Contesting Readmission: Common Law and the English Constitution

Abstract

On 14 December 1656, John Evelyn recorded in his diary: ‘Now were the Jewes admitted’.¹ Soon after, the clergyman and writer Alexander Ross, who had already displayed his interest in the Jews by writing a four volume study on Jewish history, Kerum Judaicarum memorabilium, set about preparing his fellow citizens for the influx of Jews to England by explaining their religion and customs:

I am confident Reader, thou canst not be Ignorant, of that which is so commonly reported: namely the coming in of the Jewes to live amongst us: wherefore I conceive it must needs yeeld some satisfaction to thee, to know with what kind of people we shall have to do. This is the motive, by which I am induced to present unto thee, this present work; wherein thou hast plainly deciphered, their Lawes, Rites, customes, and manners both ecclesiastical and civill. From whence I shall not here draw any conclusion, either pro, or con, but leave it to thy more serious judgment.