Were There Jews in Roman Britain ?1

confusion between this and the Jewish tradition appears to be subsequent; and the latter is probably connected with Camden's own opinion4 that the Jews farmed the stannaries under John. The legend of Joseph of Arimathea is of mediaeval origin, but it has a value in so far as it indicates Glastonbury as an early centre of British Christianity. The Church was old in the 6th century;5 and the Christian finds at Frampton, Dorchester, Fifehead Neville, Rotherley, Tidworth, Chedworth, and Appleshaw (all in Dorset, Hampshire, and Gloucestershire) suggest Christianity penetrated early to south-west Britain; but that it had arrived as early as AD 100, the last date when Jews and Christians were regarded as members of one group, seems unlikely. There is, nevertheless, evidence for early contacts between Dorset, Devon, and the Near East. This is in the form of