‘Anna Henrichsdotter was born in 1745; her father was a boatman in the navy. She married the younger son of a farmer at the age of 23. Her husband worked as a farmhand and died after three years of marriage. She was left with three daughters aged 3, 2 and 0 years. Anna never remarried and struggled on as a cottager until her daughters grew up. The eldest married a crofter and the second daughter died in her thirties. The youngest daughter married a boatman and had six children. Mother and daughter never parted company, and Anna lived with the family of the boatman until she died at the age of 75. The parish assisted Anna with poor-relief payments.’

‘Anna Erichsdotter was born in 1768 of a farming family but died as a parish pauper. Her husband was a boatman (m. 1796). Two of her children died as infants and one daughter migrated soon after the death of her father. One daughter never married and stayed with her mother. Anna died at the age of 92, blind and the oldest resident in the parish. The daughter survived into her eighties.’

‘Margreta Andersdotter was a tailor's daughter. She married a cottager at the age of 31. The family had two daughters and a son. Both daughters married crofters and continued to live in the parish. During the seventeen years of her widowhood Margreta resided with her son, who had managed to acquire a croft. The family did not prosper, however. Not only the mother but also the son ended their days as parish paupers.’