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The Jews of Bristol in the Pre-Expulsion Days

Rev. Michael Adler

<plain_text><page sequence="1">the jews of bristol in pre-expulsion days. 117 The Jews of Bristol in pre-Expulsion Days. By the Rev. Michael Adler, D.S.O., B.A. Paper read before the Jewish Historical Society of England, November 12,1928. At the time of the Great Expulsion in 1290 Bristol was one of the authorised Jewries in which there existed not only a synagogue and a Jewish quarter, but also the royal chirograph chest or archa 1 in which were preserved the bonds and tallies registering financial trans? actions. The Bristol community was one of the smallest in the land, but its annals present features of considerable interest to the student of Anglo-Je wish history. The individual story of these pre-Expulsion Jewries has hitherto not attracted much attention, only Cambridge by Dr. Stokes 2 and Canterbury by myself 3 having been so far fully explored, whilst valuable studies upon London by Dr. Joseph Jacobs,4 A.E. = The Jeios of Angevin England, by Dr. Joseph Jacobs. Rigg i. and Rigg ii. = The Calendar of the Plea Bolls of the Exchequer of the Jews (published by the Jewish Historical Society), vols. i. and ii., edited by J. M. Rigg. S.P. = Select Pleas, Starrs, etc., from the Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, edited by J. M. Rigg. Trans. = Transactions of the Jewish Historical Society. P.R.O. = Public Record Office. Prynne = A Short Demurrer, by W. Prynne, 1655. N.T. = Bristol, Past and Present, by J. F. Nichols and John Taylor, 3 vols., 1881. Seyer = Memoirs, Historical and Topographical, of Bristol, by the Rev. S. Seyer, 2 vols., 1821. Stokes = Studies in Anglo-Jewish History, by the Rev. Dr. H. P. Stokes. 1 Cf. Dr. C. Gross, " Exchequer of the Jews of England in the Middle Ages " (Papers, Anglo-Jewish Exhibition), p. 182, etc.; Rigg, ii., Introduction, xiv. 2 Stokes, Part IV. 3 Trans., vii. 19. 4 Papers, Anglo-Je wish Exhibition ; The London Jewry, p. 20; Jewish Ideals, p. 162.</page><page sequence="2">118 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. upon Oxford by Dr. Neubauer,5 and upon Lincoln by M. D. Davis,5* have served to whet our appetites for the fuller research required for the history of these important centres. As a contribution towards this field of knowledge, I propose to deal with the story of the Jewry of Bristol that closes with the Great Exile. The Jews who came to England after the Norman Conquest settled down in the principal towns and villages in all parts of the country. In those days Bristol (or Bristowe or Bricgstow, " the fenced place of the bridge ") 6 was the chief centre of trade in the West country, second only to London itself.7 From the river Avon, and its tributary the Frome, English and foreign ships sailed to Ireland and all parts of Europe?even as, at a later date, John and Sebastian Cabot began their journeys from the same port to seek the continent of North America.8 In his interesting description of the state of England in 1192, Richard of Devizes speaks of the principal industry of Bristol as follows : "At Bristol there is not one that is not or will not be a soap? boiler, and every Frenchman hates a soap-boiler like a scavenger." 9 But this was merely a jest at the expense of an important commercial community whose extensive operations spread far and wide. The Norman Jews therefore found a congenial mart in this busy seaport town for the practice of money-lending, the only outlet of commerce permitted to them both by the laws of the Church and of the State. The Jews of that early period could find no career in trade, in agricul? ture, in public or municipal office. A rigid control over their financial dealings was exercised by the King of England, who was a sleeping yet active partner in their business affairs.10 Coming to Bristol, they 6 Collectanea of the Oxford Historical Society, Series ii, Notes on the Jews of Oxford, part iv. p. 277. 5a Archaeological Journal, vol. 38, p. 178, " The Mediaeval Jews of Lincoln." See also " The Mediaeval Jews of York," by R. Davies, Yorkshire Archaeological Journal, iii. 147. 6 N.T., i. 14 ; Hunt, Historic Towns, Bristol, p. 4 ; J. Evans, History of Bristol, p. 7. 7 Hunt, p. 2. 8 N.T., ii. 292. 9 Richard of Devizes, De Rebus Gestis, edited for the English Historical Society, pp. 60-62 ; N.T., i. 108. A.E., p. 149. 10 A.E., Introduction, p. xv. Gross, I.e., p. 202. Trans., Articles by Sir Lionel Abrahams, viii. 171 ; by Dr. Stokes, ib., p. 161 ; by C. M. Picciotto, ix. 67 ;</page><page sequence="3">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPTJLSION DAYS. 119 were allowed to live in a small number of houses facing the banks of the river Frome, where it is now arched over,11 and from this part of the ancient town they could obtain easy access to the ships and the markets. This quarter lay immediately outside the fortified walls of the town, as, according to a charter given to the citizens of Bristol by John, when he became Lord of the town about 1185, no stranger was allowed to remain within the walls for more than forty days,12 and it is now known as Quay Street,13 between Colston Avenue and Nelson Street, though once called Jewry Lane or Old Jewry. It extended from the gate at the end of Broad Street upon which was the church of St. John the Baptist,14 still one of the sights of old Bristol, to the gate of St. Giles, now demolished, that once stood with its church at the end of Small Street.15 According to information recently supplied to me by the City Engineer, the frontage of the Jewry in Quay Street measured 205 feet in length, in which some twenty houses may have stood. This narrow space could hardly have contained the whole of the Jewish settlement.16 About the end of the eleventh century, or perhaps earlier, an outer wall was built commencing from the old wall in Quay Street at a point opposite the end of Broad Street and meeting the river Frome at Frome Bridge,17 now replaced by Christmas Street. Outside this new wall and on the river bank called the Broad Weir18 there were also several Jewish houses, and, estimating from the number of residents by Hilary Jenkinson, viii. 25. Pollock and Maitland, History of English Law, i. 468 seq. 11 Mr. W. Leighton, of the Bristol Archaeological Society, informs me that the Frome was arched over where now Colston Avenue, Quay Street, and Nelson Street are marked on the modern maps. The river emerges from under what is now the Tramways' centre into the Floating Harbour. 12 N.T., i. 95. 13 N.T., i. 61 ; Evans, p. 53 ; Hunt, p. 27. In map on p. 121 called the Kay. 14 In the Middle Ages St. Laurence Church stood on the west side of St. John's Gate, but it was incorporated with St. John's Church in 1580, N.T., ii. 246. 15 Seyer, i. 264 ; Evans, p. 71; N.T., ii. 246. 16 Mr. McKenzie wrote as follows : "If the Jewish quarter were confined to the narrow strip from St. John's Gate to Small Street between Bell Lane and Quay Street, the number of houses would probably be not more than twenty, but possibly the area may not have been confined to these limits." 17 N.T., i. 63. In most maps the new wall begins at the end of Small Street. 18 Evans, p. 53 ; Hunt, p. 27.</page><page sequence="4">120 the jews op bristol in pre-expulsion days. Map of Bristol (13? CENTURY.) Adapted from Seyer's "Memoirs"</page><page sequence="5">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DATS. 121 ^ ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ by JacobusTiilUrcL i6pf.</page><page sequence="6">122 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. at any one time, this accommodation would have sufficed for the greater part of the Jewry?particularly, as will be shown, Jewish houses are to be found in other parts of the town. Unlike Canterbury,19 Lincoln,20 Cambridge,21 and London,22 the quarter could boast of no stone houses. The connection between the ancient Jewry and St. Giles' Church?whose site is now covered by the printing works of the well known firm of Messrs. J. W. Arrowsmith Ltd.?is one of considerable interest. The church was demolished in the year 1319, but it is recorded that it had previously been disused as a place of worship since 1301.23 The local tradition, repeated in all histories of Bristol,24 relates that beneath St. Giles' there was a vault which the Jews used as a synagogue. This vault still exists at the corner of Small Street and Quay Street and is now occupied by printing machines.25 It is interesting to note that the church did not long survive the banishment of the Jewish community from the town. William Wyrcestre, in the fifteenth century, refers to the wall of the temple of the Jews at the corner of Small Street, and Leland, in his famous " Itinerary " written about 1540, says : "... and theyr Temple or Sinagoge is yet seen there and now is a Ware House." 24 If this tradition is true it is apparently the only known example of a synagogue being found in pre-Expulsion Jewry in the vault of a church .25a Upon referring, however, to the official document recording the inquiry held concerning the property of the Jews at the Expulsion,26 19 Trans., vii. 27. Also in York, A.E., p. 117. 20 A.E., p. 383. 21 Stokes, p. 117. 22 The London Jewry, p. 31. 23 N.T., ii. 246 ; Sever, i. 264 ; Evans, p. 77. 24 Hunt, p. 27 ; Dallaway's edition of William Wyrcestre, called The Anti? quities of Bristow, pp. 96, 137 ; Leland, Itinerary, edited by Hearne, p. 73. 25 The Rev. J. Polack, B.A., of Clifton writes to me as follows : "... I called upon Mr. Arrowsmith-Brown at his business premises, and he deputed one of his assistants to take me down to the basement-room, which is now full of printing machines. It is impossible to say whether this underground apartment existed centuries ago, though there can be little doubt that it is very old. The brick walls are very thick and solid, and the floor is also of brick. One portion of the floor? that contiguous to Small Street?is at a slightly higher level than the rest and there would be room for 30 or 40 worshippers. . . 25a There was a vault under a house in Norwich supposed to have been used as a synagogue. See Gollancz, Trans., ii. 130. 26 See Appendix XII., p. 182.</page><page sequence="7">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 123 I find a clear mention of a synagogue having existed in Winch Street (so called from the winch or pillory that stood there, and now known as Wine Street, in the centre of old Bristol). The record reads as follows : " They report also that a certain house in which was the scole Judeorum which adjoined the two above-mentioned vacant plots (stated earlier in the same report as being the property of Hak le Prestre in Winch Street) has been rebuilt and that this house is held from the heirs of Marjorie Toly, recently deceased, for a payment of 3s. a year. For this rent the community of the Jews of Bristol gave the said Marjorie in her lifetime a sum of money, but the exact amount is not known. The rent was not to be increased until the end of twenty years. The term began at Easter in the 13th year of the King Edward son of King Henry (1285) and for the unexpired period of fourteen years the King should receive three shillings each year." The late Sir Lionel Abrahams appears to have made no mention of this reference to the synagogue in his masterly survey of the property possessed by the Jews of England at the Expulsion.27 From our record it appears that Marjorie Toly died about 1285, and that for some unknown period prior to that date divine worship was held in the Winch Street house used as a synagogue. That this street, one of the four main roads of old Bristol, attracted Jewish inhabitants at a much earlier period is evidenced from the fact that long before 1251 Joscepinus (Joseph) of Bristol28 possessed houses there which he bequeathed to his son Solomon together with his son's wife Brunetta, and her sister Glorietta. Moses of Oxford and Ciclaton his wife also had certain rights in this property, which, we are told, was situated between the houses of Gerard le Sauvage and John le Celarer up to the river Frome. At the Expulsion several of the wealthier Jews owned houses and lands outside the old Jewry that was situated near the inner and outer walls, by St. Giles' Church.29 These men, Hak le Prestre, Isaac of Caerleon andCressant, all of whom held the important office of Chirographer, lived in Winch Street, as well as Cresse the son of Isaac of Caerleon, whilst Jose, the father of this Isaac, dwelt a little 27 Trans., ii. 87. 28 Patent Rolls, 1251, p. 41; Pipe Roll, 13 Ed. I (P.R.O. E. 372,130), " Petrus Miparti v solidos de redditu domorum Josep Judei Bristol'. Et viii libras x solidos de eodem de anno preterito." Fine Rolls, ii. 110 ; see infra, p. 150. 29 See Appendix XII., p. 182 ; also p. 172.</page><page sequence="8">124 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. way off in the street near the Castle. The famous Benedict of Win? chester also owned a house in Winch Street, although he. may not have occupied it himself. Details concerning the above-mentioned Jewish residents of this district will follow later, but from the evidence so far produced we may conclude that, especially after the old Jewry was burned in the year 1275,30 a number of Jews had been allowed to settle in what was then the principal part of Bristol and, discontinuing the use of the basement beneath St. Giles' Church, the community assembled for religious services in their Synagogue in Winch Street, which constituted part of the new Jewry. According to local tradition, the cemetery of the Jewry was on the slope of Brandon Hill, nearly opposite a famous spring called Jacob's Well,31 now occupied by Queen Elizabeth's Hospital (the City School). It was reported that when some excavations took place at the site of the school about 1860 a number of gravestones were found with inscriptions in Hebrew characters.32 The presence of Jews in this city appears early to have given grave concern to its Reeve, or Mayor, who was the most famous Bristolian of his day. Robert FitzHarding 33 (b. 1085, d. 1170) was related to the royal family, having married Eva, a niece of William the Conqueror. His greatest friend was Robert, Earl of Gloucester, called Robert the Consul,34 a natural son of King Henry I. FitzHarding was the founder of St. Augustine's Abbey, which later developed into the present Cathedral in College Green. A man of wealth and zealous for the Church, he, together with the Earl of Gloucester, resolved to win the souls of the Jews to the Christian faith, and about the year 1154, with the consent of the King, the two nobles established a school for con? verted Jews, or Domus Conversorum,35 this institution being the earliest 30 See p. 165. 31 N.T., i. 61, 141. 32 G. Pryce, A Popular History of Bristol, 1861, p. 22; Arrowsmith's Dictionary of Bristol, p. 231. 33 Dictionary of National Biography, xix. 162; N.T., i. 73 seq. 34 N.T., i. 71. 36 The Little Red Book of Bristol, edited by F. B. Bickley, p. 208 : " Quo rege Stephano defuncto, tempore domini Henrici filii Matilde Imperatoris Regis Anglie, quidam Robertus Harding burgensis Bristollie per consensum Regis Henrici et Roberti Comitis ac aliorum Scholas Bristollie pro Judeis et aliis parvulis informandis sub disposicione dicte fraerie [the Kalendaries] stabilavit." See also</page><page sequence="9">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 125 of its kind in England, that of Oxford dating from 1221,36 and the more famous London House in Chancery Lane from 1232.37 This Domus was housed in a building known as Chequer (Checker) Inn or Hall in Winch Street, probably at the corner of Chequer Lane 38 (now Church Lane), and the work of converting the Jews was entrusted to the Guild of the Kalendars,39 who formed a religious fraternity comprising both clergy and laity, who combined the art of healing with the work of popular education. They were so called either because they held a meeting on the Kalends, the first day of each month, under the presidency of the local Mayor, or because they kept the calendars, i.e. the monthly archives of the city, and their place of worship was first Trinity, now called Christ Church, and later All Saints' Church, both adjoining the cross-roads which formed the centre-point of old Bristol. In November 1216, two weeks after his coronation at Gloucester, the boy king Henry III, who was nine years of age, came to Bristol, and with him was his spiritual guardian, Gualo, the legate of Pope Honorius III. A council was held, at which among many matters of importance the work of the old-established Kalendars was discussed. The Maire of Bristowe Is Kalendar, by Robert Ricart (1479), edited by Lucy Tommin Smith for the Camden Society, p. v. Leland, I.e., p. 76, states that " . . . in the time of King Henry . . . schools were ordained in Brightstow by the two Roberts for the conversion of the Jews and put in the ordre of the Calendaries and the Mayor "; N.T., ii. 90. 36 Maxwell Lyte, University of Oxford, p. 26. Neubauer, I.e., p. 285. Wood's Oxford, p. 132. [It is now recognised that there existed no Domus Conversorum in Oxford.?Additional note, July 1931.] 37 Tovey, Anglia Judaica, p. 92 ; my Paper on the " Domus Conversorum," Trans., iv. 16; Tovey, p. 94, mentions a House for Converts built by the Prior of Bermondsey in 1213. 38 See map on p. 121, which was kindly given to me by the City Engineer. Checquer Lane is there clearly marked leading from Wine Street, next to Dolphin Lane. Seyer, i. 265, writing in 1821, says, " Chequer Lane leads from Narrow Wine Street to St. Peter's Church." This exactly corresponds to the modern Church Lane. At the end of Chequer Lane there stood a gate called Aldgate. See N.T., i. 78. In his History, written in 1824, Evans mentions Chequer Lane in his Introduction, p. xxiv., also pp. 33, 283. The House of Converts may have stood at the corner of Wine Street and Chequer Lane, which street derived its name from the local Mint. The name has now disappeared from the list of Bristol streets. 39 N.T., ii. 91; Toulmin Smith, English Gilds (E.E. Text Society), p. 287; Hunt, p. 49 ; W. Barrett, History of the Antiquities of Bristol, pp. 449, 452. He compares the work of the Kalendars with that of the Master of the Rolls in London.</page><page sequence="10">126 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. The King and the Cardinal granted the guild a charter of confirmation,40 propter antiquitates et bonitates in ea Gilda repertas (in consideration of the ancient and kindly duties it fulfilled). The Cardinal further commended it to the fatherly care of the Bishop of Worcester and his successors. Twenty-eight years after the Expulsion, an official inquiry was held by the Bishop of Worcester into the rights, charters and liberties of the fraternity of the Kalendars,41 and another in 1340, especially as one of their primary functions in connection with the conversion of Jews had lapsed with their exodus from England. No evidence has come to light concerning the results of the labours of the Kalendars in the local Domus Conversorum, and it is certainly not to be compared with the London Home for Converts. The only Bristol Jews who are known to have become converts are John and his sister Joan who, in 1235, were ordered to be admitted into the London Domus,42 and Christiana of Bristol,43 who resided in the same Home in 1280 and continued to enjoy the royal patronage many years after the Expulsion. It may be the fact that FitzHarding's Domus was not a residential home, but a school of instruction, or it may not have continued its operations for many years owing to lack of scholars. It is interesting to record that in 1208 a kinsman of Robert Fitz Harding, Roger, Lord of Berkeley, whose daughter Alicia had married Maurice, the eldest son of the founder of the Bristol House of Converts, mortgaged some of his lands to the local Jews, and was permitted to make certain terms with them for the payment of his debts.44 About the time of the establishment of the FitzHarding Domus, a story was current of the crucifixion of a Christian boy by a Jew of Bristol named Samuel. Following the earliest record of ritual murder in England, that of St. William of Norwich in 1144,45 during the previous reign, hitherto two tales of boy-martyrs in the reign of Henry II have 40 Evans, p. 55 ; N.T., i. 117. 41 Evans, pp. 77 and 84. 42 Close Rolls, 1235, p. 124. 43 Trans., iv. 54. 44 T. Madox, Exchequer of the Jews, viii. 170. 45 Trans., i. 93 : " The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich," by Dr. A. Jessopp and Dr. M. R. James; Tovey, p. 11; A.E., p. 19; W. Rye, Papers, Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, p. 138; Jewish Encyclopedia, iii. 260; H. L. Strack, The Jew and Human Sacrifice, p. 177 ; Dictionary of National Biography, xxviii. 170, s.v. Hugh of Lincoln.