In 1769 a local pamphlet claimed that the Wandering Jew of Jerusalem, a cobbler condemned for spitting in the face of Jesus, had arrived in Hull; no chains could contain him, and he never aged, as he awaited the Second Coming. Since the expulsion of Jews from England, this was in part how they were perceived, leading up to the Evangelical call for the Conversion of Jews, promoted by Hull's famed William Wilberforce. Arrivals to the port, as elsewhere, were proffered Christianizing meetings and pamphlets in Yiddish. There was an active mission in Hull throughout the 19th century.