Person:Christopher Richter (1)

CHRISTOPHER RICHTER was born in June 29, 1645 in Trupbach, Nassau-Siegen, Germany. He is not shown in the baptismal register, but it is practically certain that he was a son of Johannes Richter.

Christopher married ANNA CATHARINE BECKER, the daughter of HERMAN BECKLER and OTTILIA about 1665 in Nassau-Siegen, Germany.

Christopher was by trade a clockmaker. He is shown as a member of the Guild of Steelsmiths and Toolmakers of the Freudenberg District in 1698 and 1699. After 1699 his name is crossed out, and the roll on January 2, 1705 shows in his stead Johannes Richter of Trupbach, admitted as a clockmaker. On August 21, 1696 all the master locksmiths of Siegen complained against the two sons of "Christophel Clockmaker" of Trupbach and Philip Marburg for making locks, on the ground that these should be made only by their Guild at Siegen. On August 26 the defendants were named as Johann Philipp Marburg and Johannes Richter of Trupbach (Siegener Landesarchiv, 14, No. 70). The church accounts of Holzklaustate that on January 22, 1716 "the clockmaker of Trupbach" (i.e. Johannes Richter, I suppose) had provided the parish church clock with two new wheels and a pendulum, and that his brother, Jacob Richter of Langenholdinghausen, had repaired the hands of the clock, which had faded out.

An interesting sidelight on the times is shown by another court record. On February 28, 1675 Christopher Richter and Anna Catharina his wife mortgage fields and meadows they owned at Trupbach to Martin Klingspor of Siegen to secure a debt of 20 Reichsthaler, the sum being borrowed to repair damages to their property done by General von Koenigsmarck and his troops as they marched through Nassau-Siegen.

Christopher died after 1713 in Trupbach, Nassau-Siegen, Germany.

1. ↑ Germanna Record No. 5: Ancestry & Descendants of the Nassau-Siegen Immigrants to Virginia 1714 - 1750
   Pages 435 - 446.