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ANTI-SEMITISM & EXPULSION

The Jewish citizens of Northampton suffered some terrible outbreaks of anti-Semitism in the last century of their existence triggered by increasing hostility from the Church and the advent of the Crusades. In 1190 there was an outrage against the Jews of Stamford, during which many of their houses were sacked and pillaged. One of the looters was a John of Stamford. He escaped to Northampton with his loot, but was himself murdered in his lodging at night.

Venerated a martyr, the Jews of Northampton were blamed for his murder and a riot ensued. A massacre was only averted because St Hugh, Bishop of Lincoln, intervened in person, threatening all who dissented with excommunication.

The community also suffered during the Baron's War, when Northampton took the side of the Barons against the King. Under royal protection, in 1264, the Jews were forced to take refuge in Northampton Castle for a considerable period.

The nadir of the Northampton Jewry's fortunes was reached in 1277 when they were falsely accused of the attempted ritual murder of a Christian boy on Good Friday, in St Sepulchre's graveyard. Local tradition records the gruesome execution of many of the town's Jews outside the town gates in consequence. A tradition of this terrible episode may well have influenced Chaucer in his composition of the anti-Semitic Prioresses' tale in the 15th century.

The execution in London the following year of many more Northampton Jews, persecuted on the charge of coin clipping, signalled the final decline of the Northampton community. The record of the pathetic conversion of 'Agnes', 'Barnabas', and their children, in the period immediately after suggests the extremis that the community found themselves in. Conversion was for most the very last resort, and then for many martyrdom or expulsion was still infinitely preferable.