Johann Schriver (here referred to as Johann Schriver II) was a fifteenth-century judicial and administrative figure operating at the boundary between urban justice and territorial lordship in the County of Mark. From the late 1430s onward he appears consistently in the records as a property holder in Essen, as Rentmeister in Iserlohn, and as Richter in both towns, entrusted with complex legal, financial, and representative tasks on behalf of his lord—roles that place him firmly among the trusted professionals who kept late-medieval administration running.

His position was not without friction. In the mid-1450s political tensions surrounding his work prompted direct interventions by both the Archbishop of Cologne and Count Gerhard of the Mark, who explicitly defended his authority against restrictions imposed by the city of Essen. In the later phase of his career he emerges less as an acting judge and more as a senior legal presence within regional networks, a trajectory that, through his marriage to Nese Springorum, leads directly to the rise of the Springorum name in Bochum and to his son’s election as Bürgermeister in 1510.

Johann Schriver, here referred to as Johann Schriver II, appears in the mid-fifteenth-century sources as a judicial and administrative figure operating at the boundary between urban justice and territorial lordship in Westphalia. His earliest secure records, from the late 1430s, place him in Essen as a property holder and participant in legally complex transactions, indicating early integration into the city’s legal and documentary culture.

By 1441 Schriver had entered the service of the Counts of the Mark as Rentmeister in Iserlohn, where he handled payments, reimbursements, and deliveries on behalf of Gerhard von der Mark. The surviving quittances show him personally executing financial transactions, a role that required both technical competence and a high degree of trust. From the later 1440s onward he appears repeatedly as Richter in Essen and Iserlohn, presiding over cases involving mortgages, rights of redemption, hereditary tenure, rents, and manorial property, often tied to long-standing ecclesiastical claims. His judicial work was firmly grounded in written evidence and established precedent.

Schriver’s prominence led to political friction. In the mid-1450s accusations raised in Essen temporarily restricted his freedom of movement. In response, both the Archbishop of Cologne and Count Gerhard of the Mark intervened directly, issuing protection letters and insisting on Schriver’s right to safe conduct and full exercise of his office. These interventions underline the political sensitivity of his position rather than any proven misconduct, revealing a figure whose authority affected competing urban and territorial interests.

In the 1470s Schriver appears less frequently as an acting judge and more as a senior legal presence at major court proceedings, suggesting a transition from daily judicial practice to an advisory role within regional networks. This trajectory culminates in the 1480s, when he is recorded as Lehnstatthaber, acting as a representative of territorial lordship in feudal matters.

Johann Schriver’s marriage to Nese Springorum marks an important generational shift. Through this union, their descendants adopted the name Springorum, initially as a distinguishing epithet and later as a stable family identifier. While Johann Schriver II’s career was rooted in territorial service and judicial authority, his son, Johann Schriver genannt Springorum, transformed that accumulated legal and social capital into lasting urban power, serving as Bürgermeister of Bochum in 1510.

Johann Schriver II

Richter zu Essen und Iserlohn

Events & References

1438_property_purchase_essen

1441_rentmeister_iserlohn

1448_1451_richter_zu_essen

1453_richter_zu_iserlohn

1454_1455_protection_archbishop_and_count

1486_lehnstatthaber_moers

Family

Parents

Partner(s) & Children

Nese Springorum (c. 1445 – ?)