The Jews of South-West England
(continuation)

Thesis by Rabbi Bernard Susser

The early settlement of Jews in Devon and Cornwall

⁽ⁱ⁾ Adler, 'Medieval Jews', pp. 227, 239.

⁽ⁱⁱ⁾ Ibid. p. 239.

⁽ⁱⁱⁱ⁾ Ibid. p. 239. They acted together.

^(iv) Ibid. p. 233.

^(v) Ibid. p. 229.

^(vi) Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 132.

^(vii) Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 233.

^(viii) Ibid. p. 228. Josce Crespin and Bonenfant acted together. Josce of Exeter, chirographer in 1266, was probably Josce Crespin (Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 132).

^(ix) Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 229 and Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 135.

^(x) Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 135. Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 231, identifies him with Lumbard Episcopus.

^(xi) Adler, 'Medieval Jews', pp. 231, 232.

^(xii) Ibid. p. 232. Another Exeter Jew, Deulegard, became chirographer of Winchester in 1253 (Ibid. p. 229).

Eventually the administrative system of the archae and chirographers became an effective instrument to raise money for the crown, but before then England had to pay a ransom of £100,000 to the Emperor Henry VI for Richard the Lionheart. The contribution of English Jewry to this sum was assessed at 5,000 marks, a disproportionate amount, being three times as much as was demanded from the burghers of London, by far the richest city in the kingdom. Representatives of every Anglo-Jewish community were summoned to a 'Parliament' at Northampton on 30 March 1194, to decide the amount each community should pay towards the required sum. Payments to the Northampton Donum, as the tallage is called, reveal the presence of some twenty major Jewish communities as well as a number of minor ones scattered throughout the country. The most important centres were London, Lincoln, Canterbury, Northampton, and Gloucester, each with from twenty to forty contributors. [ Roth, Jews in England, p. 27.] The Jews of Exeter at this time were neither numerous nor affluent as only one man, Amiot, [Amiot was active in Exeter for some years. In 1204 he lent £5 to Sir Henry de la Pomeroy (for whom see J. Prince, Worthies of Devon (1810), p. 645), for which the king exacted a tax of a bezant (2/-d.) for each £1. In 1211, he tenanted a house in the High Street belonging to one Godeknight (Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 224).] contributed to the Donum, and his mite, £1. 3. 3d, was less than 2 out of the 5,000 marks demanded. [Jewish Historical Society of England, Miscellanies (afterwards quoted as MJHSE), I, lxvii: however, Richardson, English Jewry, p. 164 suggests that the financial records of the period are incomplete.]

The seventeen years during which John was King of England, 1199-1216, marked a turning point in the history of England as well as in the affairs of its Jewry. Hitherto, England had been closely connected with northern France and from thence had come the main body of the Jewish settlers in England. From its inception the Anglo-Jewish community had been French in character, and it maintained its links with France until the expulsion from England in 1290. The Jews of England spoke French, ['This is clear from the glosses of the English Tosafists and from the fact that Richard of Devizes makes a French Jew recommend a lad not to go northward in England, because he will find none speaking Romance' (Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England, p. 338). See also The Sefer Ha-Shoham, ed. B. Kar (1947), p. 11.] bore French names, and regarded France as their haven of refuge in time of trouble. The Jews of England looked to the French rabbis for religious guidance. [Richardson, English Jewry, p. 93.] English Jews shared with English nobles and the higher and more learned of the English clergy a common language and secular culture. [Richardson, English Jewry, p. 93, but cf. A. E. Poole, From Domesday Book to Magna Carta (Oxford, 1955), p. 2, who writes that 'by the latter part of the twelfth century it was well nigh impossible to tell whether a man was Norman or English'.] Their 'Frenchness' was characteristic not only of the Jews of London but also of those living in the provinces. Exeter Jews, even as late as the Expulsion, bore French names, such as Amiot, Bonenfant, Bonefey, Deudoné, Deulecresse, and Deulegard; whilst the women were graced with names such as Amité, Nona, Chère, Ivoté, and Juetta. [TJHSE, II (1895), 91, and Adler, 'Medieval Jews', passim.]

A further indication of the close political ties and the similarity of administrative functions in the two countries are the Charters of Privilege granted by successive sovereigns from Henry I onward which were issued to the Jews of Normandy as well as of England. Once Normandy was lost, England again became, politically as well as geographically, an island. The Jews of England, too, were cut off from the great Continental centres of Jewry. The influx from abroad which had formerly provided the numbers necessary for the expansion and consolidation of provincial communities was checked. Had John decided to leave Normandy to the Normans the process of isolation may have done no harm and might even have strengthened the Jewish community by making it culturally and intellectually self-supporting. Unfortunately for England in general and its Jewry in particular, John's endeavors to recover Normandy led him to impose crippling taxation. It was this heavy burden of taxation which fell principally upon the Jews that hastened the decline of medieval Anglo-Jewry. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 34.]

