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By the 15th century there were immigrants from all over Europe in Medieval England and they were spread all over the country. We know this from documents that have survived including letters, court records and - most of all - tax records in the alien subsidy returns, a list which included details like names, place of residence and sometimes occupations and origins. In the later Middle Ages, all foreign-born males and some females (in cases where they were heads of households) were taxed and their names, occupations and places of residence were written down.

One Medieval historian has said that the records show that no one was more than ten miles away from an immigrant. Foreign-born people included goldsmiths, bakers, inn-keepers, doctors, priests, farm labourers, tailors, brewers, weavers - in fact, a whole cross-section of occupations in towns and countryside.

On the whole, foreign-born immigrants settled in well during the Middle Ages and became part of local communities. While they were classed - and taxed - as aliens, their children born in England were full citizens. Some did very well indeed, rising to be mayors and freemen of their towns or highly regarded in their occupation.