Extract from a court case accusing Jews of the murder of a Christian child

Transcript

Quidam puer unius anni inuentus fuit mortuus et jugulatus in cimiterio sancti Swithuni truncatis manibus et

pedibus et testiculis abscisis et oculis extractis et corde. Et similiter testantur quod nutrix ipsius pueri illum uendidit […] Abrahe Judeo qui eum occidit et ipsa nutrix fugit et Emma mater pueri capta fuit pro suspicione mortis eius et inprisonata fuit in gaola ciuitatis tempore quo Pentecostes fuit seruiens gaole et inde euasit et ideo cust’ Dicunt etiam precise quod ad domum ipsius Abrahe Pinc fuit idem puer occitus per eundem Abraham et alios Judeos quorum nomina [igno]rant. Sed mater ipsius pueri tunc fuit infirma et ea nesciente factum fuit hoc set quando ipsa euasit fugit […] Dicunt etiam quando hac factum fuit Henricus de Bath cepit

omnes Judeos Wint’ pro facto illo et postea dimisit eas quietos de xx marcis quas cepit de eis.

Modern english

A one-year-old boy was discovered dead and strangled in the church yard of St Swithun’s with his hands and feet having been chopped off, his private parts castrated, and his eyes and heart removed.

They [the jury] testify (say) that the nurse of the boy sold him to a Jew, Abraham, who killed him, and the nurse fled. And Emma, the mother of the boy, was captured on suspicion of his death and imprisoned in the city jail […] but then she escaped.

[They jury] also say that at Abraham Pinche killed the boy at his house along with other Jews whose names they did not know. They say the mother of the boy was ill at that time and did not know what had happened when she escaped […]

[The jury] also say that when this deed was done Henry of Bath (the sheriff) captured all the Jews of Winchester for this deed and afterwards he released them from 20 marks which he had taken from them.