The Exchequer of the Jews (Latin: Scaccarium Judaeorum) was a division of the Court of Exchequer at Westminster which recorded and regulated the taxes and the law-cases of the Jews in England and Wales. It operated from the late 1190s until the eventual expulsion of the Jews in 1290.
Jews began to settle in England soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066. For the most part they escaped the massacres during the First (1096–1099) and Second (1145–1149) Crusades, and despite occasional imposition of fines and special levies, their numbers and prosperity increased under the protection of the king.[1]
There was a reason Jews were protected by the Crown. Surviving records of the Exchequer Pipe Roll of the reign of Henry I show that the Jews of England constituted a major source of royal revenue to the Crown early in the twelfth century. "The intent was to use the Jewry as a reservoir equally open to receive and closed to retain the surplus wealth of the surrounding population, so that the Crown will never lack a fund on which to draw in an hour of need".[2] Jews were allowed to charge usury providing tax revenues to the Crown.[3]
With the further advance of commerce and industry under Henry I and Henry II, the Jews of England continued to increase their royal revenues; and the demand grew for the creation of a distinct department of the Great Exchequer for the management of Jewish capital.[4]
Origins
The first special exchequer appears to have been created to manage the large estate left by Aaron of Lincoln (died 1186), which needed a treasurer and clerk to look after it. The institution was called "Aaron's Exchequer." The riots following Richard I's accession showed the danger such property was liable to if no record was kept of the debts owed to the Jews. Accordingly, Richard in 1194 ordered that duplicates should be taken of all Jewish debt records and kept in this or in other central repositories:[5] "All the debts, pledges, mortgages, lands, houses, rents, and possessions of the Jews shall be registered ... no contract shall be made with, nor payment, made to, the Jews, nor any alteration made in the charters, except before the said persons".[6]
It was soon afterward found necessary to have a centre for the whole of Jewish business, and this was attached to the Exchequer of Westminster and called the "Exchequer of the Jews". The first recorded mention of this is in 1200, when four "justices of the Jews" were named, two of them being Jews, Benedict de Talemunt and Joseph Aaron.[7] These justices had the status of barons of the Exchequer, and were under the treasurer and chief justice. They were assisted by a clerk and escheator; Jews might hold these offices, but, excepting the two mentioned above, none ever became justice of the Jews. The justices were aided in their deliberations by the presbyter judaeorum, who doubtless assisted them in deciding questions of Jewish law which may have come before them.[5]
Definition and description
The details of the institution are clearly stated in the 1194 orders of Richard I, stating as follows:
All the debts, pledges, mortgages, lands, houses, rents, and possessions of the Jews shall be registered. The Jew who shall conceal any of these shall forfeit to the King his body and the thing concealed, and likewise all his possessions and chattels, neither shall it be lawful to the Jew to recover the thing concealed. Likewise six or seven places shall be provided in which they shall make all their contracts, and there shall be appointed two lawyers that are Christians and two lawyers that are Jews, and two legal registrars, and before them and the clerks of William of the Church of St. Mary's and William of Chimilli[fr], shall their contracts be made.
And charters shall be made of their contracts by way of indenture. And one part of the indenture shall remain with the Jew, sealed with the seal of him, to whom the money is lent, and the other part shall remain in the common chest: wherein there shall be three locks and keys, whereof the two Christians shall keep one key, and the two Jews another, and the clerks of William of the Church of St Mary and of William of Chimilli shall keep the third. And moreover, there shall be three seals to it, and those who keep the seals shall put the seals thereto. Moreover the clerks of the said William and William shall keep a roll of the transcripts of all the charters, and as the charters shall be altered so let the roll be likewise. For every charter there shall be three pence paid, one moiety thereof by the Jews and the other moiety by him to whom the money is lent; whereof the two writers shall have two pence and the keeper of the roll the third. And from henceforth no contract shall be made with, nor payment, made to, the Jews, nor any alteration made in the charters, except before the said persons or the greater part of them, if all of them cannot be present. And the aforesaid two Christians shall have one roll of the debts or receipts of the payments which from henceforth are to be made to the Jews, and the two Jews one and the keeper of the roll one.
