Acknowledging debt in Medieval England: a study of the records of Medieval Anglo-Jewish moneylending activities 1194-1276

This thesis examines a collection of 348 acknowledgements of debt, which were generated by Jewish moneylending activities between 1194 and 1275/6. It considers the legal and administrative structures within which they were produced, before analysing the transactions which they record. In particular, it follows the models which have been established for the analysis of Christian charters and applies them to what have traditionally been regarded as ‘Jewish documents’. Significantly, this thesis moves away from traditional narratives, which situate such records in the context of royal document production, to consider more fully the relationship between the Jews and the civic communities with which they lived and interacted. As a result, this study challenges traditional approaches to medieval Anglo-Jewish sources (which distinguish between the records of Church and State). This makes it possible to distinguish between the role of local, regional, and national influences on document production. Equally, the size of the corpus, which spans most of the thirteenth century, makes it possible to move away from generalised discussions which span the period under consideration to, instead, comment precisely on when and how developments occurred.