Domus Conversorum

       A Hostel for Jewish converts to Christianity -founded 1232



The original intention of this  piece was to write a blogpost about the talk 'Dependence Intolerance and Expulsion; the Story of England's Medieval Jewish Community 1066-1290' by Sean Cunningham held at the National Archives on January 24th 2020. Unfortunately due to   problems on the rail network,I did not manage to attend. So have  had to resort to posting about my own research instead, starting with  the death of Little Sir Hugh of Lincoln in 1255  here   
Another subject that I have been looking at is the Domus Conversorum -'House of converts'  and happy to concede that this post is very much 'work in progress' and does not represent my conclusive views of the subject. 

                                     Marginal Illustration from the Rochester Chronicle (British Library, Cotton                                            Nero D. II.), folio 183v. Courtesy of 'Wikipedia' -public domain



In  January 1232, Henry III  founded the Domus Conversorum, a hostel run on religious lines,  to house Jews who converted to Christianity . Most likely built on land where a synagogue had once stood  in New Street, in the City of London ,which is now Chancery Lane. Some historians have maintained that Henry simply commandeered existing buildings for his project. In 1231 Henry had seized part of Jewish burial ground in Oxford and given it to the hospital of John the Baptist and Jewish house in Cambridge was taken over to the Franciscans in 1234.  In 1243, Henry seized a London synagogue and gave it to the hospital of St Anthony to use as a chapel (STACEY 2)  

The picture is complicated however  by Henry taking over property belonging to a merchant by the name of  John Helicun in 1235,-who entered a religious order after killing a man-and designating them for the use of Jewish converts to the Church : But the houses Helicun formerly owned were around Cheapside, nearly a mile away from the Domus Conversorum (FOGLE) 

One of the many intriguing aspects of the mission is that at this time  conversion of Jews to Christianity was not really a major goal of either the Church or Medieval  kings. At this time, it is hard to find references to existing religious orders  such as the Benedictines or the Cistercians being interested. Even the Dominican Order, licensed by Pope Innocent III in 1216 to preach the Gospel to  heretics  did not seem inclined to adopt the same approach towards the Jews when arriving in England in 1221 though their role in the conversion process was to change by the reign of Edward I .

 King Henry  pledging  700 marks a year to  the Domus Conversorum was staggering, far exceeding any other religious house venture that Henry supported, though the Crown were sometimes to have problems in raising this figure.   Few other examples of such hostels come have come to light. A claim that such  a house was established in Bristol at the end of the 12th century is now disputed. 

 The Jews at the time were technically the property of the king and were subjected to arbitrary and quite heavy taxation. ( Historian Robert A Stacey maintains that the Jews supplied 10 per cent of all Henry's revenue though numbered one tenth of one per cent of the population between 1240-1255 (STACEY 2) .  And a large portion of such levies would end up being paid by a small percentage of the Jewish community.  By the end of Henry's long reign, the Jews of England were numerically weaker and poorer -which will be the subject for another post. Though Henry was the main benefactor of the Domus Conversorum, and even contributed to the upkeep of other Jewish converts placed in other religious houses, the whole enterprise was not going to yielded him revenue. 

The Domus Conversorum had a warden and two chaplains. Residents received food and shelter. along with a weekly stipend -10d  for me, 8 1/2d for women- , clothing, and Christian instruction.  , though any property and chattels  they previously owned had to be given to the Crown, which suggests that it was impoverished Jews were most likely to join., We can only speculate what it must have been like to give up one's religion, culture, possessions and community, to take a Christian name and  become a member of what has now been called a quasi religious order.Not a completely accurate comparison as there is no evidence of any vow being taken upon joining. And it  was a dangerous course. If they failed to embrace their new faith, the former Jews risked being outcasts from both religions.  The house could hold around 80-100 occupants . Henry even visited the Domus Conversorum to witness baptisms. 

What wider message was Henry III conveying to both Christians and Jews in London and beyond? What governed its location ?  The Domus Conversorum was intended to be fixed and permanent.  By contrast synagogues were not always established on a long term basis. Trying to work out which  synagogues were operating in 1232 is difficult.  I am trying to establish where the other London synagogues would be at the time. There seemed to be a cluster of synagogues around what is now known as Old Jewry, at Coleman Street , Ironmonger Lane, Threadneedle Street, and Gresham Street, all a few minutes walk away from each other. (BLACK)  The Jewish burial ground at Cripplegate was less than half a mile away.  

Most historians now would accept that there was no Jewish ghetto in London at this time. In fact the church of Colechurch St Mary (destroyed in the Fire of London 1666)  would have been in what is now Old Jewry, again a few minutes away from these synagogues. One synagogue services at Coleman Street disturbed the friars of the Sack in their house in the 1270's (FOGLE). Henry gave over the synagogue to the friars and ordered the Jews to set up elsewhere and to be less noisy.  The Domus Conversorum stood about a mile away. 

The establishment of the Domus Conversorum did little to alter the position of Jewish people in the realm. Its importance was minimal  compared with Henry's commitment to reviving Westminster Abbey as from the 1240's onward.  Of course it was  a one way process. Few cases are known in respect of Christians who converted to the Jewish faith at this time-or indeed throughout the Medieval era. The most tragic was that of an Oxford deacon  who fell in love with Jewish woman and converted, He was convicted of heresy by a Church court  in 1222, and handed over to the authority of the Sheriff of Oxford, and burned to death. The next time such an extreme penalty would be used was not until 1400. It is not known what happened to the Jewish woman concerned ( MAITLAND). It is also claimed that said deacon had circumcised himself to show his commitment (MUNDILL)  

The Domus Conversorum occupants seemed to have fully counted as Christian subjects of the Crown by 1290 and exempt from being expelled from England with the main Jewish Community. 



 Acknowledgement 

Members of the Normans & Plantagenets 1057-1487 Facebook group have been particularly helpful  when discussing the question of the Jewish community in Medieval England ,but  this article reflects my own views and any errors are for me to own. 

Works consulted.

Lauren French Fogle's work  'Jewish Converts to Christianity in Medieval London' , available from the British Library via EThOS  :Thesis lodged with the  Royal Holloway College, University of London 2006,  is an extensive and quite impressive source of information with a long section on the Domus Conversorum and some of its occupants. 

'Jewish London- An Illustrated History' Dr Gerry Black, Breedon, 2003 , a great help on the geography  of Medieval London.

'The Kings Jews-Money, Massacre and Exodus in Medieval England' Continuum, 2010, Robin R. Mundill 


  1 'The Conversion of Jews to Christianity in 13th century England' Robert A. Stacey

  2  'King Henry III and the Jews'                                                         Robert A. Stacey 

 3  'The English Jews under Henry III'                                                Robert A. Stacey 

 All available on Academia.edu

'The Deacon and the Jewess or Apostasy at Common Law '  from the Collected Papers of F W Maitland

Other blogs by Michael Bully 

BleakChesneyWold   Charles Dickens / 'dark' 19th century blog launched 2nd February 2023

A Burnt Ship   17 century related War & Literature blog