</page><page sequence="11">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 127 been known, viz. St. Harold of Gloucester (1168) 46 and St. Robert of Bury St. Edmunds (1181).47 To these a third must now be added by the discovery I have made of a Latin document in the Harleian MSS. of the British Museum,48 which I propose to edit for the Society at an early date. The author of this MS. narrates in considerable detail and with marked literary skill the following story of events which, he says, happened 66 in diebus Henrici regis patris alterius Henrici," i.e. in the days of King Henry II, whose eldest son Henry died in 1183 before ascending the throne. The opening words are worth quoting : " Hearken, O ye islands and give ear, 0 ye people from afar. Thus saith the Lord God, I the only begotten one, who speak to the whole world in the strength of my arm. Hearken, ye men of Judah, hearken, ye rebels and unbelievers, to the mercies and many acts of compassion which the Jews in England, idolaters and babblers, have done unto me." In the western part of the town, which would correspond with the Jewry near St. Giles' Church, there dwelt a Jew named Samuel, and one day in the month of August he enticed a boy named Adam, the son of William the Welshman, a resident of the parish of St. Mary Redcliffe, into his house and crucified him with dreadful tortures. Now Samuel, continues this strange and incredible story, had crucified three other boys in the preceding year, of whom two were born and bred within the walls of the city and the third belonged to the parish of St. Mary Bedminster. His wife had been an accomplice in these crimes, but when young Adam became a martyr startling miracles occurred. A loud voice was heard proclaiming in the Hebrew tongue, " . . . I am the God of Abraham and the God of Isaac and the God of Jacob whom thou hast for a fourth time nailed to a cross. ..." The woman thereupon confessed her guilt and exclaimed, " We have sinned, we have done wrong," and, together with her son, who had been present while the foul deed was being perpetrated, declared her 46 See above note and A.E., p. 45. 47 Ibid., p. 75. 48 No. 957, No. 7. My attention was first drawn to this MS. by a note in Evans, History of Bristol, p. 212. In the Catalogue of the Harleian MSS., i. 484, the entry reads as follows : " Narratio legendaria seu fabula ineptissima de filio Willelmi Wallensis civis Bristolliae degentis in Parochia que vocatur Sancti Marie de Radeclif in diebus Henrici Regis Patris alterius Henrici (i.e. Henrici II) odio Jesu Christi per Samuelem quendam Judaeum crucifixo qui quidem Samuel uxorem suam filiumq. Christum confitentes eadem nocte martyrazavit . . etc.</page><page sequence="12">128 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. resolve to receive baptism next day. This so enraged the heartless Jew that he slew both wife and son without mercy. The MS. appears to have been written about 1280 and contains two coloured drawings.49 It is full of interest, but its value as history is open to serious doubt. No reference to this new version of the Blood Accusation is found in any of the contemporary records, nor was the boy canonised, as was usually done. I must leave the rest of the narrative until I publish the whole MS., and will content myself for the present with mentioning that the entry in the Catalogue of the Harleian MSS. describes it as a narratio legendaria sen fabula inejptissima, a legendary story or a very absurd fable?which aptly expresses its character, as well as that of all other ritual murder charges ever levelled against our people. The earliest Jew of Bristol of whom we possess any authentic record is Moses the son of Rabbi Isaac, who traced his ancestry back to Rabbi Simeon ben Isaac ben Abun the Great, who flourished in Mainz in the year 1000,50 and was a famous Paitan (author of liturgical poetry). R. Simeon was one of the most celebrated Rabbis of his day and was called the saviour of the German communities.51 About the year 1279 one of his later descendants, named Moses, compiled an y?? or Calendar, which was first brought to light by Professor David Kaufmann in 1891.52 At the end of his work the author gave a genea? logical table, by whose aid we can trace the origin of this eminent Anglo-Jewish family.53 The first to settle in England was our Moses, whom we will call the First, who came to Bristol prior to 1170,54 and, according to a very doubtful theory of Dr. Joseph Jacobs, was engaged in the slave-trade to Ireland, which ceased about this date, when 49 I have the authority of the Keeper of the MSS. at the British Museum for the date. The drawing showing Samuel stabbing the crucified boy was known to Dr. Joseph Jacobs, who printed it in A.E., p. 152, without any comment. The other drawing illustrates how the Jew killed his wife. 60 A.E., p. 253 ; Stokes, p. 57. 61 Graetz, v. 366, 497; Zunz, Literaturges., pp. Ill, 235, 626; Jewish Encyclopedia, xi. 350. 52 J.Q.E., iii. 555 seq. 63 p trnrfra w&amp; im p npsr? 'rnn min p rm isp TiMn n? bw m iwnn? rvm n nnn man Vwin D'wnmDO nnrw &amp;"? inn mn Mwn Vitih rwm urn p nor n am p r\vm nnn p pnsr 64 J.Q.R., iii. 776.</page><page sequence="13">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 129 Earl Strongbow conquered the country. Dr. Jacobs suggests that an uncle of R. Moses, R. Abraham the son of R. Simeon, became a tenant of the Canons of St. Paul's, London, about the year 1152.55 Moses I. was called !TH3n, the Honourable,56 which indicates one who was a Maecenas or wealthy patron of learning. He was the son and the father of Rabbis and subsequently moved to Oxford where he owned land in the Jewry and died about 1184.57 His son was the learned Rabbi Yom Tob, who settled in London 58 and was the author of a legal work called D^KIDH *1D0. It is suggested by Dr. Marmorstein 69 that this book is identical with a hitherto unpublished MS. in the British Museum, which is made up of excerpts from the Talmud and Midrash with explanations by the author. One of the authorities upon Jewish law quoted by this Anglo-Jewish writer is a certain Rabbi Joseph of Bristol, a reference which certainly strengthens Dr. Marmorstein's conjecture. To Rabbi Yom Tob was born a son famous as ntP? TTO*! ttPHinV?, Rabbi Moses II of London, or Magister Moses, who is men? tioned as a distinguished grammarian in the ?Wn 1DD, the " Onyx Book," written by R. Moses the son of Isaac Hanassiah (Comitissa), who lived in England.60 According to Dr. Neubauer, Moses wrote a work called T)j?an 1D0, the " Book of Punctuation." 61 Dr. Jacobs is of opinion that he was a physician, but this view is contested by Dr. Stokes.62 The son of Moses II of London was 2^117] the Honourable Rabbi Jacob of Oxford, who owned property in the University city, and, in the year 1267, sold the land to Walter de Merton upon which Merton College was built.63 The document of sale is preserved in the College 65 A.E., p. 260. 66 Stokes, p. 56, note. Zunz, in Asher's Itinerary of R. Benjamin of Tudela, ii. 31. Cf. Trans., ii. 49, where Abraham Ibn Ezra calls his patron for whom he wrote the 110*? in England?a ^13. See A.E., p. 29. 67 A.E., p. 293; J.Q.R., I.e.; Neubauer, Collectanea of Oxford Historical Society, ii. 310: "... et illam terram in Judeismo Oxoniae que fuit Mosse Judei de Bristoll' ..." See Addendum, p. 184. 68 Zunz, Zur Geschichte, p. 193. 69 Dr. Marmorstein in J.Q.R. (New Series, July 1928) quotes from MS. British Museum, Or. 1389 : "IWHM nOV "1 ^D? Yltt?ttf 60 J.Q.R. i. 182 ; A.E. p. 283; Jewish Encyclopedia, ix. 66; Dr. H. Adler, Papers, Anglo-Jewish Exhibition, p. 275. 61 J.Q.R., ii. 525 ; A.E., p. 420. 62 Stokes, p. 52. 63 Tovey, p. 182; Stokes, p. 56 ; Neubauer, Oxford, I.e., pp. 302, 303. Dr. Marmorstein (I.e.) suggests that R. Moses of London had three sons, R. Jacob, VOL. XII. K</page><page sequence="14">130 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. together with the curious seal of Jacob, upon which he is described as Jacob de Londres, and the deed is signed by him as ftW? 2*1 p SpSP VPllTfrl, Jacob the son of Moses of London (see frontispiece to Dr. Stokes' "Studies in Anglo-Jewish History"). He also called his son Moses, the third in the family of that name, who became the author of the Calendar above mentioned. Besides being a writer, Moses was a prominent money-lender in Oxford. In 1275 special permission was granted to him to assign some of his debts to Christians,64 and at the time of the Expulsion he owned a house with a shop adjoining the Oxford synagogue in the parish of St. Aldate's.65 The genealogical table is as follows : R. Simeon the Great of Mainz (c. a.d, 1000) I R. Joseph i R. Simeon R. Isaac R. Abraham of London[?] i Z-'HT] R. Moses I of Bristol and of Oxford (c. A.D. 1170) 1_ I II R. Yom Tob of London Isaac Simon I of Oxford of Oxford R. Moses II of London I mn Jacob of Oxford (c. 1260) I R. Moses III of Oxford (expelled in 1290) (Author of the Calendar). We thus possess details of nine generations of one mediaeval family from 1000 to 1290, of which the fifth representative, Moses I of Bristol, R. Menahem (or R. Elijah), and R. Berechiah of Lincoln NVlp'flS- Br. Marmor - stein's views are opposed to those of Stokes (eh. i.), who regards R. Berechiah as belonging to the Hagin family. 64 Prynne, ii. 64. 65 Trans., ii. 101; J.Q.R., v. 161. In the Lansdowne Transcripts in the British Museum, vol. 826, pt. 5, p. 48, details of the disposition of his property are given. In Prynne, ii. 114, there is a Moses the son of Jacob of Oxford, to whom a special order of protection was issued at the Expulsion, but he was a resident of Northampton.</page><page sequence="15">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 131 migrated from Germany via Normandy and founded an Anglo-Jewish family of scholars and patrons of learning who remained in the country until the Edict of Edward I drove them forth. A friend of Til?] Moses must have been Benedict, who died about 1184, leaving a widow, Leah,06 and two sons, Moses 67 and Joseph.68 Benedict of Bristol possessed considerable property, and, according to the royal usage, before the family could obtain their inheritance, King Henry claimed his rights. The widow was mulcted in death duties to the value of 40 marks, and Moses was called upon to pay one ounce of gold, of which he paid all except 15s. This balance was not forthcoming because, for some unknown reason, the record tells us '' he could not be found." Leah had also to pay to the royal Treasury the sum of 20 bezants, i.e. ?2, of which half was not received for many years, to enable her and her children to have an agreement drawn up between them coram Judeis, " in the presence of the Jews," as the official phrase runs. This undoubtedly refers to a settlement made before the local Beth Din, the only other allusion to the Bristol Ecclesiastical Court being found seven years later, when Judah of Bristol paid two ounces of gold for an inquiry to be made in the " chapter of the Jews " (in capitulo Judeorum) whether a Jew ought to take usury from a Jew.69 The existence of these Courts in Jewish communities is well established in the early pages of Anglo-Jewish history, and later King John confirmed their privileges in a charter fully legalising these tribunals of Jewish law.70 The question whether a Jew could take interest upon money lent to a brother Jew is alluded to in some of the Shetaroth in Mr. Davis' book 71 and formed the subject of an important case in London in 1272, concerning a house in Ironmonger Lane, in which the Prior of Bishopsgate argued that, 66 Pipe Roll 31 Hen. II, 1185. A.E., p. 97, (86), quotes from 35 Hen. II, but in the earlier entry the sums are given as 40 marks and 20 bezants. As the money was not paid for many years?in 1194 half was still unpaid?the entry is repeated in each successive Pipe Roll. 67 A.E., p. 95, (76), Pipe Roll 34 Hen. II. 68 A.E., p. 142, (105), Pipe Roll 3 Ric. I. 69 A.E., p. 155, (128), Pipe Roll 4 Ric. I; Stokes, p. 49. 70 A.E., p. 332 ; Tovey, pp. 63-65; Rigg, ii., Introduction, p. xv. Pollock and Maitland, I.e., p. 474. 71 Shetaroth, M. D. Davis, Introduction, p. viii., also pp. 63 and 70 ; Mar? morstein, I.e., p. 34.</page><page sequence="16">132 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. " according to the Statutes of Jewry, Jew ought not to take usury from Jew, in like manner as, according to the law of the land, Christian may not take usury from Christian." 72 The second son of Leah, Joseph, became one of the leaders of the community after the death of his father, for we read that in 1191 he rendered count of 100 shillings of the second 1,000 marks which the Jews of England promised the King in connection with the tallage levied at Guildford in 1188 to the total amount of 60,000 mark*.73 He is probably the Jose of Bristol who is mentioned in the Fine Rolls of 1205 as lending money to two Somerset gentlemen, and may be the Rabbinical authority recently discovered by Dr. Marmorstein.74 Reference should here be made to a man whom Bristol historians regard as a Jew named Sturmis. It is related that, in the year 1177, " the burgesses of Bristol were at the mercy of the King and were fined 80 marks for Sturmis, the usurer " (foenerator).15 Whether this man was a Jew and what really happened to him are both rather obscure. There appears to be no similar example where a Jew with so un-Jewish a name is called a usurer, and yet none but Jews were permitted by the law to practise usury.76 The intervention of the royal authority leads one to imagine that Sturmis was either killed or maltreated in some way by the local townsfolk, or they were called upon to pay his usurious debts. There was a prominent family named Sturmy, of whom Robert Sturmy,77 in the year 1286, obtained the royal protection against the alleged extortionate demands of a Norwich Jew, and in 1314 Sir John Sturmy was an admiral of the fleet. It is suggested that these local celebrities were descended from the usurer of 1177,78 the change of faith having been brought about by the House of Converts of Robert FitzHarding, the only success recorded, if this theory is correct, concerning-the activities of the Bristol School for Jews. n S.P., p. 65. 73 Madox, ch. vii. (i), p. 223. A.E., p. 142. 74 A.E., p. 240 ; Rotuli de Oblatis et Finibus (ed. Hardy), p. 297. 75 Madox, vi. 2, note 1 : " Burgenses de Bristou r.c. de quater xx marcis de misericordia pro Sturmi foeneratore "; Sever, i. 499; N.T., i. 98 ; Evans, p. 48. 76 Tovey, p. 121 ; A.E., Introduction, p. xiii. The Fleming, William Cade, who died about 1166, is a famous exception. See Hilary Jenkinson, English His? torical Review, vol. 28, p. 209, and " Essays in History," p. 190 sqq. Madox, Ch. x. p. 346, names three Christian men called either foenerator or usurarius, and two women Joeneratrices, in the days of Henry II. In all probability, Sturmis was not a Jew. 77 Sever, ii. 71; N.T., i. 143. 78 Hunt, p. 28.</page><page sequence="17">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 133 The first official list of Bristol Jews is contained in the Northampton Donum of 1194,79 which gives the names of the Jews of England who contributed to the " Gift " of 5,000 marks promised to King Richard I on his return from the Crusades and his subsequent captivity at the hands of Leopold, Duke of Austria, and Henry VI, the Emperor of Germany. Of the total amount of the tallage, the document in the Public Record Office gives details of some ?1,803 having been paid by twenty-two Jewish communities. Bristol 80 is fourteenth in order of the amount of collection, its total contribution being ?22 16s. 2d. Compared with London's ?486, the ?287 of Lincoln, and Canterbury's ?241?which head the list?the gift of Bristol is small and ranks far below the neighbouring Jewry of Gloucester with ?118. There are thirteen men and one woman in the list, whilst Gloucester's donation came from twenty-one individuals, and that of London from twenty nine. The lady bore the name of Precieuse (Preciosa), a typical example of the picturesque Norman-Erench names which our Anglo-Jewish ancestors gave to their womenfolk,81 whilst retaining the more Biblical names for themselves. Her 14s. was the second lowest amount, whilst more than half of the total of Bristol was contributed by one man, Judas Gabbay, viz. ?11 14s. 4d. The title of Gabbay, or Treasurer of the congregation, is frequently found at this period, though, as Dr. Stokes points out,82 it is curious that there is a second Gabbay in the Bristol list in the person of Abraham Gabbay, who contributed 18s. Sd.y and for such a small community two treasurers were hardly necessary. Judas Gabbay may be identical with the money-lender who paid a fee for permission to seek the judgment of the local Beth Din in 1192 83 concerning the question of usury between Jews, and his comparatively large contribution may have been drawn from the communal funds of which he was the custodian. Abraham Gabbay is known both in Bristol and in Gloucester history, and may have been the treasurer of the latter congregation, happening to be residing in Bristol at the time when the official lists of the Donum were compiled. He is frequently concerned with Bristol 79 J.H.S., Miscellanies, Part I., p. lix. ; A.E., p. 162. 80 See details in Appendix I, p. 174. 81 A.E., p. 369 ; Stokes, p. 66 ; Zunz, Namen der Juden, p. 72. 82 Stokes, p. 60. M See p. 131.</page><page sequence="18">134 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. matters, and is included in a local list in 1226 in contributing 205. towards one of the numerous tallages demanded by King Henry III.84 As a man of position, he often acted as a juror or as security in law disputes,85 on one occasion, in the year 1219, being concerned in the question of a debt owed by Sampson Furmentin to William Marshall, the Earl of Pembroke, who was Eegent to the young Henry III. In this trial a Jew of Bristol, Manasser by name, who is found on the Donum list, also took part. But it was as the accused in two cases of murder that Abraham G-abbay is especially notorious, being acquitted on both occasions. The first trial took place in the year 1220 and involved a number of the Jews of Gloucester. Full details are forthcoming in Bigg's first volume of the Plea Rolls,86 and they shed an interesting light upon the social life of the Jews of the day. Abraham was accused of suborning men to murder a Jew of Gloucester named Solomon Turbe86a. Gabbay and Turbe had a violent quarrel, and Gabbay charged his brother Jew with " maliciously wounding him in the King's peace." The Sheriff of Gloucester brought Solomon before the justices at West? minster, and, after a partial hearing of the case, Solomon was sent back to Gloucester and lodged in the Castle. On a certain Friday 87 it chanced that the Sheriff was approaching the Castle gate accompanied by several royal officials when they saw an object falling from the summit of the tower. They wondered what it was, whether a man or a bundle of clothing. The Sheriff bade the porter to inquire, and the man reported that it was the Jew who was in prison who had fallen to the ground. Turbe was seriously injured and died the next day, after telling the Sheriff that he had intended to kill himself like King Saul had done. On being asked whether he accused anybody of pushing him so that he fell, he answered, " No ! " Then, continues the Exchequer Plea Roll, there came to him Comitissa, his wife, to whom he said, " Flee hence, for it is by thy plot that I am slain." Next day, Saturday, Turbe, feeling himself to be on the point of death, 84 Receipt Roll, 10 Hen. III (Tallage of 4,000 marks). See p. 148. 85 Rigg, i. 13, 22, and 49. 86 Ibid., i. 33, 39, etc. 86a rphe name Turbe was that of William, Bishop of Norwich in 1146. See Jessopp and James, The Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich, Intro? duction, p. xxi. 87 Rigg, i. 51.</page><page sequence="19">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 135 sent for five prominent local Jews to make his will.88 Among these was Bonefant the son of Elias, the head of the Gloucester community, who, in the previous year, had been elected as one of the six richest Jews of England to assess a royal tallage upon his brethren.89 In their presence, and that of the Constable and Coroner of Gloucester, Turbe was reported to have laid a charge against his enemy, Abraham Gabbay, of having sought his destruction. His widow brought an action against Gabbay 90 and accused him of hiring five men in the Castle, of whom the names of two are given, Andrew and Gilbert, a beer-server, to whom he paid ten marks to throw her husband from the Castle wall. The officers of the law at once began to move. The Sheriff was ordered to take possession of all the chattels,91 as well as the charters, tallies and chirographs belonging to the accused Abraham, which was the more surprising as the Sheriff himself was implicated in the affair. For Comitissa had declared that he, too, was an accessory to the crime.92 The widow asserted that the Sheriff had confessed to having accepted a bribe of ?10, or, according to another version, 10 marks, from Gabbay to compass the death of her husband. She further avowed 93 that, whilst Gabbay was being cured from the wounds inflicted upon him in his quarrel with Turbe, he conspired with the Sheriff, who forthwith thrust her into the Castle, where she was so starved that she despaired of her life. Here she overheard a conversation between Gabbay and the two men, Andrew and Gilbert, the server of beer, plotting to slay her husband. The issue was further complicated by the intervention of another Jew, named Isaac, the son of Mirabil, a wealthy lady of Gloucester.94 88 Rigg, i. 42. Abraham of Warwick, Bonefant, Elias of Warwick, Isaac son-in-law of Samuel and. Moses the son of Aaron. With the exception of Isaac, these names also are found in Rigg, i. 32. The names of Abraham, Bonefant, and Moses occur in the Tallage Rolls of 1221 and 1223. Bonefant and Moses contributed also in 1226. 