Prehistoric Hindersby got rid of the thick ice about 12800 years ago but was still under water (Baltic Ice Lake). During Ancylus Lake time about 10000 years ago the highest hills in Hindersby were small islands but only about 3000 years ago Hindersby rose above the water line. During the Stone Age there is evidence of living places in the northern part of Lappträsk, but no evidence at all from Bronze and Iron Age (4000-1000 years ago).
About 2000-1000 years ago probably the Swedes from Uppland started to travel eastwards on Viking ships.
At that time Denmark, Sweden and Novgorod was fighting for influence in this area. Finland is really only the southwestern part of modern Finland around the old city Åbo although the name later was extended to the whole "Easternland". This area was therefore called Nyland (Newland) by the Swedes.
For a long time the Swedish (really only Uppland) ledung fleat had been going to Tavastia (to the northeast of proper Finland) almost each summer. The First Crusade in 1155-58 was probably just a ledung which later was blown up to boast the glory of the Swedish king in the eyes of the church.
In 1169 a chronicle in Novgorod mentions a Swedish attempt to go eastwards but failed. In 1180 there seems to be full war between Danes, Swedes and Novgorods in the Eastern Sea and in 1191 the Danes made an attempt to conquer the southern coast (Nyland) and in 1197 the Danish king Knut the Great leads a crusade to Estonia.
In 1206 the Danish king Valdemar Sejr leads a crusade to the island Ösel in Estonia. The Swedish church has problems in Finland and in 1209 there is no bishop in Finland because it is too dangerous. In 1216 after several ledung crusades the Pope gives the right to Finland (around Åbo) to the Swedish church.
In 1219 Valdemar Sejr goes on a crusade to Estonia and his son Knut is made king in Estonia in 1220. in 1223 the Danish fortress Reval is built in Tallinn (= Tani linn = Danish castle). In 1226 Jaroslav of Novgorod goes to Tavastia with an army and in 1228 the Tavasts goes to Carelia in revenge. In 1236 the heathens in Tavastia kill Christian priests and in 1238 Birger Jarl makes a crusade to Tavastia against them. The castle Tavastehus is built. In 1240 the Swedes go to the river Neva in the East but are defeated by Alexander Jaroslav of Novgorod.
The German Hansa (Lübeck) dominates the trade on the Eastern Sea, but the Swedes (Gotland) are fighting against it. In 1283 and 1284 they attack Neva in an attempt to break the Hansa monopoly on Carelian trade. In 1284 the son Bengt of the Swedish king Magnus Ladulås is made Duke of Finland (proper) and Tavastia. Nyland is considered a hunting and fishing area for the Tavasts. Carelia is still under Novgorod's influence. In 1292 the regent of Sweden, Torgil Knutsson, makes a crusade to Carelia and builds the castle Viborg. During the following war with Novgorod the Swedes conquer the southern part of Carelia, Kexholm. Nyland is now firmly in Swedish hands.
Nobody knows when the first Swedish farmers came to Hindersby. Some think it is after the second crusade in 1238. Probably the movement stopped in 1350 when the Black Death came to Sweden.
It seems from the tax records that Hindersby is one of the oldest villages in the region. In 1543 Hindersby had a tax unit of 5 which indicates that there had been 5 farms when the tax unit was established sometimes during the 14th century.
At the begin Hindersby was a part of the parish Borgå, but in the middle of the 14 century the eastern part was made an independent parish, Pernå, which soon was divided again and the eastern part was named Pyttis. In 1573 several villages around the Lappträsk lake asked the king Johan III to be allowed to form a new parish with some villages from Pyttis, among them Hindersby, and some villages from Pernå. In 1575 the new parish was established.
Hindersby contains four "skifteslag", i.e. parts of the village working together:
Updated: 9 September 2003