Ingrid Johansdotter, the mother of John Peter Benson, spent her whole life in the parish of Västra Karup on the Bjäre peninsula. She was a cottager’s daughter who went into service as a maid at sixteen, had two children before she married, married the widower Bengt Larsson Hippias, and was widowed at thirty-nine. She had seven children in all. Three of her sons went to America; she stayed behind and died in Karup in 1912, at seventy-nine.
A Cottager’s Daughter
Ingrid was born on November 21, 1832, at Södertorp in Västra Karup and baptized on November 25. The register writes her name as Ingar, a common older form of Ingrid. Her parents were Johannes Andersson, a husman, and his wife, Kersti Johansdotter. A husman was a cottager: he had a cottage and perhaps a small patch of ground, but no farm, and he lived by working for the farmers around him.
The household examination book for 1836–1841 shows the family before they moved to Svenstad, another village in the parish, in 1836: Johannes Andersson, born in 1805; his wife, Kersti Johansdotter, born in 1800; and the children Johanna, born in 1824, Jöns Peter, 1827, Ingar, 1832, and Hans Peter, 1835. Below them, under the word Föräldrar (parents), are Johan Dock, born in 1769, and his wife, Anna, born in 1770, whose patronymic appears to have been corrected to Svensdotter. Kersti’s patronymic, Johansdotter, fits a father named Johan, so these were probably Ingrid’s grandparents on her mother’s side, living with the family.
At Svenstad the family grew. The 1842–1851 book adds three more children: Paulus, born December 17, 1837; Carl Johan, born December 27, 1840, who died on November 25, 1842; and Carl, born in 1845. Ingrid’s name is crossed out with a note that she moved to page 164 in 1849.
Into Service
Page 164 is the farm of Waran, where Ingrid, aged sixteen, was living in the household of Jöns Pet. Persson and his wife, Anna Nilsdotter. Most children of cottagers left home in their teens to work as a piga (maid) or dräng (farmhand), usually on a one-year contract that began and ended in the autumn. The entry shows that she came from page 276, her parents’ page, and left for page 267 in 1850.
Page 267 is Svenstad no. 2, the farm of Sven Persson, born in 1805, and his wife, Kersti Svensdotter. At the bottom of the page is “Piga Inger Johansdotter,” born November 21, 1832, who came from page 164 in 1850.
Janne Wilhelm and Carolina
Ingrid did not stay with Sven Persson’s family. By 1855 she had been working at Boarp, and that year she moved into the household recorded on page 489 of the household book for 1851–1857. The head of the household was a farmer (åbo) whose name appears to read Ola Jönsson, born in 1812; with him were his wife, Elna Persdotter, born in 1810, and their sons, Emanuel, born in 1849, and Per, born in 1850. Below them are the maid Ingrid, born in 1832, with a note beside her name that seems to say she had had an illegitimate child; a person born in 1824 whose name is too faint to read; and Ingrid’s son, Janne, born in 1856, with “Svenstad” in the next column. The moving columns show that Ingrid came from Boarp in 1855.
On January 28, 1856, while she was a maid at Svenstad, she gave birth to a son, Janne Wilhelm. He was baptized two days later. The register calls him oäkta, illegitimate, and names only his mother, “the maid in Svenstad, Ingrid Johansdotter,” aged 23. No father is named.
Having a child outside marriage was common enough in rural Sweden in the 1850s, but it had consequences. The minister recorded it in every book that followed, and an unmarried mother had to make a private confession and receive absolution before she could take communion again. A maid with a baby was also harder to place in service. Ingrid found a place, though. In 1856 she and Janne moved from page 489 to page 488, back into the household of Sven Persson at Svenstad, where she had worked as a maid in 1850. The person born in 1824 made the same move. On page 488 the maid Ingrid Johansdotter is listed in Sven Persson’s household, with her illegitimate child Janne Wilhelm on the line below.
The moving-in column on page 488 reads “p. 459 — 56” beside Ingrid and “d:o — d:o” (the same) beside Janne. The minister used his own page numbers, which here run 30 lower than ArkivDigital’s: the page ArkivDigital numbers 489 is headed 459 in the book. On page 489, the moving-out column beside Ingrid and the person born in 1824 shows the move to his page 458, ArkivDigital’s 488, in 1856.
By 1858 Ingrid had moved across the parish line to Olastorp, a farm in the neighboring parish of Hov. Her daughter Carolina was born on June 5, 1858, and baptized on June 8 in Västra Karup. The register calls Carolina oäkta and her mother a maid “from No. 2 Olastorp in Hov parish,” aged 25. Again no father is named. A note below Ingrid’s name, “Skrift. d. … 58,” records her confession (skrift) in August 1858.
The godparents were “H[ustru] Johanna Johansdotter and her husband, the farmer Jöns Hansson at No. 3 Boarp, and the farmhand Hans Peter Johansson in Svenstad.” Ingrid had an older sister named Johanna, born in 1824, and a younger brother named Hans Peter, born in 1835, who grew up in Svenstad. The names fit, and families usually asked brothers and sisters to stand as godparents, but the register does not say how they were related to her.
The household book for 1857–1860 lists Ingrid with both children. They came in 1858 from No. 2 Olastorp and left in 1860 for No. 2 Elestorp.
Marriage to Bengt Hippias
On February 26, 1860, the minister entered the banns for “the worker and widower Bengt Pet. Larsson (Hyppias), No. 2 Elestorp, 38 years,” and “the deja Ingrid Johansdotter, No. 4 Svenstad, 27 years.” A deja was the woman who ran the dairy and kitchen on a farm, a step up from an ordinary maid. Bengt was the son of the hussar Lars Olsson Hippias. His first wife, Kjersti Persdotter, had died in 1854, leaving him with five children.