89 Stokes, p. 250. 90 Ibid., pp. 45, 50 ; Rigg, i., Introduction, p. x. 91 Ibid., p. 42. 92 Ibid., p. 43. 93 Ibid., p. 50. 94 Ibid., p. 42. Mirabil's name is found in all the Tallage Rolls; also in a list of payments " for herself and her sons " of 1220 (P.R.O., E. 401, No. 3 B., 4 Hen. III). In the Dowry Aid of 1221 she gave ?3 4s. out of a local total of ?13 13s. Id., in 1223 ?10 out of ?51, and in 1226 ?6 out of ?15 10s. (Concerning these tallages, see p. 146.) She owned three acres of land and had a lawsuit about them with the Abbot of Gloucester. Close Rolls, 1231 (Trans., iii. 200). She was the wife of Elias, and her children were Isaac, Bonefant, and Belia, whilst Isaac of Lincoln w as her son-in-law.</page><page sequence="20">136 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. He testified that the Sheriff had stated to him that Turbe imputed his fall to a sudden fright he had received whilst talking to Isaac. The latter thereupon offered the Sheriff the sum of three bezants to ascertain the truth of this statement, and the dying man had denied having involved Isaac in the matter in any way. An inquiry was instituted into the circumstances of Turbe's death. Certain Christian officials, together with Leo of Warwick, Elias of Warwick, Abraham of Warwick, and Moses the son of Aaron, all of Gloucester, of whom the last three had been present when Turbe made his will, investigated the various charges, and their verdict declared that both Abraham Gabbay and Isaac the son of Mirabil?as well as the Sheriff?were innocent of Turbe's death, and that it was a case of suicide.95 The following year Gabbay was a surety in a case where a Jew, Aaron, was accused of murdering a Christian in Bristol (see p. 149), and two years later (1222) a second charge was brought against him of having committed murder. Abraham Folet, a Jew of Bristol, had a sister who appears to have met her death by foul play. Folet accused Gabbay, together with his nephew Leo, of having murdered his sister, and a mandate was therefore issued to the Constable of Bristol Castle to arrest Gabbay and his nephew and bring them to trial before the justices of the Jews.96 Twelve " honest and lawful " men, six Chris? tians and six Jews, were to form a jury, according to the usual custom. No record is known of the result of the trial, but as Gabbay appears in a tallage roll four years later the charge against him must have failed for a second time. To return to our Donum list of the Bristol contributions to the " Gift" to Richard " Yea and Nay." Two men, Isaac and Deule cresse (Gedalya) bore the same surname of Furmager, and their respec? tive donations were ?1 8s. Sd. and 15s. 6d. Dr. Jacobs suggested 97 that their name is the Latin term fermager, a ferm agent or collector of taxes, but Mr. Hilary Jenkinson assures me that the correct title of this official would be fermarius. A better derivation appears to be from the Norman-French fourmagier, with which the modern word 95 Stokes, p. 51. 96 Rotuli Litt. Claus., p. 508. 97 A.E., p. 371.</page><page sequence="21">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 137 frontage is connected, hence a cheesemonger.98 This explanation of their name would point to the fact that these Jews were traders in farm produce. A third male member of the Furmager family named Joseph appears in the records of the next century, when, in three Receipt Rolls of 1221, 1223 and 1226 (see p. 148), he pays contributions towards tallages to the King, and on two occasions bought debts from the royal Exchequer for the sum of ?6 and ?3.99 He had a brother named Bonefey, also a prominent personage in the local Jewry.100 In 1221 mention is made of a Bristol woman of the same name, Ducefurmage, i.e. Dulce Furmager (see p. 149), probably of the same family, whilst we find several non-Jews of that name, a Robert le Furmager101 in 1265, and two Somerset men, Anselm le Furmager and Thomas le Furmayer, at a later period.102 One of the contributors to the Donum is called Isaac le Veske in one entry and Isaac Episcopus in the other, both, no doubt, being equivalent to the name Cohen.103 Jacob the son of Joseph was a security104 with Abraham Gabbay and the famous Moses the son of Brun of Dunstable105 in 1220, in which year he died; and the local Jews produced evidence that he had left chattels to the value of 40 marks, and, continues the Plea Roll, " the King has the third part thereof, to wit 14 marks, 4 shillings and fivepence, which are to be exacted from Solomon of Beverley, who had married Jacob's widow."106 Concerning the remaining seven names in the list, beyond an occasional reference to a monetary transaction107 little is known. 98 Du Cange, Glossaire Francois, p. 330. " Fourmagier?marchand de fromages." There is a famous Adam the Cheesemonger in Bristol history in 1303. See N.T., i. 148; Hunt, p. 62; Seyer, ii. 84, gives his name as Adam le Chismonger. 99 Receipt Roll, 6 Hen. III (P.R.O., E. 401-5), " Josceo Furmager vi. Ii. pro debito empto de thesaurio," and ibid. 9 Hen. III (E. 401-7). 100 Receipt Roll, 5 Hen. III (P.R.O., E. 401-4), "Bonefey fratre suo." (See also p. 150.) Cf. Eotuli Litt. Claus. 1215, p. 220. 101 Patent Rolls, 1265, p. 468. 102 Plea Rolls, edited by Hilary Jenkinson, 1276, p. 197, and 1277, p. 239. 103 Stokes, ch. iii. 104 Rigg, i. 29, 30. 105 S.P., p. 4 ; Miss Chew's article u An Aid to Marry," Trans., xi. io? Rigg, i. 37. io7 Concerning Manasser see p. 134.</page><page sequence="22">138 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. One bears the unusual name of Benlivinger,108 a corruption perhaps of Ben Levi, though Mr. Jenkinson suggests Ben Lavendier (Benjamin the laundryman). Zunz gives Bien li Vieng as the name of an English Jew but offers no explanation.109 Benlivinger of Bristol later, about 1221, resided in Lincoln,110 where he headed a list of local Jews who owed arrears upon the 1210 tallage of King John. His son Sammekin (Samuel) is included in the same list. According to that pioneer of Anglo-Jewish research, Mr. Myer D. Davis, the contributor Abraham ben Vives (Hayim) represents the famous Bristol Jew whose teeth were so cruelly extracted by order of King John111?a story which belongs to the reign of that monarch. Of all the Bristol names of the 1194 list none has given rise to so much discussion as that of Samuel le Pointur, who paid ?1 10s. 4d., the second largest amount in the town. Such distinguished scholars as Dr. Joseph Jacobs,112 Dr. Neubauer,113 Dr. Steinschneider,114 and Professor W. Bacher115 have endeavoured to explain the title le Pointur, which is also given to a Jew in the Oxford list named Benedict. Dr. Jacobs stoutly defended his ingenious surmise that this surname is the Norman-French equivalent of the Hebrew Ha-Nakdan, ppjn, the Pointer, by which term punctuators of Biblical MSS. were generally known.116 These men were authors who specialised in the study of Hebrew grammar and were scholars of renown. Benedict le Pointur of Oxford is identified by Dr. Jacobs with Berechya ppan, the author of the famous wbliW "?VtWD, the " Parables of the Foxes," 117 and Samuel of Bristol is said to have written a Hebrew grammar called mp^l, now in the State Library in Berlin. 108 Jacobs reads this name Benleveng (A.E., p. 370). The transcript of the Donum in the J.H.S. Miscellanies reads Benliuing, but there is a mark after the " g " in the MS. showing that the ending " er " should be added. In Duncombe and Acland, The Jews of England, p. 191, where a transcript of the Donum is given in full, the name is spelt Benlining. 109 Zur Geschichte u. Literatur, p. 175. 110 P.R.O., Exchequer K.R. Accounts, No. 249.13 (E). "i J.Q.R., v. 161. 112 A.E., p. 169 ; J.Q.R., i. 182, ii. 330, vi. 375. *13 J.Q.R., ii. 322, 520. 114 Die Hebr?ische ?bersetzungen des Mittelalters, ? 573, pp. 958-62. *15 J.Q.R., vi. 363. 116 Zunz, Zur Geschichte, pp. 107-122, 201 ; Jewish Encyclopedia, ix. 152. 117 Fables of Aesop, i. 167-78 ; Graetz, Geschichte, vii. 86.</page><page sequence="23">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 139 Samuel Ha-Nakdan is quoted in the " Onyx Book," which book also refers to the grandson of Moses I of Bristol, Moses II of London, who wrote Tlpin " the Book of Punctuation," and to Berechya Ha-Nakdan.118 Samuel?if the theory of Dr. Jacobs is correct? would probably have been a member of the Bristol Beth Din which adjudicated upon the cases of Leah, the widow of Benedict, and Judah Gabbay. Against the hypothesis of Dr. Jacobs?which Professor Bacher was inclined to support?we have the strenuous opposition of Dr. Neubauer, who contends that the name le Pointur has no connection whatever with Ha-Nakdan, but is a Norman-French title indicating a public official appointed to impose taxes and fines.119 The Oxford scholar also suggests that Samuel may have been a painter?though, he adds, " Jews scarcely exercised this profession, which is contrary to Rab? binical law." In reply to this view, Dr. Jacobs argues120 that there is no evidence of the existence of an official in English Jewry called le Pointur, or of any Jewish painters. Dr. Steinschneider rejects the identification of Ha-Nakdan with the French name, as also does Professor Sir Herman Gollancz in his "Ethical Treatises of Berachya,"121 whilst an anonymous writer in the Jewish World122 advocates the opinion that a maker of point-lace was called a Pointur. Seeing that the earliest mention of lace in England is dated 1390,123 this theory has its objections. In Murray's " New English Dictionary " we read of men of the period named le Poynter,124 who were makers of points or laces for fastening clothes, which interpretation would make our Benedict of Oxford and Samuel of Bristol the earliest known Anglo Jewish tailors. The scholars who so vigorously discussed the meaning of the name Le Pointur were not acquainted with the third man bearing that cognomen in the person of Vives (Hayim) le Pointur of Bristol, who 118 See p. 129. 119 From the Dictionnaire de Vancienne langue francaise, by M. Godefroy, p. 255a : " Ofiicier publique charge d'imposer les taxes et Ies imp?ts." 120 J.Q.B., ii. 332. 121 Introduction, pp. xviii. seq. 122 February 20, 1903, p. 408, article " Early Bristol Jewry." 123 History of Lace, by Palliser, p. 45. 124 Vol. vii., 1054 ; Harrison, Surnames of the United Kingdom, p. 85 ; Bardsley, Dictionary of English and Welsh Surnames, p. 613.</page><page sequence="24">140 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. appears with Jose Furmager in the Receipt Roll of the Princess's Dowry in 1221 and also in those of 1223 and 1226.125 In the list of Nakdanim set forth by Zunz in his chapter upon the Punctuators of the Middle Ages Vives is not included. He may have been the son of Samuel le Pointur, but the mystery of his name still remains unsolved.125* The communities of the West of England appear to have escaped the murderous outbreaks that inflicted such injury upon their less fortunate brethren in London, York, and the Eastern counties in 1189-90, after the coronation of King Richard.126 Winchester is especially mentioned by the chronicler as having been spared these outrages,127 and no reference to anything serious having occurred is to be found in the annals of Bristol. It was at a much later date that we read of attacks upon the Jewry on the Avon, the ruler of the town, the Earl of Gloucester, evidently protecting them against damage from their enemies. The same feudal nobleman, who was a grandson of King Henry II, married his daughter Hawisia (or Avice) to John, the King's son, and gave him as a dowry the lordship of Bristol, among other possessions.128 John, before ascending the throne, found it necessary to borrow money from Jews of Gloucester, (in 1186 he owed 13 marks to Moses of Gloucester),129 and also from the burgesses of Bristol,130 probably not forgetting the local Jews, as he frequently resided at his Castle in this town. On his coronation he divorced the Earl of Gloucester's daughter and married Isabella of Angouleme, but retained his hold upon Bristol. His earlier acquaintance with the Jews led him to issue several orders protecting them against violence, con? firming their former privileges and granting them many new ones,131 for which he received grateful recognition from the cc&gt;mmunity, expressed in sundry tallages.132 This friendly policy on the part of the new King led to a number of Jews of Normandy crossing the Channel. The increase in the Jewish population of the kingdom was not welcomed, 126 In the 1221 list he contributed 12.?. Sd., in 1223 ?2 10s., and in 1226 9s. 6d. See p. 147. i25a Duncombe and Acland, Z.c, reads le Point in?perhaps of Poitou ? 126 A.E., p. 99 sq. 127 A.E., p. 134. 128 N.T., i. 108. 129 A.E., p. 267. Pipe Roll 32 Hen. II, p. 118. In the Introduction, p. xix, to this edition of the Pipe Roll the Editor assumes that Moses belonged to Bristol. 130 Pipe Roll, i.e., p. 200. 131 Tovey, pp. 53, 61 sq. A.E., p. 212 ; S.P., p. 1. 132 Tovey, p. 65 ; A.E., p. 215.</page><page sequence="25">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 141 with the result that in some places, especially London, the newcomers were badly treated by the citizens.133 John sternly checked this animus against his serfs, and their general position grew more and more favourable. The whole of the reign of this most unpopular monarch was disturbed by constant unrest. He lost nearly all his possessions in Normandy, he quarrelled with the Pope, who, in 1208, laid England under an Interdict followed by Excommunication, and he stood almost alone amidst his mutinous nobles, his hostile clergy, and a disaffected people. He now realised that the time had come to draw upon the reserve which he had silently accumulated in the hands of his Jewish chattels, and rich was the reward he reaped for his wise economy. On his return from Ireland in 1210 John suddenly issued an order for the whole Jewish community throughout the kingdom to be arrested134 and brought to Bristol Castle,135 where he was then staying. A tallage of 66,000 marks136 (equal to ?1,000,000 in our modern money) was levied upon them. It is calculated that there were about 2,000 to 3,000 Jews in England at this time.137 The archae in each Jewish centre were closely inspected, but the sale or redemption 133 Tovey, p. 67 ; A.E., p. 217. 134 Tovey, p. 70. Annals of Dunstaple (Rolls series), p. 1866 : " The Jews were despoiled of both moveable and immoveable goods, their charters and their debts throughout the whole of England. And all their rich men were imprisoned and many of them died.'' Similarly, A nnals of Margan, p. 24. Chronicle of Florence of Worcester (ed. Thorpe), ii. 169 : " The Jews throughout the whole of England both men and women were cast into prison." Annals of Bermondsey, p. 451 : " In this year King John imprisoned all the Jews in England and pillaged them to the extent of 66,000 silver marks." Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum (ed. Coxe), iii. 231, repeated in Matthew Paris, Chronica Majora, ii. 528: " Then, on the order of the King, the Jews of both sexes throughout the whole of England were imprisoned and afflicted with the most severe sufferings to compel them to give money at the will of the King ..." 135 S.P., Introduction, p. xxiv, and p. 3 : "... post capcionem Judeorum BristolP . . ." Add. Ch. 7178 (British Museum) "... ante cominunem capturam Judeorum." Seyer, i. 531. 136 The amount is mentioned only in the Annals of Waverley, p. 264 (copied by Annals of Bermondsey, as in note 134, and Annals of Merton, p. 151). Rigg, ii., Introduction, p. xvi; Stow, Survey of London, i. 281; Madox, i. 151; Sir Lionel Abrahams questions the amount of the tallage (Trans., viii. 180), but see Rigg, i. 4 (1218) : " . . . at the time when all the Jews were arrested by command of King John to render him 60,000 marks." Tovey, p. 70, speaks of " above three? score thousand marks of silver." 137 A.E., p. 382.</page><page sequence="26">142 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. of the bonds owing to Jews failed to produce the desired amount. John now sought to enforce his demands in the most violent manner and inflicted grievous hardships upon the Jews. The chronicler of the period, Roger of Wendover,138 relates that, "... among them there was a Jew of Bristol who refused to ransom himself by payment, though lacerated by a variety of torments. The King therefore ordered his torturers to pull out one of his molar teeth each day until he should have paid the sum of 10,000 marks. For seven days a tooth was extracted with almost intolerable suffering, and on the eighth day the torturers had begun the same cruel work, when the Jew, unable to hold out further, paid the required sum, that he might save his eighth molar, having already lost seven of them." This story of the payment by the unhappy Jew of Bristol, upon whom such violent dentistry was practised by order of King John, has been repeated in almost all the histories of the period and has been accepted by all later writers.139 The older chroniclers do not know his name, but modern writers call him Abraham, though without any apparent justification. As previously stated, Mr. Myer Davis identifies him with the Abraham ben Hayim (Vives) of the Northampton Donum, whilst there was an Abraham of Bristol who lived in Nottingham in the year 1204.140 Moreover, the amount of the fine paid by the tortured Jew appears to be exceptionally large. The first historian to raise doubts concerning this tax of 10,000 marks140a was the late Sir Lionel Abrahams,141 and his arguments appear to me to be conclusive. It is hardly credible that a small community like the Bristol Jewry, whose contributions to the various tallages always ranked among the lowest, could produce a man able to pay, at the 138 See note 134. 139 Seyer, i. 527; N.T., i. 112; Evans, p. 53: "A Jew named Abraham, and who is said to have resided without the walls on that part of the Froom called the Broad Weir, though cruelly tormented. ..." Graetz, vi. 247; Hyamson, History of the Jews of England, p. 58 ; Hunt, p. 28 ; Picciotto, Sketches of Anglo Jewish History, p. 10 ; L. 0. Pike, A History of Crime in England, i. 186 ; G. F. Abbott, Israel in Europe, p. 123 ; Margolis and Marx, A History of the Jewish People, p. 123. Norgate, John Lackland, p. 137. Roger of Wendover is the only contemporaneous annalist who tells the story of the teeth. 140 A.E., p. 241. 140a Equivalent to ?6,700; in modern value about ?201,000 (according to Abrahams ?130,000). Jacobs multiplies by 30 to arrive at modern values (A.E., p. 320), Abrahams by 20. 141 Trans., viii. 179.</page><page sequence="27">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 143 shortest possible notice, a fine equivalent to ?201,000 to-day, especially if he really was the Abraham ben Hayim who contributed 14s. to the Donum of Richard I. The story of King John's cruelty to this man and to others may be based on fact, but a considerably smaller sum of money must have been extracted with the suffering man's teeth. In the " Exchequer of the Jews," by Thomas Madox,142 we read that towards the tallage of this year (1210) Isaac the Chirographer was fined in 5,000 marks and a further 100 marks for himself, his wife and children. According to the view of Professor Ramsay,143 Isaac was the Bristol Jew whose teeth were drawn by order of King John, and he was allowed to settle his heavy debt by instalments. In 1220 he paid ?1,336 9s. 6d. out of a total for all Anglo-Je wry of ?1,785 2s. 5d., whilst two years later the sum of ?2,159 11s. included a further instal? ment from this rich Isaac. Ramsay is inclined to believe Roger of Wendover's story on the whole, remarking, " In comparison with the estimates usually given to us by chroniclers, Wendover's figures here, representing the sum as only double the real amount, and that to be paid all at once and not by instalments, may be considered quite a creditable approximation of the truth.'' Professor Ramsay' s argument is open to criticism, especially as there appears to be no reference elsewhere to Isaac the Chirographer as a Bristol resident, and the title here given was applied for the first time in 1205 to an Isaac in London who owned land in St. Lawrence Jewry.144 Three years later, a decree from the King to the Constable * of Bristol Castle ordered all the Jews of Bristol to be imprisoned, " as you have done before," who had not paid the arrears of the big tallage.145 One of their chiefs, Isaac the son of Jurnet (Jacob), was sent away, as an example to the rest, to the Tower of London " under safe custody," the same Isaac reappearing later, however, as one of the six Bristol representatives of the 1241 Parliament of Worcester. The Jews of Southampton were also dilatory in their contributions, and in 1214 they were consigned to Bristol Castle in order to compel them to pay liberally for their release,146 Prynne remarking that they 142 Exchequer of the Jews, I.e. 143 The Angevin Empire, p. 426. 