Haugsund 1765

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In the tax census from 1765, there are 265 people who lived in Hougssund. It only included people over the age of 12, so with children there were probably between 300 and 400 people living in the settlement. Most were married couples with or without children, and sometimes with old parents or servants, but we also find widows, widowers and a few unmarried people.

Almost no one is given an occupation - the exception was Sheriff Stephanus Bagge and Auctions director Holtzrod - the two may have made up the place's small "middle class". In the church registers occupation is sometimes stated, and here we see that the population of Hokksund consisted of river workers, fishermen and sawmill workers, but also of innkeepers and craftsmen of various kinds.

The settlement had grown up around the ferry site, where travelers along Kongeveien might need food, drink and perhaps accommodation. Blacksmiths who could shoe a horse, carpenters and wheelwrights who could repair a cart and shoemakers who could repair worn-out shoes also settled here. The river was also an important workplace - salmon fishing and timber rafting took place here, and rowers (rowers) transported goods of all kinds by boat.

Others were day laborers in agriculture and forestry, and many probably also had their own patch of land where they could keep livestock and grow some grain.