Aaron of Lincoln

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Aaron of Lincoln was an English Jewish financier (born at Lincoln,

England, about 1125, died 1186). He is believed to have been the
wealthiest man in 12th century Britain, it is estimated that his wealth
exceeded that of the King.[1] He is first mentioned in the English pipe-
roll of 1166 as creditor of King Henry II for sums amounting to £616
12s 8d in nine of the English counties. He conducted his business
through agents, and sometimes in conjunction with Isaac, fil Joce; by
these methods building up what was practically a great banking
association that spread throughout England.

He made a specialty of lending money for the purpose of building

abbeys and monasteries. Among those built were the Abbey of St.
Albans, Lincoln Minster, Peterborough Cathedral, and no less than
nine Cistercian abbeys. They were all founded between 1140 and
1152, and at Aaron's death remained indebted to him in no less a sum
than 6,400 marks. Some of these debts may, however, have been
incurred by the abbeys in order to acquire lands pledged to Aaron.
Thus the abbot of Meaux took over from Aaron lands pledged to the
latter in the sum of 1,800 marks; Aaron at the same time promising to
commute the debt for a new one of only 1,260 marks, which was paid
off by the abbey. After Aaron's death the original deed for 1,800
marks was brought to light, and the king's treasury demanded from
the abbey the missing 540 marks. This incident indicates how, on the
one hand, Aaron's activity enabled the abbeys to get possession of
the lands belonging to the smaller barons, and, on the other, how his
death brought the abbeys into the king's power.

Aaron not only advanced money on land, but also on corn, armour,
and houses, and in this way acquired an interest in properties
scattered through the eastern and southern counties of England. By
the time he died, in 1186, he was the second richest man in Britain,
after the king himself. Upon his death Henry II seized his property as
the escheat of a Jewish usurer, and the English crown thus became
universal heir to his estate. The actual cash treasure accumulated by
Aaron was sent over to France to assist Henry in his war with Philip
Augustus, but the vessel containing it went down on the voyage
between Shoreham and Dieppe. However, the indebtedness of the
smaller barons and knights still remained, and fell into the hands of
the king to the amount of £15,000, owed by some four hundred and
thirty persons distributed over the English counties.

So large was the amount that a separate division of the exchequer

was constituted, entitled "Aaron's Exchequer" (Madox, History of
the Exchequer, folio ed., p. 745), and was continued till at least 1201,
that is, fifteen years later, for on the pipe-roll of that year most of the
debts to Aaron (about £7,500) are recorded as still outstanding to the
king, showing that only half the debts had been paid over by that
time, though, on the death of Aaron, the payment of interest ceased
automatically, since the king, as a Christian, could not accept usury.

In 1190, Richard de Malbis (Richard Malebisse), a debtor of Aaron of

Lincoln, led an attack on the family of Aaron's late agent in York that
resulted in the death of the entire community, some 150 men,
women, and children, at York Castle.

A house traditionally associated with Aaron of Lincoln still stands, and

is probably the oldest private stone dwelling in England the date of
which can be fixed with precision (before 1186). Originally the house
had no windows on the ground floor—an omission probably intended
to increase the facilities for protection or defense. While the house is
associated with a Jewish banker, it is not known whether the house
actually had any association with Aaron of Lincoln. Pictures of the
house are available here.

What makes Aaron significant is that his career illustrates the manner
in which the medieval Jewish communities could be organized into a
banking association reaching throughout an entire country. Still, the
ultimate fate of the wealth thus acquired shows that, in the last
resort, the state obtained the chief benefit.

[edit] See also

• Exchequer of the Jews - the successor body to Aaron's Exchequer

[edit] References

1. ^ The Jews of Medieval Western Christendom, 1000-1500,

(Cambridge University Press, 2006), by Robert Chazan, page 159

• This article incorporates text from the 1901–1906 Jewish Encyclopedia, a

publication now in the public domain.
• Bibliography: Jacobs in Tr. Jew. Hist. Soc. Eng. iii. 157-179; idem, Jews of
Angevin England
• Hollister, C. et al. "The Making of England To 1399." p. 221

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