Licoricia of Winchester, daughter of Isaac, was the most notable English Jewish woman of her time. She was born sometime towards the beginning of the 13th century and was married twice. After the death of her first husband Abraham, son of Isaac of Kent in Winchester, Licoricia continued living in Winchester with her three sons, Cockerel -Isaac, Benedict -Baruch and Lumbard. The first documented evidence of Licoricia’s lending activities is from the early 1230s when the records show that she lent money in association with other Jews as well as by herself with an attorney. By the end of that decade, she was one of the richest Jewish moneylenders in Winchester.
Licoricia’s second marriage took place in 1242 to one of the wealthiest of all English Jews of that time, David of Oxford. In order to marry Licoricia, David had to first divorce his wife, Muriel. A complex legal battle ensued involving David, Muriel and her supporters, an English Bet Din, the Paris Bet Din, King Henry the 3rd of England and the Archbishop of York, Walter de Grey.
After the divorce and Licoricia’s marriage to David, she settled in Oxford where she gave birth to the son Asser, also called Sweteman. There, she assisted David in his business dealings. When David died only two years later, in February 1244, all the chests across the country that had contained the official records of the debts owed to him were sealed and taken to the Jewish exchequer for assessment. In order to prevent any attempt of interference, Licoricia was immediately imprisoned in the Tower of London until this process was completed. The price of her repurchase of all the debts owed to David was set at 5,000 marks of which 4,000 was to go to the special exchequer established at Westminster Abbey for the building of a chapel to house a new shrine to Edward the Confessor.
Released in September 1244, Licoricia returned to live with her family in Winchester. She immediately began to carry on with David’s business enterprises and started new ones of her own. She frequented King Henry’s court whenever he was in Winchester dealing with members of his entourage as well as the King himself who aided her in some of her more questionable activities. One of these cases occurred in 1253, when the heir of Sir Thomas of Charlecote took Licoricia to court for retaining custody of his late father’s estate which had been pledged to her. Because the king had given her permission to occupy it for three times longer than the time permitted, he tried to remove her from the jurisdiction of the court but was not completely successful. Eventually, Licoricia was found guilty but before the court could arrive at its own penalty, the king himself interceded to limit her fine to one half a mark.
Licoricia’s ease of access to the king was an asset to the Jewish community and individual Jews often turned to her to intercede for them. In 1258, Bilia of Bedford, another Jewish moneylender, who had been a partner of Licoricia’s in a Winchester deal in 1234, sent Licoricia a precious gold ring as a gift to the king. The ring was mislaid and Ivetta, a neighbor accused Licoricia of stealing it. Licoricia was again sent to the tower while the accusation was investigated. She was released when Ivetta herself was found to have been the thief.
Despite the huge fine that she had paid to the king for David’s chattels, Licoricia had been left in control of enough wealth, both her own and David’s to enable her to engage in substantial and widespread business activities. She remained an active moneylender for the next 30 years or more.
Many of her clients were members of the royal family, the aristocracy and the church. She also lent to other Jews, local landowners and small farmers. Licoricia’s name consistently appears in the financial records of the time often with one of her sons in disputes over business matters. These disputes appear in the calendar of roles of the Jewish exchequer and in other official records. Her business dealings extended over southern and southwestern England and until her later years she moved regularly around the country managing her assets. In 1277, Bilia, Licoricia’s daughter found the bodies of Licoricia and of Alice of Bickton, her Christian maid stabbed to death in Licoricia’s home in Winchester possibly murdered during a robbery. The amount stolen was rumoured to be the unlikely sum of £10,000. The authorities were concerned more with her theft of her property before it could be assessed than with the murder. Several men were accused of the theft and a poor saddler who had fled the city was named as the murder suspect by the local tribunal. However, there is no record of the saddler or anyone else being tried and found guilty. Licoricia was probably buried in the Jewish cemetery at Winchester.
