78 WHITGLAFF'S EDICT. must have resided in this country at the time of the Saxon heptarchy, in tolerable numbers, and celebrated their feasts according to their own law; and what is more, they desired to live peaceably with their Christian neighbours. It also appears from a charter granted by Whitglaff, King of the Mercians, to Croyland Abbey, ninety-three years after the above edict was issued, that there were Jews in this country at that period, and possessed landed property; and what is most remarkable, they endowed Christian places of worship. Ingulphus, in his "History of Croyland Abbey," relates that in the year 833, Whitglaff, King of the Mercians, having been defeated by Egbert, took refuge in that abbey, and in return for the protection and assistance rendered him by the abbot and monks on the occasion, granted a charter, confirming to them all lands, tenements, and possessions, and all other gifts which had at any time been bestowed upon them by his pre EDICT OF EDWARD THE CONFESSOR. 79 decessors or their nobles, or by any other faithful Christians, or by Jews. The Jews in this country chronicle now in their almanack the following:-"Canute banished the Jews from England," A. D. 901.† Basnage also asserts that "they were banished from this country in the beginning of the eleventh century, and did not return till after the conquest." I cannot find the authority upon which these two statements rest, and moreover it seems to me that some Jews were certainly resident in England towards the middle of the eleventh century, and prior to the Norman invasion. By the laws attributed to Edward the Confessor, it is declared that "the Jews, wheresoever they be, are under king's guard and protection; neither can any one of them put himself under the protection of any rich man, without the king's license, for the Jews and all they * See Appendix B. + This is decidedly erroneous, for we know that Canute did not arrive in England before the beginning of the eleventh century. 80 WILLIAM I. FIRST INVITED THE JEWS. have belong to the king; and if any person shall detain them or their money, the king may claim them, if he please, as his own :"* another proof that the Jews were resident in this country prior to the invasion of William the Conqueror. From the time of the Conquest, the information afforded by your historians respecting the Jews, becomes gradually more extensive. William the First, soon after he had obtained possession of the throne, invited the Jews to come over in large numbers from Rouen, and to settle in England; and he is reported to have appointed a particular place for their residence. Of the name of this town we are not accurately informed. But Peck, in his annals, relates that many of the Jews who came over in this reign, took up their residence at Stamford. And Wood, in his "History of Oxford," shows, upon the authority of some ancient deeds, that in the tenth year after * See Appendix C. TWO DISTINCT COLONIES OF JEWS. 81 the Conquest, the Jews resided already in great numbers in that university. It appears that there were two distinct colonies of Jews-the one within the walls of the city of London, the other in the liberties of the Tower. I am inclined to adopt the idea that the Jews who came to this country under the encouragement of the Conqueror, settled within the jurisdiction of the constable of his Palatine Tower; and that the Jews who settled in England before the Conquest, and who, according to the laws published by Edward the Confessor, were declared to stand under the immediate authority and jurisdiction of the king, were found immediately adjoining that quarter of the city which appears to have been the court end under the Saxon monarchs. Mathew Paris, a monkish historian, asserts that St. Alban's Church, which stands nearly in the middle of a line drawn from "the Jewerie" within the city, to the angle of the wall at Cripplegate, was the chapel of King Offa, and adjoining to his palace. Mund mentions in his edition of 82 RESIDENCE OF KING'S MEN-THE JEWS. Stow, that the great square tower remaining at the north corner of Love-lane, in the year 1632, was believed to be part of King Athelstan's palace. The name of Addle-street is derived by the same antiquarian from Adel or Ethel, the Saxon for noble. The original council chamber of the alderman is known to have stood somewhere in Aldermanbury, which had its name from it. Without a certain, a positive belief in any one of these statements, their coincidence seems to render it extremely probable that the royal residence was in that quarter, which may account for the king's men-the Jews-taking up their residence near it.* William the Conqueror, as soon as he got the Jews into this country, adopted the policy of Edward the Confessor. The chronicler Hoveden states that in the fourth year of William the Conqueror's reign, he held a council of his barons, in which, among other things, it was provided "that the Jews set * See Knight's London. |