Demurrer to the Jews 2, Errata (2 of 2)
When the Jews came firſt into England, appears not certainly by any Hiſtorians, there being no mention of their being here in any of our Britiſh or Saxon Kings reigns, to my remembrance. Antoninus in his Chronicles Tit. 16. ca. 5. records, That William the Conqueror King of England, tranſlated the Jews from Rhoan to London; and the Magdeburg Centuries out of him, Centur. xi. cap. 14. Col. 686. adds thereto, that it was OB NUMERATUM PRECIUM, for a ſumm of money given to him by them, (which I find not in Antoninus.) Both theſe Authors intimate, That this was their firſt arival in England, yet in what year of this King, they are ſilent. With them concurs Raphael Holinſhed, Vol. 3. p. 15. where thus he writes, Among other grievances, which the Engliſh ſuſtained by the hard dealings of the Conqueror, this is to be remembred, That he brought Jews into the Land from Rouen, and appointed them a place to inhabit and occupy: (reputing their very firſt introduction a Grievance to the Engliſh, and hard dealing.) Which John Stow in his Annals of England, p. 103. thus ſeconds, King William brought the Jews from Rhoan here to inhabit in England. But this Law concerning the Jews, inſerted amongſt the Laws in the Confeſſors time, ſeems to prove their arrival and ſettlement in England, to be before this Normans reign; unleſſe miſ-placed in point of time amongſt his Lawes by Hoveden, being rather in my opinion, a Declaration of the Jews ſervile condition under King William, and Richard the firſt, when Hoveden writ, then any Law in King Edwards reign, or before, as the words import.