Stories
We will be featuring some episodes from the lives of the City’s medieval Jewish community. We begin with two stories of this history written by our two Academic Leads, Dr Rory Maclellan and Dr Dean Irwin.
We welcome these researched pieces which vividly portray mediaeval Jewish life in the City of London.
JURNET, THE JEWISH SERGEANT AT THE TOWER OF LONDON
Dr Rory Maclellan
In late Spring 1281, Jurnet, son of Abraham, and two other Jews entered London, a cart dragging behind them. Atop was the body of Josce of Guildford, who had been murdered. Jurnet was bringing Josce’s remains to the city’s Jewish cemetery for burial.
As the procession passed through Southwark high street on the way to London Bridge, the bailiff of Southwark and his men appeared and demanded that the Jews pay a tax of 2s for every cart carrying dead Jews. Jurnet and the others refused, saying that the king had exempted them from all such tolls, but the bailiff would not give in. They attacked Jurnet and overturned the cart, throwing Josce’s corpse to the cobbles, beating the three Jews and tearing off some of their clothes to sell for the toll.
Jurnet was soon avenged on the bailiff. He took him to court and, when the bailiff could not produce any evidence of his right to tax the Jews, he was imprisoned. The court record describes Jurnet as a ‘sergeant of the Tower’, making him the only practising Jew known to have worked at the Tower of London in the medieval period.
The record does not say what Jurnet’s exact duties at the Tower were and sergeant could mean any range of roles, from soldier to servant, officer, or attendant. But this incident suggests he was responsible for bringing bodies to London’s Jewish cemetery, which the Tower had some oversight of and interest in. Particularly after the mass imprisonment and execution of Jews at the Tower in the 1270s for alleged coin-clipping, snipping the edges of silver coins to sell the silver, the authorities may have decided to take on a more direct role, employing a Jew to take his people’s bodies there for a decent burial.
Further reading
Rory Maclellan Prisoners, Sanctuary-Seekers, and Workers: Jews at the Tower of London, 1189–1290 Wiley Online Library History Volume 107, Issue 378 p. 815-835
AN ANGLO-JEWISH ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT
Dr Dean A. Irwin (University of Lincoln)
On 29 December 1258, Cresse son of Master Moses (presumably) made the short journey from his house on the north end of Milk Street to the Tower of London. There, in the presence of Hugh Bigod, earl of Norfolk and Justiciar of England, he brought a case on behalf of his brother, Hagin.
Hagin, it was alleged, had been in Colechurch Street, opposite St. Olave’s church, at around 6am on Saturday 14 December. There, he had been set upon by John Ferrant, who attempted to murder Hagin. He would surely have succeeded had it not been for the passersby – Christians as well as Jews – who came to Hagin’s defence. Even so, Hagin suffered a substantial injury to the side of his neck with a wound two-inches long and three-inches deep. The knife (or, more precisely, pick-axe) may have been wielded by a Christian, but it quickly became apparent that the attack had been orchestrated by Elias l’Eveske. Indeed, John fled the scene and sought shelter in Elias’s house!
This attack was politically motivated. In 1243, Elias had been appointed to the office of presbyter Judeorum, the highest office that it was possible for a Jew in England to occupy. In 1257, however, he had been removed from that office. Such was the general antipathy of the community towards Elias that Hagin (and Cresse) paid a fine one behalf of the Jews of England that Elias would never be restored to office. To add insult to injury, in February 1258, Hagin succeed Elias in that office. This cannot have improved relations between the two men, and the assassination attempt seems to have followed ten months later. Its failure sealed Elias’s fate, also. With no allies within the Jewish community, he was forced to convert to Christianity along with two of his sons (but not one called Isaac). Upon his conversion, he took the name Henry, presumably in reference to the king. A few weeks later, another of Hagin’s brothers, Master Elias, purchased Elias’s London property. Ultimately, Hagin recovered and, along with his brothers, dominated by the London Jewry and the Anglo-Jewish community for the next two decades.
Several points are worth highlighting in this case. First, the events in question happened early on a Saturday, on the sabbath. Second, as the case makes clear, both Christians and Jews came to Hagin’s aid, highlighting the neighbourliness of this part of London. Third, the almost universal dislike of Elias l’Eveske, particularly by his own community, highlights that we ought not to view the Jewish community in homogeneous terms. Fourth, and finally, it highlights that political machinations, and powerplays were just as relevant for Jews as Christians. Political backstabbing – give or take a few inches…
Further Reading
Special Eyre Rolls of Hugh Bigod, 1258–1260, ed. Andrew H. Hershey, 2 vols. (London, 2021), i, pp. 112-113.
Dean A. Irwin, ‘Social Hierarchies and Networks in the Thirteenth-Century London Jewry’, Thirteenth Century England, 18 (2023), pp. 189-207.