The Sephardim of England, old portraits

[curupira]

I'll begin with the most famous:

* Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield, Prime Minister at the height of the British Empire (Queen Victoria times)

http://www.s9.com/images/portraits/7991_Disraeli-Benjamin.jpg
http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/images/episode/b00j6xxv_512_288.jpg

He was born into a Sephardic family (Jews from Iberia, they were expelled from Iberia by the end of the XV century). His ancestors lived in Italy (Venice) before moving to Britain.


"Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, (21 December 1804 – 19 April 1881) was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. He served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister. Disraeli's biographers believe he was descended from Italian Sephardic Jews. He claimed Spanish ancestry, possibly referring to the ultimate origin of his family heritage in Spain prior to the expulsion of Jews in 1492, after which many Jews emigrated temporarily to northern Italy before moving to the Netherlands and then England. He was the second child and eldest son of Isaac D'Israeli, a literary critic and historian, and Maria Basevi".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benjamin_Disraeli

Family tree

http://i33.tinypic.com/2rnd63o.jpg

* David Ricardo, economist:

http://zequeenbee.files.wordpress.com/2010/05/david-ricardo.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/dc/Portrait_of_David_Ricardo_by_Thomas_Phillips.jpg


David Ricardo (18 April 1772 – 11 September 1823) was a British political economist. He was one of the most influential of the classical economists, along with Thomas Malthus, Adam Smith, and James Mill.[2][3] He began his professional life as a broker and financial market speculator. He amassed a considerable personal fortune, largely from financial market speculation and, having retired, bought a seat in the U.K. Parliament. He held his parliamentary seat for the last four years of his life. Perhaps his most important legacy is his theory of comparative advantage, which suggests that a nation should concentrate its resources solely in industries where it is most internationally competitive and trade with other countries to obtain products not produced nationally. In essence, Ricardo promoted the idea of extreme industry specialisation by nations, to the point of dismantling internationally competitive and otherwise profitable industries. In this thinking Ricardo assumed the existence of a national industry policy aimed at promoting some industries to the detriment of others. For Ricardo some form of Central Economic Planning was a given. Ricardo's theory of comparative advantage has been challenged by, among others, Joan Robinson and Piero Sraffa, but remains the cornerstone of the argument in favour of international free trade as a means of increasing economic prosperity. The theory of comparative advantage was the forerunner of the push towards globalisation via increased international trade, the guiding theme in economic policy currently promoted by the OECD and the World Trade Organisation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Ricardo

* Joseph D'Aguilar Samuda, politician and businessman:

http://i40.tinypic.com/10dxkk4.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/39/J_d%27Aguilar_Samuda.jpg


Joseph d'Aguilar Samuda (21 May 1813 – 27 April 1885) was an English civil engineer and politician. He was born in London the younger son of Abraham Samuda, and brother of Jacob Samuda. He started out in his father's counting-house, but in 1832 he joined his elder brother to set up Samuda Brothers.

Marine Engineering and Shipbuilding

Joseph and his brother Jacob set themselves up as marine and general engineers and shipbuilders on the Isle of Dogs . For the first ten years the company principally confined itself to the building of marine engines. In 1843 they entered the ship-building business, and from that time onward, notwithstanding the death of Jacob in an accident on the Thames, the firm was continuously engaged in constructing iron steamships for the Royal Navy, merchant marine, and passenger and mail services, besides royal yachts and river-boats. Many of these vessels were built under Samuda's personal superintendence. In 1860 Joseph helped to establish the Institute of Naval Architects, of which he was the first treasurer and subsequently a vice-president. He frequently contributed to its "Transactions." In 1862 he became a member of the Institution of Civil Engineers, to whose "Proceedings" he likewise contributed.

Joseph Samuda also had an important parliamentary career. He was a member of the Metropolitan Board of Works from 1860 to 1865, whereupon he entered Parliament as the Liberal MP for Tavistock. He sat for that constituency until 1868, when he was returned for the Tower Hamlets, which he represented until 1880. Then he lost his seat owing to his support for Benjamin Disraeli's foreign policy. While in the House he spoke with much authority on all matters connected with his profession. Some of his speeches are described as "treasure-houses of technical and political knowledge."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_d%27Aguilar_Samuda

* Grace Aguilar, novelist:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3f/Grace_Aguilar_engraved_portrait.jpg


Grace Aguilar (2 June 1816 – 16 September 1847) was an English novelist and writer on Jewish history and religion. She was delicate from childhood, and early showed great interest in history, especially Jewish history. The death of her father threw her on her own resources.

