[1] Johan Börjesson was born in Tanum, Bohuslän, in 1790 to Börje Hansson and Agneta Wingård.

While in Uppsala, Börjesson was admitted to the romanticist society Aurora, where he initiated his poetic endeavours, although he never quite embraced the movement's ideals.

They had two daughters, of which one survived into adulthood, the artist Agnes Börjesson, who became one of the four first women admitted to the Royal Swedish Academy of Fine Arts.

After this followed plays like Erik den fjortondes son (1847), Solen sjunker, Gustaf I:s sista dagar (1856), Ur Karl XII:s ungdom (1858), Brödraskulden, and Erik den Fjortonde, senare avdelningen (1861).

Börjesson had just finished another play, En sammansvärjning i Rom, including his very last poem Afsked till publiken och kritiken, when he died in the spring of 1866.