Richterswil, Zürich, Switzerland in the 1660s

Work

Fields, lake, and craft

Richterswil is not only a farming place: in the Landvogtei years tanneries, dye works, trade, inns, and textile home work² stand beside field work. Household economies also depend on regulated common wood and land rights in Langenegg⁵.

Faith

Reformed parish rule

The visible church is St. Martin, with its fifteenth-century choir and tower^1,2. Parish life is Reformed, and local worship, schooling, poor relief, and public orders pass through pastors who keep registers and read mandates from the pulpit⁶.

Law & power

Zürich governs from Wädenswil

Richterswil is under the Zürich Landvogtei Wädenswil and its bailiff at Neu-Wädenswil^1,4. The sharp memory is the 1646 tax refusal, occupation by 5,000 Zürich troops, and executions of four ringleaders⁴.

In the air

Confession and soldiering

The decade’s large argument is not abstract: the 1663 French alliance raises questions about Swiss soldiers, Reformed worship, and neutrality in confessional wars⁷. Zürich’s clergy are politically active, especially over mandates read and explained from the pulpit⁶.

What people feared

War was recent

Richterswil had recently suffered serious devastation in the first Villmergen War of 1656². Local danger also comes from authority itself, remembered through the crushed 1646 tax revolt and executions⁴.

Home & table

A small parish world

The community is small enough to count: 893 inhabitants in 1634¹. The parish still reaches beyond the lake village because Hütten remains part of Richterswil parish until 1703¹.

Who lived here

Lake village and Berg

Richterswil is both the Dorf by the lake and the Berg around Samstagern¹. Its borderland position matters because it sits on the left shore of Lake Zürich near Schwyz and Wollerau^1,2.

Roads & news

Boats, roads, pulpit

Information travels with movement: Richterswil is a lake transshipment and pilgrim route point toward Einsiedeln². Official news is formalized when pastors read Zürich mandates from the pulpit⁶.

Year by year

1. 1656The first Villmergen War brought Catholic troops and serious devastation to Richterswil. here²
2. 1657A Richterswil order regulated use of wood and common resources in the Langenegg. here⁵
3. 1660The English monarchy was restored under Charles II, a Protestant political reversal that educated Reformed Zürich circles could hear about. the world
4. 1663The alliance between the Swiss Confederates and Louis XIV’s France was renewed, with Reformed protections negotiated by Protestant cantons. the country⁷
5. 1666The Great Fire of London destroyed much of England’s capital, news that would travel through European commercial and diplomatic channels. the world
6. 1667Louis XIV began the War of Devolution against Spanish Habsburg lands, making French power a subject of European conversation. the world
7. 1671A ruling settled a Richterswil dispute over wood use beyond the Sihl among people below, beyond, and above the Sihl and on the Richterswilerberg. here⁵

Pictures from the time

What the sources say

• Richterswil comprised a lakeside Dorf and the Berg area around Samstagern; in 1634 it had 893 inhabitants. from the sources¹
• The village lay on the left shore of Lake Zürich in the Herrschaft Wädenswil, near the borderland with Schwyz and Wollerau. from the sources^1,2
• Richterswil had belonged to the Johanniter order from 1287 until the order sold the Herrschaft Wädenswil to the city of Zürich in 1550. from the sources^1,2
• By the 1660s Richterswil was a Reformed community; Catholic worship had been suppressed in Zürich’s subject territories after the Reformation was imposed here in 1529. from the sources^1,3
• The parish church was St. Martin, first documented in 1265 and rebuilt with a new choir and tower in the fifteenth century; its nave was not rebuilt until 1717. from the sources^1,2
• Before 1703 the parish of Richterswil still included Hütten, so Sunday, baptism, marriage, and burial ties reached up from the lake into the hills. from the sources¹
• Political authority came through the Zürich Landvogtei Wädenswil, whose bailiffs resided at Schloss Neu-Wädenswil until 1798. from the sources^1,4
• The memory of coercion was recent: in 1646, people of Wädenswil and Richterswil refused Zürich taxes, Zürich occupied the Herrschaft with 5,000 men, and four ringleaders were executed. from the sources⁴
• Richterswil’s common economy included regulated wood and common-use rights in Langenegg; a new local order for using wood and common land was made in 1657. from the sources⁵
• A 1671 ruling concerned disputes between Richterswil under the Sihl and people beyond and above the Sihl and on the Richterswilerberg over wood use beyond the Sihl. from the sources⁵
• In the Landvogtei period from 1550 to 1798, Richterswil developed from a farming village into a place where many inhabitants lived from trades and commerce; tanneries and dye works were among the larger local trades, and textile home work had existed since the fifteenth century. from the sources²
• Richterswil’s position on Lake Zürich made it a goods transshipment place from the Middle Ages, and from the fourteenth century pilgrims arriving by boat passed through on routes toward Einsiedeln. from the sources²
• Zürich pastors in the seventeenth century kept baptism, marriage, and death registers, reported local incidents to the authorities, read official mandates from the pulpit, and supervised poor relief and schools. from the sources⁶
• Zürich’s church regime made morals a matter of government: local Stillstände grew from marriage-watchers, and the Ehegericht enforced Reformed marriage and moral ordinances. from the sources⁶
• The first Villmergen War of 1656 had recently devastated Richterswil when Catholic troops attacked during the confessional conflict. from the sources²
• In 1663 the Swiss alliance with Louis XIV’s France was renewed; the Reformed cantons demanded protections for Reformed soldiers and French neutrality in Swiss religious conflicts. from the sources⁷
• No online source found in this session gives Richterswil house-by-house occupations, exact wages, or food prices for the 1660s. not known
• No surviving online description found in this session says exactly what Richterswil houses looked like in the 1660s, beyond the later survival of valuable houses in the old village core. not known
• As across rural Zürich, most ordinary households would have combined subsistence farming, rights in common resources, and seasonal or household craft work rather than depending on a single wage. inferred
• News and orders most reliably arrived through church, bailiff, lake traffic, markets, visiting carriers, and travellers moving between Zürich, Wädenswil, Schwyz, and Einsiedeln. inferred

Sources

1. Richterswil (Gemeinde). Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, 2012
2. Richterswil, Gemeinde Richterswil, Bezirk Horgen, Kanton Zürich. Bundesamt für Kultur / ISOS, 2012
3. Katholische Kirche Richterswil. Wikipedia
4. Wädenswil (Gemeinde). Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, 2020
5. Archivführer Kanton Zürich: Gemeinde Richterswil. zuerich-geschichte.info
6. Zürich (Kanton). Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, 2017
7. Allianzen. Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz, 2006