Klockare

[Mary E. Leveille]

What were the duties of a klockare in Sweden in the 19th century?

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Hi Mary,
 
According to Cradled in Sweden, and certainly the Swedes can add to this. (I hope they do since I have some in my ancestry.)
 
The parish clerk (klockare) was to assist in the actual keeping of the records, to ring the bell(s) in the steeple, and to assist in the teaching of what little of the three R's the children (and some adults) were taught.
 
One of my klockare provided exact baptism dates for his family in the husförhörslängd at a time period when most had just a year of birth. :-)  
 
Judy

[Ann Little]

Hi Mary,
 
Here is a bit more about what a 'klockare' had to do!
 
He was the vicars right-hand man. He had to ring the bells, help the vicar during the service, do the church inventory and pass on the church mail to the clerk in the next parish.
From the year 1755, he was also expected to do bloodletting!
From 1805, only 'klockare' who had acceptable skills in vaccination were employed.
 
According to the churchlaw of 1686, he had to be honest, faithfull and diligent, booklearned and able to sing and write, so that he could teach the children of the parish.
Possibly his teachingskills were not all that good; at least not during the 1700's. A good singing voice took priority, which meant that when a parish employed a new 'klockare', they were more interested in his singing ability than anything else.
 
Kind regards,
Ann

[Eleanor Olin]

Hi Mary, Judy and Ann,
 
Another question about the klockare. Was the position ever considered hereditary? In my husband's family 4 generations (that I know about) had the designation. The 3rd generation klockare had only daughters; so upon his death, the position went to the husband of his oldest twin daughter.
 
Best wishes,
Eleanor

[Ann Little]

Hi Eleanor!
 
I don't think that the position was hereditary as such, but obviously there must have been cases of, 'from father to son', if it was agreeable to everybody concerned. There are probably quite a few 'klockare families; I know of one by the name of Björling. I have but one 'klockare' in my familytree, as far as I know; Peter Jonsson born 1712 dead 1783. He was the last 'klockare' in the parish of Rakered in Vikingstad, Östergötland.
 
Kind regards,
Ann

[Judy Olson Baouab]

Hi Eleonor,
 
I have told basically everything I know about the klockare, but I do know that three sons of my original klockare became a klockare too. That doesn't mean the position was hereditary. I don't think so but I really don't know.
 
The SweGGate website has numerous glossaries, all reachable through the Dictionary link on the home page.
 
http://www.sweggate.com
 
This is the definition of klockare found there.
 
klockare A Title for an employee of the church in a parish. Originally his duties included taking care of the church and its inventory and  to ring the church bells, hence the name klockare (klocka = bell). In the 17th century (church law of 1786) the duty to teach children was added (mostly using Lilla Katekesen (=Postilla) by M Luther as reader) and with the creation of folkskola (literally people's school or school for the people = compulsory school from the age of 7 (no later than 9) by a law of 1842 the klockare often became the school teacher as well. This law stated that every parish and town should have a school and all children should attend, as from 1878 a total of 6 years at school.
Other tasks that were often combined with the klockare position were those of organist (organ player) and kantor. As duties for the klockare expanded often a separate kyrkovaktare was employed for the care of the church and inventory.
The post was disbanded in 1947. Today the bell ringing is electrical and the music is performed by a kantor. School teaching was taken over by specially trained teachers already in the middle-late 1800 as the teacher training caught up with the need for trained teachers.  
 
Judy