The Jewish Community
In addition to the citizens in the strict sense, certain special groups with interests in
York remain to be considered, and first among these the Jewish community. Grento
and Benedict in 1130 (fn. 47) are probably early representatives of it; and in Henry II's reign
it acquired the Jewborough, or Jewbury, later the site of its cemetery. (fn. 48) About the same
time Joce son of David is found buying a messuage in Fossgate; (fn. 49) and among the debtors
of Aaron of Lincoln in 1191 were Benedict of York, his three brothers, his partner
Samuel, Samuel of York, and Joce of York. (fn. 50) By that time, apparently, a Jewish colony
of fair size had grown up in the city.
There had already been dramatic testimony to this fact in 1190, when the Jews of
York were the victims of a pogrom. The accounts of this episode show that the leaders
of the community were the Benedict and Joce mentioned above, who had magnificent
houses in Spen Lane and Coney Street respectively where, it was said, they lived 'like
princes of their people and tyrants to the Christians'. (fn. 51) Both were in London at the
time of Richard I's coronation and suffered in the anti-semitic riots which marked that
occasion, Benedict dying at Northampton soon afterwards. (fn. 52) Joce returned to York to
find a similar anti-Jewish movement had been stirred up there by indebted landowners
and crusaders on the eve of departure. Rioting broke out on 15 March and lasted until
the 17th, beginning with the sacking of Benedict's house and the murder of his widow.
Joce and most of the other Jews of the city, with the connivance of the constable, took
refuge in the castle, those who failed to reach this sanctuary being forcibly baptized or
massacred. The refugees in the castle, however, refused entry to anyone; and the
sheriff, who now arrived on the scene, lost his head and ordered the crusaders and others
assembled in York to attack it. The most detailed version of the events which followed
borrows heavily from Josephus's account of Vespasian's siege of Masada; (fn. 53) but it seems
that some of the Jews committed suicide at the suggestion of Rabbi Jomtob of Joigny,
and that most of those who surrendered on a promise of safety were massacred as they
came out. The castle itself was fired by the rioters, and the records of debts owed to the
Jews were solemnly burned in the midst of the minster, where they had been placed for
safe keeping.
The king's anger soon descended on those responsible. The justiciar came north in
April with a military force, dismissed the sheriff and constable, imposed severe penalties
on the city and arrested many of those who had taken part. The leading role had apparently been played by Richard Malbysse of Acaster Malbis (W.R.), already punningly
described by a Hebrew scribe eight years earlier as 'the evil beast'. (fn. 54) His estates were
seized into the king's hand and two of his esquires were thrown into prison. (fn. 55) As for the
citizens, some were gaoled, some taken as hostages to Northampton, some forfeited
their property, and many, both wealthy and obscure men, paid fines to the king. (fn. 56)
What the Jewish casualties were it is impossible to say, but Ephraim of Bonn's estimate
that 'the number of those slain and burnt was 150 souls' seems the most reasonable. (fn. 57)
For a time, indeed, the Jewish community in York may have been all but extinguished,
for it does not figure at all in the Jewish donum of 1194. (fn. 58) By 1201, however, Jews were
again lending money there; and in 1208 there is a specific reference to the Jewish community of York in a case involving a Jew who slew his wife for love of Belina, a Jewess. (fn. 59)
The community was taken into Henry III's protection in 1221, (fn. 60) and in 1230 bought
a plot in Barkergate (now St. Maurice's Road) to extend its cemetery. (fn. 61) In 1255, in
taxable capacity, the Jews of York stood seventh among the Jewries of England, (fn. 62) and
earlier they may have stood higher. Eighteen York Jews contributed to the tallage of
1221 and 32 to that of 1223, (fn. 63) and they were apparently widely scattered through the city.
There are notices of Jewish property in Coney Street, Micklegate, Hungate, Fossgate,
Feltergayle (now Fetter Lane), Bretgate (i.e. Jubbergate, now Market Street), Patrick
Pool, Walmgate, St. Saviourgate, Castlegate, and Pavement. (fn. 64) This dispersal does not
suggest any great tension at this period between the Jews and their Christian neighbours.
One member of the community was certainly outstanding in his day. Aaron of York (fn. 65)
was a son of that Joce who perished in 1190. He lived in Coney Street, but also had a
house in Milk Street in London. He lent money to men in at least fourteen counties and
in association with at least 20 of his co-religionists. (fn. 66) He was indeed the greatest of the
Anglo-Jewish financiers of the 13th century; but after 1243 he was systematically ruined
by Henry III, being mulcted, as he complained to Matthew Paris, of 30,000 marks in
seven years. By the early 1250's he had been reduced to penury and, though he lived to
1268, did so thenceforward in obscurity. But he left his name in general history as well
as in a tradition that a loan from him financed the making of the 'Five Sisters' window
in the minster. (fn. 67)
What happened to Aaron was also happening to the rest of the York Jews. Antisemitic sentiment came to the surface again. A Jew was murdered at Ouse Bridge in
1257, and the murderer's accomplices acquitted by a city jury; (fn. 68) Aaron's nephew suffered
at the hands of Montfort's followers; and in 1266 the king had to take the Jews of York
under his protection. (fn. 69) Crushing taxation, restrictions on the practice of usury, and
Edward I's campaign against Jews who clipped money, all took their toll. When some
York Jews were arrested in 1277, they were too poor to find sureties or bear the cost of
their transport to London for trial. (fn. 70) Thenceforward there are continual references to
Jewish bonds held by the king's treasury as security for tallages, to Jews in prison for
not paying tallages, and to Jewish property sold to Christians. (fn. 71)
In this manner the Jews of York and elsewhere were ruined before they were expelled
in 1290. In that year they departed via the Cinque Ports, Archbishop Romeyn warning
his flock that they were not to be molested on pain of excommunication. (fn. 72) The sheriff
valued their real property in York, now reduced to small proportions: seven houses and
the cemetery of Jewbury were worth little over £15. (fn. 73) Of the half-dozen Jews mentioned
by name in this survey, only one, Bonamy of York, is heard of again. He was authorized
by Philip the Fair to live where he pleased in France and to dispense with the Jewish
badge. He settled in fact in Paris, where in 1292 he met Archbishop Romeyn as the
latter returned from Rome. The archbishop agreed to collect on his behalf a debt owed
to Bonamy by Bridlington Priory; and Romeyn's endeavours to do so led to his arraignment before parliament in 1293. (fn. 74) There ended the history of the medieval Jewish community in York.