The essay on the presence of Jews in Cornwall has given rise to much
controversy; and as I republish it here without any important alterations,
I feel it incumbent to say a few words in answer to the objections that
have been brought forward against it. No one, I think, can read my essay
without perceiving that what I question is not the presence of single Jews
in Cornwall, but the migration of large numbers of Jews into the extreme
West of Britain, whether at the time of the Phœnicians, or at the period
of the destruction of Jerusalem, or under the Flavian princes, or even at
a later time. The Rev. Dr. Bannister in a paper on “the Jews in Cornwall,”
published in the Journal of the Royal Institution of Cornwall, 1867, does
indeed represent me as having maintained “that one single Jew never set
foot on Cornish soil!” But if my readers will refer to the passage thus
quoted from my essay by Dr. Bannister, they will see that it was not meant
in that sense. In the passage thus quoted with inverted commas,(87) I
simply argued that from certain words used by Carew, on which great stress
had been laid, it would not even follow “that one single Jew ever set foot
on Cornish soil,” which surely is very different from saying that I
maintained that no single Jew ever set foot on Cornish soil. It would
indeed be the most extraordinary fact if Cornwall had never been visited
by Jews. If it were so, Cornwall would stand alone, as far as such an
immunity is concerned, among all the countries of Europe. But it is one
thing for Jews to be scattered about in towns,(88) or even for one or two
Jews to have actually worked in tin mines, and quite another to speak of
towns receiving Hebrew names in Cornwall, and of deserted tin-mines being
called the workings of the Jews. To explain such startling facts, if facts
they be, a kind of Jewish exodus to Cornwall had to be admitted, and was
admitted as long as such names as _Marazion_ and _Attal Sarazin_ were
accepted in their traditional meaning. My own opinion was that these names
had given rise to the assumed presence of Jews in Cornwall, and not that
the presence of Jews in Cornwall had given rise to these names.
If, therefore, it could be proved that some Jewish families had been
settled in Cornwall in very early times, or that a few Jewish slaves had
been employed as miners, my theory would not at all be affected. But I
must say that the attempts at proving even so much have been far from
successful. Surely the occurrence of Old Testament names among the people
of Cornwall, such as Abraham, Joseph, or Solomon (there is a Solomon, Duke
of Cornwall), does not prove that their bearers were Jews. Again, if we
read in the time of Edward II. that “John Peverel held Hametethy of Roger
le Jeu,” we may be quite certain that _le Jeu_ does not mean “the Jew,”
and that in the time of Edward II. no John Peverel held land of a Jew.
Again, if in the time of Edward III. we read of one “Abraham, the tinner,
who employed 300 men in the stream-works of Brodhok,” it would require
stronger proof than the mere name to make us believe that this Abraham was
a Jew.
I had endeavored to show that there was no evidence as to the Earl of
Cornwall, the brother of Henry III., having employed Jews in the Cornish
mines, and had pointed out a passage from Rymer’s “Fœdera” where it is
stated that the Earl spared them (_pepercit_). Dr. Bannister remarks:
“Though we are told that he spared them, might not this be similar to
Joseph’s brethren sparing him,—by committing their bodies as his slaves to
work in the tin-mines?” It might be so, no doubt, but we do not know it.
Again, Dr. Bannister remarks: “Jerome tells us that when Titus took
Jerusalem, an incredible number of Jews were sold like horses, and
dispersed over the face of the whole earth. The account given by Josephus
is, that of those spared after indiscriminate slaughter, some were
dispersed through the provinces for the use of the theatres, as
gladiators; others were sent to the Egyptian mines, and others sold as
slaves. If the Romans at this time worked the Cornish mines, why may not
some have been sent here?” I can only answer, as before; they may have
been, no doubt, but we do not know it.
I had myself searched very carefully for any documents that might prove
the presence even of single Jews in Cornwall, previous to the time when
they were banished the realm by Edward I. But my inquiries had not proved
more successful than those of my predecessors. Pearce, in his “Laws and
Customs of the Stanaries,” published in London, 1725, shares the common
belief that the Jews worked in the Cornish mines. “The tinners,” he says
(p. ii), “call the antient works by the name of the Working of the Jews,
and it is most manifest, that there were Jews inhabiting here until 1291;
and this they prove by the names yet enduring, viz. Attall Sarazin, in
English, The Jews Feast.” But in spite of his strong belief in the
presence of Jews in Cornwall, Pearce adds: “But whether they had liberty
to work and search for tin, does not appear, because they had their
dwellings chiefly in great Towns and Cities; and being great Usurers, were
in that year banished out of England, to the number of 15,060, by the most
noble Prince, Edward I.”
At last, however, with the kind assistance of Mr. Macray, I discovered a
few real Jews in Cornwall in the third year of King John, 1202, namely,
one _Simon de Dena_, one _Deudone, the son of Samuel_, and one _Aaron_.
Some of their monetary transactions are recorded in the “Rotulus
Cancellarii vel Antigraphum Magni Rotuli Pipæ de tertio anno Regni Regis
Johannis” (printed under the direction of the Commissioners of the Public
Records in 1863, p. 96), and we have here not only their names as evidence
of their Jewish origin, but they are actually spoken of as “_prædictus
Judens_.” Their transactions, however, are purely financial, and do not
lead us to suppose that the Jews, in order to make tin, condescended, in
the time of King John or at any other time, to the drudgery of working in
tin-mines.
_July_, 1867.