“Henry, by the grace of God, king of England, &c. To all our sheriffs, bailiffs, and liege subjects, to whom these presents shall come, greeting. Know ye, that for the honour of God and the universal Church, for the amendment and advantage of our kingdom, and for relieving Christians from the damages and grievance which they have suffered by the freeholds which our Jews claimed to have in lands, tenements, fees, rents, and other tenures; and that no prejudice may hereafter happen to us, to the commonweal of our kingdom, or to the kingdom itself, we, by the advice of our bishops, nobles, and great men who are of our council, have provided, ordained, and enacted, for us and our heirs, that no Jew shall from henceforth have a freehold in any manors, lands, tenements, fees, rents, or tenures whatsoever, either by charter, gift, feoffment, confirmation, or other grant, or by any other means whatever.
“Provided nevertheless, that they may hereafter hold, as in times past they were accustomed to hold, those houses in our cities, boroughs and towns, which they themselves inhabit; and likewise that they may let those houses to lease, which they now hold for that purpose, to Jews only, but not to Christians.
“Yet nevertheless it is here provided, that it should not be lawful for our Jews of London to purchase, or by any other method to acquire, more houses than they now have in our said city of London; by which the parochial churches of the said city, or their incumbents, may incur a loss. However, it shall be lawful for the said Jews of London at their pleasure to repair their houses, and even to rebuild and restore to their former condition such of their old houses as have fallen down or been demolished.
“We likewise, by and with the advice of our said council, provide and enact, that with respect to the said houses so to be inhabited, or let to lease as aforesaid, no Jew shall sue or be sued by our original writs out of chancery, but before our justices appointed for taking care of the Jews, and by the writs of Judaism hitherto used and accustomed.
“But with respect to those lands and tenures in which the Jews were before this statute infeoffed, and which they now hold, our will is, that such infeoffments and grants shall be absolutely annulled; and that the said lands and tenements shall return to the Christians who granted the same; but upon condition that the said Christians shall make satisfaction to the Jews, without usury, for the money or consideration contained in the charters and writings, which was paid by the Jews to the Christians, for the said feoffments or grants. And also upon condition, that if the said Christians cannot make immediate satisfaction for the same, it may be lawful for the said Jews to make over the said tenements to other Christians, until the consideration paid by them can, without usury, be raised out of the rents and profits of the said estate, according to its true value by a reasonable assessment; saving, however, to such Christians their subsistence; and so as that the Jew may from thence receive the money or consideration by the hands of some Christian, and not of any Jew, as aforesaid.
“And if a Jew should hereafter happen to receive from any Christian a feoffment of any fee or tenement, contrary to this present statute, the said Jew shall absolutely forfeit the said tenement or fee, and the same shall be taken into, and safely kept in our hands; and the Christians or their heirs may recover the said lands or tenements out of our hands; but upon condition that they pay to us the whole money which they received from the said Jews for such a feoffment. Or if they have not sufficient wherewithal to do this, they shall then pay yearly to us and our heirs, at our exchequer, the true yearly value of those tenements or fees, according to a just and reasonable assessment, until we have had full satisfaction of the said money or consideration.
“And with regard to the nurses of Jewish children, and the bakers, brewers, and cooks of the Jews, as they and the Christians are different in their faith and worship, we provide and enact, that no Christian man or woman shall presume to serve them in any of these capacities.
“And because the Jews have long since been accustomed to receive, by the hands of Christians, certain rents something like fee-farm rents, out of the lands and tenements of Christians, which likewise have been called fees, we will and ordain that the statute relating to them heretofore by us made, shall remain in full force, nor shall any way be derogated from by this present act; therefore we command and strictly charge you, that you cause the said provision, ordinance, or statute, to be publicly proclaimed, and duly observed and obeyed, throughout your whole bailiwick.
“In testimony whereof we have caused to be issued these our letters patent. Witness self at Westminster, 24th day of July, and of our reign the 54th year.”[1]
[1] – I have here borrowed a couple of pages from John Elijah Blunt.—See [Appendix U].