Comment by Dean A. Irwin (University of Lincoln)

Newspaper articles published in the past week, suggesting the ‘discovery’ of the medieval Jewish cemetery at London, were met with a mixture of surprise and confusion. Its location is well known (just beyond Cripplegate, with part of the estate next to St. Giles in Cripplegate), and a remarkable set of sources detail the position and expansion of the site. We know more about this cemetery than any other medieval Anglo-Jewish burial ground, with the possible exception of Jewbury (York). Nor was this forgotten following the general expulsion from the Jews England in 1290, as some newspaper articles claimed. Rather, its location was well known into the Early Modern period. Scholarly knowledge of the site was much advanced by excavations of part of the site in 1948-49 by W. F. Grimes, partly funded by the Jewish Historical Society of England. This work was unable to locate any bodies or tombstones but did find evidence to suggest that the bodies had been exhumed. The historical records relating to the London Jewry were discussed in an important article by Marjorie B. Honeybourne in 1959-61, which includes a useful map of the probable site. In the 1990s, Joe Hillaby also produced two articles on the London Jewry, which emphasised the location of the cemetery, and situated it within the broader context of the community. 

Prior to 1177, this was the only Jewish cemetery in England. Following this date, Roger of Howden tells us, Henry II granted permission for Jewish communities elsewhere in the country to purchase land outside of the city walls to serve as cemeteries. Even then, however, London retained national importance, and not every Jewish community could afford a plot (nor did every town have space outside the walls to accommodate them). Following the massacre of the York Jewry in March 1190, the bodies were transported for burial in London. Equally, although it is often said that the Jews of Canterbury had their own cemetery, this not the case, and they seem to have shared with London throughout the thirteenth century. It was presumably here also that the 269 Jews who were executed at the Tower of London in 1278-79 were buried, given that an exemption had been purchased to ensure that those convicted of felony could be buried here as well. Clearly, we are dealing with a large site, therefore, and this is borne out by the historical record. Based on the surviving sources Honeybourne suggested that the site might have occupied an area of about 2.5 acres by 1290, with the original site before 1177 perhaps covering 1.5 acres. 

The historical narrative which accompanied the news release, lent particularly into the lachrymose conception of Jewish history. The suggestion was made that, following the Expulsion, the cemetery was desecrated. Although we have evidence of such activities on the Continent (at Regensburg, for example) this is not the case for England. Moreover, as my own work has argued, there is remarkably little evidence of urban reactions against the Jews (or the memory of them) in the towns of England between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, so the idea of desecration does not fit that model. Equally, it was argued that ‘They [the Jews] weren’t free but lived under the protection of William [the Conqueror]. They didn’t even own the hair on their heads’. This is a particularly problematic reading of the sources, of the type which was commonly promulgated a century ago. Now, we understand that a great deal more nuance is required to explain the position of the Jews in medieval England – one of the aims that my book project Jews and Christians as Neighbours in Medieval English Towns (Palgrave, 2028)aims to tackle. Unfortunately, the historical commentary on the associated website, also requires much work. Of the three massacres cited, only one actually happened although it is misdated. While Henry I issued a charter to the Jews of England and Normandy (later confirmed by King John and Henry III), it was the Laws of Edward the Confessor (compiled later in his reign) that established royal authority over the Jews (if it could be exercised). The Exchequer of the Jews was not founded in 1194 and Edward I was not deeply indebted to the Jews – either at the time of the Expulsion or at any other point in his life. 

It must be noted that important work has been done on the themes raised by the newspaper articles. Rory MacLellan’s work on Jews and the Tower of London has done much to advance our knowledge of individual Jews in London (whether at the Tower or in the city itself). Toni Griffiths did important work on memory of medieval Jewry in her doctoral work at the University of Winchester and is the leading expert on medieval Anglo-Jewish cemeteries. Pinchas Roth has published on the Hebrew responsa of Rabbi Elias son of Rabbi Moses, who in 1256-57 was the keeper of the cemetery. Finally, and less importantly, I have published on the social structure of the London Jewry with reference to Rabbi Elias son of Rabbi Moses and Cresse son of Genta, as well as the archae system and records of Jewish moneylending activities at London. Volume 3 of Hebrew and Hebrew-Latin Documents, currently being edited by Judith Olszowy-Schlanger and myself, also includes several fascinating London documents which have not previously been published. One hopes that a century of historical progress will be incorporated into the proposed exhibition!