The Ringeÿsen Project

Nikolaus Ringeisen (cca. 1475-1505) was a Kaplan of Basel’s St. Peters church of Basel, and served there until his death between 1495 and 1505. He was charged of bribery in the case of Johannes Renger, but the case was settled with the intercession of his father, as the Register of St. Peter church tells in the Basler City Archives:

3/15/1505  (1505 die Sabbato decima quinta Mensis Marci hora undecima ante Meridiem)

In Gegenwart des unterzeichnenden Notars und der Zeugen waren in der Sakristei der Kirche von St. Peter zu Basel zur angegebenen Zeit anwesend: Einerseits Theobald Westhoffer, dr. iur. can., Bernhard Muller, Kantor, Thüring von Hallwil, Scholaster, Konrad Hanffstengel, Magister, Augustin Alantse und Jakob von Sulzberg, alle Kanoniker, ferner die Kapläne Aegidius Richolff, Heinrich Boemlin und Matheus Burger; andererseits Niklaus Ringysen, Kaplan zu St. Peter.

Es steht fest, dass gemäss den Statuten von St. Peter jeder Kaplan den Ertrag von Präsenz und Quottidiana nur in seiner Kaplanei empfangen darf, dass ferner Niklaus in seiner Kaplanei behelligt wird und deswegen diese Einkünfte nur per admissionem suam empfangen kann. Da aber Adelberg von Bärenfels, Anton Retzinger und der Vater des Niklaus, Peter Ringysen beim Kapitel intervenierten, damit Niklaus vom gen. Statut befreit werde, kann dieser trotz der oben gen. Einwände die gen. Einkünfte empfangen, solang er seine Dienste leistet, sich priesterhaft (sacerdotaliter) führt und bei seinem Vater wohnt.

Niklaus verspricht im Besitz seiner Kaplanei ruhig zu bleiben und sie mit Wissen von St. Peter zu veräussern. Sein Vater verspricht seinen Sohn anzuhalten, die Kaplanei in angegebener Weise zu veräussern. Beider verzichten hinfort auf alle Begünstigungen und besonders auf das Recht, dass eine renunciatio generalis nicht gelte, wenn nicht eine renunciatio specialis vorangehe.

The history of the Ringeisen family of Basel is probably the best documented one in the entire Eidgenossenschaft.

The story begins with Peter Ringysen who probably was born  cca. 1440 and died in 1517, in Basel.

His name first appears in the list of “Bürgerschafts Kontrakte” of the city of Basel in the year 1467 as follows:

Dec 5. Peter Ryngysen von Munchen, eyn schmytt

In other sources lates he’s called a Hufschmied, so presumably his main source of income was preparing horseshoes, however in the book Ulrich Meltinger: ein Basler Kaufmann am Ende des 15. Jahrhunderts of Matthias Steinbrink, he also is mentioned in the notes of Meltinger as someone selling certain types of iron to him as well.

From that book we also know that around 1471 he was living in the area of the Spalen gates. (p. 255)

Also was one time member of the city council (1499-1501), and he passed away in the year of 1517.

He had four sons to carry on the name:

Anton R. (cca,1472-1519) as he seems to have inherited Peter’s workshop he must have been the oldest of the four brothers. His son is known to have served as the patron of the St. Peter church in the 16th century.

Nikolaus R.(cca. 1475-1505) became Kaplan of St. Peters church of Basel, and served there until his death between 1495 and 1505.

Jakob R. (cca. 1484- cca. 1550) also became a Hufschmied, but as he did not inherited due to the customs of the age, he moved out of the city, to the towns of Bartenheim, and later Sierenz. He very well may be the ancestor of most Ringeisen families of the Alsace region.

From the book  Basler Beiträge zur Geschichtswissenschaft - Band 142-143. 97pp. by  Christine Christ-von Wedel

Der Eisenkrämer Gabriel Ringisen hinterließ 1521 250 Gulden auf der Stadt Solothurn, 96 Gulden auf «granwil» ,19. Der Schmied und Eisenkrämer Peter Ringisen hinterließ 1517 1408 lib Hauptgut, verteilt auf neun Rentenansprüche.

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.