Tomb of Little Saint Hugh of Lincoln, from 'Anglia Judaica' by De Blessiers Tovey, published...

Formerly thought to be a drawing of the tomb of Saint Hugh of Lincoln (d.1200) this has been correctly identified as the tomb of the boy known as Little Saint Hugh, who disappeared in Lincoln aged 9 in 1255; after his death, a Jew in Lincoln, Copin (or Jopin) admitted under torture that he had killed the boy and the Jewish community in Lincoln was accused of torturing and killing the child in a blood ritual for the Passover; Copin and 18 other Jews were executed and in 1290 the resulting anti-semitism led to the Expulsion of Jews from England by King Edward I; accusations of ritual murders of Christian children by Jews were a feature of medieval Christian Europe; the tomb of the boy became a popular shrine in Lincoln Cathedral and was associated with many miracles; the tomb was almost certainly demolished in 1644 by Parliamentarians during the English Civil War but had been drawn by Dugdale before its destruction; the drawing was illustrated by the antiquary, William Stukeley (1687-1765) in his 'Itinerarium Curiosum', an account of the antiquities of Great Britain, published in 1724 and reproduced also in Tovey's history of Jews in medieval England, 'Anglia Judaica'; accusation of blood ritual sacrifices of Christians by Jews were common in Europe in the Middle Ages; Little Saint Hugh was seen as a Christian martyr, a miracle worker and his tomb became a popular shrine in England until the Reformation;