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No.53 - October 2002 | Contex HOME

Jewish Converts in Medieval England

The Domus Conversorum or House of Converts was founded by Henry III in 1232 in what purported to be an act of generous charity. It offered a home, albeit at subsistence level, to destitute Jewish converts to Christianity. It stood in what later became Chancery Lane on the site until recently occupied by the Public Record Office and was maintained largely through a poll-tax levied on Jews.

Communal life in the Domus was based on monastic organisation with daily worship. Christian doctrine was taught and, perhaps, employable skills. Cloth for clothing the residents was sometimes provided by the Exchequer but their "wages" were very low, with 1¹/2d a day for men, 1d for women - about ¹/2p and frequently in arrear.

London had been home to a Jewish community since the Norman Conquest. Their valuable financial skills were very important to the King and though official policy required that they become Christians the King was more keen "to convert them into cash than into Christians". Financial transactions, marriage, death, conversion all involved payment of taxes. Statute declared the Jews themselves, all their chattels and money to belong to the King and placed them outside the feudal hierarchy. Owning land was forbidden to them: money lending was their raison d’être in England. From 1194 the Exchequer of the Jews, a special organ of government, governed all their transactions. In everyday life their Christian neighbours mistrusted and feared them, even though their religion guarded the holy books whose prophecies bore witness to the truth of Christianity.

By the 13th century campaigns were organised to convert large numbers of Jews. The clear-cut religious aspects of conversion were, however, clouded by financial implications: on conversion a Jew’s property was forfeit to the Crown which obviously preferred a financially productive Jew to a destitute convert.

After the Papal Bull "Vineam Sorec" of 1278 Jews in England were compelled to attend conversion sermons preached by Dominicans and Edward I even waived his claim to the whole property of converts, though only for a seven-year period. On conversion Jews then retained half their property with the remainder used for the upkeep of the Domus. Life in the Domus may have offered valuable support to the Jewish converts who had abandoned their Jewish kin but were regarded with scorn and suspicion by Christians. Integration was certainly very difficult.

Inmates of the Domus came from many towns and all were given new, non-Jewish names: Bartholomeus de Wynton, Johanna de Norwych. Some remained there, others left and returned, often more than once, but there were usually between eighty and one hundred inmates at any one time. Many more converts lived outside and some integrated and prospered. Pedro Alfonso became court physician to Henry I and Roger the Convert became Edward I’s Serjeant at Arms.

All Jews were banished from England in 1290 but the Domus continued to exist though there are no records after 1609. In 1891 an Act of Parliament abolished the post of Preacher to the Chapel and the buildings formerly occupied by the converts were used to store the Rolls of Chancery.

Hearing about their particular minority group was most interesting and helped to flesh out our impression of life in medieval London.

The Jewish Museum
A two-centre Museum illustrating the history and religious life of the Jewish community in Britain and beyond.

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