After a few dramas and poems she published in the United States in 1842 Spirit of Judaism, in defence of her faith and its professors, and in 1845 The Jewish Faith and The Women of Israel. She is, however, best known by her novels, of which the chief are Home Influence (1847) and A Mother's Recompense (1850). Her health gave way in 1847, and she died in that year at Frankfurt. Her other works include Magic Wreath, and Vale of Cedars (1850).

Born2 June 1816
Hackney, England
Died 16 September 1847 (aged 31) Frankfurt
Nationality English
Occupation writer
Religion Jewish
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grace_Aguilar


Grace Aguilar was born June 2, 1816, to Emanuel (1787–1845) and Sarah (1787–1854) Aguilar. Portuguese Jews who had fled to England to escape the Inquisition, her parents settled in the northeast London suburb of Hackney, where Aguilar was born. Emanuel served as the Parnas, or lay leader, of London’s Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue, and the family were active participants in the Sephardic community. Aguilar’s two brothers were Emanuel (1824–1904) and Henry (1827–1902).
http://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/aguilar-grace

[Longbowman]

Probably all related to me.

I prefer the term 'Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_and_Portuguese_Jews)' to distinguish us from other Sephardics from whom we are ethnically and culturally distinct.

[curupira]

Probably all related to me.

You have an extremely interesting background Longbowman. Congrats! :thumb001:

[Cristiano viejo]

Probably all related to me.

I prefer the term 'Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Community (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spanish_and_Portuguese_Jews)' to distinguish us from other Sephardics from whom we are ethnically and culturally distinct.
Why distinct?

[Longbowman]

Why distinct?

Because a) it is descended from murranos, crypto-Jews, and unlike other Sephardics has no additional MENA admixture and usually higher Iberian admixture, and b) was formed in Northwest Europe, not Southeast Europe/MENA regions. Spanish & Portuguese rite is far more churchlike than regular Sephardic rite too. Furthermore the languages spoken were Spanish and Portuguese proper, not Judaeo-Spanish and Judaeo-Portuguese.

[Cristiano viejo]

Because a) it is descended from murranos, crypto-Jews, and unlike other Sephardics has no additional MENA admixture and usually higher Iberian admixture, and b) was formed in Northwest Europe, not Southeast Europe/MENA regions. Spanish & Portuguese rite is far more churchlike than regular Sephardic rite too. Furthermore the languages spoken were Spanish and Portuguese proper, not Judaeo-Spanish and Judaeo-Portuguese.

How do you know this?

[curupira]

* Sam Costa:


Samuel Gabriel 'Sam' Costa (17 June 1910 - 23 September 1981) was a popular singer of the British dance band era and a voice actor on the show Much Binding in the Marsh. He was also a disc jockey for Radio Luxembourg and the BBC. Costa was of Sephardic Jewish-Portuguese ancestry.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Costa

http://i58.tinypic.com/kexkjl.png

* Robert Henriques


Robert David Quixano Henriques (11 December 1905 – 22 January 1967) was a British writer, broadcaster and farmer. He gained modest renown for two award-winning novels and two biographies of Jewish business tycoons, published during the middle part of the 20th century. Robert Henriques was born in 1905 to one of the oldest Jewish families in Britain.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Henriques

http://i62.tinypic.com/26202gj.png

* David Nieto


David Nieto (1654 – 10 January 1728) was the Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community in London, later succeeded in this capacity by his son, Isaac Nieto.

Nieto was one of the most accomplished Jews of his time and was equally distinguished as philosopher, physician, poet, mathematician, astronomer, and theologian. A prolific writer, his connection with Christian scholars was extensive, especially with Ungar, the bibliographer. Nieto was the first to fix the time for the beginning of Sabbath eve for the latitude of England.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/David_Nieto

http://i62.tinypic.com/1zmktoh.jpg

[Longbowman]

How do you know this?

