Again, after referring to “the Street of Lothberie”, Stowe says that on the north side among “fair houses and large for Merchants” is one that: “Of old time was the Jews’ Synagogue which was defaced by the citizens of London. After that they had slain 700 Jews in the year 1262. And that not long after that in the year 1291 King Edward I banished the remnant out of England.”

Thereafter although there were always a few Jews living in the country nothing that could be called a Jewish Community was again established in England until a request to admit them to London was made to Oliver Cromwell on behalf of the Sephardi Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin then residing in the Netherlands, where they had settled during the period of Spanish rule which had nearly been ended by a long struggle for independence in the early stages of which Ben Johnson had played a small part. Although they received no positive response from the Commonwealth Government, a Jewish community began to establish itself in London and by 1688 about 100 Jewish families were thought to be there, most of whom had chosen to live in and around Creechurch Lane just to the north of the Company’s Hall. By the end of the 18th century the Jewish population of England was estimated to be at least 20,000, two thirds of whom lived in London and in fact within an area around and to the East of Creechurch Lane.

At this time and for some time to come, the Jewish community was divided into two groups each with their own distinctive rituals, namely the Sephardim who were of Spanish, Portuguese and Mediterranean origin, and the Ashkenazim who were of Polish and German origin. The Sephardim were the first to establish themselves with a Synagogue in Creechurch Lane in 1656 which was moved to Dukes Place also nearby in 1722, the Synagogue being rebuilt in 1766 and known as “the Great Synagogue”. Two groups of the Ashkenazim broke away from theGreat” and established their own Synagogues, first the “Hambro” (so called after the home city of many of the congregation) in 1707 in Fenchurch Street, and the second the “New” as we have seen in 1761 in Leadenhall Street. All these four Synagogues were within a few hundred yards of each other, and therefore the Company’s Hall found itself at the end of the 18th century at the centre of the London Jewish community which at that time constituted the great majority of the community in England.