Hi Laura,
Dräng means farm hand.
Åbo is a form of tenant farmer.
Frälse or frälsehemman as in frälsehemmansåbo has to do with the ownership of the land the tenant farmer was farming.
Ownership of land is quite complex and not easy to explain.
Basically there were three types of land;
- Land owned by the nobility (frälsejord - Noble land)
- Land owned by the Crown (kronojord - Crown land)
- Land owned by the farmers (skattejord - Taxed land)
Farmers on frälsejord paid their taxes to the nobility. Farmers on kronojord and skattejord paid their taxes to the Crown.
The farmers on kronojord were called kronobönder (Crown farmers), farmers on skattejord were called skattebönder (Tax farmers) and farmers on frälsejord were called frälsebönder (farmers of the nobility).
The åbo tenant farmer's right of use and enjoyment of the croft and the plot of land belonging to it was inheritable (åborätten). That is the children of a åbo tenant farmer had the right to continue with the tenancy.
There is more than one type of tenant farmers; we have for example torpare (crofters), landbo and åbo. Normally the åbo tenant farms were located on “kronojord” (crown land) and not on “frälsejord” (noble land).
Socken means parish and I guess that insockn or insocknes means he lived within the parish.
Hans