Dean Irwin

This article considers the role interest in medieval Anglo-Jewish moneylending transactions. Although there is some discussion of the impact of the prohibition of charging interest in 1275, fundamentally this piece is concerned with the preceding century. During this period, interest could be openly charged upon individual transactions. This is article examines how interest functioned at the transactional level.

Acknowledgments of debt, made to the Jews of England between 1194 and 1290, have long been known to historians. The two largest collections of acknowledgements, stored in Westminster Abbey and The National Archives, have been utilised in very different ways however. There is no substantive difference between the records themselves and, as such, it is to the archival history of these documents that one must look in order to account for this. Thus, this paper is concerned with establishing the custodial history of the acknowledgements and determining the impact that this has had upon their use. Equally, it uses this later history in order to cast new light upon the origins of the documents.

There have been several attempts to map Christian debtors and Jewish creditors within thirteenth century England over the last two decades. These have largely been based upon an analysis of toponyms within documents such as list of debts (scrutinies). Moreover, these attempts have been narrow in scope, focusing upon the transactions of individual Jewish communities. The approach which is adopted in this paper breaks with traditional endeavours by utilising all records of debt (especially scrutinies and acknowledgements of debt) on a national level. This is done in three ways. First, it will map debt on the county level in order to illustrate any regional variances. Second,  the origin of debts on a local level will be mapped in order to illustrate the precise urban-rural split in among Christian creditors. Third, and finally, the Jewish creditors themselves will be mapped in order to determine trends in an attempt to determine the distribution of Jewish creditors in relation to Christian debtors. Consequently, it will become possible to discern regional and national trends that contributed to medieval Anglo-Jewish moneylending, and Christian borrowing, practices that has hitherto been possible within the historiography.

Within the historiography, studies of gender in medieval England during the High Middle Ages have generally been concerned with the Christian context. Equally, those publications which have endeavoured to explore the role of gender within the Anglo-Jewish community, during the same period, have focused almost exclusively upon the richest or most infamous individuals.  Given the extent of the source material, however, it is possible to reconstruct the genealogies and activities of many second tier Jews. One such example is that of Deulecresse son of Genta (more commonly referred to as Cresse son of Genta). An examination of the Plea Rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews and the Chancery Rolls reveals that Cresse was active from at least the late the 1250s until the eve of the Expulsion (1290). Moreover, several, previously unused, acknowledgements of debt housed at The National Archives relate directly or indirectly (i.e. his children the patronymic "son" or "daughter of Cresse son of Genta". What is remarkable about this cumulative evidence, however, is that Cresse did not appear in isolation but, rather, was regularly cited in conjunction with members of his extended family. As a result it is possible to ascertain that all of Cresse's children (male and female), as well as his wife, were engaged in the family business of moneylending, to a greater of lesser extent. Therefore, this paper will serve the dual purpose of reconstructing Cresse's extended family tree, and then analysing their business activities, in order to ascertain the way in which gender impacted upon the business activities of this thirteenth century Anglo-Jewish moneylending family. Consequently, light will be shone on a family which features prominently within the extant source material but has been largely absent from the historiography.

In this article Dean A. Irwin provides an overview of
the period and England’s Jewish community, some of its
members and the treatment they received at the hands
of their Christian neighbours. This article supports the
Short Course also being run by the HA as part of our
public engagement and development of our ‘Historian’
membership.

In this piece I discuss the role of Dr Robin Mundill in facilitating the development of medieval Anglo-Jewish history as an academic discipline. This edition of Jewish Historical Studies is available via Open Access and can be found here: http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content/uclpress/jhsj/2015/00000047/00000001;jsessionid=5j4qle1d2694k.alexandra

As somebody who was sat a few short feet from King Richard's coffin as it was lowered into his final resting place, one of my history lecturers requested that I write up my thoughts on that event. It's slightly more cynical that has thus far been reported,  but it is something to think about - I'm more than happy to engage in debate with anybody who feels that it just a lot of tripe.

"Medieval Anglo-Jewry & the English Ritual Murder Allegations" is a lecture given virtually at the University of Huddersfield in February 2021 as part of their series on Antisemitism, Holocaust and Genocide Studies. A recording of the lecture can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VkPiYzy30bs