The first attempt to satisfy the king's rapacity was made in Bristol in 1210. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 227 erroneously gives the date as 1216, see Roth, Jews in England, p. 35.] John arrived there after a campaign in Ireland, and he ordered all the wealthier Jews of England to appear before him for a scrutiny of their resources. Great cruelties were perpetrated on the assembled Jews to force them to reveal their wealth - the story of the Jew of Bristol whose teeth were extracted one by one became proverbial. As a result of the investigation, they were tallaged for 66,000 marks and kept in prison until the sum was paid or satisfactory guarantees given. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 227 gives the figure of 60,000 marks.] Eleven years later there were still debts outstanding from this tallage. The Exeter Jews who had not satisfied their obligation were Samuel of Wilton who had died, his widow, Iveta, Deodatus son of Amiot, Jacob of Gloucester, Samuel Episcopus, [See supra, p. 14, n. 7.] and Sampson cum ore (with the mouth). [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 227. Personal descriptions were not uncommon, e.g. Moses cum naso (with a nose), Manasseh grassus (big), Benedict longus (tall), Deudon<130] cum pedibus tortis (with lame feet) (H. P. Stokes, Studies in Anglo-Jewish History, (Edinburgh, 1913), p. 65).] Clearly the Exeter community had grown numerically and in financial importance since the Northampton Donum of 1194 to which only one individual contributed. The growth of Exeter Jewry at this period is indicated not only by its contribution to the Bristol Tallage but also by a number of references in the Fine and Oblate Rolls, 1204-5, to a further six members of the community. They were Samuel of Exeter and his wife Juetta, [Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England, p. 239. In 1204, they lent 6 marks to Robert fil Ascelin.] Deulecresse le Evesque, [In 1205, he lent £5 to John Sep (Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England, p. 240). This Deulecresse was perhaps the progenitor of an Exeter family of Cohenim whose titular name became their surname. In 1266, there was a Deulecresse le Chapelyn of Exeter (Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 231), probably identical with Deulecresse le Prestre of Exeter who is mentioned in 1277 (Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 233). It is not unlikely that the 1205 Deulecresse was the grandfather of his 1270-6 namesake.] and Jacob son of Yveliny together with his brother Deulecres and his sister Sarra. [Together they lent Eustace son of Albert £8 in 1205 (Jacobs, Jews of Angevin England, p. 240). Yveliny also occurs in Exeter records as a Christian name (Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 224).] Possibly, the provincial communities had been reinforced by Jews from London who were anxious to escape the close scrutiny of King John's officials, for his exactions pressed close one upon the other until the once wealthy Jews of London were so reduced that 'they prowled about the city like dogs'. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 36, quoting Chronicle of Lanercost, p. 7.]

The outbreak of civil war rendered the position of Jews throughout England insecure. The barons saw the Jews not only as creditors but also as royal agents, for the Jews were used by the king 'like a sponge, sucking up the floating capital of the country, to be squeezed from time to time into the Treasury'. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 52.] To mitigate the dispossessing effect of this method of raising money for the king, the barons caused the tenth and eleventh clauses to be written into Magna Carta. These stipulated that debts due to Jews or other usurers should bear no interest during the minority of the heirs of a deceased debtor, and that if the debts fell into the hands of the king then only the capital need be paid. Similarly, a widow's dowry and the support of her minor children were to be the first charge on the estate and all debts to be paid out of the residue. These clauses bear witness to the animosity of the Jew's everyday clients, and it has been said that only John's death in 1216 saved the Jews from further despoliation by him and from attacks by the populace. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 37.]

When the infant Henry III came to the throne, England was torn by the strife engendered by the conflict of John and the barons. But the Jews suffered not only from the troubled political scene but also from the deteriorating religious climate. In 1218, Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury, gave effect to the discriminatory decrees of the fourth Lateran Council. [Ibid. p. 40.] Popular feeling was aroused against the Jews, and in Exeter, at least, this must have run high against them, and they needed special protection. This may be deduced from a writ addressed to the Sheriff of Devon in 1218 couched in the following terms: [Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 18.]

We command you that you have our Jews of Exeter in ward and countenance, neither doing, nor suffering to be done, to them, any mischief or molestation, and that, if any offend against them in any wise, you cause reparation to be made them without delay. We command you, likewise, that you neither lay, nor suffer be laid, hand ... on their chattels, and that if any Jew offend in aught for which he deserve to be put by gage and pledge, you attach him by view of Deulecresse Episcopus, our bailiff in those parts, to be before our Justices assigned to the custody of the Jews at Westminster at a convenient term to answer thereof, and in the attachments do the said Justices to wit of the offence of the said Jew and the term which you have appointed him, and that you also have a care that, if any Jew or Jewess fall into our mercy, you may not by the Assize of our realm exact from such Jew or Jewess more than 20d. only. We therefore command you that on account of any amercement that concerns the Sheriff or Constable you exact not more than 20d. only. You are also, as you receive mandate from Us, to distrain their debtors within your bailiwick to pay their debts, that the debts which they owe Us may not remain unpaid by your default.

The measures taken by the Sheriff in pursuance of the writ presumably took effect, for there is no record of any violence or outbreaks against the Jews at this period.

