adelns ättartavlor (9 vols). Stockholm: P. A. Norstedt & Söners Förlag.
• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (2004). 'Dahl, Michael (1659–1743)'. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
• Svenskt biografiskt lexikon (1977–1979). 'Leijoncrona, Christoffer', vol. 22, p. 461. Stockholm: Riksarkivet.