Boniswil is first mentioned around 1217-22 as "Bonoltswile". The village was ruled by the Counts of Lenzburg, then the counts of Kyburg and then the Habsburgs and finally in 1415 the city of Bern. The rights to low justice were held by the Habsburg vassals, the lords of Rinach in the 13th Century. These rights, in turn, came in 1486 to the possession of the lords of Hallwyl and passed in 1616 to Bern. Einsiedeln Abbey collected rent on about three fifths of the land in the village.