Moreover every Jew shall swear on his Roll, that all his debts and pledges and rents, and all his goods and his possessions, he shall cause to be enrolled, and that he shall conceal nothing as is aforesaid. And if he shall know that anyone shall conceal anything he shall secretly reveal it to the justices sent to them, and that they shall detect, and shew unto them all falsifiers or forgers of the charters and clippers of money, where or when they shall know them, and likewise all false charters ...[6]
The creation of a separate institution to deal with the monies of the Jews was not wholly unique for those times. The Jews of England enjoyed a qualified autonomy by the hands of the king in several additional matters. For example, they had latitude in rate of the interest for loans they gave (though some records show a maximum limit),[2] as well as in juridical matters. Also, cases where Jews alone were concerned were given leeway to be left to the cognizance of the Jews' own tribunals.[2]
Functions
The Exchequer of the Jews dealt with the lawcases arising between Jews and Christians, mainly with reference to the debts due the former. It claimed exclusive jurisdiction in these matters, but many exceptions occurred. In 1250, pleas of disseizin of tenements in the City of London were handed over to the mayor's court, and at times cases of this kind were brought before the ordinary justices in eyre or the hundred-court. It was before this court of the Jewish Exchequer that in 1257 the trial of Chief Rabbi Elyas of London took place. Moreover, the court assessed the contributions of the Jews to the royal treasury in reliefs (comprising one-third of the estate of a deceased Jew), escheats (forfeited to the king for capital offenses), fines (for licenses and concessions), and tallages, or general taxes applied for arbitrarily by the king.[5]
In connection with the tallage, the justices periodically ordered a "scrutiny" of the lists of the debts contained in the archae or chests in which Jewish chirographs and starrs were preserved in each regional centre. Each chest had three locks, with one set of keys held by two designated Jews, one set by two designated Christians, and the third by two royal clerks; so they could only be opened if all three acted together. The chests themselves, or more frequently the lists held by the royal clerks of the debts contained in them, were sent up for "scrutiny" to Westminster, where the justices would report to the king as to the capability of the Jewry to bear further tallage. In the middle of the thirteenth century the number of such archae was reduced to twenty-five. Arrears of tallage were continually applied for, and if not paid the Jew's wife and children were often imprisoned as hostages, or he himself was sent to the Tower and his lands and chattels were distrained.[5]
The Exchequer of the Jews was one of the means which enabled the kings to bring pressure upon the lesser baronage, who therefore claimed in 1251 the right to elect one of the justices of the Jews. These were at first men of some distinction, like Hugh Bigod, Philip Basset, and Henry de Bath. During the early reign of Henry III the justices were mainly appointed by Hubert de Burgh, but later on they were creatures of the king's favorites, as in the case of Robert Passelewe. During Edward I's rule justices held their posts for a very short time, and in 1272 and 1287 they were dismissed for corruption, handsome presents having been made to them, nominally for the use of the king, in order to expedite the legal proceedings. The court did not survive the expulsion, though cases with references to the debts of the Jews occurred in the year-books up to the reign of Edward II.[5]
Deeds and cases
The deeds entered in the Jewish Exchequer were mainly the chirographs recording and the starrs annulling indebtedness to the Jews. It was suggested by William Blackstone in 1769 that the notorious Star Chamber received its name from being the depository for the latter class of deeds, but this etymology is refuted by modern scholarship.[8] The tax-lists for the tallages were made out by the Jewish assistants of the Exchequer, who were acquainted with the financial condition of each Jew on the list; many of these lists still exist. Various pleas entered by Jew or Christian dealt with the rate of interest, its lapse during the minority of an heir, the alleged forgeries of chirographs, and the like, and were recorded on the plea rolls of the Exchequer. A volume of the more important of these was published in 1902 jointly by the Selden Society and the Jewish Historical Society of England.[5]
The end of the institution
