"Rannsachning oppå Hjonelagen, drenger och pighor i Wermelandh, utfördh i Martii och Aprilis 1610." (" Ransacking of the households, farm-hands and maids in Värmland, carried out in March and April 1610.")

Background…

Offerings, duties and taxes were paid already in times immemorial to the representatives of different authorities. To begin with there was the payment in goods, but later on the money become the handy substitute. During the medievial period in Sweden there were different kinds of duties to local chiefs, feudal lords, royal courtyards and the church. As the population increased, the need of overview and control expanded correspondingly at the central government, and taxation-lists were drawn up for most places out in the country, in order to control their farms and their people. Among the taxes, some of them were based on certain activities (for instance the duty of mill), while others were person-taxes, based on what social status the subject had reached.

When the nation-state Sweden in due course was building up its military power, there were rolls drawn up of the enlisted persons, and during the 17th century the church in Sweden become one of the most important representative for the spiritual, intellectual and educational life. Their records of catechetical meetings, registers of baptisms, marriages and funerals etc are very important historic sources nowadays.

 

The officials...

Mostly the parish clergyman and other authorized representatives of the parish were the persons who accomplished the records and lists. They knew their parish very well, which was of importance to both the authorities and the taxpayers. The records were drawn up very carefully, regularly and vigorously so therefore the authorities and governement got more and more efficient in the control of civic duties. Thus the swedish treasury increased at a considerable extent, which enabled the growing political and military expansion during the 17th century.

Hjonelagspenningen...

Hjonelagspenningen (hjonelag = family or house-hold) was a personal taxation, which was established by the Swedish Parliament in 1609 and was in force a few years after that. Every household had to pay their duty based on the number of grown-up individuals in the family fit for work. The principals was that all healthy adult males (farmers, sons-in-law, widowers...) had to pay 1 riksdaler (rix-dollar). Females (wives, female-lodgers and widows) had to pay 1/2 daler, like the farm-hands, while the maids got off with a quarter of a daler. All poor people didn´t need to pay anything. The soldiers ("knechtarna") had to pay their duties if they were at home and not involved in a military operation. The parishes were adapted in different districts or "gäld". (For instance Kila gäld at this time consisted of the parishes Kila, Tveta and Svanskog).

The hjonelagslängd was drawn up in Värmland in March and April 1610. For instance it appears that the taxation clerk did his duty in the parish of Nyed on (Tuesday) the 13th of March.

 

The transcription

The transcription of hjonelagslängden is made true to the letter. The spelling of places and personal names are often very interesting. For a very long time there were no standardized correct spelling in the swedish language. Instead there were strong influenses from the dialectal manner of speaking to the written language. Very likely therefore you can "see" or "hear" the spoken names or phrases in the written words.

A list of the names of the farm-yards in modern spelling has been added to simplify the search.

The spelling...

When reading the register, it will be useful to keep in mind some peculiarities in spelling and writing of this time. Often the letter u is the same as v and w. (Name as Ivar and Arvid were often written as Ifuar/Iffwar and Arfued/Arfwed). Like the letter v always was combined with a preceding f, the letter i always was followed by the letter j (places like Vik and Likenäs were often spelled Wijk and Lijkenääs). The combination of ij was also the same as the letter y (Brynte i Byn could be spelled Brijnthe i Bijen). When it's obvious the letter should be a y, I have in this transcription used the letter ÿ (Brÿnthe i Bÿen). The doubling and addition of "silent" letters were also very common in earlier times. Often you can detect how names like Pär i Ed, Håkan i Ås and Olof i Byn were written down as Päär i Eedh, Håkonn i Ååss and Oluff i Bÿen.

The tradition in names..

In this hjonelagslängd among other things, it's very interesting to see a medievial tradition in first namn still preserved, for instance Botolph, Clemmet, Engelbrecht, Gullbrand, Gudmund, Hallor, Rafvel, Rear, Segol, Tron (Trond) and Öfvenn etc.

What can you find in the list?

In hjonelagslängden most of the settled farmers are namned, but you won´t find any names of the females (except in Karlstad) and the servant-people. There are no children noted in the lists (and obviously no sons and daughters younger than 15 - 20 years old), besides the sons-in-law, who were on their way to be the next generation of tax-payers.

Thus it's important to keep in mind that the tax-list do not mention all people of the farmyards of this time. The old people of the parish are most likely out of the lists i. e. persons about and over 60 - 65 years of age. Also there are almost no invalids, intinerant beggars and other homeless individuals listed.

Usually the farms are divided up in taxed freeholds (skatte-hemman) and taxe-exempt farms (frälse-hemman), the former owned ny the farmers themselves, the latter owned by the nobility. Consequently you can't see more precisely specification of the farms owned by the crown (krono-hemman) or the church (kyrkohemman).

When it comes to places and farmyards, you can see about 95 % or more of Värmland at this time.

Abbreviations:

Ort = Place (nutida stav = modern spelling/place name; orig = original spelling)

H = hjonelag (family, household), i. e. the master and his wife. Thus, the most common figure is 2, except when a widower or widow constituted the household. In some cases the heading "enchia" (widow) is followed by the figure 2, and most likely there is another close person (older than 60?), another widow, relative or servant...?

d = dräng = farm-hand/male-servant

p = piga = maid(-servant)

In = Inhyses = lodger (a widower, widow, poor people...).

---

Enckling = Widower

Enchia = Widow

Husarm, husfattig = Poor people "who possess neither cow nor sow"

Huskvinna (huskona) = A maid-lodger fit for work (maybe a "faithful old servant").

Husman (huskarl) = A male-lodger fit for work (maybe a "faithful old servant").

A few of the "Husman" and "Huskonor", have got the addendum "starka" ("strong"). Obviously the writer wanted to emphazie their capacity to pay the duty and their importance to the household.

Knecht = Soldier

Måg = Son-in-law (Observe - "måg" will always be listed under d = dräng/farm-hand)

Nybyggare = Settler

Kapellan (Cappelan) = Assisting vicar

Krympling (Krömpling) = Cripple

Kyrkoherde = Vicar (Her = Herr = a honorary title for the Vicar)

Prästgård = Vicarage

Ryttare = A horseman in the army

Socken (or "sn") = Parish (i.e. ... nuv Nysunds sn = belongs to the parish of Nysund nowadays)

Torp = Crofter´s holding

Further research...

If you want to get more completed namnes, it can be worthwhile to compare this taxlist to other sources, for instance cattle-lists (boskapslängder), record of census (mantalslängder) and above all reports of the proceedings (domböcker) of the same time or period. A comparison between this hjonelagslängd and the tax-list from 1613 "Älvsborgs lösen" will most likely broaden the outlook.

Statistics..

In the link Statistics, there is a small statement of the entered parishes, farmyards, households and number of people. But, as stated before, there were most likely a lot of people in the district who never were of interest to the taxation clerk.

 

Finally...

Of course it's quite possible that some errors have slipped in into the transcription. (Thanks to Erland Granåsen for the information about the people of Nymarrckna - the earliest settlers of Filipstad).