During the royal minority, successive regents set about the task of rebuilding the shattered Jewish community. Apart from protection of the person secured by writs similar to that just quoted, financial relief was also granted. Tallages, at least until 1227, were light. The first of these was in 1221, when seventeen Jewish centers contributed £564 towards a dowry for Princess Joan, sister of Henry III. [She married Alexander II, king of Scotland, at the age of eleven.] To this dowry Exeter Jewry contributed £8. 5. 8d. The Exeter Jews who paid most towards this sum were Jacob of Gloucester, [He would be called 'of Gloucester' after he had left that town to reside in another. If he moved from Exeter, he would most likely then be known as Jacob of Exeter. Moses of Exeter, infra, known by that name whilst still in Exeter, was probably so called to distinguish him from another Moses in a different town.] £3. 11. 8d., and Deulecresse le Eveske, £2. 10. 0d., followed by Ursell who gave 18s., Ursell, son-in-law of Amiot, 15s., Moses le Turk, 6s., and Moses of Exeter, 5s. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 227.] The Jewish community of Exeter throve under the rule of the regents, for only two years later in 1223 fifteen Exonian Jews and Jewesses were able to pay £78. 10. 6d. to a royal tax which brought in about £1,680 from the Jews of the whole country. Three of the Exeter contributors to this tallage were women. [Jewish women frequently acted as financiers in the medieval period and later periods (Roth, Jews in England, p. 115.] Bona daughter of Abraham gave £1. 10. 0d., and Chère together with Hanot between them paid £1. 11. 8d. The men mostly gave larger amounts. Jacob of Gloucester headed the list with a payment of £17 and 14 marks, Deulecresse comes next with £13. 18. 10d., Moses le Turk gave £9. 6. 8d., Bonefey son of Isaac £4, Ursell £4, Ursell, son-in-law of Amiot, £3. 19. 8d., Sampson £1. 7. 4d., and Moses son of Solomon 13s. 4d. New Exeter residents mentioned for the first time are Solomon of Dorchester who together with his son-in-law Deulecresse subscribed £2. 10. 0d., Jacob of Norwich who gave 5 marks and Lumbard son of Deulecresse Episcopus who gave 13s. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 228.] The last tallage imposed on English Jewry during Henry's minority was one of 4,000 marks, but, unless the records are incomplete, Exeter Jewry did not contribute towards it. [Ibid. p. 223.]

The first quarter of the thirteenth century marks the zenith of Anglo-Jewry's as well as Exeter Jewry's prosperity in the medieval period. Under the personal rule of Henry III, however, the Anglo-Jewish community was taxed so heavily and in such arbitrary fashion that it began to diminish in numbers and financial importance. In the first decade of Henry's personal rule onerous tallages were imposed in 1229, 1230, 1231, 1233, 1234, 1236, and 1237 of 6,000, 9,000, 15,000, 35,000, 750, 10,000 and 3,000 marks respectively. [The following table, after Roth, Jews in England, p. 271, summarizes the royal exactions and illustrates the rapid rise in the rate of taxation and the resultant impoverishment of the community in the second half of the century:

Year Amount in marks 1221 - 1230 33,000 1231 - 1240 63,000 1241 - 1250 117,000 1251 - 1260 72,000 1261 - 1270 6,000. Richardson says that various writers have greatly exaggerated the tallages exacted by Henry III (Richardson, English Jewry, p. 214.)] The 3,000 marks in 1237 were a gift to Richard of Cornwall, for his intended crusade.] Detailed accounts of the collection of these imposts have not survived and it is therefore not possible to assess the relative importance of Exeter Jewry's contribution to the national total, but presumably they had to pay their share. [Although the city and castle of Exeter were given by the king to his brother Richard, Earl of Cornwall, in 1231, the Jews of Exeter remained the sole property of the Crown, and continued to pay their taxes to the royal treasury (Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 228).] Nor was there any relief from the high level of taxation in the succeeding years of the reign. In February 1241, 109 Jews from the twenty-one communities of the realm then recognized were summoned to Worcester to a so-called 'Parliament of Jews'. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 45.] They were the delegates appointed to consider ways and means of raising a new tallage of 20,000 marks, and they themselves were to act as assessors and collectors to aid the Sheriffs in collecting the tax from their fellow Jews. The larger Jewries such as London, York, Cambridge and others sent six delegates, whilst Exeter Jewry, never very numerous, sent only four. They were Jacob of Gloucester, Deulecresse Episcopus, Bonenfant son of Judah, and Josce Crespin son of Abraham. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 228.] When the Exeter Jews did not pay their share of this Worcester tallage it was Joseph Crespin, by then one of the Jewish Chirographers of Exeter, who became responsible for the outstanding balance of £31. 1. 4d. [Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 75.]

The royal exactions continued unabated until the Jews of England had been stripped of all their immediately realizable possessions. But even when the Jews themselves were no longer able to provide the money which Henry always needed they still represented a marketable asset. Accordingly, in 1251, the king mortgaged them for two years as security for a loan of 5,000 marks to Richard, Earl of Cornwall, who 'was thus permitted to disembowel those whom the King had flayed'. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 47. Richard protected 'his' Jews and taxed their resources with discretion.] At the end of this period Exeter Jewry paid £3. 15. 0d. towards a total collection of £320 and the following year, in 1254, the communal fund of the Jewry in Exeter gave £2 towards a tallage of 1,000 marks. Besides the small communal donation two individuals were also assessed for this tallage, one an unnamed local debtor of Aaron son of Abraham of London for £10, and Bonenfant the chirographer for 12 marks. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 229. In 1255, Bonenfant was the pledge for another royal tallage, as well as for £5. 5s. 0d. tax due from another Exeter Jew, Isaac son of Abraham.]

