A. D. 1244. 395 



1 244 King Henry, whofe profufion involved him in perpetual pe- 

 cuniary diftreffes, and compelled him to opprefs his fubjeds, did not 

 fail to fqueeze the Jews very frequently. He now extorted from them 

 the enormous fum of fixty thoufand marks. Individual Jews were often 

 fined in large fums, 2,000 marks, 3,000 marks, &c. For a fine of ten 

 marks (80 ounces) of gold he gave a promife to a Jew, that he fhould 

 not be tallaged at more than /"i 00 a-ycar for the four enfuing years. 

 Another Jew compounded with the king to pay 100 marks a-year to 

 be exempted from tallages. If we confider the real value of money in 

 thofe days, we mufl be aftonifhed at the wealth of thofe men, who 

 could pay fuch fums, and flill have fomething left : for we mufl; fup- 

 pofe that the king did not pull off the (kin along with the fleece, but 

 left it to produce another fleece, to be again fhorn when fufSciently 

 grown. The method ufed to fpur on the payments was to imprifon 

 their wives and children till the money was paid. {^Mndox's Il'ijl. of the 

 cxcheq. <". 7.] 



1 245 — Among the articles of a rigorous inquifition into trefpafles 

 committed on the king's forefls, whereby many were ruined, the fol- 

 lowing is the fourteenth. ' Let inquiry alfo be made concerning fea 

 ' coal (' carbone maris') found in the foreft, and who have received 

 ' payment for ditches led from the coal, and for the ufe of the roads 

 ' (' cheminagium').' [M. Faris, Addit. p. 155.] This, being one of a 

 fet of inquiries previoufly drawn up for the ufe of the inquifitors, and 

 applicable to all the royal forefls, does not prove that coal was adually 

 found in any one of them. But the application of the termy^rt coal, 

 apparently as an eflabliflied name, to foilile coal, which might be found 

 in a foreff , affords a clear proof, and the earliefl authentic one known 

 to be extant, that coals had before now been brought to London by 

 fea, and probably from Newcaflle *. And accordingly we find, that a 

 lane in the fuburbs of London on the outlide of Newgate was known 

 by the name of Sea-coal lane f, at leafl as early as the year 1253. \^Ay- 

 lofft^s Calendar, p. 1 1 .] 



Thus we are afliired, that the Englifh, though providentially difap- 

 pointed in their hopes of finding very produdfive mines of gold and fii- 

 ver, the nurfes of national lethargy and oftentatious poverty, had begun 

 now, and perhaps long before, to work the infinitely more valuable 

 mines of coal, the poffefTion of which, together with the knowlege of 



king of England, in the year 1272, upon paper, * It has been afTerted, that the inhabitants of 



■which he faw in the Tower : but he does not tell Newcaftle had obtained a charter for working coal 



us, whether the paper was made of cotton or of mines in the reigu of King John, but apparently 



linen rags. without fufQcient authority. See below under the 



For tlie communication of, perliaps, the only year 1350. 

 copy in this kingdom of Mr. Schwandner's eifay, f Scow fays, it was called Sea-coal lane, and ! 



I am indebted to the polite attention of Mr. Ayf- alfo Lime-burners lane, becaufe lime ufed to be^- 



cough, librarian for the printed booke in the Brit- burnt there with fea coal. 



Ih Mufeum. 



3D2 



