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Jew Lane (Fitzalan Sq)


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18 hours ago, History dude said:

It could have even been developed from the name of a Jewish person who lived in that very street. Somebody who had been given the surname of Jehu. It's not uncommon for streets to be named after people.

Not necessarily Jewish - Jehu Tompson (son of Hugo, sister of  Maria) was baptised at the Anglican parish church on 4th January 1646.  There's no record so far, unfortunately, of his residence once an adult. 

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The road was labelled as "Jehu" on Gosling's 1736 map.

59c790b771755_Gosling1736(part).png.dea71969b0c45af951f69a90b0223146.png

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1 hour ago, History dude said:

Looking at the 1736 map it doesn't look big enough for any traffic to hang around at. And I am torn at the idea it was used a lot by coachmen or taxi.

I do like the idea that it was a first name of somebody.

What about this for a theory then: Jehu Lane was where a particular "Jehu" lived - the coachman for the Earl of Shrewsbury,  In the 1500's there wouldn't have been many coaches in Sheffield, and possibly even the Earl only had one.  Jehu Lane is very near to the site of the Tontine Inn, which was built on the site of the old Castle Barns in 1785.  A house in that area may have been handy for a coachman to work with the Earl's horses and wheeled transport?

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2 hours ago, History dude said:

Looking at the 1736 map it doesn't look big enough for any traffic to hang around at. And I am torn at the idea it was used a lot by coachmen or taxi.

I do like the idea that it was a first name of somebody.

Good point  History dude There are so many different ideas on this that I don't think it will ever be proved for certain, but who knows? From the page linked below I got this             ---------------        QUOTE       -   

Jehu Lane or Jew Lane.—This lane which, I am told, was so narrow that a householder on one side of it could almost have shaken hands with his neighbour on the other, was on the south side of "Fitzalan Square." The making of the square has wiped this old street off the local map, but it led, according to Fairbank's plan, from Baker's Hill into "the Swine Market." I have conversed with many old people who spoke of this street as Jew Lane, and they were quite right in doing so. It occurs, however, as "Jehu" in Gosling's plan, and as Jehu lane in a list of Sheffield street-names, made early in the last century, given by Hunter.[5] We must remember that every considerable town, both in England and on the Continent, had its Jewish quarter. Winchester, York, Norwich, and other towns had their Jewry, or place where the Jews lived. There was a Jewry, according to Stow, in London. "There was," he says, "a place within the liberties of the Tower called the Jewry because it was inhabited by Jews." These merchants and money-lenders were found everywhere. It is perhaps significant that the street above Jehu Lane should be called Change Alley.[6] I notice the surname Jehu in the London Directory for 1890, as though it were Jew written in two syllables. In London vestiges of the quarter once occupied by the Jews have remained to our time in the names Old Jewry and Jewin Street, gywen being the old plural of giu or giw, a Jew. Our "Jehu" represents the old spelling, though the word was pronounced as a monosyllable. Perhaps it was in a spirit of conscious irony that the old inhabitants of Sheffield put their swine market at the mouth of Jehu or Jew Lane.

I need hardly say that the existence of an ancient street in Sheffield bearing this name throws considerable light upon the early condition of the borough. It shows that the borough had enough commerce in early times to need the services of the Jewish money-lender, for all early centres of commerce had their Jewish quarters. As all Jews were banished from England in 1280 a small Jewish settlement may have been established in Sheffield before that time.       UNQOTE

https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_Hall_of_Waltheof/Chapter_XIX

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I'm not certain about the Earl's before George Talbot, but he would have had to have a considerable transport to move the the household to each of his properties, especially looking after Mary Stuart. She didn't travel light if you know what I mean. It was periodically required to move household for cleaning purposes. A wealthy man such as George would have had several coaches and horse teams. Mary alone would have had a coach to herself. Then her ladies in waiting another. Put simply anybody who had fine clothes to wear probably travelled in a coach. Mary Stuart alone had plenty of that type of servant.

By such times surnames where just about fixed. So it's unlikely that a man would have been called Jehu from having a job as a coachman. It could have been a nickname for that type of tradesman. 

But I think still the most likely explanation is from at least the home of at least one Jewish person, or somebody having those traits. But maybe not Jewish. Or from someone called by that name.

Name origins sometimes are not nice. For example a miller in the Poll Tax Returns of 1379 for the West Riding had the name Sh** Face!      

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The lane in question was much more steep to what it is today, so it's possible that anyone using or riding horses could have ridden just a bit faster to get up the hill, Jehu Lane, the name ceased to be sometime after 1825.

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7 hours ago, History dude said:

A wealthy man such as George would have had several coaches and horse teams. Mary alone would have had a coach to herself. Then her ladies in waiting another. Put simply anybody who had fine clothes to wear probably travelled in a coach. Mary Stuart alone had plenty of that type of servant.

So then, it's likely that there were a lot of coachmen (also known as Jehu's) needing accomodation in Sheffield.  As they would likely lodge together, to be near the Castle Barns to look after the horses, many Jehu's in the same few buildings would be even more likely to result in the strreet being named for them.

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Jehu was the 10th king of the northern kingdom of Israel in the 9th century A.D, it is also a name for a driver of a cab or coach and a fast and reckless driver. I’m pondering over the possibility that  a Jewish king recklessly drove a cab along Jew Lane prior to the expulsion of all Jews from England.

OK I’ll get my coat.

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