Between 1254 and 1260 the Jews of England were tallaged for 32,000 marks. Most of this large sum was paid by rich individuals who were often eventually reduced to penury. [Richardson, English Jewry, p. 172 and Roth, Jews in England, p. 49.] Such a one was the formerly wealthy Exeter Jew, Jacob of Gloucester. In 1221, and again in 1223, he had been the largest Exeter contributor to tallages imposed on Jews in those years. And yet, in the closing years of his life [Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 151, where Belia is his widow in 1267. He was still alive in 1263 when he had business dealings with Bonenfant (Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 182).] he was only able to give 13s. to the tallage demanded in 1260. Nor were his fellow Jews in Exeter by then in much better case. Lumbard Episcopus [At his decease the value of his chattels, within and without the archa, was 40s. Tercia, his widow, paid one mark fine to take up her inheritance.] paid 6s. 8d., Bonenfant four marks, his brother Samuel two and a half marks and Joseph son of Moses gave 4s., the total amounting to £8. 6. 4d. This modest sum seems to represent the total realizable wealth of Exeter's Jews as they were unable to pay anything at all to a further tax in that same year. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 230. A rigorous search of Exeter's archa by the Sheriff revealed no assets (Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 230).]

When the Jews were squeezed by the king, they in turn had to press their Gentile debtors for prompt repayment. In the circumstances there were many disputes which were brought to court. In the Exeter courts, at least, the Jew was fairly treated. An interesting record of the procedure adopted in Exeter has survived. It is contained in a description of local customs and business regulations current in Exeter just after the middle of the thirteenth century. The description was published under the title of An Anglo-Norman Custumal of Exeter by Professor J. W. Schopp and Miss R.C. Easterling. [Published in London, 1925, for the History of Exeter Research Group of the University College of the South-West.] The reference to the Jews reads as follows:

A plea of a Christian against a Jew could not be heard without Jew and Christian nor the plea of a Jew against a Christian without Christian and Jew, and the Jew must give wage and pledge that he will pursue his plea and the Christian likewise that he will stand to the law, and if he cannot find a pledge, he, the Christian, must be plevied by affiance [i.e. he must be bailed on his solemn promise]. [Paragraph 65, p. 37.]

The procedure outlined in the custumal was used in actual practice. [But cf. Rigg, Plea Rolls, II, 194 where 12 Christians and 8 Jews make inquest on a disputed charter. For the permissibility of Jews making Christians take a Christological oath in spite of a prohibition against doing so (Sanhedrin, 63b), see Katz, Exclusiveness p. 35. Some Jews relinquished their claims rather than take any oath, see I. Elfenbein, Teshuvot Rashi (New York, 1943), p. 327.]

The Jews formed one of the objects of dispute in the constitutional struggle between Henry III and his barons. The lesser baronage, in particular, was affected by financial dealings with the Jews. One of the complaints specifically aired at the Parliament of Oxford in 1258 was that the Jews sold lands taken in pledge by them to the great magnates, who then refused to accept repayment of the outstanding debt so that they could retain possession of the lands. In the revolt of the barons led by Simon de Montfort from 1262 to 1267, much havoc was wrought to the Jewries of London, Canterbury, Bristol and other cities and in each place the archa was either burned or carried off. [ Roth, Jews in England, pp. 59-62.] The revolt did not spread to Devonshire and the small Jewry of Exeter was left unharmed by the general disorders. Indeed, it was regarded as a place of safety as six deeds were sent from London for safe deposit in the Exeter archa when the seal of the Exchequer of the Jews was stolen during the uprising in London. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 231.] It is therefore not surprising to read that the Exeter chirographers, both Christian and Jewish, were reluctant to leave the security of Devon and go to London in 1266. [Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 132. They would not go of their own accord, the Sheriff had to send them. In addition, the Jews probably had to pay a tax for leaving Exeter, even temporarily, to go to London (Cf. Calendar of the Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, ed. H. G. Richardson (1972), IV, 147, item 81).] Their fears were justified as a Jew, Jacob Baszyn, formerly resident in Exeter, was murdered in Oxford in 1286, probably in the disturbances of the 'Disinherited Knights' following de Montfort's fall. [C. Roth, The Jews of Medieval Oxford (Oxford, 1951), p. 28.]

