Exchequer of the Jews

The Exchequer of the Jews (Latin: Scaccarium Judaeorum) was a division of the Court of Exchequer at Westminster, which recorded and regulated the taxes and the law-cases of the Jews in England. It operated from the late 1190s until the eventual expulsion of the Jews in 1290.

Jews began to settle in England soon after the Norman Conquest in 1066. For the most part they escaped the massacres during the First (1096–1099) and Second (1145–1149) Crusades, and despite occasional imposition of fines and special levies, their numbers and prosperity increased under the protection of the king.

There was a reason Jews were protected by the Crown. Surviving records of the Exchequer Pipe Roll of the reign of Henry I show that the Jews of England constituted a major source of royal revenue to the Crown early in the twelfth century. "The intent was to use the Jewry as a reservoir equally open to receive and closed to retain the surplus wealth of the surrounding population, so that the Crown will never lack a fund on which to draw in an hour of need".

With the further advance of commerce and industry under Henry I and Henry II, the Jews of England continued to increase their royal revenues; and the demand grew for the creation of a distinct department of the Great Exchequer for the management of Jewish capital.

The first special exchequer appears to have been created to manage the large estate left by Aaron of Lincoln (died 1186), which needed a treasurer and clerk to look after it. The institution was called "Aaron's Exchequer." The riots following Richard I's accession showed the danger such property was liable to if no record was kept of the debts owed to the Jews. Accordingly Richard in 1194 ordered that duplicates should be taken of all Jewish debt records and kept in this or in other central repositories:All the debts, pledges, mortgages, lands, houses, rents, and possessions of the Jews shall be registered... no contract shall be made with, nor payment, made to, the Jews, nor any alteration made in the charters, except before the said persons.

It was soon afterward found necessary to have a centre for the whole of Jewish business, and this was attached to the Exchequer of Westminster and called the "Exchequer of the Jews". The first recorded mention of this is in 1200, when four "justices of the Jews" were named, two of them being Jews, Benjamin de Talemunt and Joseph Aaron. These justices had the status of barons of the Exchequer, and were under the treasurer and chief justice. They were assisted by a clerk and escheator; Jews might hold these offices, but, excepting the two mentioned above, none ever became justice of the Jews. The justices were aided in their deliberations by the presbyter judaeorum (chief rabbi), who doubtless assisted them in deciding questions of Jewish law which may have come before them.

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