Select pleas, starrs, and other records from the rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, A.D. 1220-1284 / edited for the Selden Society by J.M. Rigg.

  • Great Britain. Court of Exchequer. Exchequer of the Jews
Date:
1902
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Select pleas, starrs, and other records from the rolls of the Exchequer of the Jews, A.D. 1220-1284 / edited for the Selden Society by J.M. Rigg. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    75/368
    CHARTERS OF LIBERTIES GRANTED AND CONFIRMED TO THE JEWS OF ENGLAND IN THE SECOND YEAR OF THE REIGN OF KING JOHN. [a.d. 1201.] John, by the grace of God etc. Know that We have granted to all Jews of England and Normandy that they reside in freedom and honour in our land, and hold of Us all that they held of King Henry, our father’s grandfather, and all that they now rightfully hold in lands, fees, gages and purchases, and that they have all their fran- chises and customs, as they had them in the time of the said King Henry, our father’s grandfather, in better and more peaceful and honourable enjoyment. And as often as cause of action shall have arisen between Christian and Jew, let him who shall have appealed the other for the deraign- ment of his cause have witnesses, to wit, a lawful Christian and a lawful Jew. And if the Jew shall have a writ touching his cause, his writ shall be to him for witness; and if a Christian shall have cause of action against a Jew, let it be tried by the Jew’s peers. And when a Jew be dead, let not his body be detained above ground, but let his heir have his money and his debts ; so that thereof he may have peace if he have an heir to answer for him and to do right touching his debts and his forfeiture.1 And be it lawful for Jews without let to receive and buy all things brought to them, except those which pertain to the Church and blood-stained cloth. And if a Jew be appealed by any without witness, he shall be quit of that appeal by his bare oath upon his Book. And in like manner he shall be quit of an appeal touching those things that pertain unto our Crown by his bare oath upon his Roll. And as often as there shall be dispute between Christian and Jew touching a loan of money, the Jew shall prove his principal and the Christian the interest. 1 This shows that it had been the custom way of security for the discharge of the to attach the bodies of deceased Jews by claims of the Crown upon their estates.