The last years of Henry's long reign marked an effort to strengthen the position of the Jews. Those who had emigrated were encouraged to return. Jews were permitted to claim their debts, notwithstanding the destruction of the archae, if reasonable proof of them could be produced. Citizens were nominated to protect the Jews in towns where they had been particularly hard used. [Roth, Jews in England, pp. 63-4.] It was, perhaps, these improved conditions which encouraged Jacob Copin, Jewish chirographer in Exeter, to seek redress when he was assaulted. The incident occurred in 1270 whilst he was transacting business in the vill of Newton. [Probably the present Newton Abbbot. Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 231, n. 9, says that one of his clients was a Paulinus of Newton. See supra, p. 12.] He was assaulted by one Robert of Buleshill, Christiana his wife and William le Layte. When Copin brought an action against them they absconded, and the Sheriff was ordered to arrest them and bring them to justice. [Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, 242. William de La Leye, probably the same as this William le Layte, was the guardian of Hugh Fychet who in 1274 claimed that Copin and Jacob Crespin had fraudulently placed an £80 bond in the archa (Rigg, Plea Rolls, II, 140). The assault may mark the beginning of the dispute.] The provisions to strengthen the Jewries of the realm, successfully enabled the Jews to recuperate. Whereas in 1267 the Jews of Exeter had been totally denuded of their ready cash, by 1272 Jacob Copin was able to pay £20 to Henry's last tallage. This comparatively large amount does not necessarily indicate that Copin himself had become a wealthy man, but rather that he had collected it from his fellow Jews in Exeter and paid it on their behalf. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 231.]

When Edward I came to the throne of England, 1272-1307, he showed himself to be no less extravagant than his predecessors and he sought every opportunity to raise revenue. A memoranda roll of Edward I's reign records that a fortnight after Easter, 1272, the sheriff of Devon was to render an account of his tallage. Apparently, he promptly did as he was ordered as there is no record of any failure to do so. [Rigg, Plea Rolls, IV, 49.] In 1277, on the other hand, John Wygger, the sheriff of Devon, was fined for the late return of writs concerning Jews, though he was later pardoned because he was dead! [Ibid. 103, 107.] Late in 1273, a tallage was levied on the Jews assessed at one-third of all their movable goods, that is, their bonds and valuables. Once again the effect was to throw the burden upon Christian debtors who were pressed to repay so that the Jews might be quit of their own obligations. Again Christian debtors protested against the effects of Jewish usury but this time their protest was reinforced with the authority of the Church. In 1274, the Council of Lyons, acting under the spur of Pope Gregory X, urged the Christian world to greater efforts against the sin of usury. Encouraged by Church and Laity the Statutum de Judeismo was issued at Worcester in 1275. By it Jews were absolutely forbidden to lend money at interest. Outstanding transactions had to be wound up as soon as possible. The right of distraint on land was severely curtailed and the alienation of real estate by Jews was forbidden without special permission. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 70.]

The crippling provisions of the Statutum, if carried out to the letter, would have left the Jews with hardly any means of livelihood. It is true that some Jews, particularly in the provincial centres, traded in corn and wool, as appears from a summary of the bonds for money, corn and wool held by Jews throughout England at the Expulsion. The round figures in which the amounts of corn are expressed and the absence of any qualitative differentiation suggests that dealings in corn 'conceal clandestine moneylending operations' [Roth, Jews in England, p. 272.] But the specification of quality [Cf. H. Jenkinson, Calendar of the Plea Rolls, (1929), III, 200, 'good, dry pure clean and better wheat and without evil moisture'] and details of time and place of delivery [R. R. Mundill, 'Anglo-Jewry under Edward I', TJHSE, XXXI (1990), pp. 1-21 strongly supports the view that the transactions were genuine, and that the Jews had become credit-agents trading in futures.] as well as external evidence [Richard of Devizes (ed. Howlett, p. 437) writing in 1192, 'Exeter feeds men and beasts with the same corn'.] seems to indicate that the transactions were genuine. Exeter's main import at this time was wine [W. G. Hoskins, Devon (1954), p. 107.] which the Jews also imported [Roth, Jews in England, p. 115.] so the Exeter Jews may have participated in the wine trade. But the Jews of Wiltshire, Exeter and Bristol left bonds which related, in the main, to monetary transactions, [TJHSE, II (1894), pp. 85-105.] and must have found themselves hard pressed financially. Although the Jews of England were able to eke out only a bare existence after the passing of the Statutum in 1275, they were nevertheless still expected to make large contributions to the royal purse. A tallage was imposed in 1275 which most were unable to pay. Those who were still in this unfortunate position by the following year were imprisoned, their chattels confiscated, and their wives and children deported. Debts owing to Jews became part and parcel of the commercial life of the wider community. Thus a Plea Roll of 1277 records [Rigg, Plea Rolls, IV, 98.] that a further tallage of 3,000 marks was imposed in 1277-8 notwithstanding the difficulty experienced in collecting the earlier tallage. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 73.]

With their old sources of livelihood cut off, the poorer Jews sought other means, often illegal, to keep themselves from starvation. Some sought refuge in apostasy, the numbers in the Domus Conversorum [See TJHSE, I (1893), pp. 15-24. A Jew's property escheated to the king when he or she was converted to Christianity. The ensuing poverty proved a bar to conversion of Jews. Neophytes were therefore given '... a home and a safe refuge for their whole lives with sufficient sustenance without servile work ...' (C. Trice Martin, 'The Domus Conversorum', TJHSE, I (1893), p. 15, quoting Mathew Paris).] rising to nearly one hundred. Others are said to have taken to highway robbery. Most carried on their old profession, making use of the devices invented by Christian usurers to evade canon law. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 74. For Christian moneylenders and their methods of evading Canon Law on usury, see Abrahams, Starrs and Charters, ii, civ - cviii.] Yet another way of augmenting their income, coin-clipping, was practised by some Jews. They filed the edges of the coins in which they dealt and melted the 'clippings' into bullion. The evil was no new one, early in John's reign an Assize of Money had taken place to enquire into the debasement of the coinage. Not only the Jews but also the Cahorsins, the Flemish wool traders and indeed everyone who handled coins in large numbers was suspected, and with some reason, of making illicit profits from coin-clipping. [See Richardson, English Jewry, pp. 217-223 for a discussion of the subject.] In December 1276, it was found that the coinage was in a bad shape, so justices were appointed to try accusations of coin-clipping made against both Jews and Christians.

