Jews

Jews. Though there must have been individual Jews in Anglo-Saxon England, there is no evidence of settled communities. But after the Norman Conquest, some hundreds of Jews entered the country, mainly from Normandy where there had been settlements. Since Christians were not allowed to practise usury, Jews quickly established themselves as financiers and money-lenders. Their position was extremely precarious, exploited ruthlessly by monarchs in constant need of funds and hated by the native population. As their numbers increased and they moved outside London into provincial towns, tensions rose. As early as 1144 the accusation of ritual murder was made against them, with the charge that they had killed a small boy in Norwich, ‘St William’. Severe restrictions were placed upon them. They were confined to Jewries, from 1218 were obliged to wear badges steadily increased in size, and in 1232 a domus conversorum was opened in London for proselytizing. Fresh hostility came with the crusading movement. At the accession of Richard I in 1189—a notable crusader—there were attacks on Jews in London, which spread to the provinces, and culminated in the slaughter of 150 Jews in the castle at York. Religious zeal was reinforced by greed and envy. Some of the jews were already very wealthy—Aaron of Lincoln in the 1170s dealt with kings, archbishops, municipalities, and monasteries.

The difficulties of the Jews continued in the 13th cent. John's financial worries made him severe and the baronial opposition to Henry III disliked Jews who could assist the crown. The story of William of Norwich was repeated in 1255 with the account of Hugh of Lincoln—another boy said to have been butchered, and again given saintly status. In 1275 Edward I in a statute forbade Jews to practise usury, allowing them to trade and own property. But if this was meant as an attempt at integration, it was followed in 1278 by a savage attack in which hundreds of Jews were hanged. In 1290, in exchange for a large subsidy from Parliament, all Jews were expelled from the kingdom and allowed three months to leave. They were given safe conducts though inevitably numbers were set upon and robbed.

Between 1290 and the 1650s there were no Jewish communities of any size, though individuals slipped through, sometimes professing conversion. In Elizabeth's reign, there were Spanish and Portuguese Jews in the country though they practised their religion with circumspection. When approached in the 1650s, Cromwell was more sympathetic than his council, perhaps because he had made use of some Jews in espionage and diplomacy. There was no dramatic reversal of policy but Jews were allowed in once more. Their numbers and status built up and the financial and commercial revolutions of the early 18th cent. gave them enhanced possibilities. Sir Samuel Gideon was prominent in assisting the government with loans in the crisis of 1745, and his son was given an Irish peerage in 1789, though he had to change both name and religion. But old hatreds died hard and when the Pelhams brought in a modest measure to facilitate naturalization in 1753, the public outcry was so great that they were forced to repeal it.

Catholic emancipation in 1829 left the Jews as the only religious group suffering under severe disabilities. Repeated attempts at concessions were thwarted in the House of Lords but the progress of Jews in society was unmistakable. David Salomons was made sheriff of London in 1835 and lord mayor in 1855; Francis Goldsmid was the first practising Jew to be given a baronetcy in 1841. When first Lionel Rothschild (1847) and then Salomons (1851) were elected to Parliament, only to be kept out by their inability to take the oath as a Christian, the plight of the Jews was dramatized, and the law was changed in 1858. The first government minister of Jewish faith was appointed in 1871, the first judge in 1873. Powerful prejudices remained and were strengthened by an influx of poorer Jews from eastern Europe in the later 19th cent. The obstacles facing Jews remained substantial, but they were personal and social rather than legal.

J. A. Cannon