The most prestigious of Hobbit women, Molly Boffin was the matriarch of a clan without a Thain. The Boffins came early to Kingsland and took up the wool trade in the mid15th century. Scattered by their enterprises, they accumulated wealth but none of the political power that came with bounded clan holdings and a clan muster. Boffins nonetheless held considerable influence in the Shire, because they provided skilled tradesmen and literate merchants, scribes, and physicians to the larger villages, as well as to remote areas. Whenever the clans quarreled, a Boffin could be found who knew everyone involved, who could carry messages, and negotiate compromises. Molliwara Boffin, eldest child of the senior line of the Boffins, was a professional midwife, renowned across three farthings for her sk