At this stage Christians were suspected as the principal offenders; it was only later, almost perhaps by accident, it was realized that in these trials lay a golden opportunity to extract further revenue from the Jews. In November 1278, all the Jews of the kingdom were arrested and a house to house search made. 680 men and women against whom evidence was found or could be manufactured were sent for trial to London, and 293 of them were hanged. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 75. A perusal of the receipts of perquisites at the Tower from the Jews of London, 1277-8, indicates some dozens of different excuses for 'fleecing' the Jews (Rigg, Plea Rolls, IV, pp. 173-194).] The king profited considerably from the Jews' troubles. So much property fell into his hands as the result of the forfeitures and escheats consequent upon the executions that a special department was set up to deal with it. The Exeter Jewry did not pass unscathed through these perilous times. Eleven Exonians including one non-Jew were arrested. They were Blakeman son of Jacob Copin, Aaron of Caerleon, Deulecresse le Chapleyn, Leo and Copin sons of Lumbard, Solomon the son of Solomon, Benedict of Wilton, Ursell, Isaac Ericun, Aaron of Dorchester, Jorin son of Isaac, and a non-Jew, James de Fenys. The defendants were allowed bail, but there is no record of what finally happened. [Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 234.] Jacob Copin, father of the accused Blakeman, was hanged about this time, [Close Rolls, 1284, p. 278. See also infra, p. 33, n. 4 and supra, p. 12.] probably on a charge of tampering with the coinage. [It is surprising that though his house was confiscated at his death his property was not forfeited, 35 of his bonds valued at £357 were in the archa when it was opened in 1290. His clients included Sir Robert le Denys, Richard Bullock, the goldsmith, who was one of the Christian chirographers, two priests, Roger de Moleyns and Arnulf of Hunecroft, and numerous other residents of Devon and Somerset (Adler, 'Medieval Jews', p. 237).] Ursell may have followed his or a namesake's earlier example and fled the country. [In 1238, Ursell of Exeter fled after a Jewish enquiry into coin-clipping (Richardson, English Jewry, p. 221, n. 1).]

The Statutum de Judeismo was unworkable in the context of medieval English society. The severity of its provisions was soon ameliorated and a modified form of money-lending was authorized. But the local Jewry never really recovered from the setback it received after the Act was passed and from the troubles that followed the charges of coin-clipping. The Jews who were left in Exeter resumed their former occupation but they lent only small sums. [When the archa was opened in 1290, 24 tallies were found recording loans ranging from 2s. to £3. 13s. 3d.; the few that were dated were from 1286-1289.]

The hostility of the clergy towards the Jews was not peculiar to England. In 1096, there were popular outbreaks stimulated by centuries of clerical animosity against the Jews in all the cities of northern and central Europe. [J. Parkes, The Conflict of the Church and the Synagogue (Philadelphia, 1961), p. vii, and Katz, Exclusiveness, p. xi.] The legislation covering Jews which was passed by various synods in England reflected, and was sometimes prompted by, the pronouncements of successive popes and European Church Councils. [Roth, Jews in England, pp. 76-7.] The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, for example, was concerned at the rapid spread of heresy in Europe, and decided that too free intercourse with Jews was largely responsible for it. [H. Graetz, History of the Jews (Philadelphia, 1956) (afterwards quoted as Graetz, History of the Jews), iii, 509. Graetz asserts that 'the great misery of the Jews during the Middle Ages began with Pope Innocent III and the Fourth Lateran Council'.] The Council passed certain measures, designed to check Jewish influence among Christians, which were introduced into England in 1218, [The ground had been prepared by a series of tracts against the Jews: Dialogus inter Christianum et Judaeum de fide catholica (anonymous, between 1123-48). Bartholomew, Bishop of Exeter's Dialogus contra Judaeos ad corrigendum et perficiendum destinatus (1180-4); Peter of Blois, Invectiva contra perfidiam Judaeorum (c. 1204) (TJHSE, XVII (1951), 230). Bartholomew's Dialogus may have been prompted by the settlement of Jews in Exeter at that period (supra, p. 10).] and were renewed and reinforced at synods at Worcester in 1240, at Chichester some six years later, at Salisbury in about 1256, and at Exeter in 1287. [Roth, Jews in England, pp. 54, 77-8.] The anti-Jewish code thus promulgated contained a number of humiliating and degrading conditions. All Jews had to wear a distinguishing badge - 'ostensibly to prevent the scandal of unwitting sexual intimacy between unbelievers and the faithful'. [Ibid. p. 40.] Jews were forbidden to employ Christian servants, to enter churches or keep their property in them. Jews were not allowed to build new synagogues. They had to acknowledge the local priest as their overlord by paying church tithes based not only on their real estate but even on the usurious profits which they were supposed not to make. [Graetz, History of the Jews, iii, p. 516.] Life was only made bearable by royal influence and also by Time - the great healer. The renewal of the regulations at successive synods was necessary because their full force became blunted, for with the passage of time many of the regulations lapsed into desuetude. [Roth, Jews in England, pp. 119-121. Katz, Exclusiveness, p. 9, however, asserts that occasional infringements did provoke public admonitions.]