144 A.E., p. 235. 145 Rotuli Litt. Pat. (ed. Hardy), i. 102b. See also Madox, I.e., notes (k) and (1). 146 Tovey, p. 72.</page><page sequence="28">144 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. were brought to Bristol " to meet with such another tooth-drawer as one of them had met before." 147 In 1215, the year of Magna Carta, King John published an order that any poor Jews who had left the country because of their inability to pay the tallage assessed upon them should not be allowed to return unless they paid their debt and also a fine of forty shillings to the Treasury.148 The arrears of the Bristol tallage continued to be collected for many years afterwards, every effort being made by the officers of Henry III to secure the taxes demanded by his father when he had imprisoned all the Jews of England in the Castle at Bristol. Eight years after this date, Ursell of Winchester 149 was arrested on a charge of having committed an offence in connection with King John's tallage. He had been appointed the Jewish Sheriff and Receiver for South? ampton, and having been instructed by royal mandate " to make distraint upon the debtors of the Jews at the time when all the Jews of England had been arrested by command of the King to render him 60,000 marks," he had given a certain Baldwin a starr of acquittance unlawfully. Two years later (1220) a Christian Sheriff of Southampton was ordered to make good to the royal Exchequer a sum of ?10 which had been paid by Lumbard of Winchester,150 on account of the 1210 tallage but which had been withheld. In a Receipt Roll of the same year (1220) 151 the names of thirty-six men and women from eleven Jewries are given who were paying arrears, and another Receipt Roll 147 Prynne, i. 15. 148 Rot. Litt. Claus. (1215), p. 186. 149 Rigg, i. 4. 150 Ibid., p. 24. 151 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 3 B., 4 Hen. III. The 36 names are as follows : Gloucester : Mirabil, Judea wife of Isaac, Duce wife of Mosse, Belina daughter of Helye (Elias) ; Bristol: Jacob of Oxford ; Lincoln : Sara fil. Brun, Ursell fil. Pucell, Moses fil. Asser, Abraham of Bedford, Jose of Colchester, Leon fil. Elias, Gershon Episcopus, Deudone fil. Aaron ; Cambridqe : Vives fil. David; Norfolk and Suffolk : Deia fil. Peitavin, Meir fil. Jose of Bungay, Fluria the widow ; Kent: Pictavin fil. Isaac, Mendaunt fil. Jacob of Canterbury ; Oxford : Sarra fil. Benedict, Leo fil. Bonenfant, Benedict fil. Benami, David of Lincoln, Moses of Aylesbury, Sampson of Canterbury, Jacob of Oxford, Abraham fil. Aaron, Jose fil. David of London, Moses of Wisbech, Benedict fil. Jose ; Southampton : Lumbard of Winchester, Muriel wife of Manasser, Ursell, Sampson of Beverley, Jose of Worcester, Bonechose of Hereford. In Bot. Litt. Claus., 1224, p. 7, and 1225, p. 89, payments are recorded by Hubert de Burgh of ?48 from Sampson of Canterbury and of 100s. from Muriella (or Meriena) the daughter of Jacob of Cambridge.</page><page sequence="29">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 145 of 1221 152 gives the payments of certain Jews of York. Eighteen years after King John's tallage, a Jew of Oxford is reported153 for not having discharged his obligations. A series of writs in the Public Record Office,154 dated about 1221, gives lists of Jews owing money to the Bristol tallage from Oxford,155 Winchester,156 Exeter,157 Lincoln, Stamford, and Nottingham,158 and strict orders are given for the collection of these arrears. Several of the defaulters had died, others had fled the country,159 and in all cases steps were to be taken to seize the property of these Jews and to arrest those who were to be found in order that a full settlement should be made of the debts outstanding. At the beginning of his long reign Henry III (1216-72) and his counsellors showed signs of treating his Jewish subjects with kindness,160 orders for their protection?even against the bishops?being issued by the regent, William Marshal, Earl of Pembroke. The latter had himself conducted financial dealings with the Jews161 and regarded the policy of the late King John as harmful to the welfare of the State. 162 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 4. 153 Neubauer, I.e., p. 295. 154 P.R.O., Exchequer K.R. Accounts, No. 249, 13. l?s The Oxford names are *David of Lincoln, Judelin, *Benedict son of Benjamin, *Sarah sister of Mulin, Abraham of Bedford, *Diaie of Winchester, Deulecress son of Isaac, Abraham of Oseney. (* These names occur in the Dowry " Aid" of 1221.) 156 The Winchester names are *Ursell, *Lumbard, Muriel widow of Manasser, *Josce son of Samuel of Wilton, Josce son of Leah, Aaron son of Cresselin, Sandin son of Cresselin (dead) and Samuel Ruff us, who was ultra mare (beyond the seas). Concerning Ursell and Lumbard see pp. 144 and 151. This deed is printed in Davis, Shetaroth, p. 371, where certain sureties are enumerated as follows : ?mp* p ttrVfco* rrwi?nxV p tot? ?nrKm* Varnai ?r?1?? / * mi_* _J_ _ _ j v __I_? j 1 _ TA_c&lt; A-J ?&gt; mm (* These names are among the contributors in the Dowry " Aid" of 1221 as residents of Winchester. See also note 151.) 157 The Exeter names are Samuel of Wilton (dead), his widow Iveta, Deodatus son of Amiot. Another of these documents (D) gives the following names of defaulters : Deodatus son of Amiot, Jacob of Gloucester, Samuel Episcopus, and Sampson cum ore (with the mouth). This is evidently also an Exeter list. Jacob of Gloucester is included in an Exeter list in the 1221 and 1223 Receipt Rolls. 158 See Appendix II, p. 174. 159 Multi Judeorum prae maxima afnictione fugerunt ab Anglia (1210). Roger of Wendover, Flores Historiarum (ed. Coxe), p. 231. 160 Tovey, p. 76. VOL. XII. 161 Rigg, i. 12, 32. L</page><page sequence="30">146 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. Twenty-four burgesses in each town where Jews resided were to be selected by the royal officers to watch carefully over them that no injury befell them, and particularly to guard them against attacks from Crusaders.162 Hugh de Vivonia, the Constable of Bristol Castle, received orders to appoint his twenty-four citizens as guardians of the local Jewry and accordingly did so.163 Even the institution of the Jew badge in 1218 164 was intended for their good, in order that no man could plead that he had assaulted a Jew in ignorance of his race. In the third year of King Henry (1219) the first steps were taken to organise a system of obtaining tallages for the royal Exchequer. Leading Jews were selected to superintend a thorough collection being made among their brethren, in order?to quote the precise language of the royal decree165? " that the talliators should not hide anybody possessing chattels of the value of 40 shillings and upwards, and should be careful to assess the taxation upon all who ought to be taxed, whether a kinsman such as a father or mother, brother or sister, sonor daughter, nephew or niece, grandfather or grandmother, father-in-law or son-in-law, or the husband of a niece, or any person who stands in any sort of relationship." Six of the richest Jews of England were appointed to take general charge of the collection?none coming from Bristol. The local assessors were Bonefey and Lumbard. The former was the brother of Jose Furmager, and concerning Lumbard I shall have occasion to speak later. The first of the long list of tallages exacted by King Henry III was the most extraordinary of them all. In 1221 the sister of the King, Princess Joan, married Alexander the King of Scotland, and the Jews were called upon, as though they belonged to the feudal system, to contribute an Aid (Auxilium) for the lady's dowry.166 The list of donations is extant in the Public Record Office and appears in Volume XI of the Transactions of the Society in a paper written by Miss H. H. Chew. The total collected for this Aid from seventeen communities was ?654 3s. b\d., towards which Bristol gave ?22 2s. 9d., 162 Tovey, p. 77. 163 Bot. Litt. Claus., p. 359. 164 Tovey, p. 79. 165 Stokes, p. 250; Jurati et Talliatores super tallagium Judeorum, P.R.O., E.A. No. 249.12 ; Gross, I.e., p. 196. 186 H. Jenkinson, Trans., viii. 44.</page><page sequence="31">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPTJLSION DAYS. 147 being tenth on the list,167 with York, the city where the royal marriage took place, standing first with ?164 10s. King Henry had promised the King of Scotland, the bridegroom-elect, the sum of 5,000 marks (about ?3,300) and the Jews of England therefore contributed about one-fifth of the royal dowry. But the whole of the ?654 collected was not intended for this purpose, as the original demand made upon the Jewries mentioned two objects, the first being to help the King to give his sister Joan in marriage, and the second to pay the heavy fine inflicted upon a certain Moses the son of Brun in order to save him from death for a serious offence committed against the Prior of Dun stable, which interesting story is detailed by Miss Chew in her paper. Towards the Bristol collection, seven residents subscribed ?12 2s. $d. and the sum of ?10 was added, " de communia judeorum Bristoll," from the congregational funds. Jacob the son of Samuel of Oxford contributed ?7 and the others mentioned are Joseph Eurmager, his brother Bonefey the talliator, Vives le Pointur, Leo the nephew of Abraham Gabbay, who the following year was accused on a murder charge, together with his uncle, Solomon the son of Abraham, and Milo Episcopus. The rich Jacob was a surety in a charge of murder levelled against a Jew of Bristol in the same year, as were also the Furmager brothers (see p. 136), and in the previous year he had been concerned in a dispute for debt with a Somerset client.168 In 1220 he is reported to have paid 10s. towards the arrears of the old Bristol tallage of King John and a further 20s. in 1222.169 Of the other names in the Auxilium list, we hear again of Milo Episcopus (Cohen) as a Worcester M.P., and his son Cresse figures largely in Bristol history. Milo had a brother Isaac, and in the year 1220 the two men paid a fine of 10s. to be allowed to take possession of the house bequeathed to them by their mother Saphira,169 probably the wife of Isaac Episcopus mentioned in the Northampton Donum.169a The tallage for the Dowry of Princess Joan was rapidly followed by a long series of exactions that mark this reign of fifty-six years. The inroad of swarms of foreign Court favourites necessitated unceasing 167 See Appendix III, p. 176. 168 Rigg, i. 29 and 49. 169 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 3B, 4 Hen. Ill, and E. 401, No. 5, 6 Hen. III. 169a See p. 137.</page><page sequence="32">148 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. demands for money. Mr. Blunt170 has enumerated nineteen separate tallages, but he was not acquainted with several others whose existence recent research has brought to light. In 1223 a comparatively modest tax of 3,000 marks was imposed upon the Jewry, and Bristol gave its largest contribution upon this occasion, the total being ?92 5s. 6cZ.171 Jose Furmager appears for the sum of ?21 6s. 8cL, Jacob of Oxford contributed ?37 10s.; Vives le Pointur and Milo Episcopus also are mentioned. The new names are Isaac the son of Bonefey (Furmager ?), Vives the son of Abraham, Michael,172 son-in-law of Vives le Pointur, Bonefey Michael, Isaac Episcopus the brother of Milo, and Solomon le Turk. The last-named is also found later in a Glou? cester list173 and may have been related to Jacob le Turk,173* Moses le Turk,174 and Samuel le Turk, who lived in other parts of the country. Three years passed, when the sum of 4,000 marks was demanded, and nine Bristol Jews paid ?10 Is. 5d.175 Five of these names are not given in any of the previous Receipt Rolls, viz. Michael le Vesque, Moses the son of Bonefey (Furmager ?), Abraham Gabbay, twice accused of murder, Levi the son of Deubenie (Berechya), and Antera the daughter of Jacob. The last-mentioned may have been the daughter of the rich Jacob, whose name is not found on this list, as he may have migrated to another Jewry. This was a common practice in those days. Among the Jews of Hereford in the Princess Joan collection of 1221, and also in the tallage of 1223, we find an Isaac of Bristol who may have been the Isaac the son of Moses who was involved in a claim for debt in 1218.176 A Moses of Bristol also appears living in Northampton in the 1221 Roll, and there is scarcely a Jewish com? munity that does not include residents who had come from other centres. Further tallages, among them some rising to 20,000 and 60,000 marks, will be referred to under their respective dates. In a volume of correspondence of the period, a letter is included, 170 History of the Establishment of the Jews in England, by J. E. Blunt, p. 38. 171 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 6, 7 Hen. III. See Appendix IV, p. 176. 172 There is a Michael of Bristol in P.R.O., E. 101, No. 249, 11. 173 Receipt Roll, 10 Hen. III. Probably the same as Solomon of Tuarz in Here? ford in 1244. Rigg, i. 62. 173a Living in London. Trans., xi. 110. 174 Rigg, i. p. 344 and references. He was a chirographer at Exeter. Cartulary of St. Nicholas, Nos. 371, 372. 175 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 8, 10 Hen. III. See Appendix V, p. 176. Rigg, i. 2.</page><page sequence="33">THE JEWS OP BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 149 written in March 1220 by Hugh de Vivonia, the Constable of Bristol Castle, addressed to Peter des Roches, the Bishop of Winchester, and the Justiciar, Hubert de Burgh. The Constable points out that the house of Abraham the Jew of Bristol (is he the Abraham ben Vives of the Northampton Donum, or perhaps Abraham Gabbay ?) is empty and has fallen into the hands of the King. He therefore suggests that it would be a suitable residence for Sogernel, the King's messenger, being of the value of 25s. a year?a considerable sum in those days, equal to about ?37 to-day?and his request was granted.177 Mention has already been made of the two charges of murder brought against Abraham Gabbay, and in 1221 a third was levelled against another Bristol Jew, in which the same Abraham acted as a surety. In that year a special Assize was held at Bristol by the itinerant justices of the Crown, in which a Jew and a Jewess were involved.178 Adrian (more likely Aaron) of Bristol had been charged with the murder of John the son of Peter, and had been removed for his trial to London. His ultimate fate is unrecorded. The royal justices were called upon to take action with regard to his sureties. Aaron's chattels were worth ?1 5s. 8|d., and five prominent Jews, one from Hereford and four from Bristol, came forward as sureties to produce Richolda (Rachel) his wife together with her property, which they had failed to do. It was quite a usual practice to hold the wife and children as hostages for the husband.179 The local men were Jopinus (Joseph Furmager), his brother Bonefey, Jacob of Oxford, and Abraham Gabbay, all of whom we have met before, and the five sureties were fined. At the same Court Ducefurmage (i.e. Dulce Furmager), evidently a relative of the Furmager brothers, was fined the sum of 20s. for having entrusted a deed in gage to a certain old woman, instead of depositing it, according to the law of Jewry,180 in the official archa in Bristol. Her sureties were Abraham Gabbay and Bonefey. 177 " Royal and Historical Letters illustrative of the reign of Henry III " (in Chronicles and Memorials of Cheat Britain and Ireland, R.S.), i. 98. 178 Pleas of the Crown for the County of Gloucester, by F. W. Maitland, p. 115. Pleas of the Crown for the Hundred of Swineshead and the Township of Bristol in 5 Hen. Ill, by E. J. Watson, p. 92. 179 Madox, i. 225 ; Prynne, ii. 57 ; Gross, I.e., p. 201. 180 According to the law of 1194 all deeds were placed in the official archa, A.E., p. 157.</page><page sequence="34">150 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. Joseph (Jopinus or Josepin), who was a surety in the murder case of Aaron, is frequently mentioned in the records. He is first heard of as a money-lender in 1216,181 and the last entry concerning him refers to his ownership of some land in 1234.182 He possessed houses in Winch Street, for which Sir Peter Mypart was still paying rent in 1284 and 1285,183 and is in all probability identical with Joseph Fur mager, who appears as the head of the Bristol Jewry at this period. His financial activities were rivalled by those of his brother Bonefey, or Bonavie.184 He was one of the Bristol Assessors in 1219, and on two occasions it was proved against him that he claimed debts unlawfully, as no bonds existed in support of his demands.185 In the year 1231 Bonefey paid a visit to Newbury (Berks),186 and, through the inter? vention of Eleanor, the Countess of Pembroke, a sister of the King, he and Leo (Judah) of Bristol, probably Leo the nephew of Abraham Gabbay, were allowed to stay there for a time. In 1241 he was a representative of Bristol at Worcester, and the last entry on the records in the year 1243 refers to a debt owing to him by a certain George Deffuble which the King pardoned.187 The constant exactions of Henry III, to which I have previously referred, fell heavily upon the sorely tried Jews of his kingdom. Tallage after tallage was imposed upon them. By the year 1234 demands of 8,000, 6,000,1,000,188 10,000,189 and finally 18,000190 marks had been made, with the result that a number of J ews sought to escape the hand of the oppressor by fleeing the country.191 Among them were two of the 181 Rotuli de Oblatis et Finibus (ed. Hardy), p. 598. Rotuli Litt. Claus. (1226), p. 135, concerning chirographs belonging to him in the Bristol and Hereford archae, and p. 198. He acted as the royal collector of taxes for Exeter, receiving on one occasion the sum of ?2 from Deulecresse Episcopus?the Jewish " bailiff " (Rigg, i. 18) of that city. Cartulary of St. Nicholas of Exeter, No. 372. 182 Close Rolls, 1230, 1231 (see Trans., iii. 191, 192, 203), 1232, p. 85; 1234, p. 31. 183 Fine Rolls, ii. p. 110. Fine Rolls, 1253, p. 163. Patent Rolls, 1251, p. 104. See note No. 28 re entry in Pipe Roll, 13 Ed. I. 184 Close Rolls, 1232, p. 85 ; 1238, p. 28 ; 1243, p. 22. 185 Madox, vii. 166, 167. 186 Close Rolls, 1231, p. 5. 187 Close Rolls, 1243, p. 22. 188 Trans., iii. 198. 189 Gross, I.e., p. 195. 190 Tovey, p. 91. 191 In the Writs mentioned on p. 145 reference is made to Samuel Ruff us, who is ultra mare, and to others qui de terra nostra exierunt (see Appendix II, p. 174). Also Close Rolls, 1244, p. 275.</page><page sequence="35">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 151 leading men of Bristol, Lumbard and Isaac.192 A royal mandate was therefore issued in 1238 that these men were to be imprisoned in Bristol Castle until they had paid their full quota of the tallages, and given security that they would not run away. They evidently satisfied the royal demands, for, three years later, they were at Worcester among the six Bristol delegates, to assist the officers of the King to raise new taxes. The name Lumbard is frequently found among pre-Expulsion Jews, and either denotes an immigrant from Lombardy193 or is the common term for a money-lender. Mr. My er Davis 194 points out that it is strange that no Jews of Italian nationality came to England, and argues that the name arose through the popular habit of calling any alien a Lombardian, and especially one who traded in money, seeing that many non-Jews of that profession came from Lombardy.195 Hence a Lombard indicates a banker?whence the name Lombard Street in the City of London is derived. At a later date than that which we are now considering, owing to several Jews bearing the same name, our Bristol Lumbard was the cause of a blunder committed in 1273 by the Sheriff of Oxford, who severely punished by imprisonment and fine another prominent money-lender called Lumbard of Cricklade in Wiltshire, the " King's Jew," for an offence against the King's exchange, perhaps coin-clipping, of which the Bristol Jew was said to have been guilty.196 The second Jew who was thrown into prison with Lumbard was Isaac the son of Jacob, another Worcester delegate. He is, in all probability, the Isaac, son of Jurnet, who had seen the inside of the 192 Close Rolls, 1238, p. 31 ; Prynne, ii. 25 ; Sever, i. 528. 193 Zunz, Literaturges, p. 469, mentions a German liturgical poet named Meir b. Elasar, also called Meir Lombard the Darshan (1200). There are several non-Jews who bore this name, as Hubert Lumbard (Close Rolls, 1241, p. 300), William Lumbard (Close Rolls, 1244, p. 213), Henry le Lumbard (Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1289, p. 263). Cf. Patent Rolls, 1280, p. 410, Thaldus Lombardi. 194 Notes and Queries, 9th Series, xii. 125. Neubauer, I.e., p. 281. Be Lombard's Hall in Oxford, Boase, Historic Towns, Oxford, p. 23. Mallett, History of Oxford University, i. 42, associated Lombard's Hall with the Jews. Cf. Tovey, p. 8. 195 Stow's Survey, i. 201. Loftie, Historic Towns, London, p. 111. 196 Close Rolls, 1273, p. 10. Lumbard of Cricklade was a witness to the Merton College sale (see Stokes, Frontispiece).