80,3 probably upon a charge of tampering with the coinage, upon which accusation in 1278, the whole of the Jews of England were imprisoned in one night, brought to trial, and many condemned - in London alone 293 suffering in this way.4 About the time of his death, or perhaps immediately afterwards, one of his daughters, Claricia, whilst very young, became converted and was admitted into the Domus Conversorum in Chancery Lane, London.5 From the records of the Home it is learned that Copin's daughter entered in the year 1280, and twenty-eight years later returned to Exeter where she married and had two children - Richard and Katherine. After an absence of 19 years she found her way back to the London House of Converts, together with her two children, where she died in 1356 at a very advanced age.
A complete change in the affairs of the Jews of England took place when, in the year 1275, the king and Parliament enacted the Statute de Judaismo, which prohibited usury to the Jews.6 The heavy exactions of the royal tallages had almost exhausted the supply of Jewish money and by one act of legislation the Jew was forbidden to follow the pursuit in which kings of England had encouraged him for two hundred years.
IThe other defendants are Benedict of Wilton, Ursell, Isaac Ericun, Aaron of Dorchester, Jorin the son of Isaac, and James dc Fenys.
2See my Paper on "Pre-Expulsion Bristol". Trans., XII.
4Abrahams, Expulsion of the Jews in Jewish Quarterly Review, VII, p. 256. Calendar of Fine Rolls, I, p. 113. Tovey, p. 210.
5See my Paper on the Domus Conversorum. Trans., IV, p. 26.
6Tovey, p. 200. Abrahams, Jewish Quarterly Review VII, p. 244.
7Richard of Devizes (ed. Howlett, p. 437) writing in the year 1192, says, " Exeter feeds men and beasts with the same corn."
modified form of money-lending was authorised,1 we find the Exeter Jews resuming their former occupation, money being lent in small sums.2 The local Jewry appears to have rapidly dwindled before the final disaster of 1290 drove all Jews from these shores. Their houses and their Synagogue were taken from them before they left the city, as with one exception, there is no trace in the records of any land or tenements belonging to the Jews at the Expulsion.
1See Gross, Papers of the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition,1887, pp. 219-229, Appendix B. Chapitles Tuchaunz le Gywerie (Regulations concerning the Jewry) from Add MSS., British Museum, 32085, ff. 120-121, dated about 1276.
2The tally debts are for small sums, see p. 236.
3G. Oliver, Lives of the Bishops of Exeter, p. 48. Quivil was Bishop from 1280 to 1291.
4Tovey, p. 302.
5Translation in Abrahams, Jewish Quarterly Review, VII, p. 440.
6Mansi, Sacrosancta Concilia, XIV, pp. 1019-1076 (Venice, 1731) These edicts are based upon the decisions of the Church Council of Vienne in 1267 (Mansi, ib., pp. 363 ff.) and the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. See Jewish Encyclopedia, IV, p. 79.
7In 1286, Bishop Swinfield of Hereford excommunicated a number of his congregation for taking part in a Jewish wedding that was held "with displays of silk and cloth of gold, horsemanship and stageplaying, sports and minstrelsy". Ancient Customs of the City of Hereford by R. Johnson, p. 100.
should not take medicine from a Jewish doctor; that on Easter Day, no Jew should appear in the streets of Exeter and should keep his doors and windows closed; that the Jews should pay taxes to the parish clergy and the wearing of the badge of the Tables of the Law was to be strictly enforced. The thunder of the Synod of Exeter does not seem to have produced its full effect as the Jews continued to trade with their neighbours almost until the Expulsion three years later.
When this took place by order of king Edward, as in all other Jewries, by royal command, an official enquiry was set on foot concerning the possessions of the Exeter Jews. These reports are extant in the Lansdowne MSS of the British Museum,l and in the Public Record Office,2 and furnish information of the utmost value. In the presence of the Sheriff of Devon, twenty-five Exeter citizens, whose names are given, took oath and testified that their former Jewish neighbours possessed no lands or tenements (quod predicti Judei nullas terras aut tenementa habuerunt). Only Comitissa the widow of Bonenfant the Chirographer - herself a famous financier - occupied a tenement in the High Street (in summo vico civitatis) which she had bought, without the attached shop, from Joan, the daughter of Adam the writer (le escryveyn) for the sum of 11/- a year. This rent was to be spent as follows, 10/- for the Hospital of St John of Exeter and 1/- for the candles of the Church of St Lawrence.
A. 143 bonds for money lent by Exeter Jews, and evidently still unpaid, the earliest being dated 1237 and the latest I275, the year of the Statute de Judaismo, the majority being of the years 1270-1275. The highest amount on one charter is £60 (equivalent to-day to £I,500 [1931]) lent by the famous Jacob Copin, and the lowest five shillings.
C. 21 receipts for advances upon corn, at the price of half a mark (6/8) per quarter, dated from 1284 to the year of the Expulsion - the highest transaction being for 60 quarters and the average being 20 quarters.
lVol. 826. Part 5. There are no references to Exeter houses.
2E. 101, No. 249, 27, contains the report upon property. E. 101, No. 260, 2, gives the list of bonds in the Archa.
3Stokes, p. 80.
Some 80 towns and villages of Devonshire and a few in Somersetshire are named in these deeds.
The total amount of debts in money was £1,058 4s. 2d. and in corn £180 13s. 4d. (value to-day [1931] about £37,140). These figures are among the largest in the whole of England and compare favourably with £395 of the communities of Devizes and Marlborough (Wilts) and Bristol, £72.
Jacob Copin was the largest creditor, his 35 bonds amounting to £357 (=£1O,71O [1931])&emdash;all of which had remained unpaid between the years 1266 and 1275. To one debtor he had lent £169 1Os. 0d (=£5,100 [1931]) in two years, and his clients included Sir Robert le Denys, Richard Bullock the goldsmith, who was one of the Christian Chirographers, two priests, Roger de Moleyns and Arnulf of Hunecroft, and numerous residents of Devon and Somerset. It is somewhat surprising that at his execution that took place about 1280, all his bonds had not been removed from the Archa, seeing that the property of condemned Jews escheated to the king.2 His house was confiscated at his dcath3 as also was that of Amité, the widow of Samuel son of Moses, who comes next to Jacob in the amount of her business transactions. There are 36 deeds in her name, one owned by John Quynel, Rector of Shobrooke Church, some are for farm produce, the debts in all amounting to £2I5 (equivalent to-day to £6,540 [1931]). Next in order come Jacob Crespin, the Chirographer with £114 (value to-day £3,420 [1931]), Isaac, the son of Moses, £89 (value to-day £7,670 [1931]), whilst Deulecresse le Prestre, the Synagogue official, had 17 debtors with bills for £75 (equal to-day to £2,250 [1931]), including Sir Philip of Uppecote and a Christian capellanus (chaplain). Aaron, son of Jose of Caerleon, owned £34 ( = £1,020) and Solomon, the son of Solomon of the Fichet case £26 in debts (equal to-day to £780). Comitissa who lived in the High Strect, dealt in corn to the value of £33 6s. 8d. for 100 quarters, and also had one tally to the value of 2/- entered in her name.
Altogether, the Exeter report contains the names of 25 men, one is anonymous, and 4 women, who were among the richest members of the Jewry in the latter half of the I3th century. In the whole of the Exeter records from 1181 to 1290 the names of 66 men and 12 women are so far known.
And thus the mediaeval Exeter community ceased to exist and its memory was revived in the middle of the 18th