Two notes follow. Because Bengt was a widower, he had to show that his first wife’s estate had been settled before he could marry again. “Hyppias showed the estate inventory, according to which there was nothing to divide”: there was nothing for his children to inherit. And because Ingrid was unmarried, she needed her guardian’s consent: “Ingrid’s father, the cottager Joh. Andersson (Dock), gave, in the presence of the tenant farmer Pål Jönsson and the cottager Hans Jacob Jönsson, permission for his daughter’s marriage.” Her father is here given the name Dock, the same name as the Johan Dock listed with the family in 1836. The entry ends Vigde d. 27/7 60: married July 27, 1860.
Their son Jöns Peter, later John Peter Benson, was born at Elestorp on June 10, 1860, seven weeks before the wedding. The birth register calls Ingrid Bengt’s fästeqvinna, his betrothed, and a later note adds the wedding date. A child born to a betrothed couple who then married was counted as legitimate.
The 1857–1860 household book shows the new family at Elestorp No. 2: Bengt, Ingrid, Bengt’s children Lars Petter, Thilda, Nils Petter, Paulus and Christina, Ingrid’s children Janne Wilhelm and Carolina, and the baby, Jöns Peter. Eight children, the eldest sixteen. The note in front of Jöns Peter’s name appears to read begges ä. son, the lawful son of both.
Bengt and Ingrid had three more sons: Carl Ernst Wilhelm, born May 4, 1863; Aron, born August 4, 1866, who died on April 2, 1869, aged two; and a second Aron, born May 26, 1869, seven weeks after the first one died. The book for 1867–1873 shows the household at Elestorp. Janne Wilhelm and Carolina are marked with a note that appears to read h:s oä., her (Ingrid’s) illegitimate children, while Jöns Peter is again begges ä., lawful son of both. Bengt’s grown children Botilda, Nils Peter and Paulus are listed as inhyses, lodgers, and Nils Peter is a sjöman, a sailor.
A Widow in Karup
In November 1870 the family moved to No. 1 Karup, the village around the church. Bengt died there on February 15, 1872, and was buried on February 21. The register calls him “Bengt Peter Larsson Hippias, cottager at No. 1 Karup,” aged 50 years, 6 months and 18 days, and married. Ingrid was 39, with seven children at home, the youngest not yet three.
She kept the surname Hippias. On December 22, 1873, almost two years after Bengt’s death, she gave birth to a daughter, Hilda Paulina, baptized on January 7, 1874. The register calls the child oäkta and the mother “Ingrid Johansdotter Hippias in Karup, widow,” aged 40. No father is named. One of the godparents was “Pig. Carolina Bengtsson in Karup,” Ingrid’s daughter Carolina, then fifteen.
The register has a column headed Absolution. Ingrid’s is dated March 16, 1877, more than three years after Hilda was born.
The household book for 1874–1884 shows Ingrid as a widow at No. 1 Karup, widowed on February 15, 1872, with Janne Wilhelm, now using the surname Johansson; Carolina, now Bengtsdotter; Jöns Peter, a sailor; Carl Ernst Wilhelm; Aron; and Hilda Paulina. Carolina left for Engelholm in 1876 and, after a return, appears to have left for Helsingborg in 1881. Carl Ernst Wilhelm, also a sailor by then, is entered again further down the page.
Hilda Paulina died of diphtheria on May 9, 1879, and was buried on May 16. She was 5 years, 2 months and 17 days old. Diphtheria was one of the great child-killers of the time; it closed the throat, and there was no treatment until antitoxin came into use in the 1890s.
The Sons Who Left
In the household book for 1884–1894 Ingrid is still the widow Ingrid Johansdotter Hippias at Karup. Jöns Peter and Carl Ernst Wilhelm are both sjömän, sailors. Aron, now Aron Bengtsson Calin, is a målaregesäll, a journeyman painter, and his name is crossed out. Bengt’s son Nils Peter, unmarried, is listed with her too.
On February 20, 1885, two of Ingrid’s sons were married in Västra Karup on the same day: Janne Wilhelm to Amalia Bengtsson, and Jöns Peter to Thilda Svensson. Jöns Peter left for America on March 26, 1888, became John Peter Benson, and settled in Worcester, Massachusetts, as a painter. Carl Ernst Wilhelm became Charles Ernest Benson and Aron became Aaron Calin; both settled in Providence, Rhode Island. Charles married Amanda Saccrisson in 1898 and died in Providence on June 18, 1919. Aaron married Emma Johnson on February 23, 1895, and died on April 2, 1949.
Janne Wilhelm stayed in Västra Karup, where he died on July 21, 1911. His son Hjalmar Vitalis Jansson went to Providence too, and played a part in the story of his cousin Bertha Benson.
Her Death
Ingrid Johansdotter Hippias, “widow, No. 1 Karup,” died on April 29, 1912, and was buried on May 4. The cause of death is ålderdom, old age. She was 79, and had lived at No. 1 Karup for more than forty years.
When was Janne Wilhelm born?
January 28, 1856. The birth register, written at the time, gives the 28th, and he was baptized on the 30th. The household book for 1851–1857 agrees: on page 489, the household where Ingrid was living when he was born, his birth date appears to read 28/1, January 28. The household books from 1860 on give March 24, a date written down years later.
Who were the fathers?
Not known. The baptism entries for Janne Wilhelm, Carolina and Hilda Paulina name no father. Carolina later used the surname Bengtsdotter, which suggests a father named Bengt, but no record found so far says that Bengt Hippias was her father. Hilda Paulina was born almost two years after Bengt’s death.