The office of the Exchequer of the Jews survived for almost a century. The expulsion of England's Jewry in 1290 signaled the end of the office of Exchequer of the Jews, though some cases with reference to the debts of the Jews can be found in some year-books through the reign of Edward II (1284–1327).[9]
Historical perspective: medieval culture and views of minorities
At first glance it could seem as if what drove the persecution of Jews were unique acts of pure anti-Semitism directed towards the Jewish population of medieval England. However, a close comparative reading sheds light to the reality that such persecution was not unique to the treatment of Jews but reflected a historical "system" of blaming "aliens" or various minority groups for daily misfortunes and difficulties (e.g. sudden diseases, poverty and famine, wars, or forces of nature etc.)[10]
Much of the time mass accusations and persecution of minority groups were justified in the name of God (and/or attributed the evil doings of the 'designated minority group' in the name of the devil). Similar justification was used in the persecution of the Jews during England's crusade mania.[10]:33 As mentioned in Ginzburg's book, Ecstasies: Deciphering the Witches' Sabbath: "The lepers' extermination was the first time in the history of Europe that such huge programme of segregation was undertaken". "In succeeding centuries other protagonists would take the lepers' place, the mad, the poor, the criminal and Jews. The lepers led the way."[10]:34
Ginzburg describes "the casual chain of conspiracy", which was fed by hostilities towards the least protected groups. In his view there was almost always a Muslim sovereign at the head of the chain: "Directly or indirectly these Muslim characters conspire with isolated figures or with groups, marginal from a geographical or ethnic-religious point of view (e.g. Jews), promising them money in exchange of execution of the plot".[10]:52 The plot is materially executed by other groups (e.g. lepers), who because of their age, their social inferiority or both of these reasons, are readily susceptible to false promises of wealth and power.[10]:52
Conspiracies often included fiscal segregation in ghettoes for both Jews and lepers, and an additional obligation to wear a symbol on clothes to be recognized by, or to be subjected to a certain dress code.[10]:38
Jews and lepers were both vulnerable to persecution. However, the most noticeable difference between Jews and other minorities was the Jews' wealth. As Ginzburg puts it: "We would doubtless have been exterminated, had not our great wealth made the Christians greedy enough to demand ransom".[10]:46 Several times during pogroms against minorities, following one conspiracy or another, the Jews ended up subjected to less killing or damage. The main source of punishment pointed at them was usually a requisition of all the wealth the Jews were holding.[10]:48
Medieval sources and possible bias
Information about the Exchequer of the Jews, its development, background, purpose, and use, was found exclusively in the Christian chronicles' records of those centuries. Although known for their remarkable accuracy and their credibility, these historians nonetheless had little sympathy or charity to spare for the Jews, and some might have been outright hostile to them. Since the secular accounts of English Jewry from the time period are very scanty, one can only present the Christian viewpoint.[2]
Rigg, J. M., ed. (1905/1971), Calendar of the Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the JewsVol. I, Henry III, 1218–1272.
Rigg, J. M., ed. (1910/1971), – Vol. II, Edward I, 1273–1275.
Jenkinson, H., ed. (1929), – Vol. III, Edward I, 1275–1277.
Richardson, H. G., ed. (/1972), – Vol. IV, Henry II, 1272; and Edward I, 1275–77.
Cohen, S., ed. (1992), – Vol. V, Edward I, 1277–1279.
Brand, Paul, ed. (2005), – Vol. VI, Edward I, 1279–1281.
The Selden Society has also produced a volume of contemporary case-summaries in their series The Earliest English Law Reports,
Brand, Paul (2007), Eyre reports 1286–9 and undated Eyre reports, Exchequer of the Jews reports, pre-1290 assize reports, pre-1290 reports from unidentified courts and additional pre-1290 Common Bench reports
Tallage or talliage may have signified at first any tax, but became in England and France a land use or land tenure tax. Later in England it was further limited to assessments by the crown upon cities, boroughs, and royal domains. In effect, tallage was a land tax.
In the civil service of the United Kingdom, His Majesty's Exchequer, or just the Exchequer, is the accounting process of central government and the government's current account in the Consolidated Fund. The term is used in various financial documents, including the latest departmental and agency annual accounts.
