ON THE ”LAPLAND” SAAMIS IN IGGESUND & THE NORTHUMBRIAN CONNECTION: Pt 1 of 3. From Sápmi in South to ”the North” T/R. Departure August 12, 1786 with the fair wind…

(In ENGLISH, source for illustrations in last part)
on the Saami Ladies, the ”Lapland” Sisters, who drew a lot of attention.

Pt 1 of 3. From Sápmi in South to ”the North” T/R.
Departure August 12, 1786 with the fair wind…

Anna Jönsdotter and Sigrid Jönsdotter (26 och 22 år) encountered a small group of British nobility men this summer. Whether there actually had been a meeting earlier on the gentlemen’s travel northwards or not we do not know. But what we do know: The encounter resulted in a travel to Newcastle via Shields, and a fairly long stay at two castles and Liddell properties, of which one in North Durham and the other in Northumberland, by Hadrianus’ Wall. In the boundary land into the North.

Via the intermediator Cartridge Grill at Iggesund; the Baron, Sir Henry George Liddell, Sir Thomas Bowes and the author of the travel book, Sir Matthew Consett, got introduced to Anna and Sigrid Jönsdotter, these two Saami women. We know scarcely about these meetings, but most likely this Saami group used to have their summer camp and hut (gåetie) by the iron works of Iggesund.
Possibly the very first encounter from the Englishmen/Northumbrians point of view might have been with these sisters’s father, Jöns Andersson, who this summer is supposed to have reached the age of 64. Their mother, of true ”Southern Southern Saami” origin Cicilia Jönsdotter, was 57 at the time.

The parents was said to have accompanied the daughters to the county border south of Gävle; in which town and county capital they had a passport written at July 8, a Saturday. This tells us they had exactly three weeks to make it to Gothenburg.
That is not too much time on summer roads.

While Consett, Bowes och Liddell kept on traveling via Danmark and the southern part of the Swedish west coast with their ordinary wagon gear; thus Anna, Sigrid and their two or three travel buddies advanced by foot.
Six reindeers followed the trip. They might as well has been purchased along the way. Anders Larsson was a famous reindeer merchant and he went most often to Alfta, but also to Wermlandia (Värmland) with his reindeers.

Anders partly grew up in Skog, where his father served as a Saami so called Parish Lapp.
We cannot say if the girls was related to this family. Anders’s father might have been slighty older than jöns and Cicilia, the sisters’s parents.

And neither Juli 8, nor July 28 they would not know that the ship happened to be delayed as much as a fortnight until wind at last turned fair
Want to know more on the stay in Northumberland and North Durham?
You could always get the upcoming issue of Saepmie Times!

In the last part we will summarize how life treated Anna and Sigrid after the return home. Home to the Helsingia all the cavalliers wanted to follow them to ….
And the Helsingia that they seemingly deliberately did let people call Jockmo Lapland (”lappmark! sv.)