One result of religious fanaticism on the one hand and ignorant credulity on the other was the invention in England of the infamous Ritual Murder accusation. This was first made on Easter Eve 1144, when the dead body of William, a young apprentice, was found in a wood near Norwich. Rumours spread that he was a victim of the Jews who had crucified him on their Passover, but no Jew was tried or punished for the alleged crime. [Jew. Encycl. s.v. BLOOD ACCUSATION. Hardly a decade had passed since 1144 without the 'Blood Libel' being raised somewhere. Riots following publication of Ritual Murder charges occurred in Russia, in Tashkent in 1961, and Margelan in 1962 (, 25 January 1963).] Further accusations of similar crimes followed at Gloucester in 1168, Bury St. Edmunds in 1181, and Bristol in 1183. No trials were held after these latter charges either, but popular rumour was sufficient to establish the martyrdom of the children involved. [Roth, Jews in England, pp. 13, 18, 21.] These child martyrs attracted considerable numbers of pilgrims, no doubt with economic benefit, to the cathedrals and abbeys where their relics were housed.

The Church was not the sole beneficiary of the new hagiolatry; the king, too, required compensation for the supposed loss of one of his subjects. In 1239, an alleged murder in London was punished by the confiscation of one-third of the ten richest Jews' property. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 45.] Further charges accompanied by heavy fines for the Jewish community at large and fatal consequences for the individuals concerned were made in London in 1244, Lincoln ['Little St. Hugh of Lincoln.'] in 1255, and Northampton in 1277. [Roth, Jews in England, pp. 55, 56, 78.]

Converts both to and from the dominant faith frequently caused trouble. At Lynn in Norfolk in 1190, for example, some Jews followed a former coreligionist into a church where he had taken refuge to escape their insults. An uproar followed which soon turned into a riot. [Ibid. p. 21. Other instances were: in 1234, at Norwich (p. 53); in 1274, London Jews coerced a woman convert to go overseas so that she might return to her ancestral faith; in 1290, at Oxford (p. 83).] Exeter Jews were probably involved when many of the leading members of the Oxford Jewry were imprisoned on a charge of rescuing a boy who had become a Christian, the lost infant being traced to Exeter in 1236. [Ibid. p. 271. It was deemed specially meritorious to assist converts, especially those who had apostatized under duress, to escape from Christianity (Sefer Hasidim (Berlin edn. 1891), pp. 200, 201, 209).] But the greatest damage was caused by conversions to Judaism. In 1222, a deacon was burnt at Oxford for becoming a Jewish proselyte. After his conversion, the Archbishop of Canterbury, zealously supported by the Bishops of Norwich and Lincoln, threatened with excommunication even those who sold to the Jews the basic necessities of life. Fortunately for the Jews this last enactment was countermanded by the king, else they would have starved. [Ibid. p. 41.] Another proselyte is said to have been one of the direct causes of the decision to expel the Jews from England. He was Robert of Reading, a Dominican friar who some years before the Expulsion embraced Judaism, adopted the name of Haggai and married a Jewess. [In TJHSE, VI (1908), p. 255 ff., various dates are given for the incident from 1260-75.] But even converts from Judaism to Christianity proved to be a source of vexation to the Church. For whereas Christians apostatized at the risk of their lives and demonstrated depth of character and courage in so doing, most of the Jews who left their community had much to gain. The wealthy Jew was deterred from accepting Christianity as, at his baptism he had to sacrifice the greater part of his wealth to the king, who was deprived henceforth from deriving a profit from 'his' Jew. So it was those who had little or nothing to lose materially who joined the Church, and these converts often proved to be little loss to the faith they left and little gain to the one they joined. [Richardson, English Jewry, p. 32, and Roth, Jews in England, p. 83. For a discussion of the motives leading to apostasy see Katz, Exclusiveness, pp. 74-6.] But the Christian clergy was not only irritated by the qualitative but also by the quantitative gain, [M. Adler minimized the total (Jews of Medieval England (London, 1939) (afterwards quoted as Adler, Medieval England), p. 32).] which remained comparatively small. [Richardson, English Jewry, p. 29, corrects Adler's view that the number was insignificant. On the other hand, Katz, Exclusiveness, p. 68, strongly suggests that throughout Europe there were only isolated instances of voluntary conversion.] Six known converts came from Exeter, four men and two women, though there may have been more. [Nicholas le Jew at St. Winnow, Cornwall, in 1321, must surely have been a convert (Bibliotheca Cornubiensis, p. 914).] The men were the brothers Samuel and Solomon, sons of Leo, [Perhaps Leo of Bourg, chirographer about 1266.] who were converted before 1266 and 1270 respectively, [Rigg, Plea Rolls, I, pp. 132, 265.] Henry of Exeter, a clerk, and Richard the elder of the same city, a tailor. [Adler, Medieval England, p. 309. It is not impossible that Henry and Richard are the baptismal names of Samuel and Solomon.] One of the women was called Alice of Exeter [Adler, Medieval England, p. 351. She was one of the 28 women who resided in the Domus from 1280. Alice and Claricia were still there in 1308 (TJHSE, IV (1899), p. 54).] and the other was Claricia, [TJHSE, IV (1899), p. 26.] daughter of Jacob Copin who was hanged about 1280. [Supra, p. 29, n. 1.] Claricia entered the Domus in 1280, probably at a tender age because she died there seventy six years later, by which time she had become the sole resident. [She left the Domus in 1309, went back to Exeter, married and had two children, Richard and Katherine. In 1327, she left the children in Exeter and returned to the Domus where they joined her in 1333. Richard was granted a pension of one and a half pence a day even when he left the Domus (TJHSE, IV (1899), p. 26).] These six Exeter Jews who converted to Christianity represent about 6.7 per cent of Jews who are known to have resided in Exeter from 1180 until 1290. [If Henry and Richard are the same as Solomon and Samuel then the percentage is reduced to about 4.5 per cent.] If this proportion was typical of Anglo-Jewry as a whole, then the frustration of Christian clerics 'to whom the unconverted Jew was a standing reproach' is, perhaps, understandable. [Richardson, English Jewry, p. 28.]