A good example are the Belmonte Jews who are at the extreme end of the scale. Longer time spent in Iberia (in this case Portugal) means more Iberian mixture. Portuguese Jews in general are more admixed. The average European Jewish YDNA is Near Eastern, as opposed to the MTDNA which is usually European, but in some cases (also Dutch Jews) there's significant European admixture. Here's what Wikipedia says about the Nogueiro 2009 study on Portuguese Jews from Tras-Os-Montes:


A recent study by Inês Nogueiro et al. (July 2009) on the Jews of north-eastern Portugal (region of Trás-os-Montes) showed that their paternal lines consisted of 35.2% lineages more typical of Europe (R : 31.7%, I : 3.5%), and 64.8% lineages more typical of the Near East than Europe (E1b1b: 8.7%, G: 3.5%, J: 36.8%, T: 15.8%) and consequently, the Portuguese Jews of this region were genetically closer to other Jewish populations than to Portuguese non-Jews.[42]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews#Y-DNA_of_Sephardi_Jews

Full list of results:

28.1% R1b1b1b2
24.5% J2
15.8% T
12.3% J1
5.2% E-M81
3.5% I
3.5% G
3.5% E-M78
1.8% R1b1b1
1.8% R1a
0% E-M34

Now their interpretations are rather simplistic (ie, R=Europe, E=Levant) but it's generally accurate in this case with most/all of the R being obviously Western European.

By contrast the largest study of Ashkenazi Jewish YDNA, Behar's (I don't like Behar because he has an agenda, but it's a huge study and I use his results without his interpretations):

19% J2
19% J1/J*
16.1% E1b1b1
10% R1b1b
7.7% G
7.5% R1a1a
5.2% Q1

As you can see the differences especially in terms of European influence are substantial. Furthermore AJ R is often MENA type clades.

[curupira]

The Baron d'Aguilar, Ephraim Lópes Pereira d'Aguilar, of the d'Aguilar family

http://i57.tinypic.com/fn5yiu.png


Ephraim Lópes Pereira d'Aguilar (born 1739 in Vienna - died 1802 in London) was the second Baron d'Aguilar, a Barony of the Holy Roman Empire.

In 1757, d'Aguilar was naturalized in England, where he had settled with his father, Baron Diego Pereira d'Aguilar. On 8 December 1756, he married Sarah (Simha) Mendes da Costa (born c.1742, died 5 May 1763), daughter of Moses Mendes da Costa, who is reported to have brought him a fortune of £150,000. She was the mother of his two legitimate daughters. He also had a son. He succeeded to his father's title and fortune in 1759, and for a time lived in luxurious style with twenty servants at the Broad Street Buildings. By the time of the American Revolutionary War, however, d'Aguilar had lost an American estate of 15,000 acres (61 km²). Subsequently, he became known as a miserly and eccentric person, giving up his mansion in Broad Street as well as his country houses at Bethnal Green, Twickenham, and Sydenham. His establishment at Colebrook Row, Islington, was popularly styled "Starvation Farm", because of the scanty food provided for the cattle. Upon his death there in 1802, d'Aguilar left a fortune valued at £200,000 hidden throughout the dwelling to his two daughters who survived him.

D'Aguilar held various positions in his community, and served as treasurer of the Portuguese Synagogue; the minutes of the proceedings of the Mahamad bear the signature of Ephraim d'Aguilar. He was elected warden in 1765, but declined to serve, and refused on technical grounds to pay the fine. d'Aguilar was given eight days to accept the position or to submit to the penalty. He evidently submitted, since on 5 March 1767 he married Rebecca, née Lamego (dsp 30 November 1795), daughter of Isaac Lamego and widow of Benjamin Mendes da Costa, Chairman of the Committee of Diligence. He would not have been able to marry her had he been lying under the ban. When d'Aguilar took up his eccentric life, however, the couple separated. After twenty years, a partial reconciliation took place between the baron and his wife, but only for a short time. d'Aguilar was again elected to office in 1770, and for some years thereafter remained a member of the synagogue.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ephraim_L%C3%B3pes_Pereira_d%27Aguilar,_2nd_Baron_ d%27Aguilar

His father Diego Pereira d'Aguilar:


Baron Diego Pereira d'Aguilar (born 1699 Portugal; died 10 August 1759, London) was an Austro-English Jewish businessman, community leader and philanthropist, originally a Portuguese converso, who lived in the 18th century.

