Bengt Pehrsson, died in 1837 of old age

A national celebrity who had an entire farm named after him.

The Bengts farm is from 1610, but Bengt Pehrsson moved here in 1785. He was considered one of the most knowledgeable freeholders of the time – a free farmer who owned his own land – in northern Halland.

Pehrsson was a member of Parliament in the early 1800s, and belonged to the yeomanry. He sat in Parliament on three different occasions. Parliament – or the Diets, as they were called – only assembled every three years at that time.

His commission took him all the way to Stockholm, where he had important tasks in the General Appeals and Finance Committee, the Strengthened Committee of Supply, and the Civil Legislation Committee. The list could go on. He submitted motions several times during the three Parliaments. He was also a lay assessor, taking over after the three troublesome sons of the Jöns family.

One wonders what modernities he brought to the hamlet from the capital – coffee and potatoes, perhaps?

During his time in the hamlet, Bengt lived in a one-room cottage; the foundation can be glimpsed at Bengts gård. He had seven children, of whom only five reached adulthood. He became a widower in 1812 when his wife Gunla died.