The history of the Jews in England goes back to the reign of William the Conqueror. Although it is likely that there had been some Jewish presence in the Roman period, there is no definitive evidence, and no reason to suppose that there was any community during Anglo-Saxon times. The first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. The Jewish settlement continued until King Edward I's Edict of Expulsion in 1290.
The Edict of Expulsion was a royal decree expelling all Jews from the Kingdom of England that was issued by Edward I 18 July 1290; it was the first time a European state is known to have permanently banned their presence. The date of issuance was most likely chosen because it was a Jewish holy day, the ninth of Ab, which commemorates the destruction of Jerusalem and other disasters the Jewish people have experienced. Edward told the sheriffs of all counties he wanted all Jews expelled before All Saints' Day that year.
The first Jews in England arrived after the Norman Conquest of the country by William the Conqueror in 1066, and the first written record of Jewish settlement in England dates from 1070. Jews suffered massacres in 1189–90, and after a period of rising persecution, all Jews were expelled from England after the Edict of Expulsion in 1290.
Aaron of Lincoln was an English Jewish financier. He is believed to have been the wealthiest man in Norman England; it is estimated that his wealth exceeded that of the King. He is first mentioned in the English pipe-roll of 1166 as creditor of King Henry II for sums amounting to £616 12s 8d in nine of the English counties. He conducted his business through agents, and sometimes in conjunction with Isaac, fil Joce; by these methods building up what was practically a great banking association that spread throughout England.
The Statute of the Jewry was a statute enacted under Edward I of England in 1275. It placed a number of restrictions on Jews of England, most notably outlawing the practice of usury.
Elias of London also known as Elijah ben Moses or Elias le Evesque, was Presbyter Judaeorum in 13th-century England.
The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common Pleas served as one of the central English courts for around 600 years. Authorised by Magna Carta to sit in a fixed location, the Common Pleas sat in Westminster Hall for its entire existence, joined by the Exchequer of Pleas and Court of King's Bench.
Richard Swinefield was a medieval Bishop of Hereford, England. He graduated as a doctor of divinity before holding several ecclesiastical offices, including that of Archdeacon of London. As a bishop, he dedicated considerable efforts to securing the canonisation of Thomas de Cantilupe, his predecessor, for whom he had worked during his lifetime. Active in his diocese, he devoted little time to national political life. He was noted for his hostility to Jews and demanded their removal from Christian society, and ultimately, from England. He was buried in Hereford Cathedral where his memorial still stands.
The history of the Jews in Wales begins in the 13th century. However, after the English conquest of Wales (1287–1283), Edward I issued the 1290 Edict of Expulsion expelling the Jews from England. From then until the formal return of the Jews to England in 1655, there is only one mention of Jews on Welsh soil.
Adam de Stratton was a royal moneylender, administrator and clergyman under Edward I of England. He advanced professionally through the patronage of the earls of Devon, and became Chamberlain of the Exchequer and steward of Isabella, Countess of Devon. At the same time he made himself an enormous fortune through moneylending, primarily by acquiring debts from Jewish moneylenders. His business methods were dubious and often involved various illegal activities. In 1290 he fell victim to an investigation of corruption in the royal administration, and from 1292 until his death— no later than 1294—he was held in prison. Stratton has been called by a modern historian "the greatest and probably the most unscrupulous of thirteenth-century money lenders, who eventually met the fate he deserved."
During the Middle Ages there was a small Jewish community in Worcester, a city and county town of Worcestershire in the West Midlands of England that mainly provided money lending services to the non-Jewish citizens. Worcester also hosted a national gathering of England's leading Jews in 1241, to allow the Crown to assess their worth for taxation. The Worcester Bishopric was hostile to the Jewish community in Worcester, commissioning tracts against Jewry, and pushing for segregation of Jews and Christians. During the Second Barons' War, Jews suffered violence and many died in 1255, at the hands of Simon de Montfort's supporters.
