Girls on the Move Late Medieval Social Networks, Economic Conditions and Peasant Geographic Mobility between Southern Finland and Reval (Tallinn), c. 1350 –1560
Girls on the Move Late Medieval Social Networks, Economic Conditions and Peasant Geographic Mobility between Southern Finland and Reval (Tallinn), c. 1350 –1560

Summary/Abstract: The article discusses the emigration of peasants from the province of Nyland inFinland to the town of Reval (Est. Tallinn) between c. 1350 and 1560. The analysisis based on the surviving source material, especially letters of tovorsichte issued bylay and ecclesiastic authorities in Finland as certificates for the deceased’s family oninheritance in Reval. As the source material indicates, a noticeable shift, in both theareas of origin and the gender of the migrants from Nyland, occurred between the twoanalysed periods. The first ranged from the 1350s/1410s to 1519, and the other periodcoincided with the final boom in Reval’s medieval transit trade before the LivonianWar (1520 –1560). During the first period, some two-thirds of the deceased originatedfrom the bailiwick of Raseborg in western Nyland, half of them being men, while in1520 –1560, half of the deceased had been born in the bailiwick of Borgå in eastern Ny-land, and more than 83 per cent were women. The large number of female emigrantsto Reval between c. 1410 and 1560 is also noticeable in the geographical distributionof their parishes of origin. The number of female emigrants was especially high inareas on the northern side of the Gulf of Finland, just opposite Reval, between Ingåand Borgå parishes. The issue of the migrants’ origin is further investigated througha case study of Helsinga parish, covering roughly the area of the present-day cities ofHelsinki and Vantaa. As the study demonstrates, most of the identified migrants whopassed away in Reval were women, apparently younger daughters from the middleand upper layers of the rural society, who were able to utilise their experience in peas-ant merchant households and found assignments and permanent employment in thenew urban surroundings. Their motivation to emigrate may have been driven by boththe growing population of their old home villages in Nyland and the demands of thelabour market in Reval.

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