#ringysen

Gelerten Hans RINGYSEN (cca.1420, ? - 28.07.1465, Ruswyl) Kilchherr zu Ruswyl

There is no information about his earlier life, however based on the texts, we could assume, he had moved to Ruswil in 1454 and became Rector in 1457. His son also quite probably was born by the time. Given Heinrich is an adult in 1471 his approximate birth is cca. 1450.

Based on that, and the fact, that higher education, mastering the seven liberal arts took at least six years to complete, we could approximate Johannes’ birth to the 20s  of the century.

One of the earliest known namebearer. 

However there is still some confusion, about that. In the documents he has multiple name variations as Isneringen, Ysinger, Ringisen. We can not tell for sure, if 

that just indicates his family originates from the village of Isenringen, near Luzern

knowing this settlement and similar family names, the clerks simply mispelled it occasionally

or that he might be an offspring of the family of the Isenringens, first mentioned in documents in 1256.

Transcripts:

1454- + 1465, 28. Heumonat war Kirchherr Hans Isenringen (Isneringen,Ysinger, Ringisen), Meister der sieben freien Künste, Stiefbruder des Schultheisen Heinrich Hasfurter in Lucern. Erst im J. 1471 wurde bezüglich seiner Hinterlassenschaft ein Erbstreit entschieden.

Dieser, ein Halbbruder von Schultheis Hasfurter, war 1456 schon in Ruswyl, wo er den 28. Heum. 1465 starb.(..)

About the name:

The first known surnames date back to 9th century Venice. Following the nobility, surenames became common within townfolks in 12th century England and territories of today’s Switzerland, however their use wasn’t consequent, and could change up until the 18th century.

The population of the southern territories of the Holy Roman Empire (mostly the Eidgenossenschaft) was between 600.000- 1 million by the end of the 14th century. This is most probably the area and timeframe, when the name first came to use. The first known Ringeisen names occur in documents of 15th century Switzerland, usually in the form of  Ringÿsen - Ringeÿsen - Ringeisen. Most certainly it follows a pattern, as there are quite many other names with the same formula e.g.:  Findeisen, Zwingeisen, Roesseisen, Summereisen, Herteisen etc. Sources state, such names were common within the wandering journeymen blacksmiths (schmied gesellen) of medieval times, usually indicating certain types of raw ironware or tools of the trade.  Another clue is, that whenever an occupation is indicated in old scripts, it is almost exclusively blacksmith (Hufschmied). This theory is also supported by the Blacksmith guild of the city of Basel: “the families who belonged to the guild, upon admission added the ..isen ..eysen or ..yssen suffix to their surnames. E.g. Wurstisen, Streckysen, Thurneyssen etc.”

What type of ironware could ‘Ring Eysen’ mean is currently unknown, though some state that it might also come from the Alemmann dialect, where “Ringîsen” marks a special type of horseshoes (see also Ovaleisen, Eiereisen). It’s remarkamble, that the name comes up exclusively within the geographical boundaries of the Schwabisch / Alemann dialect during the 15th century. ”Surläuly, der sich nach den Badener Quellen des XIII., XIV. und XV. Jahrhunderts mit den deutschen Personennamen befasst hat, gibt eine ganze Reihe solcher an, die dem Hufeisen entlehnt sind, wie Stollysen, Ringysen, Ryffysen usw.” Karl Surläuly in his book on german familynames marks the year 1431 as the first written appearance of the name Ringysen, and ever since that is officially the earliest source.