Biography

In 1722 he went from Lisbon to London, and then to Vienna. From 1725 to 1747 he held the tobacco monopoly in Austria, and had the power to establish factories and regulate prices. When in 1747 he asked the government to return to him a part of the money that he had deposited on account of the revenues, the empress Maria Theresa replied: "This appears to me just. I owe him much more; therefore, return it to him." D'Aguilar was a great favorite with the empress, who commissioned him to rebuild and enlarge the imperial palace at Schönbrunn, and he advanced 300,000 florins for the work.

In recognition of his services Maria Theresa created him a baron and privy councillor to the crown of the Netherlands and Italy. He was a Baron of the Holy Roman Empire. D'Aguilar, who together with his family enjoyed the greatest freedom of belief, was the founder of the Spanish or Turco-Jewish community in Vienna, and succeeded in obtaining many concessions for the relief of his oppressed fellow worshippers. As a result of his efforts the Jews of Moravia were protected from pillage in 1742, and the intention of Maria Theresa to expel the Jews from the whole of the Austrian empire, in 1748 or 1749, was abandoned. He left Vienna suddenly in 1749, because the Spanish government demanded his extradition. He went to London. Before leaving Vienna he presented the community which he had founded, as well as the Spanish-Jewish community of Temesvar, with beautiful silver crowns for the scrolls of the Law, upon which his name was inscribed. On the Day of Atonement a prayer is still said for the repose of his soul by the Turco-Jewish community of Vienna.

He matriculated his arms: Gules an eagle Or beneath a plate, on a chief Argent three hillocks Vert on each a pear Or slipped Vert. The crest is a demi-lion proper, wearing a castellation Azure on its head and holding a sprig of leaves Vert in its right paw.

He married, 1722, Donna Simha da Fonseca (died 1755) and had issue including Ephraim Lópes Pereira d'Aguilar, 2nd Baron d'Aguilar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baron_Diego_Pereira_d%27Aguilar

Arms of the d'Aguilar Barons:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/bb/Arms_Aguilar.svg/2000px-Arms_Aguilar.svg.png

[Cristiano viejo]

A good example are the Belmonte Jews who are at the extreme end of the scale. Longer time spent in Iberia (in this case Portugal) means more Iberian mixture. Portuguese Jews in general are more admixed. The average European Jewish YDNA is Near Eastern, as opposed to the MTDNA which is usually European, but in some cases (also Dutch Jews) there's significant European admixture. Here's what Wikipedia says about the Nogueiro 2009 study on Portuguese Jews from Tras-Os-Montes:



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_studies_on_Jews#Y-DNA_of_Sephardi_Jews

Full list of results:

28.1% R1b1b1b2
24.5% J2
15.8% T
12.3% J1
5.2% E-M81
3.5% I
3.5% G
3.5% E-M78
1.8% R1b1b1
1.8% R1a
0% E-M34

Now their interpretations are rather simplistic (ie, R=Europe, E=Levant) but it's generally accurate in this case with most/all of the R being obviously Western European.

By contrast the largest study of Ashkenazi Jewish YDNA, Behar's (I don't like Behar because he has an agenda, but it's a huge study and I use his results without his interpretations):

19% J2
19% J1/J*
16.1% E1b1b1
10% R1b1b
7.7% G
7.5% R1a1a
5.2% Q1

As you can see the differences especially in terms of European influence are substantial. Furthermore AJ R is often MENA type clades.
According this http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?130742-Genetic-studies-on-judeoconversos-(-quot-new-christians-quot-)-from-Iberia
Jews of Belmonte remained very Jews.