</page><page sequence="36">152 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. Tower of London in 1213 by order of King John. In 1244, together with Solomon the son of Aaron, Isaac represented Bristol among twenty Jewries of England in testifying that a certain Government officer owed nothing, except in one instance, to any Jew of the towns enumerated.197 He and Solomon were probably the Chirographers or keepers of the official records in the local archa, which enabled them to give the required evidence. The town of Worcester beheld an interesting gathering of over one hundred members of Anglo-Jewry representing twenty-one Jewish centres on Quinquagesima Sunday in the month of February 1241.198 They had assembled by order of his Majesty, their master, who had directed his Sheriffs to select " the richest and most powerful" Jews, as the King desired " to treat with them as well concerning his own as their benefit." The Sheriffs were threatened with the direst penalties if they failed to execute the royal command, and the famous Parlia mentum Judaicum., as Tovey styles it, therefore came together, only to learn that they were expected to devise ways and means among themselves of raising a tallage of 20,000 marks payable before the end of the ensuing month of September, " under pain of forfeiting their goods and estates and the greatest penalties to the terror of all others." The six Bristol M.P.'s were Lumbard, Bonefey, Solomon of Ivel cester (Ilchester in Somerset), Isaac the son of Jacob, Milo le Eveske, and Isaac of Bath. Of Lumbard, Bonefey Furmager, and Isaac the son of Jacob, I have already spoken. Solomon of Ivelcester was the talliator for Somerset in 1219,199 and may be the Solomon, son of Aaron, mentioned before as one of the Bristol Chirographers. He was once threatened with arrest for failing to appear to answer a charge concerning a debt.200 His son Peter was a representative of the Northampton Jewry at the Worcester Parliament,201 and another son, Solomon, is mentioned in the Plea Bolls of 1276.202 Milo le Eveske (or Cohen) contributed to the tallages of 1221,1223, and 1226, and may have been the son of Isaac le Eveske (Episcopus) who is mentioned in the Northampton Donum. He is not so well known as his son Cresse 197 Rigg, i. 107. 198 Close Rolls, 1241, p. 355 ; Prynne, i. 29 ; Tovey, p. 110 ; Stokes, ch. iii. 199 P.R.O., E. 101, No. 249.12. Stokes, p. 250. 200 Rigg, i. 56. Cf. Close Rolls, 1245, p. 372. 201 See note 198.. In Stokes, p. 86, Peer. fil. Sam. de Ivelchester should read Peter fil. Solomon de Ivelcestre. 202 Jenkinson, Plea Rolls, p. 226.</page><page sequence="37">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 153 (or Dieulecresse), who figures frequently in the records after the middle of the century and was hanged for felony about 1266. The name of Isaac of Bath is interesting as being the only reference in pre-Expulsion records to a Jew who resided in this ancient city. In the year of the Worcester meeting Bristol Jews were agitated by another murder charge brought against some of their number.203 It was alleged that Alice the daughter of Eva had been killed as the result of a plot against her by Pimenta the wife of Jacob of Coutances, her son Jacob and his wife Belecote. All three had fled to London, where they were arrested and placed in the Tower. An official order is extant transferring them to the custody of the Constable of Bristol Castle ; but we have no further information upon the case and can only express the hope that the accusation was groundless. The husband of Pimenta, Jacob, also appears to have given trouble to the authorities. From Coutances in Normandy?whence also came Bishop Geoffrey, who was appointed first Governor of the town by William the Conqueror, and built the Castle 204?Jacob had found his way to Bristol, where he had two sons, Isaac and Jacob.205 Three years after the trial of his wife and son for murder, Jacob was held suspect of clipping coin 206 and was arrested for remaining in the county of Sussex without the King's permission.207 His son, Isaac, became a financier of import? ance,208 one of his clients being the ex-Sheriff, William Giffard, who led an assault against the local Jewry at a later date. About the same time some Bristol Jews named Filee and his son Jacob, together with Bella, the son's wife, had removed to Here? ford,209 where they were taken into custody and sent to London to answer a charge of having certain ornaments of the Church in their possession. In the eyes of the Church this was a serious offence, and shortly before this date William of Blois, Bishop of Worcester?in whose diocese Bristol lay?had issued special injunctions against books, vestments, and ornaments of the Church being pledged to Jews.210 In the Charter given by King Richard I in 1190, and confirmed by 203 Close Rolls, 1241, p. 357. Prynne, ii. 30, gives the names of the accused women as Puenta and Bestota. In the Close Rolls the latter is called Bescota. 204 Dictionary of National Biography; N.T., i. 65. 205 Rigg, i. 267. 206 S.P., p. 9. 207 Rigg, i. 72. Cf. Gross, I.e., p. 159. 208 Rigg, i. 266, ii. 42. 209 Rigg, i. 69. 210 Victoria County History, Gloucestershire, i. 12.</page><page sequence="38">154 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. King John in 1201, it was distinctly ordained that " it was lawful for Jews to receive and buy without difficulty all things that may be brought to them, except things of the Church and blood-stained cloth, which were not allowed to be sold to them." 211 In 1246 a Jew whose name is not given was killed in Bristol, and the Abbot of St. Augustine was directed to keep the murderers in prison until he received further orders from the King.212 In 1254 another Bristol Jew was killed by Robert le Chaluner. The murderer fled for sanctuary to a church, and his property was given to the Dominican Friars of Gloucester.212a The royal demands upon the Jews of Bristol?like those upon other Jewries?never ceased. In the year 1244 they were mulcted in a tax of 20 marks towards the payment of a new tallage of 60,000 marks levied upon all Jewries by the King as a punishment for the death of a child in London, who had been buried with great ceremony in St. Paul's213; and in 1250 the Constable of Bristol Castle was ordered to collect 20 golden pounds from the local community,214 and pay the money direct to the Privy Purse at a time when King Henry was asking for gold in preference to silver,215 " because," says the royal mandate," the King at the present time is in the utmost need of money." The King was about to visit Bristol and ordered the gold to be ready for him on his arrival. The richer Jews were individually called upon to pay certain sums towards these taxes, and in 1253 Elias of Chippen ham (Wilts), a Bristol resident, was reported to have fled without paying his quota of 6 marks.216 The Chirographers of Bristol, both Christian and Jewish, were therefore instructed to examine the archa and to ascertain all debts recorded therein as being due to Elias, who " owned lands, rents and tenements." The defaulter himself was to be arrested and brought to the judges at Westminster, ui that justice be done upon him as one who has thievishly carried off our proper chattels." In the meantime no debts owing to Elias were to be paid, as u we have taken into our hands all the chattels of the said Elias wheresoever in our realm of England they may be found." A son of Elias, Benedict 211 A.E., pp. 135, 213, 331 ; Tovey, p. 64; Close Rolls, 1246, p. 476. 212 Close Rolls, 1246, p. 486. 212a Close RoUs, 1254, p. 263. 213 Rigg, i. 74 ; Tovey, p. 116 ; Matthew Paris, I.e. 214 Close Rolls, 1250, p. 316. 215 "Ad aurum emendum ad opus regis" Tovey, p. 152. 216 S.P., p. 30.</page><page sequence="39">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 155 by name, was living in Chippenham when the Expulsion took place, and appears to be the only Jew remaining in this Wiltshire town at the time.217 The Jewish Chirographers in 1253 were Cresse (Gedalya), the son of Milo le Eveske (Cohen), and Isaac of Caerleon. They were the pledges for the whole of the Bristol community two years later 218 for the payment of the following arrears due to the King, viz. 45 marks from the tallage of 60.000 marks of the year 1244, 60 shillings on the debts of Aaron of York,219 ?10 10s. as their portion from the arrears of ?1,000 owing by Lumbard of Cricklade,220 and 15 marks from the arrears of 500 marks levied upon Bristol as a tallage for Richard, Earl of Cornwall, to whom his brother King Henry had mortgaged his Jews in that year.221 Aaron of York mentioned here was formerly one of the richest Jews in England, being appointed Arch-Presbyter in the year 1236,222 and at one time being named as one of four repre? sentative Jews for the whole country.223 In 1235 he was granted exemption for life from all royal taxes on payment of an annual sum of 100 marks, and a further 100 shillings per annum in order to be quit of all debts already owing to the King.224 Details of his dealings with Italian merchants of Siena and Florence and with French merchants show the magnitude of his business transactions,225 but he appears to have become very reduced in circumstances about 1255, when his Majesty, at the instance of his brother, the Earl of Cornwall, " granted exemption to him this time from tallage because of his poverty." 226 His co-religionists, including those of Bristol, were therefore called upon to pay his quota, as was also done in the case of the wealthy Lumbard of Cricklade. Bristol was the only Jewry taxed for Lumbard's debts, even those of Wiltshire, where Lumbard lived, being exempt. Whilst referring to these repeated demands of the royal Exchequer upon Anglo-Jewry, a survey of the tallages exacted until the Expulsion 217 Trans., ii. 104. 218 Patent Rolls, 1255, pp. 439, 443. 219 Trans., iii. 157 ; Jewish Encyclopedia, i. 16. 220 See p. 151 and references in Rigg, ii. 328. 221 Tovey, p. 135 . 222 Stokes, p. 29. 223 Patent Rolls, 1237, pp. 178, 187 ; 1238, p. 228 ; 1241, p. 246. 224 Ibid., 1235, p. 93 ; Tovey, p. 108. 225 Patent Rolls, 1244, p. 445 ; 1246, pp. 480, 492. 226 Ibid., 1255, p. 443.</page><page sequence="40">156 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. will show how small a part was played by the Bristol Jewry in these levies. The lists of contributors are almost entirely preserved in the Public Record Office, and from them the following information is extracted. In 1253, towards a list amounting to over ?320, the Bristol community gave 54s.,227 whilst in the following year 10 marks were donated from the communal funds out of 1,000 marks.228 In 1260 the community paid 30 marks 229 towards a total of 2,000 marks, and an order was sent to the Constable of Bristol Castle to open the local archa and to make an inventory of all the debts found therein : " also to inquire diligently concerning the goods and chattels of the Jews, both moveable and immoveable outside the archa, viz. what each possessed in gold and silver, in pledges, in jewels, in lands, in rents, and in all other property, whether in the cities or towns or in religious houses, and in any other place." 230 In the same year a tallage of 500 marks found no response in Bristol, but two former residents who had migrated to other Jewries subscribed, Deulacress giving 3s. in Northampton and Joseph the son of Isaac 10s. in Gloucester.231 So weary of the royal demands did the English Jews become that in 1267 they offered the sum of 500 marks voluntarily on condition that they were not to be tallaged nor scrutiny made of their chattels for a whole year.232 In January of the following year a document in the Muniments of Westminster Abbey records an order to the Constable of Bristol Castle to extract from the archa the chattels of local Jews who had failed to pay their portion of 4 marks towards this gift to the King.232 Again in 1269 they promised ?1,000, payable in three years, if no fresh tax was laid upon them, the King agreeing to this arrangement, provided that neither he nor his son should in the meantime go with the Crusade to the Holy Land.233 As soon as this period of relief had expired, King Henry exacted 5,000 marks from the Jewries, but Bristol was unable to contribute anything.234 King Edward was not long on the throne before he raised a tallage 227 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 20. Tallage of St. Martin, 37 Hen. III. 228 Ibid., E. 401, No. 1566, 38 Hen. III. 229 Ibid., E. 372, No. 104, 44 Hen. III. 230 Tovey, p. 151. 231 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 43, 44 Hen. III. 232 Muniments, Westminster Abbey, No. 9004. See Appendix VI, p. 177. 233 Tovey, p. 167. 234 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 1567, 56 &amp; 57 Hen. III.</page><page sequence="41">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 157 which resulted, in 1274, in the sum of ?1,425 being collected.235 Towards this amount the Bristol community subscribed the comparatively large sum of ?46 10s. 11^., the money being paid through the hands of the Abbot of St. Augustine, the local Cathedral, and one resident, Sampson, son of Isaac of Winchester,236 gave 5 marks (?3 6s. 8d.). The following year 237 a third part of all movable property was confis? cated, when Isaac the son of Isaac of Bristol gave 16 marks, and con? tributions were also obtained from Deulebene the son of Samuel, Samuel of Wilton, a former Chirographer,238 and his son Solomon. Two years later (1277) Edward imposed a tax of ?1,000, and Bristol was able to pay ?S0.m No individual names are mentioned in the Receipt Roll, as in several other instances when a communal grant was voted for a royal tallage,240 there probably existing in all Jewries a special fund to meet these recurring demands of the Treasury. The last of all the recorded tallages in pre-Expulsion days belongs to the same year, when the sum of 25,000 marks 241 was levied upon the Jews. Two years previously the law Be Judaismo 242 had been enacted pro? hibiting money-lending, so that it is not surprising to note that this last tax was a complete failure, only two Jews contributing small sums. This list of royal exactions does not profess to be exhaustive, as the Receipt Rolls are not complete. The frequent orders sent to the local Chirographers 243 to inspect the archae are evidence of the constant calls made by the King's tax collectors upon the straitened resources of the Jews of England. As already noted above, the aid of the local clergy was also enlisted to ensure the payment of these tallages.244 Thus in 1275 authority was given to the Abbot of St. Augustine, as well as to the Constable of Bristol Castle, to examine the archa in the Jewry in order that money could be raised for the royal benefit upon charters found therein.245 To return to the Chirographers of the year 1255 of whom I 235 P.R.O., E. 101, No. 249,16, 2 Ed. I. 236 See p. 171. 237 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 1568, 3 Ed. I. 238 See p. 158. 239 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 1572, 5 Ed. I. 240 Tne entry reads De Communia Judeorum BristolV. 241 P.R.O., E. 401, No. 1573, 5 Ed. I. 242 See p. 166. 243 See p. 156. In the Muniments of Westminster Abbey there are seven royal Orders concerning the inspection of archae in Bristol alone. 244 Gross, I.e., p. 197. 245 Patent Rolls, 1275, p. 127 ; Prynne, ii. 37.</page><page sequence="42">158 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. was speaking before dealing with the tallage payments, Cresse's father was one of the Bristol representatives at the Worcester Parliament, and he himself carried on extensive financial operations,246 which engaged the attention of the Barons of the Exchequer even after his death. In the new volume of Plea Rolls about to be published for the Society by Mr. Hilary Jenkinson,247 and kindly placed at my disposal in advance, we are informed that, in 1275, 52 charters in the Bristol archa belonging to Cresse were seized by the royal order " to be placed in our treasury for levying the said debts by means thereof." About the year 1266 he was accused of " felony," and sentenced to death by hanging.248 His offence was very possibly the clipping of the coin of the realm, for which a large number of Jews in the thirteenth century were executed.249 He was the owner of a small piece of land in Winch Street, which, at the Expulsion, was still unbuilt upon and was of the yearly value of 6d.250 His brother Chirographer, Isaac, belonged to a wealthy family who had migrated from Caerleon in South Wales to Bristol shortly before this time. His father, Jose (Joseph), bought a tenement in a street near the Castle,250?with whose interior the Jews of Bristol were so familiar?thus settling outside the Jewry in Quay Street, and Isaac owned two houses in Winch Street, one of the value of 20s. 9?d. and the other worth 6s. a year, which he gave to his son Cresse, who sold it to William Maleden, a leader in the riot of 1275.250 Isaac had two other sons, Abraham, who died in 1273,251 and Samuel,252 whose wife was named Hannah (Henne), and a brother Aaron,253 all of whom, including the lady, were actively engaged in money-lending. After his colleague Cresse had been hanged, Samuel of Wilton was appointed in his stead,254 and during the period they held office there 246 Calendar of Fine Rolls, i. 192, 202 ; S.P., p. 129 ; Rigg, i. 309, ii. 238, 271; Jenkinson, Plea Rolls, p. 127. 247 P. 14. I am deeply indebted to Mr. Jenkinson, who very kindly allowed me to extract many items of interest from the proofs of his book before publication. [Published by the Jewish Historical Society, 1929.] 248 Fine Rolls, i. 197. . 249 See p. 161. 250 See Appendix XII, p. 182. 251 Rigg, ii. 21, 43. 262 Ibid., 259. 253 See p. 171. 254 Patent Rolls, 1266, p. 13. There were three charters of the debts and chattels of Samuel of Wilton in the Bristol archa in 1275. P.R.O., E. 101, No. 249.19.</page><page sequence="43">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 159 took place an attack upon the small Bristol Jewry, in which the archa of the Chirographers was burnt.255 This assault upon the Jewish quarter occurred during the last year of the Barons' War (1266), which civil war wrought so much misery to Jews of England everywhere.256 Gilbert, Earl of Gloucester, led his forces to Bristol, at first on the side of Simon de Montfort, Earl of Leicester, but afterwards he transferred his allegiance to Edward, the King's son, who was the overlord of Bristol.256a Continual fighting took place within and without the walls of the city, both on land and on the Avon, and the Jewry suffered severely When de Montfort's army at one time penetrated the defences of the city, they fell upon the Jewry.257 Then followed a raid upon the archa, which was a regular incident in the anti-royalist campaign ; the bonds were impounded or destroyed, and Earl Simon, during the brief period of his ascendancy, annulled all Jewish debts by proclamation.258 The King could not endure this damage to his property in silence, and at Cambridge, for example,259 he proceeded in person with a strong force to remedy this unfortunate state of affairs. At Bristol the Jewish Chirographers were summoned later to bear testimony before the royal officers concerning any bonds that had been destroyed " by the King's enemies at the time of the disturbance of the realm." 260 Two local Jews appear to have been killed in the Barons' War. The name of the first is not legible in the Plea Rolls, but that of the second is given as " Belasez the daughter of ... of Bristol, slain." In order to obtain the chattels of the deceased, Hagin the son of Isaac paid a fine of 26s. to one of the Justices of the Jews.261 Hagin lived in Bridgewater, Somerset, and had assumed (qui se vocavit) the name of Benedict Bateman. He carried on his business in Bristol as well as in other parts of the West of England, for, in the Westminster Abbey Muniments, are two Orders to the local Chirographers, 255 Patent Rolls, E. 101 I.e. 266 Stokes, p. 161 ; Gross, I.e., p. 210 and references ; Tovey, p. 166 ; Trans., vii. 40 ; Davis, Shetaroth, p. 102, reports that a " deed was lost in London in the midst of the tumult when disturbances arose against the Jews." p^HH fST .ffTiirn bs? paw Dpa rosnn Tim ?nnaiVa inxi irra rrw 256a Bemont, Simon de Montfort, p. 237. 257 N.T., i. 136; Evans, p. 64; Hunt, p. 31. 258 Rigg, ii., Introduction, p. xviii; Kingsford, Song of Lewes, pp. 59, 80; Trans., viii. 90. 259 Stokes, I.e. 260 Patent Rolls, I.e. 261 Rigg, i. 194.</page><page sequence="44">160 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. dated 1272, concerning bonds belonging to him preserved in their archa2*2 Three years after the civil war serious disputes appear to have arisen between the local Jews and their Christian debtors, of which complaint was made to the Crown. A royal precept was therefore issued to the Chirographers of Bristol to extract from their archa and to produce to the Barons at Westminster all debts of the Jews which had not been sold or given to Christians, with the object of setting these debtors free from the burden of their liabilities, "for the relief of Christians from the grievances inflicted by the Jews and the Jewry of England for the betterment of the realm." 