HUGH of Lincoln was an eight-year-old schoolboy whose body was found in a well near a Jew's house in 1255. The Jews were accused of his murder, and a fierce persecution was launched against them. G. Langmuir shows that John de Lexington, a canon of the cathedral of Lincoln, extorted a confession from a Jew named Koppin, which he then presented to the king. Koppin and eighteen others were executed. A cult grew up around "Little St. Hugh," but it was never officially sanctioned.

The Prioress invokes young Hugh of Lincoln at the end of her tale, PrT 684.