When Aaron of Lincoln died in 1186, Henry II took his whole estate and set up a separate exchequer to collect his debts

Aaron of Lincoln was born about 1125. The pipe roll of 1166 shows Henry II owing him £616 12s. 8d. in nine counties. He lent to barons, knights and abbeys, including St Albans, Lincoln Minster, Peterborough and nine Cistercian abbeys such as Fountains. When he died in 1186 the king seized his property as the escheat of a Jewish usurer, which made the Crown his sole heir. Abbeys owed him 6,400 marks. About 430 debtors in 17 counties owed about £15,000; Lincolnshire had 186 debtors and Yorkshire 80. The cash was shipped to France for the king's war, and the ship sank between Shoreham and Dieppe. To collect the rest, the Crown created a separate office, Aaron's Exchequer. It was still working in 1201, when about £7,500 remained unpaid. Interest stopped at his death because the king, as a Christian, could not take usury. The treasury found a deed among his papers and demanded 540 marks from Meaux Abbey. In 1190 Richard Malebisse, one of Aaron's debtors, led the attack on the Jews of York; about 150 died at York Castle. The Norman House on Steep Hill in Lincoln is still called Aaron the Jew's House, though its link to him is not proven.