as Receipt by William Convers of Leicester of 6j. 8d. Alms from the King. Dated at London, 7 March 2 Henry IV. [140?]. .r-^.(&??Ag*r- l/^y^^rSt^ an Receipt by Nathaniel Menda, stranger, of 45$. 7Jrf., for annuity heretofore givei out of the Dated 6 Feb. Also an attestation of Exchequer. 1608, [160$J. being still alive, by Thomas Radcliff, Notary Public, and Edward Bayley. DOMUS CONVERSORUM DOCUMENTS. Jewish Historical Society of England is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve, and extend access to Transactions Jewish Historical Society of England ® www.jstor.org as Receipt by William Convers of Leicester of 6s. 8d. Alms from the King. Dated at London, 7 March 2 Henry IV. [140?]. an by Nathaniel Menda, stranger, of 45$. 7^., for annuity heretofore given to him of the Dated 6 Feb. Also an attestation of Menda Exchequer. 1608, [i?ofj. g still alive, by Thomas Radcliff, Notary Public, and Edward Bayley. DOMUS CONVERSORUM DOCUMENTS. THE DOMUS CONVERSORUM. ? By C. TRICE MARTIN, F.S.A. a I HiVE brought with me this evening few photographs connected with the Old Hospital forConverted Jews in London, but I do not a or a intend to read you long paper give you detailed history of the House. William The fact is that my friend,Mr. Hardy, has recently read on a very elaborate paper the subject before the Society ofAntiquaries, and has also published the substance of it in a Magazine, and there is no need for me to repeat what he has written. I shall be contented some if I tell you enough to make you feel interest in the photo? graphs. You all know, I daresay, that King Henry III. founded this " Hospital for Converts in Chancery Lane, which was then called the Street called New Street, in the Suburbs of London, running between the Old Temple and the New." The first Temple or House of the was founded in and was removed to Knights Templars Holborn, its in present site in Fleet Street 1185. Soon after the foundation of the Hospital, Matthew Paris, the who his a Monk of St. Albans, spent life in writing history of us that " a England, tells (iii. 262) Henry III. built decent church, with fit for a conventual congregation, other buildings adjoining, at his own expense, in the place where he had established a House of ransom Converts, for the of his soul and that of his father,King John, and all their ancestors, in the 17th year of his reign, that is to say, in London, not far from the Old Temple, To this house converted Jews retired, leaving their Jewish blindness, and had a home and a safe refuge for their whole lives, living under an honourable rule, with sufficient sustenance without servile work or the profits of usury. So it happened that in a short time a large number were collected there. St Alban's Abbey, fromthe IIS. at CorpusChristi Coll. A ????? II II lit ? :_ 1 the domus conversobum. 17 And now, being baptised and instructed in the Christian law, they a live praiseworthy life under a Governor specially appointed." one now In of the manuscripts of this history ofMatthew Paris, in to Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, of which part is supposed Church for Converted Jews, from a MS. of Matthew Paris (Brit. Mus. MS. Boy., 14 C. vii.). be written by his own hand, there is a drawing of a church in the as an illustration of this margin, intended passage. I have brought with me a coloured facsimile of this drawing and also an enlarged copy of it. It is a question whether this is really a picture of the Chapel itself or whether it ismerely a typical church drawn in the margin to call attention to the passage, without any idea of representing the actual building, just as a crowned head might be put in the margin opposite a passage referring to a king, without any intention of its being a portrait. I have here also a drawing of the only other picture of a church in the volume. It represents part of St. Albans Abbey, to illustrate the dream of an enemy of theAbbey, Sir Falkes de Breaute, who dreamed that a stone fell from one of the towers and crushed him. He told his wife vol. i. c 18 THE DOMUS CONVERSOBUM. of it in the morning, and she, after the manner of her time, attributed a the dream rather as Divine monition than as a symptom of dyspepsia, and advised him to seek absolution for his misdeeds at the Abbey, which he did. The two drawings, you will see, are similar in character, considering that one only represents part of a church, and the other the whole ; and they appear to me to be equally imaginary. Another manuscript of Matthew Paris, in the British Museum a (Royal M.S., 14 C, vii.), has drawing of the chapel, slightly different Sketch of the Bolls Chapel in its present state. to that of which I have shown you a copy, but it has no better claims to an be authentic representation. The Rolls Chapel has been left to get out of repair more than once, and has been considerably modernised, so that but little of the original structure remains except the walls. It was thoroughly repaired by the well-known architect, Colin Campbell, who built the Rolls House between the years 1717 and 1724. The flint facing of the walls is even later than this, so that the only part of the original wall now visible is that on the south side. A house called theRolls Chapel Office, built in 1784, adjoined the chapel on that side, and the flint facing was evidently added after it was built. It has been suggested that this was the work of George Gwilt the elder, but I do not know that there is any evidence for this. THE DOM?S CONVERSORUM. 19 The edge of the flint shows where the house stoQd. There would have been no need to remove it if it had existed previously. + E3 > Hi Church for Converted Jews, from a MS. of Matthew Paris, in the Library of Corpus Christi Coll., Cambridge. It was only when this house was recently pulled down to make way for the new front of the Public Record Office in Chancery Lane, that this piece of old wall was laid bare. The little tower at the south-east corner of the Chapel is far too insignificant to be represented by the tower in Matthew Paris's picture, and there is no trace of, or, indeed, room for any window corresponding to the rose window and upper lights in his picture. It might have been concealed by the plaster which covers the top of the tower, but this is not likely. There are two mere slits forwindows in the tower?one on the east side, of which the stone architrave is renewed, but the other, on the west side, which was covered by the Rolls Chapel Office, still possesses its original stone-work. The formerwindow can be seen in one of the photographs, c 2 20 THE DOM?S CONVERSORUM. The west door of the present chapel is round like that in Paris's picture, but whether it is the original door is very doubtful. At all no as events there is now side door in the picture. a never The picture also gives chancel, which probably existed. no a There was need for chancel in the chapels of colleges and no hospitals. The present east end is doubt Campbell's work. His declared account sent into theAudit Office states that he was employed " to repair and improve the Chapel of the Rolls," but it gives no details of his work on the Chapel. The two rows of windows in the picture have left no trace on the recently laid bare south side. The filled-up window next the tower, which belongs to the Decorated period, may have been inserted, if not earlier, when William de Burstall was Master of the Rolls and Keeper of the House of Converts, from 1371 to 1381, as the Chapel was then in a bad state and had to be repaired. The window further west is similar in shape to the east and are no or even other windows, which doubt Campbell's work, later. some Inigo Jones is said to have had hand in its restoration, but it is difficult to say what is his work. At all events, in 1708 the doors and windows were still Gothic. no As to the interior, there is trace of great antiquity. The roof is modern Gothic. The chapel possesses, however, three tombs, which are well worth seeing. The earliest is that of John Yong, who was Master of the Rolls from 1508 to 1516. The monument consists of a painted effigy of on a stone in a the deceased, lying sarcophagus, dressed scarlet robe, with black tippet and black cap, like that worn by Stephen Gardiner " our in his portrait by Holbein, the ancestor of mortarboard." The of the deceased a wonderful of the face gives impression solemnity, the majesty of death, without putting forward its horror. over The faces of Christ and the two angels the corpse are inferior, if not in execution, at least in conception and effect. The artist was Piero Torregiani, the sculptor of the effigyof Henry VII. it as in the Lady Chapel at Westminster Abbey. He was, Benvenuto nose Cellini tells us, who broke Michelangelo Buonarrotti's for chaffing him while drawing in the chapel of the Carmine in Florence.