263 Before the year 1273 Samuel of Wilton had ceased to hold the office of Chirographer and his place was taken by Cressaunt (i.e. Dieule cresse, Gedalya) the son of Pictavin,264 one of whose guarantors was Benedict of Winchester, a famous man in his day who suffered death by hanging six years later.265 Cressaunt did not hold his official position long,266 and was succeeded by Isaac (Hak) le Prestre,267 who now shared the office with Isaac of Caerleon. The two Chirographers were involved in a serious charge, which seems to have led to their dismissal from office. In 1274 they were accused of being concerned in a conspiracy to forge a bond and place it in the archa2*8 When this charge of " trespass and deceit" was first brought before the justices, neither of the ex-Chirographers appeared, Hak le Prestre being ill and Isaac of Caerleon absent without cause. The Constable of Bristol was therefore directed to produce them and distrain upon their property. Two other residents in Bristol, Solomon the son of Isaac of Wilton, and Isaac Hariprud of Wilton, otherwise known as Isaac of Marl borough, were implicated in the same charge.269 They also escaped for a time, but later in the year all four stood their trial and denied their guilt of the " said false and malicious practice, word by word." The Court fined them collectively the sum of ?10 and two bezants (= 4s.), 262 Rjgg&gt; j. 238 seq. ; Muniments of Westminster Abbey, Nos. 6937, 6933. 263 Muniments of Westminster Abbey, No. 9005. See Appendix VII, p. 177. 264 Rigg, i. 61. 265 Trans., x. 205; Close Rolls, 1279, p. 41; Patent Rolls, 1281, p. 443; Pipe Roll, 13 Ed. I. 266 In Rigg, ii. 167, we find him in Southampton in 1274. 267 Concerning the name Le Prestre see Stokes, p. 21. 268 Rigg, ii. 138, 269 Ibid., p. 198.</page><page sequence="45">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 161 and the Constable of Bristol was ordered to levy this penalty upon their land and chattels. Isaac of Caerleon probably lost his office as a result of this sentence, but continued to live in his house in Winch Street, and in 1283 he appears as a representative Bristol Jew, together with his father, Jose, in a dispute about a debt.270 His colleague, Isaac le Prestre, was arrested about the year 1279 on a charge of coin-clipping and sentenced to death by hanging.271 The same fate befell a very large number of English Jews in this year, in London alone 293 being executed.272 In the Public Record Office there exists a hitherto unpublished Pipe Roll of the year 1285 which furnishes full details of the confiscated property of the " condemned " Jews of Bristol, Devizes, and Winchester,271 twenty-seven in all, including three women. This inventory shows that Isaac was a man of considerable means, as appears from the list of his goods and chattels that were ordered to be sold for the benefit of King Edward. The principal items are as follows 273 : 75 spoons, 14 gold rings, 8 brooches, 22 silver cups, 21 mazer wood bowls, and the following wearing apparel: 5 hoods, 30 silk belts, 1 robe of 'crimson with a mantle, 1 robe of triple camel's hair with a mantle, and 1 robe of blue. Five books of his library are also given?one described asparvum volumen worth 20s., which may have been the ppn mSD HDD of R. Isaac of Corbeil, or the pj? Tnn of R. Nissim 274 ; a Bible in poor condition; a book of old 270 S.P., p. 129. 271 P.R.O., E. 372, No. 130; Pipe Roll 13, Ed. I. This Inventory of the "Condemned"?the only one of its kind?will be published in the Miscellanies, vol. ii. 272 Calendar of Fine Rolls, i., 1279, p. 113 ; Tovey, p. 210; Abrahams, J.Q.R., vii. 256; Gross, I.e., "Regulations of the Jewry," p. 219. "Concerning Jews who are counterfeiters and clippers of money, and concerning the receivers of the same, who buy the silver in plates formed by melting the clippings." Cf. S.P., Introduction, p. xv. 273 Appendix VIII, p. 178. 274 This was suggested to me by Dr. A. B?chler, who writes, " As the works of the French Rabbis were well known and used in England, parvum volumen may possibly refer to the ")?j?n or "PpH DIEft 1DD by R. Isaac of Corbeil, who prepared in 1277 an abridged edition of R. Moses of Coucy's rYlXttH *1DD&gt; usually called ITIS? *1D? (y??) ? ? ? But the Latin term is too general to warrant the identification. It is possible that parvum volumen may be a rendering of TOp TOn, which was not a Halachic work, but the TOlttPH? HD'' TDn of R. Nissim, a collection of the first half of the eleventh century in Kairuwan, North Africa, which was known everywhere ..." VOL. XII. M</page><page sequence="46">162 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. Decretals 275 (if Jewish, these may be a copy of the mVlTl ITD^H) 276 ; and two Psalters with commentaries. He owned two vacant plots of land in Winch Street, upon which, by order of the King, at the time of the Expulsion, houses had been rebuilt by the Constable of Bristol, Peter de la Mare.277 Another of the men concerned in the above-mentioned case, Salle (Solomon) of Wilton, also met his end later by hanging, and his personal property consisted of 2 silver cups, 3 bronze lamps, 1 mantle, 2 hoods, 3 pillows, 2 sheets, and 9 books of the Laws of the Jews, valued at 30s.278 In 1274 another trial, in which a Jew was first the accuser and afterwards the defendant, took place in Bristol. Manser (Manasseh) the son of Solomon of Calais brought a complaint 279 (in the words of the Plea Roll, " raised the hue ") against John de Berwick, charging him with breaking into his house and carrying away his chattels to the value of ?40. John was a prominent Bristol citizen, appearing later, in 1283, as a Christian juror to try an important case in which Jose and Isaac of Caerleon, among others, were on the Jewish side.280 John was arrested and imprisoned on a charge of breaking the peace. He pleaded " not guilty," and was acquitted, and thereupon brought an action against Manser for false imprisonment and perjury. A legal inquiry was instituted, at which six Christians swore that the Jew alone was to blame. As no Jewish witnesses took part in the investigation, the Constable of Bristol Castle was instructed to look further into the dispute, with the aid of six Jews?as a Jew had a right to summon witnesses from his own community in trials between Jew and Christian.281 The inquiry was held, John de Berwick being present, 275 Decretals were originally documents issued by the Popes containing a decree or authoritative decision on some point of doctrine or ecclesiastical law. The term was also used for any decrees forming part of the canon law. See New Oxford Dictionary, s.v. Cf. Trans., viii. 86 seq.?paper by Dr. Stokes on "MSS. and Documents before the Expulsion." The word was also used for Jewish law books. 276 Dr. B?chler. 277 See Appendix XII, p. 182. 278 Pipe Boll, 13 Ed. I. Bonds belonging to Solomon of Wilton were extracted from the archa in Bristol in 1275 together with those of seven other Wilton Jews, P.R.O., No. 249.19. 279 Bigg, ii. 122, 205. 280 S.P., p. 129. 281 A.E., p. 331 (21). Pollock and Maitland, I.e., p, 469.</page><page sequence="47">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 163 but Manser absconded. Some months later Manser was captured, but the issue of the case is not recorded. In the Plea Rolls of the same year (1274) mention is made of two local Jews paying fees into the royal Exchequer, Mendaunt the son of Isaac paying the sum of 2s. for a writ,282 and Deulegard (She maria) the son of Vives 4s. Sd.2BS The second-named is probably the Jew of Winchester who was one of the mainpernors (i.e. sureties) in the trial of Solomon son of Isaac of Wilton already reported, whilst Mendaunt was a pawnbroker, who died by hanging at the same time as the Chirographer, Hak le Prestre, and an inventory of whose posses? sions is found in the Pipe Roll previously mentioned. Mendaunt specialised in jewellery and armour, soldiers apparently being among his numerous clients. The details of his property are as follows : 284 96 silver brooches, 11 gold brooches, 68 silver spoons, 9 gold rings, 2 girdles barred with silver, 10 silver cups, 1 necklace, 4 coats of mail, 2 corselets, 2 helmets, 4 pairs of chain-mail leggings, 1 pair of breast? plates, 1 gorget (protection for the neck), as well as 2 silk cushions, 1 carpet of Rheims, and 1 book of old Decretals. These inventories, which I hope to edit shortly for the Society, afford an interesting side? light into the business transactions of the Jews of the period, as well as their personal habits, and deserve separate study. There is only one other of the condemned Jews, the value of whose possessions, recorded in this Pipe Roll, ranks even higher than those of Hak le Prestre and Mendaunt, the two Bristol suspensi, and these belonged to the well-known Benedict of Winchester, allusions to whose activities abound in contemporary records. His property included 196 silver spoons, 134 gold rings, 31 gold brooches, 22 silver cups, 1 penner with silver horn, 13 silver rings, 30 silk girdles, 1 girdle of silver thread, 105 garnet stones, 24 stones of jasper, 2 gold seals, 2 old chests, and, most interesting of all, 49 books of the Laws of the Jews, whose value, the record states, is unknown. Among other books mentioned in these inventories are a Psalter belonging to Cok the son of Duceman ; 54 Latin books and a certain book undescribed, the total value being 9s.; together with 7 books of the Laws of the Jews, value unknown, belonging to Solomon of Chippenham ; 1 Psalter in poor 282 Rigg, ii. 145. 283 Ibid., p. 173 . 284 Appendix IX, p. 179.</page><page sequence="48">164 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. condition of Leo le Mare ; 1 book of old Decretals, 12 books of the Laws of the Jews and 2 scrolls of the same, price unknown, the property of Moses of Devizes,285 and 2 books of Hours belonging to Moses Levi. Let me now retrace my steps to the year 1275, which proved to be most momentous in the story of Bristol Jewry. In the words of Dr. Stokes,286 theological hatred was rife at this time, and Eleanor, the Queen-Mother, seems to have been caught by the religious wave of feeling against the Jews and to have applied to her royal son for power to expel them from her four dower-towns. Accordingly the Jews of Gloucester were deported to " our town of Bristol with their chirograph chests and all their goods, and they were henceforth to dwell and abide among our other Jews in that place." No injury was to be done either to their persons or their goods during their transference. The arrival of their Gloucester neighbours must have taxed the accommodation in the small Bristol Jewry to the utmost, although the newcomers were not very numerous and their financial condition was very low. Thus, in a tallage roll of 1274,287 Gloucester was last on the list of all the Jewries, contributing ?9 6s. Sd. out of ?1,425, as compared with Bristol's ?46 10s. lid. It is noteworthy, however, that not a single name of a Gloucester Jew appears fifteen years later among the list of local residents who owned money or bonds or houses at the Great Expulsion.288 We find six names of ex-Gloucester Jews in the Hereford record, two in Oxford, and one in Norwich, in which towns they appear to have settled instead of remaining in Bristol. Two events of this year may have contributed to the unwillingness of the Gloucester Jews to stay in the town to which the royal decree had deported them. The wrath of the Church was aroused by an untoward incident that occurred in the Bristol Jewry, for we read 289 that Bishop Giffard issued a mandate to the deans of Westbury and 285 Moses of Devizes was a joint surety with Benedict (or Benjamin) of Bristol in an important case concerning a Chirographer in Devizes in 1275 (Jenkinson, Plea Rolls, p. 43). 286 Stokes, p. 189. 287 P.R.O., E. 101, No. 249.16. 288 Trans., ii. 87 seq. 289 Victoria County History of Gloucestershire, p. 17.</page><page sequence="49">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 165 Bristol to excommunicate certain Jews of Bristol and to forbid all traffic with them. The reason given for this display of episcopal anger is " because the Jews were guilty of iniquitous insults, blasphemies and injuries and of an assault upon the Chaplain of St. Peter's when he administered the Holy Eucharist to a sick person in the Jewry." Now St. Peter's was the oldest church in Bristol? its Norman masonry can be seen in its tower to this day 290?and it is situated some distance from the Jewish quarter. The churches of St. John, St. Laurence, and St. Giles stood at either end of the Jewry, and it may be that the presence of this strange priest was resented by some of the local Jewish residents against whom the Bishop ful? minated. It would be interesting to learn if there are similar examples of excommunication being pronounced against Jews, seeing that excommunication applied only to Christians, and it was more in accord? ance with Church custom to summon the aid of the secular power to chastise any Jew offending against members of the clergy or against the sacred rites of the Church.291 A far more serious event in this year brought distress upon Bristol Jewry when a band of twenty-two men and two women, whose names are recorded,292 " came by night with force and arms and attacked the Jews and broke their houses and entered the same and took and carried away the King's goods that were there in the keeping of the Jews against the peace and to his damage ?1,000," 293 or, in another version, ?100,294 which seems more correct. The Jewry was burned, but no lives appear to have been lost. The leader of the riot was William Giffard, concerning whose previous activities the records tell us much that is of interest. He had formerly been the Constable of Norwich Castle and Sheriff of Norfolk and Suffolk.295 For neglect of his official duties he was frequently fined, and in October 1274 he was dismissed from office.296 He had numerous financial dealings with Jews, such as Moses of Clare, a well-known money-lender in 290 N.T., ii. 3. 291 A.E., p. 330 ; Tovey, pp. 146, 208; J.Q.R., vii. 437. 292 Close Rolls, 1275, p. 30; Patent Rolls, 1275, p. 107. 293 Rigg, ii. 297. 294 In the Close and Patent Rolls, I.e. 295 Rigg, ii. 25, 101, 156, 159 (see Index, p. 332). 296 Calendar of Tine Rolls, 1274, p. 33.</page><page sequence="50">166 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. Suffolk,297 and in March 1270 proclamation had been made in various synagogues, including that of Bristol, about his liabilities.298 In response to this public announcement, Lumbard of Cricklade, the '' King's Jew," Lumbard the son of Solomon of Marlborough, two Oxford Jews and three from Bristol came forward with their claims, the latter being Preciosa, to whom Giffard owed two accounts of 44s. and 40 marks; Aaron the son of Aaron, ?16 ; and Isaac the son of Jacob of Coutances, who was a creditor for 50 marks, 100s., and ?20, all these items being principal, without interest. On leaving Norwich Giffard came to Bristol, and, like Sir Richard Malebysse at York about eighty years before,299 he planned to destroy the proofs of his debts and led the assault upon the Jewry. When arrested by order of the King, Giffard denied taking part in the riot, and we learn nothing further concerning the result of the charge against him. A year later, September 1276, he is still in Bristol paying off some of his liabilities.300 Another leader of the attack was William Maleden, who, when summoned to answer for the offence, absented himself and could not be found.301 He is known to have bought a house in Winch Street from Cresse the son of Isaac of Caerleon,302 and was probably also in arrears with his payments. Property belonging to the Jews had been stolen in the disturbance, and a certain bundle of chattels had been entrusted to Maleden and to Roger le Pessoner (the fishmonger) by the Constable of Bristol Castle.303 Geoffrey Pistor (the baker) and his wife, together with Simon le Waleys, a clerk, had stolen chattels to the value of 40 marks, and they were ordered to be arrested; whilst Nigel the sergeant was directed to take care of a bundle of clothing, consisting of a mantle, a tunic, and a tabard that had been appropriated during the burning of the Jewish quarter. An inquiry into the whole matter was held by the Constable of Bristol Castle, Bartholomew le Jeune, and Henry de Montford, but the accused appear to have escaped punishment. In the same year Parliament adopted the Statute De Judaismo, the effect of which was to prevent the recovery by law of interest 297 Rigg, i. 220. 298 Ibid., p. 266. See Appendix X, p. 180. 299 A.E., p. 385 seq. 300 Calendar of Fine Rolls, 1276, p. 72. 301 Rigg, ii. 301. 302 See Appendix XII, p. 182. 303 Jenkinson, Plea Bolls, 1276, pp. 123, 202, 221.</page><page sequence="51">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 167 due and to render only half the debtor's property liable for the principal.304 The money-lending business of the Jewish communities was thus dealt a very severe blow, and Anglo-Jewry was face to face with starvation. The bulk of the recent tallage was therefore not forthcoming, and next year (1276) all the Jews were imprisoned, those of Bristol being taken to the Castle.305 All their movable chattels outside the chirograph archa were sold, and all moneys resulting there? from were paid into the Treasury. " They may be dealt with," con? tinues the royal decree, " as men who have been outlawed and who have carried off chattels which are ours, and their wives and children are to abjure our Realm and go out from the same and never return." In Bristol special demands were made upon Isaac of Caerleon and Isaac of Sodburyin Gloucestershire, also uponSaphira, daughter of Selke, for whom Isaac of Caerleon became security.306 Two other Bristol residents, Bonamy the son of Jose, and Isaac of Marlborough, known as Isaac Hariprud, were also included in this order, Aaron the son of Vives, a famous London Jew, being appointed to take charge of them until their debts were paid. Hariprud paid ?20 in the next year, and so discharged his obligation.307 Two cases occurred in 1276 and 1286 which led to the imprison? ment of the accused Jews in Bristol Castle. In the first, Hak (Isaac) son of Meyrot (Meir) and Swetman, his brother, were charged, together with a merchant of Gascony, with dealing in silver plates to the value of ?17.308 The Constable of Bristol Castle, Bartholomew le Jeune, declared that he had found these plates hidden under the bed of the merchant, and in the Gascon's possession there was also another plate worth 50s., which was made of fused metal, having the appearance of silver. The merchant denied his guilt and asserted that he had bought the plate from Swetman, whose brother Hak had been paid 305. on account. He had taken the plate to a goldsmith in Bristol, who had tested it and declared it to be false. The plates found under his bed he had brought with him from Normandy. The Jewish accused denied all knowledge of the counterfeit plate, but were 304 Tovey, p. 200 ; Abrahams, J.Q.li., vii. 244. 305 Jenkinson, ibid., p. 104. 306 Ibid., p. 133. 307 Ibid., p. 268. 308 S.P., p. 91.</page><page sequence="52">168 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. thrown into prison, Swetman apparently being ultimately set free, but Hak and his Gascon customer were put upon their trial.309 The second indictment was also concerned with a charge of a counterfeit silver plate. Aaron the son of Benjamin, one of the heads of the Colchester community, lived for a time in Ireland, and afterwards settled in Bristol.310 One day the Hibernian wanderer entered the shop of Robert of Arras, a goldsmith, and offered him for sale a plate of silver before the eyes of a number of Christians who were present at the time. The Bristol goldsmith weighed the plate, and detected that it was fused from coin-clippings.311 When Aaron heard him say this he seized the plate from the hands of Robert and ran off with it as far as the bridge that was over the river Avon. He was followed by some of the Christians from the shop, and was seen to throw the plate into the water. A general clamour arose, and Aaron was put under arrest in Bristol Castle by the Constable. Three local Jews acted as his mainpernors, viz. Cresse, son of Isaac of Caerleon, Cresse le Prestre, and Abraham Honiprud. The first-named surety is the man who is mentioned as having sold a house in Winch Street to William Maleden, the second is most likely the son of Milo le Eveske, the Chirographer who was appointed in 1273, and Abraham belongs to the family of Honiprud or Hariprud, who lived in Wiltshire.312 After the usual fines had been paid, Aaron of Ireland was put upon his trial for this and " divers other trespasses," and in his defence declared that44 the infamy is laid to his charge by persons who have a grudge against him, and he craves leave to acquit himself by Jews alone and not by Christians." This refusal to be tried by a mixed Court was contrary to the law and custom of Jewry,313 and he was therefore committed to the custody of the Sheriff of Hereford to be detained in the prison ofthat town. Some time later Aaron was liberated and paid a fine of three bezants, as well as 8s. of rent upon property in his native town of Colchester for release of his suit. He was further ordered not to enter Bristol again without a special mandate from the King,314 and he probably settled down in Colchester, where he possessed houses and other 309 Jenkinson, ibid., p. 196. 