Background
The eldest son of Georg Ritschel, a Bohemian, by Gertrude, his wife, he was born at Deutsch Kahn in Bohemia on 13 February 1616.
The eldest son of Georg Ritschel, a Bohemian, by Gertrude, his wife, he was born at Deutsch Kahn in Bohemia on 13 February 1616.
He associated with the Hartlib Circle, and was considered by Richard Popkin to belong to his "Third Force". Travelling to England, he arrived in Oxford, and was admitted into the Bodleian Library on 3 December 1641. On the outbreak out of the First English Civil War, Ritschel left England and visited The Hague, Leyden, and Amsterdam.
He obtained the post of tutor to the sons of the Prince of Transylvania.
And in 1643 he travelled in Denmark, and spent over a year at Copenhagen and Sorø. In 1644 he visited Poland.
There he was taken on as assistant to Comenius. From Danzig Ritschel returned to England, where he was welcomed by Samuel Hartlib.
He worked for several years on a project, supporting the writing of the Janua Rerum of Comenius.
From December 1646, he was able to study again in the Bodleian Library. He was appointed headmaster of Newcastle grammar school, on 29 August 1648. In 1655 or 1656 Ritschel was appointed rector of Hexham, Northumberland, and as "pastor" there signed the address to the Protector Oliver Cromwell from the ministers of the Newcastle area, in August 1657.
That year he may have been tutoring as Cromwell"s Durham College was launched.
Ritschel died in possession of the vicarage of Hexham on 28 December 1683, and was buried in the chancel of his church, where an inscription was erected to his memory on a blue marble stone in the choir. Of Ritschel"s sons, George (1657–1717), Bachelor of Arts of Saint Edmund Hall, Oxford, succeeded him in the vicarage of Hexham.
While John, of Trinity College, Oxford, and subsequently of Christ"s College, Cambridge, was rector of Street Andrew"s Church, Bywell, Northumberland, from 1690 to 1705.
After a stay in London, he settled in Oxford, at Kettel Hall, as a member of Trinity College.