The rural succession myth: Occupational careers and household formation of peasants' and farmers' offspring around 18001

Abstract

Two cases considering the farmers in Eastern Marne in Groningen and the peasants in Oosterhesselen in Drenthe in the period 1740-1860 show that family succession on farmsteads was less common in the Netherlands than is often assumed and was certainly less widespread than in other north-western European countries. Analysing the careers of farmers' and peasants' children in the period around 1800 confirms that the acquisition of the parental holding was far less important in rural household formation than generally suggested. During the period of rapid population growth studied, the children of those with smaller holdings had particularly limited chances of family succession or of acquiring a farmstead in a different way, and had very high chances of downward social mobility.