310 S.P., p. 120. 311 See Prynne, ii. 102, about the arrest of Jews in 1283 having in their possession plates made of clippings. 312 Jenkinson, ibid., p. 2. 313 A.E., p. 331. 314 S.P., p. 127.</page><page sequence="53">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 169 property, and he is included in the official list of Jews of that town at the time of the Expulsion four years later.315 Shortly before Aaron of Ireland was a prisoner within the walls of Bristol Castle, an execution took place outside the Castle of a local resident who had come from eastern England, known as Moses of Kent. He owned a house in Bristol and a vacant piece of land adjoining it, paying for the former 40d. a year to a certain John de Leygrave, which was worth 4s. Sd. a year to the King. The record adds that the house at the time of the Expulsion was nearly in ruins, but if it were put into proper condition its value would be increased.316 The offence for which Moses of Kent was hanged is not stated. We first hear of him in 1273, when he lived in Canterbury and acted as a surety for a debt.317 On several occasions he occupied the attention of the law officers of the Crown, being suspected of evil practices. In 1276 he paid a fine of 6s. for an offence against the Assize of the Jews,318 and in the same year he was arrested on a charge of receiving chattels which belonged to the King, including a golden cup which had been the property of the King of Scotland.319 He had married Gyna (probably Regina, the Latin form of Malka), the widow of Abraham Russell of Huntingdon, who had been outlawed and probably hanged. Some of the possessions of the deceased which ought to have reverted to the Crown were withheld by Gyna and her new husband. At the trial twelve of the most prominent Jews of the day had been present, including Benedict of Winchester, and Moses succeeded in proving his innocence. In the next year the Prior of Barnwell in Cambridge brought an action against him concerning a plea of trespass and forgery of a deed. Moses did not appear, and the Sheriff was ordered to arrest him and distrain his goods.320 The murder of a Jew of Bristol named Aaron by Nicholas of Winchester took place in 1287.321 The only Aaron mentioned in the list at the Expulsion was Aaron, the son of Jose of Caerleon, but it is difficult to identify the slain man. Nicholas straightway fled and was 315 Trans., ii. 90. 316 Ibid., p. 87. See Appendix XII, p. 182. 317 Rigg, ii. 110. 318 Jenkinson, ibid., p. 92. 319 Ibid., p. 211. 320 Ibid., p. 244. 321 Assize Roll, No. 284, 15 Ed. I. Gloucestershire, Membrane 25 (from the Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, Vol. 22, p. 160).</page><page sequence="54">170 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. outlawed, and, because the Bristol authorities did not capture him, they were " in mercy," i.e. they were condemned to a fine. The last chapter in the story of Bristol is that of the Great Expulsion, when, by the decree of King Edward, the members of the community made their way to London to join their 16,000 co-religionists on their departure from the land. The property the English Jews were com? pelled to leave behind consisted of the houses in which they lived or for which they received rent, the synagogues and cemeteries of their local congregations, and the bonds, partly for the repayment of money and partly for the delivery of wool and corn, for which the price had been fixed in advance. In spite of the stringent injunctions of the Statute De Judaismo of 1275, they had contrived to continue their business transactions to a very restricted degree unto the last. All fell into the hands of the King. The sheriffs and officials of the royal Exchequer compiled a register of this property, which showed that the value of the houses was about ?130 and of the debts due to the expelled Jews about ?9,100, made up as follows : money about ?4,000, corn about ?2,700, and wool about ?2,400.322 To this amount should be added the estimate made by Sir Lionel Abrahams of the sum of ?6,000 from the Jews of the towns whose lists have not been preserved. The details of the Bristol property are summarised as follows : 323 BRISTOL. Josce of Caerleon Aaron, son of Josce of Caerleon Isaac, son of Josce of Caerleon Cok of Strygyl (Chepstow) Isaac and Cok . Cok and Sarah, widow Solomon, son of Hagin Sarah, daughter of Benedict Jacob, son of Jacob . Sampson of Winchester Money. ? s. 7 0 10 10 17 6 0 17 Corn. 20 qrs. 10 qrs. 20 qrs. ? s. d. = 6 13 4 = 368 = 6 13 4 ?27 7 8 60 qrs. = 20 0 0 12 qrs. =400 18 bush. = 9 0 10 qrs. =400 ?45 2 i 322 Abrahams, J.Q.R., vii. 447; Trans., ii. 76 seq. 323 Appendix XI, p. 180.</page><page sequence="55">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 171 The owners of immovable property will be dealt with separately. The total of ?72 10s. for debts in money and corn is by far the smallest among all the Jewries of which we possess a record at the time of the Expulsion, bearing eloquent testimony to the impoverished condition to which the sorely tried Bristol community had been reduced. Seven men and two women in all are named, of whom South Wales had contributed four, Josce of Caerleon having brought his family to Bristol, where he was joined by Isaac of Strygyl, as the town of Chepstow used to be called. Josce and his son Isaac had been two of the " six lawful Jews of the town of Bristol " who took part in an inquiry in the year 1283 concerning a starr falsely attributed to the late Cresse, the son of Milo le Eveske, and the Christian debtor had been fined for producing a forged document.324 Of Isaac the Chirographer I have already spoken, whilst his brother Aaron appears to have been the wealthiest man in Bristol, as recorded in the above return. He is first met with in Somerset in the year 1266,325 and six years later he sold land to Moses of Wilton.326 Jacob the son of Jacob may be identical with the claimant in an Essex case in 1275,327 and Sampson was the son of Isaac of Winchester, both prominent residents of this city. Sampson appears on the Plea Rolls of 1270 and 1274,328 on the second occasion granting the rights of a messuage he had inherited from his father " with appurtenances in the parish and lane of St. Peter Blankpayn in Winchester to Roger de Dunstable ... at the yearly rent of a pair of gloves or a penny to the chief lord of the fee and \d. to Sampson himself." Sampson was mulcted in a fine of more than 5 marks when he claimed his father's property. In the same year this Roger de Dunstable, with thirteen other men, was arrested for an attack upon one of the Chirographers of Winchester named Deudone (Nathaniel or Jonathan). They had " assaulted him and broke his doors and windows and took and carried away his goods and chattels to the value of 20 marks and against the peace, and to the King's damage ?40." 329 This outrage, the Plea Roll tells us, was carried out " with the assent and consent of the entire community of Winchester," and this local anti-Semitism may account for Sampson having removed 324 S.P., p. 129. 325 Rigg, i. 134, 242, 248. 326 Ibid., i. 277. 327 Ibid., ii. 164 . 328 Ibid., i. 270; ii. 191. 329 Ibid., ii. 196.</page><page sequence="56">172 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. his home to Bristol. In the same year one of his debtors paid the sum of 4 marks in his name towards a tallage paid to King Edward I, and Sampson contributed a fine of 13s. id. in the same list.330 In the following year (1275) he was in London serving as a juror with eleven other prominent Jews from different centres, as Cambridge, Oxford, Berkhampstead, Norwich, and Lynn, in a case where it was proved that the Hebrew signature to a starr of a London money-lender had been forged.331 Of Isaac (Cok) of Strygyl (Chepstow) nothing is known except what we find in this Expulsion report. In 1284 he was a partner of Isaac of Caerleon, both in money-lending and in the sale of corn, and next year he lent money on his own account to the same debtors, John Payn and John de Combe of Somerset. In 1286 he joins Sarah, the widow, in becoming a creditor to John de Combe for money and for corn. It is worthy of note that all the transactions mentioned in the Inquisition began in 1284 and ended in 1287, and, as in the case of the Jewry of Wiltshire, no sales of wool are mentioned, though in many other Jewries a large business in this commodity was carried on. The business affairs of the Bristol Jews are seen to have been at a very low ebb when we compare them with those of two other Western centres of which we have a record. Hereford, to which several of the Gloucester Jews had migrated after 1275 and which included a Jose, the son of Aaron of Caerleon, was reported to have possessed money debts to the value of ?1,479 5s. id., corn bonds ?458, and wool bonds ?169 13s. id. : total ?2,106 18s. 8&lt;Z.332 Exeter's return gives ?1,058 4s. 2d. in money (of which the Bristol Aaron of Caerleon claimed ?27 6s.) and ?180 13s. id. in bonds for corn : total ?1,238 17s. 6cZ.333 Against these impressive figures, the total of Bristol??72 10s.?looks very small indeed. The inquiry further reports 334 the existence of six houses?four in Winch Street, one near the Castle, and one in a street unnamed?and though these were ordered to be sold, in the following year not one of them had found a purchaser.335 Jose of Caerleon owned the house 330 P.R.O., E. 101, No. 249.16. 331 S.P., p. 90. 332 Trans., ii. 92. 333 Ibid., p. 91. 334 Appendix XII, p. 182. 335 P.R.O., E. 101, No. 250.1; " Et sciendum quod omnes domus que fuerunt Judeorum in Bristol!' sunt adhuc vendenda quia nullum invenit emptorem."</page><page sequence="57">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 173 near the Castle, his son Isaac possessed two in Winch Street, the synagogue in Winch Street was located in another; Benedict of Winchester also had a house in the same street, and Moses of Kent left a house which, at the Expulsion, was reported to be in a very ruinous condition. There were also four vacant plots, of which two in Winch Street, next to the Synagogue House, belonged to Isaac (Hak) le Prestre, the Chirographer. By order of the King, a former Constable of Bristol Castle, Peter de la Mare,336 had recently built houses upon these plots, and a tax, called Landgavel, was paid for them to the King to the amount of 4f d. %? year. Another open space belonged to Moses of Kent, adjoining his house, and Cressant (Cresse, son of Milo le Eveske), the Chirographer, possessed a plot in the new Jewry in Winch Street. No less than four of the owners of property had been hanged, the grim word susjpensus being attached to their names. No houses of the old Jewry by the river are mentioned?unless that owned by Moses of Kent was situated in that quarter, which is doubtful. We possess no record of what became of the Jewish houses and lands after the Expulsion,337 such as exists with reference to almost all the other Jewries. And so the Jewry of old Bristol passed out of existence when Israel again took up the wanderer's staff, and it was not until the eighteenth century, when a synagogue was opened in Temple Street,338 that Jewish life began to revive in the city on the Avon, where to-day a flourishing community shares in the freedom enjoyed by Anglo-Je wry as a whole?so entirely different a condition of affairs from that under which Bristol Jews of former days were the subjects of the Kings of England. 336 Peter de la Mare is reported in 1281 to have paid to the Treasury the sum of 305. from Hak of Dorking (P.R.O., E. 401, No. 579). 337 The Transcript of the Lansdowne MSS. in the British Museum, Vol. 826, Part 5, gives details of the disposition of property in sixteen Jewries after the Expulsion, but there is no mention of the Bristol houses. This misled Dr. Jacobs into thinking that there were no Jews in the town at this time. Jewish Encyclo? pedia, iii. 387. 338 Jewish Encyclopedia, I.e. ; Matthews, Topographical Almanack of Bristol (1794), p. 25 ; Matthews, Bristol Guide (1819), p. 147.</page><page sequence="58">174 THE JEWS OP BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. APPENDICES I. Jews of Bristol in the Northampton Donum (1194). [P.R.O., Exchequer K. R. Accounts, No. 249.2.] Bristowe. De Isaac filio Josse xviij. s. de promisso suo. De Isaac le Veske ix. s. pro eodem. Bristowe, per manum Willelmi de Buking'. De Isaac filio Juda xv. s. ij. d. de promisso de quinque milibus marcarum. De Abraham Gabbai xviij. s. viij. d. De Benlivinger xj. s. vj. d. De Precieuse xiiij. s. De Isaac Furmager xxviij. s. viij. d. De Abraham filio Vives xviij. s. De Isaac Episcopo ij. s. viii. d. De Manasser xj. s. viij. d. De Salaman filio Isaac xiiij. s. De Jacobo filio Josce xviij. s. viij. d. De Deulecresse furmager xv. s. vj. d. De Judas Gabbay xj. li. xiij. s. iiij. d. De Samuele le Pointur xxx. s. iiij. d. II. Arrears of Bristol Tallage (about 1221). Lincoln, Stamford and Nottingham. [P.R.O., Exchequer K. R. Accounts, No. 249.13.] Henricus dei gratia Rex Anglie Dominus Hibernie, Dux Normannie et Aquitanie et Comes Andegavie Judeis Ballivis suis de Line' Stanford et Notingeham Salutem. Precipimus vobis quod sicut nos et omnia nostra diligitis per sacramentum omnium Judeorum super rotulum diligenter inquiratis Qui Judei aut Judee de Line' et de Stanford et de Notingeham habeant veteres cartas vel tallias vel cyrographa ante communem capturam Judeorum confectam. Et qui Judei vel Judee districtiones fecerint super debitores de quibus carte vel tallie vel cyrographa ilia loquentur. Et facta inde diligenti inquisicione, scire faciatis omnibus Judeis qui hujusmodi habent</page><page sequence="59">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 175 quod sine omni occasione per manum propriam vel per manum vestram ilia habeant coram Justiciariis nostris ad custodiam Judeorum assignatis apud Westmonasterium a die Sancti Hillarii in .xv. dies sicut ad cartas vel tallias vel cyrographa ilia umquam aliquam voluerint habere recuperacionem, quia hunc per consilium nostrum providebitur qualiter de hujusmodi melius possit fieri comodum nostrum et ipsorum Judeorum; et bene eis ex parte nostra dicatis quod quicumque Judeus vel Judea extunc hujusmodi cartas tallias vel cyrographa protulerit, que ad predictum diem et locum coram eisdem Justiciariis non fuerint exhibita, corpus ipsius in cujus manuinventa fuerint capietur, et de corpore suo et omnibus catallis suis in misericordia nostra erit, et carte et tallie et cyrographa ilia nostra erunt quieta; et vos tune sitis ibi sine omni occasione audituri et facturi preceptum nostrum et inqui sicionem factam eciam habeatis ibidem. Item precipimus vobis quod sicut nos ipsos diligitis sine dilacione per corpora et catalla sua distringatis Judeos subscriptos ad reddendum nobis debita subscripta que nobis debent de tallagio super eos facto apud Bristoll', ita quod ad predictum terminum inde sufficienter respondere possitis, scilicet De Benliveng' .1. m. et dimidia. De Deodato filio Aaron .xxx. m. De Samuel filio Joscei .ix. Ii. xl. d. De Ursello filio Pucelle .iiij. et .xix. m. et dimidia. De Mosseo filio Asser .xxiiij. rn&gt;. et dimidia. De Britone .iiij. Ii. vij. s. vj. d. De Mosseo Bosse .xvj. li. De Vivone filio Aaron .xxxix. m. et dimidia. De Elia de Bung' .x. m. De Bendic de Kantebrug' .xxvij. m. De Sammekin filio Benliveng' .x. m. De Jacobo filio Vivonis scriptoris .x. m. De Samuel fratri suo .xj. m. vj. s. x.d. De Josceo de Colecestre .xvij. m. De Sampsone episcopo .v. m. De Cokeman .v. m. De Angevino .v. m. De David filio Jacobi .C. s. De Hermina .xxx. m. De Josceo Hanna .x. m. De Garson episcopo .x. m. De Fluretta .iij. m. De Aaron filio Joscei .xxiiij. m. et dimidia. De Leone genero Elie .iiij. Ii. vij. s. vj. d. De Slema uxore Mathathi .xx. m. De Petro de Hamton .iij. m. De Sara filia Brun .lxiiij. s. De Ysaac filio Joscei .lvj. m. De Peitevino filio Saerii .xxvij. Ii. et .j. m. De Alemandina .iij. m. De Abraham de Bedeford .xvj. m. Et in fide qua nobis tenemini ita diligenter istud mandatum nostrum exequamini, ne pro defectu vestro in aliquo simus per dentes ; et si catalla non habeant unde tallagium nostrum reddere possint, tune per tales et tarn salvos plegios illos ponatis quod de corporibus suis sitis securi, et ibi sitis ad predictum terminum, et habeatis tune ibi nomina plegiorum singulorum Judeorum et hoc breve. De illis autem Judeis qui debitum aliquod debuerunt de tallagio Bristoll', qui mortui sunt vel de terra nostra exierunt, vobis precipimus quod diligenter faciatis inquisicionem, que catalla habuerint in mobilibus cartis cyrographis et talliis die quo obierunt vel quo a terra nostra recesserunt, et in cujus manu postea catalla ipsa devenerint. Ita quod ad predictum terminum predictos Justiciarios super forisfactoram nostram plene certificare possitis. Teste E. thesaurario nostro apud Westmonasterium .xvj. die Novembris.</page><page sequence="60">176 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. III. Auxilium for Dowry of Princess Joan (1221). [P.R.O., E. 401, No. 4.] m. 4 d. Bristoll' De Salomone filio Abraham .vj. sol. iij. d. de Auxilio pro Johanna sorore Domini Regis Henriei maritanda et pro Mosseo filio Brun'. De Communia Judeorum Bristoll' .x. li. pro Eodem. Summa .x. li. vj. sol. iij. d. pro[bata]. m. 4 (2) d. Bristoll' De Josceo Furmag' .iij. Marce et dimidia de Auxilio etc. De Benefey fratre suo .xxxviij. s. pro Eodem. De Viveo Le Puintur .xij. s. viij. d. pro Eodem. De Leone nepote Abraham .iiij. s. ij. d. pro Eodem. Item xij. d. De Jacobo filio Samuelis de Oxonia .vij. li. De Milone Episcopo .iiij. s. pro Eodem. Summa .xij. li. vj. sol. vj. d. IV. From the Tallage Receipt Roll (1223). [P.R.O., E. 401, No. 6.] m. C. 12 Bristoll' De Josceo Furmag' .xxj.Bi. et .j. marca. De Jacobo filio Samuelis .xxxvij. ?. et .x. s. De Isaac filio Bonefei .iiij. hi. De Viveo filio Abraham .xxiiij. s. vj. d. De Viveo Le Pointur L. sol. De Michaele Genero suo .xx. sol. De Benefey Michel .xviij. ?i. .x. sol. De Isaac Episcopo .xv. sol. De Salomone Le Turk .lxxvij. sol. vj. d. De Milone Episcopo .xxv. s?l. et ij. d. Summa iiij.xij. li. v. s. vj. d. V. From the Tallage Receipt Roll (1226). [P.R.O., E. 401, No. 8.] Bristoll' De Jospin Formage iiij. li. .xix. s. De Viveo Pointur .ix. s. vj. d.