William de Warenne, the feudal baron of Wormegay, served as a royal justice under King Richard I and his brother King John. Warenne also served in financial matters, being one of those responsible for collecting taxes and later overseeing debts from Christians to Jews. His career was closely tied to that of Hubert Walter, who employed Warenne as a judge in some ecclesiastical matters. He also founded a priory and gave other gifts to religious houses. The historian Ralph V. Turner said of Warenne that "although he was a longtime official under King John, he did not quite fit into the inner corps of royal counselors".
William Devereux, Baron Devereux of Lyonshall was an English noble who was an important Marcher Lord as he held Lyonshall Castle controlling a strategically vital approach to the border of Wales in the time of Edward I and Edward II. He was the first of this family officially called to Parliament, and was ancestor to John Devereux, 1st Baron Devereux of Whitchurch Maund, the Devereux Earls of Essex, and the Devereux Viscounts of Hereford. His coat of arms was the same as his father's and described as "argent, fess and three roundels in chief gules" which passed to the descendants of his first wife, the Devereux of Bodenham; or "gules od un fesse d'argent ove turteaus d'argent en le chief" which passed to the descendants of his second wife, the Devereux of Frome.
An archa or arca was a mediaeval document repository, such as a chest, associated with the financial records of Jews in England at the time.
Joseph of Chauncy, also known as Joseph of Cancy, was an English religious knight. He was Grand Prior of the Knights Hospitaller in England from 1273 to 1281. He served as Royal Treasurer of the Order from 1273 to 1280.
The government of the Kingdom of England in the Middle Ages was a monarchy based on the principles of feudalism. The king possessed ultimate executive, legislative, and judicial power. However, some limits to the king's authority had been imposed by the 13th century. Magna Carta established the principle that taxes could not be levied without common consent, and Parliament was able to assert its power over taxation throughout this period.
1 2 3 4 Selected Pleas, Starrs, and Other Records from the Rule of the Exchequer of the Jews A.D 1220–1284, pp.xii–xx (J. M. Rigg, editor for the Selden Society, 1920).
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 See in detailed: Carlo Ginzburg, Ecstasies: deciphering the witches' Sabbath, trans. Raymond Rosenthal (1991)
Further reading
(reverse chronological order)
Brand, Paul (2005) "Introduction", in Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, Vol. VI: Edward I, 1279–81
Brown, Reva Berman & McCartney, Sean (2005) "The Exchequer of the Jews Revisited", in: The Medieval History Journal, 8(2), 303–322 doi:10.1177/097194580500800203
Mundill, R. R. (1998), England's Jewish Solution: experiment and expulsion, 1262–1290. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press ISBN0-521-52026-6
Richardson, H. G. (1960 / 1983), The English Jewry Under Angevin Kings. London: Methuen (original); Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press (reprint) ISBN0-313-24247-X
Meekings, C. A. F. (1955) "Justices of the Jews 1218–1268: a provisional list", in: Bulletin of the Institute of Historical Research28 173–88. doi:10.1111/j.1468-2281.1955.tb00601.x
Scott, K. (1950) "The Jewish Arcae", in: The Cambridge Law Journal, 10:446–455. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S0008197300004426. JSTOR4503911
Cramer, A. (1941) "The Origins and Functions of the Jewish Exchequer", in: Speculum16 226–29. JSTOR2853615
Stokes, H. P. & Abrahams, I., eds. (1930–32), Starrs and Jewish Charters preserved in the British Museum. 3 vols. Cambridge: Printed for the (Jewish Historical Society of England) at the University Press (I. Introduction. Notes on the transliteration of Hebrew proper names. Latin, French, Hebrew texts, translations and notes.—II. Tables. List of abbreviations and bibliography. Vocabulary, by F. A. Lincoln. Excurses: The legal background of the starrs, by F. A. Lincoln; On Sir Adam de Stratton, by W. Page: On Westmill, by Archibald Jackson; On usury, by Herbert Loewe; "signed and sealed", by Herbert Loewe. Notes on the starrs, by Herbert Loewe.—III. Indexes, by Herbert Loewe.)
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