Uppsatsens syfte är att undersöka hur bakgrund, ålder, familjesituation, arbetskraft, förändring av social ställning och flyttningar sett ut för torparna på Skälby gård i Kalmar kring år 1890. Därtill att, om möjligt, peka på faktorer som lett till minskning av antalet torpare på Skälby gård. Främst kyrkobokföring har legat till grund för undersökningarna. Resultatet visar att torparna på Skälby gård år 1890 hade hög ålder och var gifta. De hade många barn, varav flera vuxna, som stannade hemma som arbetskraft. Torparna hade liknande social ställning som sina föräldrar och flyttade inte så långt. Få blev arbetare och emigration var relativt vanligt i gruppen. De ser ut att ha strävat efter självägande.

Property sales involve two main contract partners, the buyer (the new owner) and the seller (the property owner). In some cases the property owner can have let a third person (the leaseholder) lease the property or the land. The rights and obligations that fall on the property owner, the leaseholder and the new owner according to the Code of land laws can appear difficult and unclear, especially con-cerning reservation, the new owner’s duty to inspect the property and when he does not act in good faith, the formal requirement and when terms are changed. The work towards a more uniform interpretation of the Code of land laws should result in a greater correspondence between the rules of leasehold and property sales, the rules of leasehold should be interpreted in accordance with the rules of property sales. This should mean an increased responsibility for the property owner to reserve the lease and a de-creased duty for the new owner to inspect the property. If the lease is only partially re-served, the new owner is only bound by the leasehold to the parts which he understood from the reservation and the duty to inspect the property is limited to documents in the property owner’s possession. There are no criteria for when the new owner is considered not being in good faith, but it should be all kinds of visible signs. Despite the formal requirements, oral agreements can bind the new owner to the leasehold, even though the possibilities for this are small. A complete disapproval of oral agreement would not constitute a good development of the Code of land laws.