Natan zum Kessel

Natan Cahn

The first definite appearance of Natan in the records extracted by Andernacht is #2772 from February, 1495, which reveals that he has lived in Frankfurt for long enough that the authorities know him well and state that he is fully occupied as Jewish schoolmaster and does not engage in any commercial activites. Unfortunately, there is no house list from around that time, but perhaps he would not have appeared in one anyway, since his occupation would not necessarily have involved paying residence tax.

He is also mentioned in a record (#2898) where the "Herr von Hanau" (meaning something like important man of Hanau, not "Mr. Von Hanau", writes to the Frankfurt authorities with regard to Natan. Unfortunately, the details aren't given. This is dated January 1497.

Later that year, in April and in August, there are records (#2924 and #2945) which tell us a great deal more. Natan is asking the Frankfurt authorities to help him because he has been summoned to appear before the (Christian religious) court of Mainz in the matter of Meir Backe (more about him below) and Natan is concerned that the purpose of this is to get him there so they can arrest him (or at least "get ahold of him"). He says that the matter concerns a legal action between him and Meir Backe over a guardianship, and also involves the Jew Stral von Bacharach. He also mentions that his son, Kalman, received a falsified letter purporting to be from Vifus Worms. The Frankfurt authorities then write to Mainz to request that the deposition of Natan take place in Frankfurt, for transmittal to Mainz, without Natan having to go there in person.

The child in question was Moses Tufel, also known as Moses Satan, and this dispute had begun as early as February, 1496 (#2834). Others involved besides Meir Backe are Natan's co-guardian, Gumpchen von Eppstein, and the child's mother, Gutlin. Gutlin's first husband (and father of Moses) had been Hirsch aus Nuernberg, and Meir Backe was married to Hirsch's sister. Gumpchen von Eppstein was a relative of Hirsch's mother, Sara bat Simmel Epstein. It would be nice if we could be sure that Natan had been designated as a guardian because he was related to the boy's mother (since the other two were on the father's side), but this may not be the case. We don't know anything about Gutlin's background, nor do we know much about Natan's, but these are things to keep on the back burner in the hope that more clues will turn up.

Natan and his son Kalman, and Kalman's wife Schoene, appear by name for the first time in a house list in 1505, along with their children (not named). There is an emphasis on the fact that they do not engage in business, which helps to support the idea that they were in Frankfurt for quite a few years already, but not listed because of being in a different tax category. This house list is #3404 in Andernacht and it interesting because the house (#18) in which they are living is the Kessel, whose primary resident is "Boppelman" (Koppelman =um 1549) who is also a cohen. This would be significant, since not many of the other Frankfurt residents at that time were cohenim, and could point to Natan being a relative (although not close enough to have the relationship mentioned in the house list entry), but the real reason for both to be living in the Kessel may just be that both Koppelman and Kalman were married to daughters of Isaac von Bopfingen, former resident of that house. (More about this below, under Kalman). And on that same note, the possibility that Natan was related to Moses Cohen aus Quedlinburg =um 1490, who also had lived in the Kessel, but much earlier, cannot be ruled out. But the absence of the use of the name Moses among Natan's descendants points more to them being relatives, but not father and son. Here again, we may never know, but should keep an eye out for clues.

Kalman Cahn

Neither Kalman nor Natan his father has a gravestone in Frankfurt, or, at least, none was found by Horovitz nor by the scholars putting together the Epidat database. But this is not as surprising as it might seem, since they died within a few years of each other, in a time-period when numerous other Frankfurt burials occurred but without surviving gravestones.

And as far as Natan's wife is concerned, she may never have lived in Frankfurt at all, but she had apparently died before 1505, because none of the house lists in which Natan appears mention a wife for him. Kalman's wife, Schoenle =um 1534 is probably a daughter of Isaac Bopfingen =um 1525, although better evidence is needed before this can be viewed as a certainty.

the idea that Schoenle, Kalman Cahn’s wife, is a daughter of Isaac Bopfingen is based on relatively high-quality circumstantial evidence. But she is still not definite, unfortunately. The only good thing is that Natan Cahn was definitely not married to a daughter of Isaac Bopfingen. I believe what you saw somewhere must have been a typo, because there is nothing in Ettlinger nor Andernacht (nor even in Dietz) to imply that.