17 January 2025

The Jewish community
in Colchester was one
of the most important
in mediaeval England

Stockwell Street was at the centre of Jewish life in Colchester in the 12th and 13th centuries (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Patrick Comerford

During my visit to Colchester earlier this week, I went in search of the stories of both the mediaeval and the modern Jewish communities in the Essex town that claims to be the oldest town in England, as well as being one of the newest cities.

The modern Colchester Synagogue is close to the Roman Walls and the ruins of Saint Botolph’s Priory. But there was a Jewish community in mediaeval Colchester from at least 1185 for over a century until the expulsion of Jews from England in 1290.

The mediaeval Jewish community in Colchester was centred on Stockwell Street, now part of the Dutch Quarter immediately north of the High Street and west of the castle. The Jewish community in mediaeval Colchester was so important that it was one of the 26 centres in England with an archa. These archae were official chests, provided with three locks and seals, and they held and preserved all the deeds and contracts of the Jewish communities.

The archae were part of the reorganisation of English Jewry ordered by Richard I following the massacres of Jews in England 1189-1190. During the riots and massacres after his coronation, the mobs had destroyed Jewish financial records, resulting in heavy losses of Crown revenues. The archae were introduced to safeguard royal interests in case of future disorder.

All Jewish possessions and financial transactions were registered in designated cities. In each city with an archa, a bureau was set up with two reputable Jews and two Christian clerks, under the supervision of a new central authority known as the Exchequer of the Jews. Other centres with an archa included London, Canterbury, Lincoln, Norwich, Oxford, Cambridge, Winchester, Bedford and possibly Bristol, Gloucester and Northampton or Nottingham.

The centres had increased in number to 27 by the mid-13th century. By the time of the mass expulsion of Jews from England in 1290, Jews had already been excluded from eight of these centres and only 19 archae were active.

Jews are first mentioned as living in the Stockwell Street area of Colchester in 1185 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

Jews are first mentioned as living in Colchester in 1185, when Benedict of Norwich paid a heavy fine of £40 for selling goods without licence to, among others, Aaron, Isaac and Abraham of Colchester.

Five years later, a wave of anti-Jewish attacks that started in Lynn, Norfolk, in 1190 spread to Colchester.

Colchester was ranked ninth in importance among the Jewish communities in England in 1194, according to the Northampton Donum, a rescript to the Jews of England by Richard I, Richard the Lionheart, when he returned from Germany, imposing a levy of 5,000 marks to be paid by them towards the expenses of his ransom from captivity. In all, £1,803 7s 7d was collected, with the Jews of Colchester contributing £41 to the levy of 5,000 marks, an indication of the wealth within the community.

The community had a special bailiff in 1220. He was named Benedict and his role was probably to collect the taxes imposed upon the community.

A deed in 1252 shows the Jewry of Colchester was located in Stockwell Street.

The position of the Jews of Colchester as vassals of the Crown is illustrated in 1255 when Henry III granted the custody of the Castle of Colchester and the lands belonging to it to Guy de Rochefort. The grant expressly excluded the woods of Kingwood and the Jews of the town. The king claimed sole jurisdiction over the Jewry of Colchester, and when he granted the castle to Guy of Rochfort, he reserved the right to enter the town and the hundred of Colchester to search for Jews’ debts.

A grant of the Castle of Colchester in 1255 excluded the Jewry of Colchester (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

An agreement dated 1258 shows the Jewish community in Colchester was living in Stockwell Street. The Victoria County History records that in 1258 a rabbi, Samuel son of the Rabbi Jechiel, was given 15 years tenure of a house in East or West Stockwell Street that may have contained the synagogue recorded in 1268.

Friendly community relations in Colchester are disclosed in a curious incident in December 1277 when several Jews and Christians were involved in an infringement of the forest laws. They were severely fined, the Jews more heavily than the others, and the Christians stood surety for Jews and vice-versa. The Jews of Colchester were named as Saute, son of Ursel, Cok and Samuel, sons of Aaron, and Isaac, their chaplain.

One of the Jewish offenders escaped to Lincoln, but he returned 10 years later, when a portrait of him was drawn upon the Forest Roll by the scribe who had described his offence. The caricature is the earliest dated portrait of a Jew in England. He wears a yellow badge with the Tablets of the Law on his upper garments, and was named as ‘Aaron, Son of the Devil.’

Jews were expelled en masse from England in 1290, including the Jewish community in Colchester in 1290. By then, the Jews of Colchester had become the seventh largest Jewish community in England. They included nine families of about 50 individuals, with nine houses in Stockwell Street and a ‘schola’ or synagogue that was confiscated and transferred to the Crown.

Later, the area immediately north of the High Street in Colchester became known as the Dutch Quarter. It includes: Maidenburgh Street, West Stockwell Street, East Stockwell Street, Stockwell Street, Saint Helen’s Lane, Northgate Street and Nunn’s Road.

Flemish Protestant refugees fleeing religious persecution after a rebellion against their Spanish Catholic rulers settled in these streets in the 16th century. The houses pre-date the Dutch arrival and previously had been inhabited by the Jewish community and other immigrants.

When Jews began to return to England in the 1650s, a small number initially returned to Stockwell Street, and there was a small number of Jews in Colchester by the end 18th century. It seems there was a synagogue in Colchester by the late 18th century in what was then known as Synagogue Yard, in Angel Lane, near West Stockwell Street, although little is known about it.

The Dutch Quarter fell into relative decay by the early decades of the 20th century. The area was regenerated in the 1970s and received a Civic Trust Building award. Today, the Dutch Quarter is a quiet residential area just off of the High Street.

But more about the modern Jewish community in Colchester on another Friday evening, hopefully.

Shabbat Shalom, שבת שלום‎

East Stockwell Street … the Jews of Colchester were the seventh largest Jewish community in England by 1290 (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2025)

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