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Ulrika Eleonora Ribbing

1723–1787

Born
18 May 1723, Stockholm
Country of birth
Sweden
Died
8 Jun 1787, Stockholm
facts
6
sources
1
images and files
0

Facts and their sources

Tap a fact to see where it comes from.

  • Birth18 May 1723, StockholmProbable1 source
  • Death8 Jun 1787, StockholmProbable1 source
  • UnionCarl Gustaf LievenConfirmed1 source

A life in time

  1. Born · Stockholm

    Birth, Stockholm

  2. Child born: Ulla von Liewen

    Birth

  3. Died · Stockholm

    Death, Stockholm

What was it like?

The world around Stockholm, 1723: who ruled, who else was alive, how people lived. This is general history, not a record about the family, and every item shows where it comes from.

Peasant women often worked in long chemises made of coarse linen, sometimes knotting the skirt to make movement easier while performing daily chores.

Fashion

Practical Daily Work Clothing

Peasant women often worked in long chemises made of coarse linen, sometimes knotting the skirt to make movement easier while performing daily chores.

Smoothing Head-Cloths with Glass

Women smoothed their festive white linen head-cloths by rubbing the fabric with a glass rod to achieve a shiny, professional finish.

Music

Dancing in barns and at crossroads

During the 18th century, people gathered to dance in informal settings such as barns, bridges, crossroads, and farmyards, as there were no dedicated dance halls. In the absence of a musician, young people would often hum or sing the music themselves to accompany their dancing.

Instruments for dance and church

Popular instruments for dance music included the bagpipe, jaw harp, clarinet, drum, and violin, as well as the nyckelharpa. The nyckelharpa was also played in churches during special occasions like weddings or feast days.

Getting around

Travel by Horse and Foot

In the early 1700s, most people traveled long distances by horse or on foot because poor roads made wheeled vehicles impractical in many areas. Women rode sideways in special cross-saddles rather than astride.

Travel via Frozen Landscapes

Winter was often the best time for long journeys, as travelers could move easily over frozen lakes, rivers, and marshes that were impassable in summer. In many northern regions, people relied on these ice roads for essential transport.

Daily life
Around 1724–1724

Mandatory education for children

A 1724 law mandated that all parents were obligated to teach their children to read and write, either by doing it themselves or by hiring a teacher.

Cooking over an open fire

Cooking was performed in a large iron or bronze pot placed on a tripod over an open fire, which was the main method for preparing meals.

Food

Beer as a Daily Beverage

Water was often unsafe to drink, so people consumed large quantities of weak beer instead. Even soldiers in the King's army were rationed over two liters of beer daily.

Food Preparation and Rationing

To ensure rations lasted, families soaked dried foods like peas, salt fish, or meat before cooking them to reduce saltiness and improve texture. Meals were often strictly portioned, with some records showing specific counts, such as one herring shared between two people.

Prices and wages
Around 1725–1725

Housemaid's monthly wage in 1725

In 1725, a housemaid earned 40 daler kopparmynt per month.

Around 1725–1735

Cost of a cow and rye

A cow cost 30 daler kopparmynt in 1725, while a barrel of rye cost 18 daler kopparmynt in 1735.

Work

Home-based work and seasonal labor patterns

The home was a primary workplace where men and women performed diverse tasks, such as child care, weaving, and forest work, often with flexible division of labor. Seasonality dictated much of the work, with livestock care requiring year-round attention while tasks like haymaking peaked in the summer.

Legal status and control of workers

Miners were legally classified as servants and members of their employer's household, with their wages sometimes distributed through a grain warehouse. Servants faced strict regulations and legal coercion, with masters having the authority to demand obedience and use physical violence.

News and letters

Dangerous Mail Routes Across the Sea

Mail transit between Stockholm and Turku could take up to ten days, frequently involving dangerous travel in small, open rowboats across the icy Baltic Sea.

Fast Mail Between Stockholm and Göteborg

In 1702, a letter from Stockholm to Göteborg took about four days to arrive, with a full round-trip reply taking around ten days.

During their lifetime

  1. 1731

    East India Company founded in 1731

    The Swedish East India Company was founded in 1731, creating new opportunities for trade and the import of luxury goods.

  2. 1734

    Unified legal code adopted in 1734

    A comprehensive new law, the Civil Code of 1734, was adopted to provide a unified legal framework for all of Sweden.

  3. 1756

    Mass confiscation of illegal distilleries in 1756

    The government ordered the confiscation of all private aquavit manufacturing equipment, rounding up approximately 180,000 illegal distilleries across the country.

  4. 1766

    Freedom of the press act passed in 1766

    Sweden passed the world's first freedom of the press act, which granted citizens the right to publish their opinions and access official government documents.

  5. 1772

    Famine and distillery ban in 1772

    Following severe crop failures and widespread famine in 1771 and 1772, the government banned the legal manufacture of spirits for personal use to conserve grain.

  6. 1772

    Revolution of 1772 and torture abolished

    King Gustav III staged a coup, forced the parliament to accept a new constitution, and formally abolished the use of torture in judicial proceedings.

Family

Spouses

Children

Ancestors and children

Open the full tree

Four generations back to the right, the children to the left. The number beside a child counts the generations of descendants known after them.