In 1286, Pope Honorius addressed a letter to the Archbishops of Canterbury and York in which he called upon them to reaffirm the decisions of the Lateran Councils. This letter had a baleful influence on the Synod of Exeter a year later in 1287 under Peter Quivil, [He was Bishop of Exeter from 1280-91 (G. Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter (Exeter, 1861), p. 48.] when 'all the ancient canonical strictures against the Jews were reinforced with a severity seldom paralleled'. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 77.] Special stress was laid on the following enactments:

No Christian should take medicine from a Jewish doctor;

Jews had to pay taxes to parish clergy and wear a distinguishing badge when out on the streets;

They were forbidden to appear on the streets or even to have their windows open at Easter;

Jews and Christians were not to visit each other or join in any festivities; [In 1286 a wealthy Jewish financier of Hereford had invited his Christian friends to his daughter's wedding which was celebrated with 'displays of silk and cloth of gold, horsemanship and playing sports and minstrelsy' (W. W. Capes, Registrum R. de Swinfield, pp. 120-1).]

They were not to enter churches, or to build new synagogues. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 78.]

These enactments must have been strictly enforced in the city of their promulgation, and for a time, at least, a certain degree of unpleasantness must have ensued for the Jews of the city. This Synod was probably the cause of the rapid dwindling in the number of Exeter Jews shortly before the Expulsion. For whereas there seem to have been at least forty Jews actively engaged in money-lending in the years immediately before 1290, [TJHSE, II (1894), 91.] only one, a Jewess called Comitissa, had a house there when the final blow fell. [TJHSE, II (1894), 91, no. 39. V. D. Lipman estimates the Jewish population of Norwich at the time of the expulsion to have been about fifty or sixty (V. D. Lipman, The Jews of Medieval Norwich (1967), p. 38). If the number of bondholders and the value of their bonds are any criteria then the medieval Jewish population of Exeter was about 100 at the time of the expulsion in 1290.]

The Expulsion, 1290

A combination of crippling taxation and repressive legislation had brought the fortunes of Anglo-Jewry low. As providers of capital they had been superseded by Christian moneylenders. [Roth, Jews in England, p. 84.] They did not fit into feudal society nor were the leaders of that society sufficiently advanced in their political thinking to accept on equal terms people of different religious faith. [Ibid. p. 72.] On this count alone, Edward could justify his decision to expel an group which refused to be assimilated. But there was an even more attractive advantage to be gained by a general expulsion of the Jews - a financial one. This had already been demonstrated when Edward expelled the Jews from his Gascon dominions in 1289 and confiscated their property. [Richardson, English Jewry, p. 225.] The confiscated property proved a welcome addition to his depleted funds, but it did not amount to a very great deal, and Edward's needs were both great and pressing, as he had entered into heavy commitments to ransom his cousin, Charles of Salerno. [Ibid.] When he turned to his English Jewry, he discovered that it produced very little in terms of day-to-day revenue. [In 1190, the Jews had provided one-seventh of the royal income, by 1290 the proportion had dropped to one one-hundredth (Roth, Jews in England, p. 84).] Its assets in bonds and immovable property, however, were substantial. Lists of all the bonds and obligations on account of money and produce owing at the time of the Expulsion to the Jews in eleven of the seventeen towns in which they resided are extant. The total value on record is about £9,100, the Exeter Jewry accounting for some £1,238 of this amount. There were 39 bondholders in the Exeter archa and five of them had bonds for more than two-thirds of Exeter's total, see Table 2.

Table 2: Bonds in the Exeter archa, 1290