</page><page sequence="61">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 177 De Michaele Le Vesque .vij. s. vj. d. De Milone Episcopo .v. s. vj. d. De Isaac fratre suo .v. s. vj. d. De Moss' filio Bonefei .xl. s. De Abraham Gabay .xx. s. De Levi filio Deuben .viij. s. De Aunter' filia Jacobi .vj. s. v. d. Summa .x. Ii. .xvij. ct. probata. VI. Muniments of Westminster Abbey, No. 9004. Jews pay fine of 500 marks to escape Tallage and Bristol Jews have to contribute 4 marks (1268). Henricus Dei gratia Rex Anglie Dominus Hibernie et Dux Aquitanie Chyrographariis Christianis et Judeis arche chyrographorum Bristolli salutem. Quia per finem quingentarum marcarum quern Judei nostri Anglie fecerunt nobiscum, concessimus eis quod non tallientur aut fiet scrutinium de catallis suis a die sancti Hillarii anno regni nostri quinquagesimo secundo usque ad finem unius anni. Et precepimus constabulario nostro Bristolli quod assideri faciat super Judeos nostros Bristolli iiii marcas de predictis quingentis marcis ipsos contingentes, et si aliquis Judeus vel Judea de solutione portionis sue defecerit vel reddere noluerit vel se absentaverit vel si catalla sua extra archam vestri non sumciant ad portionem illam reddendam, quod in pre sentia vestra ad archam cyrographorum vestrorum accedat et ab archa ilia extrahat omnia catalla singulorum Judeorum de portione sua deficientium de predictis iiii marcis, Ita quod eas habeatis sub sigillo predicti constabularii nostri coram Justiciariis nostris ad custodiam Judeorum assignatis apud Westmonasterium a die Purificationis beate Marie in quindecim dies eisdem Justiciariis nostris sine ulteriori dilatione liberandas ad faciendum inde preceptum nostrum, vobis precipimus quod permittatis predictum con stabularium nostrum in presentia vestra ad predictam archam accedere et ab archa ilia extrahere catalla predict or urn Judeorum sic de portione sua de? ficientium. Ita quod ea habeatis per unum ex vobis coram prefatis Justiciariis nostris ad predictos diem et locum eisdem Justiciariis nostris liberanda ad faciendum inde preceptum nostrum. Et habeatis ibi tune hoc breve. Teste W. de Orlaveston apud Westmonasterium xix die Januarii anno regni nostri Iii. VII. Muniments of Westminster Abbey, No. 9005. Jews and their Christian Debtors (1270). Henricus Dei gratia Rex Anglie Dominus Hybernie et Dux Aquitanie Cyrographariis Christianis et Judeis arche Cyrographorum Brystolli salutem. VOL. XII. N</page><page sequence="62">178 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. Quia provisum est per nos et Eadwardum primogenitum nostrum et alios fideles de consilio nostro ad meliorationem status terre nostre et ad releva tionem Christianorum a gravaminibus que hactenus habuerunt per Judeos et Judaismum nostrum Anglie quod omnia debita Judeorum que sunt feoda et que die sancti Hillarii anno regni nostri liii fuerunt in manibus Judeorum et que non fuerunt data vel vendita Christianis ita quod ante diem ilium essent confirmata per nos vel inrotulata in rotulis nostris ad scaccarium nostrum Judeorum, quieta sint Christianis qui ea debent et eorum heredibus imper petuum una cum arreragiis eorundem debitorum et quod carte de hujusmodi feodis ubicumque erunt invente, sint liberate Christianis qui talia feoda debent vel eorum heredibus et quod si forte aliqua carta sit posita vel inventa in archa Cyrographorum vel extra, amodo nullius sit valoris et quod nullus Judeus a predicto die inantea talia debita de f eodo recipiat vel f aciat, et simi liter quod nullus Judeus talia feoda Christianis vendat a predicto tempore super f orisfacturam vite sue et catallorum ipsius nec Christianus ea emat super forisfacturam catallorum ipsius et sue hereditatis, vobis precipimus quod archa Cyrographorum accedatis et ab archa ilia extrahatis omnes cartas de hujusmodi feodis confectas in archa predicta inventas, et eas habeatis coram Baronibus de Scaccario nostro apud Westmonasterium in crastino sancte Margarete sub sigillis vestris per unum ex vobis eisdem Baronibus nostris liberandas ad faciendum inde preceptum nostrum. Et habeatis ibi hoc breve. Teste R. de la Legh apud Westmonasterium xvii die Junii anno regni nostri liiii. Per breve de magno sigillo. VIII. Extract from Pipe Boll 13 Ed. I (128?). [P.R.O., E. 372, No. 130.] Inventory of Property of Hak le Prestre. Compotus Johanne que fuit uxor Willelmi de Brayboef unius execu torum ... de bonis et catallis Judeorum dampnatorum . . . apud Wynton', BristolT et Deuis' . . . Idem reddunt compotum ... de bonis et cattalis Judeorum dampna? torum et aliorum falsariorum monete . . . ... Et de .xx. solidis de .j. libro qui vocatur paruum volumen et .j. bibliotecha debili venditis de catallis Hake le prestre Judei venditis. Et de .xliiij. solidis .vj. denariis de .viij. firmaculis .xiiij. anulis aureis ponderis .vij. solidorum .v. denariorum de catallis euisdem Hake Judei. Et de .xx. libris .ix. solidis .viij. denariis de .j. bacino .j. disco .iij. ciphis cum cooperculis .xij. ciphis cum pedibus et .vij. ciphis sine pedibus argenteis ponderis .xxij. librarum .xv. solidorum .ij. denariorum de catallis eiusdem Judei. Et de .vij. libris .xxj. denariis obolo de .lxxv. coclearibus cum</page><page sequence="63">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 179 argento fracto ponderis .viij. librarum .vj. solidorum .viij. denariorum de catallis eiusdem Judei venditis. Et de .iiij. libris .viij. solidis de .ij. roba de ponacione cum mantello .j. roba de blueto .j. roba de Camelino de triple cum mantello .v. capuciis et .v. mappis de catallis eiusdem Judei venditis. Et de .xlvij. solidis .ij. denariis de .xxj. ciphis de Mazero et .j. cipho de Cauele de bonis eiusdem Judei venditis. Et de liij. solidis .j. denariis de .xxx. zonis de serico .j. cultello .j. tressorio et ij. gerlandis de catallis eiusdem Judei venditis. . . . Item compotus de jocalibus Judeorum per Executores Testamenti Willelmi de Braybrok' . . . Iidem reddunt compotum de .viij. firmaculis .xiiij. anulis auri .iij. ciphis cum cooperculis .xij. ciphis cum pedibus .vj. ciphis sine pedibus .lxxv. coclearibus argenti cum argento fracto .j. roba de Pounario .j. roba de blodio .j. roba de camelino de triple cum mantello .v. capuciis .v. mappis .xxj. ciphis de mazero .j. cipho de Cauele .xxx. zonis de serico .j. cultello .j. tressurio .ij. garlandis .j. libro qui vocatur paruum volumen et .j. biblioteca de catallis Hake le Prestre. Et in venditione totum. Et respice de precio in Rotulo principals Iidem reddunt compotum de .j. libro decretalium veterum et .ij. psal teriis glosatis de catallis eiusdem Judei. Et remanent. IX. Extract from Pipe Roll 13 Ed. I (1285). [P.R.O., E. 372, No. 130.] Inventory of Property of Mendaunt of Bristol. Item Compotus de Jocalibus Judeorum per Executores Testamenti Willelmi de Braybrok' . . . . . . idem reddit compotum de .iij. ciphis argenticum pedibus .vij. ciphis argenti plat' .lxviij. coclearibus .iiij. .xvj. firmaculis argenti cum argento fracto ponderis .xj. librarum .ij. solidorum .iiij. denariorum de catallis Mendaunt Judei de bristoll' de quibus in venditione .ij. ciphi cum pedibus et .vij. sine pedibus plat' .lxviij. coclearia .iiij. .xv. firmaculis cum argento fracto ponderis .ix. librarum .ix. solidorum .v. denariorum et respondet de precio in Regem principali ... Et remanent .j. ciphus argenti cum pede .j. firmaculus et argentum ponderis .xxxij. solidorum .xj. denariorum. Idem reddit compotum de .xj. firmaculis auri .ix. anulis auri ponderis .ix. solidorum .j. firmaculo argenti .ij. zonis barratis cum argento ponderis .xxxj. solidorum .iij. denariorum .j. libro decretalium veterum .iiij. loricis .ij. corsetis ferri .iiij. chasonibus ferri .j. coleretto .ij. coyfis ferri .j. gorgera .j. pari coopertoriis ferri .ij. culcibuis setericis .j. tapeto ' de Reyns de bonis Stephani Engayne inpignoratis predicto Mendaunt Judeo.</page><page sequence="64">180 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. X. Muniments of Westminster Abbey, No. 6899. Order to the Bristol Chirographers to inspect their Archa (1271). Henricus Dei gratia Rex Anglie Dominus Hibernie et Dux Aquitanie Cyrographariis Christianis et Judeis Arche Cyrographorum Bristolli salutem. Precipimus vobis quod statim visis litteris istis ad Archam Cyrographorum accedatis et ab archa ilia extrahatis omnes cartas, cyrographa et omnia alia instrumenta in eadem archa inventa subnominibus 339 Radulfi de Pynkeny vel antecessorum suorum et Preciose de Bristollo Judee et Aaron filii Aron et Isaac de Constaunciis Judeorum Ita quod ea habeatis coram Justiciariis nostris ad custodiam Judeorum assignatis apud Westmonasterium in crastino sancti Vincentis per unum ex vobis Christianum sub sigillis vestris eisdem Justiciariis nostris liberanda ad faciendum inde preceptum nostrum. Et hoc nullatenus omittatis et habeatis ibi hoc breve. Teste R. de Foleham apud Westmonasterium xvi die Octobris anno regni nostri lvt0. XI. Bonds owing to Bristol Jews at the Expulsion. [P.R.O., E. 101, No. 250, 4.] Obligaciones et Carte de Cista Bristoll' in Comitatu Gloucestrie que ad manus Regis deuenerunt post abiuracionem Judeorum a Regno Anglie Irrotulate coram Magistro W. de Marchia Thesaurario et Baronibus de Scac cario. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi. xx?. Comitatus Gloucestrie. Bristoll'. Johannes de Cumbe de Comitatu Somersete debet Cok' de Strugyl Judeo Bristoll' .x. quarteria frumenti pretium quarterij dimidia marca per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die L?ne in vigilia apostolorum Philippi et Jacobi. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiij?. Reginaldus del Hale Ciuis Herefordie debet Salomon filio Hagini Judeo BristolF .xx. quarteria frumenti pretium quarterij dimidia Marca per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die Jouis proxima post festum sancte Lucie virginis. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xv?. Johannes de Combe de Mercok' de Comitatu Somersete debet Cok' de StrugylT et Sarre vidue Judeis Bristoll' .iiij.or Libras .vj. solidos et .viij. denarios per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die veneris proxima post festum Annunciacionis beate Marie virginis. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiiij?. Robertus de Clafford' et Rosamunda vxor eius de Comitatu Somersete debent Sarre filie Beneyt Judee .xij. quarteria frumenti pretium quarterij 339 William Giffard became a tenant of part of the lands formerly belonging to Ralph de Pynkeny (see Rigg, i. 266).</page><page sequence="65">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 181 dimidia marca per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die Jouis in festo sancti Petri in Cathedra. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiij?. Thomas Mogge de Wroxhal' de Comitatu Somersete debet Salomon filio Hagini Judeo Bristoll' .xx. quarteria frumenti pretium quarterij dimidia marca per vnam obligacionem cui[u]s Data est die L?ne in festo Natiuitatis sancti Johannis Baptiste. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiiij0. Idem Thomas debet eidem Salomon .xx. quarteria frumenti pretium quarterij dimidia marca per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die Martis in crastino Annunciacionis beate Marie. Anno Edwardi .xiiij?. Johannes de Malmesbyria debet Aaron filio Jossei de Carleon Judeo Bristoll' .x. Libras per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die veneris in Octabis sancti Ambrosii. Anno Edwardi .xv?. Thomas de Cnolle filius Galfridi de Cnolle debet Isaac filio Jossei de Carleon Judeo Bristoll' .xx. quarteria frumenti pretium quarterij dimidia marca per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die Martis proxima post festum sancti Michaelis. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xij?. Jordanus de Graue debet Jacobo filio Jacobi Judeo Bristoh" .xviij. Bussellos frumenti pretium Busseiii .vj. denarii per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die veneris proxima ante festum sancti Dunstani'. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiiij. Johannes de Combe de Comitatu Somersete debet Hak' de Carlyon et Cok' de Strigoyl Judeis .xx. quarteria frumenti pretium quarterij dimidia marca per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die Martis in vigilia sancti Luce Ewangeliste. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xij?. Robertus de Euerhust manens apud Hakewe?" in Comitatu Somersete debet Sampson de Wyntonia Judeo Bristoll' .x. quarteria frumenti pretium quarterij .viij. solidi per vnam obligacionem cuius Data est die Dominica proxima post festum sancti Marci Ewangeliste. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiiij0. Thomas de Eilmore debet Ysaac Judeo .iiij. libras .x. solidos per vnam talliam cuius Data est in Octabis sancti Martini. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiij0. sub vadio cuiusdam obligacionis que residet in manibus Thome de Wych.' Johannes Payn debet Hak' de Carlyon et Cok' de Strugoyl Judeis .xxxvij. solidos per vnam talliam cuius Data est die Martis proxima ante festum sancti Andree. Anno Regni Regis Edwardii .xij?. Robertus de Pederton' debet Josceo de Carlyon Judeo Bristoll' .vij. solidos per vnam talliam cuius Data est in festo Pasche. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xv?. Robertus de Clatford' et Rosamunda vxor eius debent Sarre Judee Bristoll' .xviij. solidos per vnam talliam cuius Data est die sancti Petri ad vincula. Anno Edwardi .xiij0.</page><page sequence="66">182 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. Iidem Robertus et Rosamunda vxor eius debent eidem Sarre .xix. solidos per vnam talliam cuius Data est in festo sancti Michaelis. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiij0. Johannes Payne debet Cok' de Schepestowe .x. solidos per vnam talliam cuius Data est in festo sancti Johannis Baptiste. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiij0. Johannes de Coumb' de Neweton debet Cok' de Strugoyl Judeo .xl. solidos per vnam talliam cuius Data est die Inuentionis sancte Crucis. Anno Regis Edwardi .xiij0. Alanus Percehaye debet Salomon filio Hagyni Judeo BristolT .xl. solidos per vnam talliam cuius Data est in Octabis sancti Michaelis. Anno Regni Regis Edwardi .xiiijm0. [Endorsed] Rotulus de Judaismo Bristoll' in Comitatu Gloucestrie. XII. Houses of Bristol Jews at the Expulsion. First Report. [P.R.O., E. 101, No. 249.27 (12).] Inquisicio facta apud Bristoll' coram vicecomite Gloucestrie Anno regni regis Edwardi nonodecimo de domibus et tenementis Judeorum quas nuper habuerunt in eadem villa tempore quo ipsi cum alleis Judeis Regnum Regis exierunt per preceptum eiusdem domini Regis per Johannem de Wizth. Ricardum Horcastel. Willelmum de Banewelle. Jordanum Le Long. Ricardum de Cumton'. Walterum atte strete. Thomam le Welbetere. Laurencium le Tannarium. Robertum de Tauystok'. Robertum le Goldbetere. Johannem le Mar schal et Robertum Le Lorimer Juratores. Qui dicunt per sacramenta sua quod benedictus de Wintonia iudeus suspensus habuit quoddam tene mentum in feodo in vico de Winchstrete et valet illud domino Regi per annum .xiij. solidos .iiij. denarios si domus super illud tenementum emendata fuerit sed non modo valet tantum (tarnen nunc valet .x. solidos per annum nec facit aliud seruicium alicui alteri domino). Item in eodem vico Hake le pretre Judeus suspensus habuit duas placeas in feodo et nunc de noceo reedificantur per Petrum de la Mare Constabularium dicte ville per breue Regis et valent domino Regi per annum .xxv. solidos et de eisdem placeis debetur domino Regi pro certo redditu qui vocatur langavel .iiij. denarii, obolus. quadrans. nec ille placee alicui domino faciunt inde aliud seruicium. Item dicunt quod Mossi de Kent Judeus suspensus extra Castrum Bristoll' habuit quandam domum et vnam vacuam placeam pertinentem eidem domui in feodo que tenetur de Johanne de Leygraue per annum pro .xl. denariis annui redditus et valet domino Regi per annum .iiij. solidos .viij. denarios et plus valeret si dicta domus fuerit emendata que fere diruta</page><page sequence="67">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 183 est. Item dicunt quod Isaac de Carleon iudeus in predicto vico de Winehes trete tenuit quoddam tenementum in feodo quod fuit quondam Johannis de Wodestok' quod tenetur in capite de domino Rege pro .vj. denariis annui redditus et pro Langabulo debet ultra domino Regi per annum .iij. denarios. obolum. quadrantem. Et Magister Thomas de Bardeney Marescallus domine Regine habet illud tenementum ex emptione heredum predicti Johannis de Wodestok' percipiendo inde per annum .xx. solidos nec plus valet. Item idem Isaac Judeus in eodem vico habuit quoddam tenementum in feodo quod dedit Cresse filio suo et idem Cresse vendidit illud tenementum cuidam Willelmo Mayleden et heredibus suis Reddendo inde annuatim predicto iudeo et heredibus suis .vj. solidos pro omnibus seruiciis quos quidem .vj. solidos dominus Rex debet percipere per annum. Item in eodem vico est quedam parua vacua placea que quondam fuit Cressant iudei suspensi et valet domino Regi per annum .vj. denarios quos dominus Rex debet percipere. Item dicunt quod Jossius de Carlyon iudeus habuit quoddam tenementum in feodo in vico iuxta Castrum quod tenetur de Johanne de Leygraue pro .xii. denariis annui redditus et valet ultra domino Regi per annum .xl. denarios quos dominus Rex debet percipere. Dicunt etiam quod quedam domus in qua fuerunt scole iudeorum que coniuncta est predictis duabus placeis reedificatur et illa domus tenetur de heredibus Margerie Toly nuper defuncte pro .iij. solidis annui redditus pro quo redditu communitas Judeorum Bristoll' dederunt eidem Margerie in vita sua quandum pecunie summam pre manibus sed quantum ignorant, et de anno incremento nichil habendum ad terminum viginti annorum. termino incipiente ad Pascha Anno Memorati Regis terciodecimo et adhuc restat de terminis Venturis ad proximum Pascha futurum .xviij. anni et per illum terminum dominus Rex debet percipere .iij. solidos annuatim. In cuius rei testimonium pre? dicti Juratores huic (scripto) sigilla sua apposuerunt. Second Report. [P.R.O., E. 101, No. 249.30.] Bristol? Inquisicio Bristoll' dicit quod tenementum Benedicti de Wintonia Judei valet .xiij. solidos .iiij. denarios si domus super illud tenementum emendatum fuerit et nunc valet per annum .x. solidos. Et valet de claro .x. solidos. Item tenementum Hake le Pretre Judei valet per annum domino Regi .xxv. solidos et reddit inde domino Regi ad certum redditum qui vocatur Langanel .iij. denariis .obolum. quadrantem. Et valet de claro .xxiiij. solidos .viij. denarios quadrantem. Item tenementum Mossei de Kent Judei valet per annum .viij. solidos</page><page sequence="68">184 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. et reddit inde Johanni de Seygraue .xl. denarios. Et valet de claro .iiij. solidos .viij. denarios et plus valeret si domus ilia fuerit emendata. Item tenementum Isaac de Carleon quod quondam fuit Johannis de Wodestoke et quod tenetur de domino Rege in capite valet per annum .xx. solidos .ix. denarios .obolum. quadrantem et reddit inde domino Regi .vj. denarios et pro Langabulo iij. denarios .obolum. quadrantem. Et Magister Thomas de Bardeney Marescallus domine Regine habet illud tenementum ex empcione heredis predicti Johannis de Wodestoke et percipit inde per annum .xx. solidos. [Et valet domino Regi de claro .vj. denarios]?struck out. Item tenementum Isaac Judei quod dedit Crece filio suo qui illud tene? mentum vendidit cuidam Willelmo Mayledon valet per annum .vj. solidos. Et valet de claro .vj. solidos. Item tenementum Cressaunt Judei [sus(pensi) inserted above line] valet per annum .vj. denarios. Et valet de claro .vj. denarios. Item tenementum Jossii de Carlyun valet per annum .vj. solidos .viij. denarios et reddit inde Johanni de Seygraue .xl. denarios. Et valet de claro .xl. denarios. Summa BristolT .liiij. solidos .viij. denarios quadrantem. vera. Item de tenemento quod communitas Judeorum BristolP recepit ad firmam de heredibus Margerie Toly anno regni Regis Edwardi filii Regis Henrici .xiij0. ad Pascha vsque ad terminum viginti annorum proximo sequen tium completorum de quo termino sunt .xiiij. anni futuri dominus Rex debet percipere .xlj. solidos. Addendum. (Continuation of note 57 on p. 129.) Since this Paper was set up, Mr. Herbert Loewe kindly brought the following information to my notice. In the "Cartulary of Oseney Abbey," recently published by the Oxford Historical Society, vol. I. p. 335, Nos. 383 and 384, reference is made in the year 1182, as living in Oxford, to Moses, Jew of Bristol, his wife Belasez and his sons Isaac and Simon (both family names, as will be observed from the genealogical table on p. 130). In vol. II. p. 583, the Abbot of Oseney grants land (about 1185) to Isaac son of Moses of Bristol in the Jewry Street of Oxford. His mother Belasez appears in A.E., p. 72, in financial transactions (1180), in the Northampton Donum with her sons in 1194, where they give the largest Oxford contributions (see Jewish Historical Society, Miscellanies, Part I, p. lxiv), and in the British Museum Harleian Charter, 84 D. 15, where Belasez holds land in pledge of a debt.</page><page sequence="69">THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 185 XIII. Names of Jews in Bristol. 1154-1196. Samuel. ?*H3n Moses, son of Rabbi Isaac. Rabbi Yom Tob, son of Moses. Isaac, son of Moses. Simon, son of Moses. Benedict. His wife Leah. Moses, son of Benedict. Joseph, son of Benedict. Sturmis (?). Isaac, son of Judah. Benlivinger. Preciosa. Isaac Furmager. Deulacresse Furmager. Abraham, son of Vives. Isaac Episcopus (le Veske). Manasser. Solomon, son of Isaac. Jacob, son of Jose. Judah Gabbay. Abraham Gabbay. Samuel le Pointur. Amiot [Chancellor's Roll (1196), p. 187]. 1221-1250. Jacob, son of Samuel of Oxford. His daughter Antera. Joseph Furmager. Bonefey Furmager. Isaac, son of Bonefey Furmager. Moses, son of Bonefey Furmager. Dulce Furmager. Vives le Pointur. Michael, his son-in-law. Leo, nephew of Abraham Gabbay. Solomon, son of Abraham. Milo Episcopus (le Veske). Isaac Episcopus (le Veske). Their mother Saphira. Abraham Folet and his sister. Vives, the son of Abraham. Bonefey Michael. Solomon le Turk. Michael le Veske. Levi, son of Dieubenie. Aaron (Adrian). His wife Rachel (Richolda). Lumbard (Chirographer). John \ His sister Joan L Converts. Christina J Solomon, son of Aaron (Chiro? grapher). Solomon of Ilchester. Isaac of Bath. Isaac, son of Jurnet (Jacob). Cresse, son of Milo le Veske (Chiro? grapher). Jacob of Coutances. His wife Pimenta. Jacob, son of Jacob of Coutances. His wife Belecote. Isaac, son of Jacob of Coutances. Filee. Jacob, son of Filee. Bella, wife of Jacob Filee.</page><page sequence="70">186 THE JEWS OF BRISTOL IN PRE-EXPULSION DAYS. 1253-1290. Elias of Chippenham. Joseph of Caerleon. Isaac, son of Joseph of Caerleon (Chirographer). Aaron, son of Joseph of Caerleon. Abraham, son of Isaac of Caerleon. Cresse, son of Isaac of Caerleon. Samuel, son of Isaac of Caerleon. Henne, wife of Samuel of Caerleon. Joseph, son of Isaac. Isaac, son of Isaac. Dieulebenie, son of Samuel. Samuel, son of Aaron of Wilton (Chirographer). Solomon, son of Samuel of Wilton. Belasez (murdered 1266). Cressaunt, son of Pictavin (Chiro? grapher). Hak (Isaac) le Prestre (Chiro? grapher). Solomon, son of Isaac of Wilton. Isaac Hariprud of Wilton (Isaac of Marlborough). Abraham Honiprud or Hariprud. Manser, son of Solomon of Calais. Mendaunt, son of Isaac. Deulegard, son of Vives. Preciosa. Aaron, son of Aaron. Isaac of Sodbury. Saphira, daughter of Selke. Bonamy, son of Jose. Hak (Isaac), son of Meirot. Swetman, son of Meirot. Aaron of Ireland, son of Benjamin of Colchester. SafTre, son of Deulecresse. Moses of Kent. His wife Gyna. Aaron (murdered 1287). Cok (Isaac) of Strygyl. Sarah the widow. Solomon, son of Hagin. Sarah, daughter of Benedict. Jacob, son of Jacob. Sampson, son of Isaac of Winchester. Total 104.</page></plain_text>

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