[curupira]

* Joseph d'Almeida, wine merchant and patron of literature and drama (1716-1788)

http://i60.tinypic.com/2wnxpoj.jpg

* John King (real name: Jacob Rey), financier and author (1753-1824)

http://i57.tinypic.com/2po8o7r.jpg

* Jacob de Castro Sarmento, physician, naturalist, and poet, a member of the Royal Society of London


Physician, naturalist, and poet; born about 1691 in Bragança, Portugal; died at London in 1761. At the age of seventeen he entered the University of Evora, to study philosophy, and later studied medicine at Coimbra, receiving his baccalaureate in 1717. In order to escape the persecutions of the Inquisition, Henriquez—so-called as a Marano—went to London in 1720; there he continued his studies in medicine, physics, and chemistry, and passed his examinations in the theory and practise of medicine. He was elected a fellow of the Royal Society of London about 1725, in recognition of his having introduced a new medicine for curing fevers. Castro Sarmento corresponded with many scholars, among others with Prof. Mendes Sanchetto Barbosa of Lisbon, who reported to him the terrible earthquake that destroyed the capital of Portugal in 1755, and with the Jesuit B. Suarez, who communicated to him his astronomical observations made in Brazil.

The literary activity of Castro Sarmento began with a treatise on vaccination, "Dissertatio in Novam, Tutam, ac Utilem Methodum Inoculationis seu Transplantationis Variolorum" (London, 1721; German translation, Hamburg, 1722; Supplement, London, 1731; anonymously, Leyden). Other works are: "Historia Medica Physico-Hist.-Mechanica," part i., London, 1731; part ii., ib. 1735; "Syderohydrologia ó Discurso das Aguas Mineraes Espadañas ou Chalibeadas," ib. 1736, identical with "Da Uso e Abuso das Minhas (Minerales) Aguas da Inglaterra," London, 1756; "Tratado da Verdadeira Theoria dos Mares," London, 1737; and a Portuguese translation of the treatise of the surgeon Samuel Sharp: "Surgical Operations, with Plates and Descriptions of the Instruments Used" (London, 1744).

In recognition of his services to medicine the University of Aberdeen awarded to him, in July, 1739, a medical degree. Castro Sarmento was also a poet and a preacher. In Spanish, he published "Exemplar de Penitencia, Dividido en Tres Discursos Para ó dia Santo de Kipur" (London, 1724); "Extraordinaria Providencia Que el Gran Dios de Ysrael Uso con su Escogido Pueblo en Tiempo de su Mayor Afflicion por Medio de Mordehay y Ester Contra los Protervos Intentos del Tyrano Aman, Deducida de la Sagrada Escritura en el Sequinte Romance" (London, 1728); "Sermão Funebre as Memorias do . . . Haham Morenu a R. e Doutor David Neto" (London, 1728).
http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/13207-sarmento-jacob-de-castro

http://i57.tinypic.com/jtm0ox.jpg

[Longbowman]

According this http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?130742-Genetic-studies-on-judeoconversos-(-quot-new-christians-quot-)-from-Iberia
Jews of Belmonte remained very Jews.

No doubt more Jewish than Spaniard, but never trust Behar, he's a Jewish nationalist.

[curupira]

* Isaac D'Israeli, the father of Benjamin Disraeli:


Isaac D'Israeli (11 May 1766 – 19 January 1848) was a British writer, scholar and man of letters. He is best known for his essays, his associations with other men of letters, and as the father of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli.

Isaac was born in Enfield, Middlesex, England, the only child of Benjamin D'Israeli (1730–1816), a Jewish merchant who had emigrated from Cento in Italy in 1748, and his second wife, Sarah Syprut de Gabay Villa Real (1742/3–1825).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isaac_D%27Israeli

http://i60.tinypic.com/24103u0.jpg

* Rabbi Raphael Meldola


Raphael Meldola (1754 – 1 June 1828) was an English Rabbi. Born in Livorno, he died in London .

He was one of the most prominent members of the Meldola family. He received a thorough university training, both in theological and in secular branches, and displayed such remarkable talents that when only fifteen years old he was permitted to take his seat in the rabbinical college. He was preacher in Leghorn for some years, and in 1803 he obtained the title of rabbi.

In 1805 Meldola was elected haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews of Great Britain, and proved a worthy successor of Sasportas and Nieto. His name will ever be indissolubly associated with that of Bevis Marks Synagogue. Possessed of a remarkably virile mind, he was a dominant factor in the British Jewry of his generation. He was the author of Korban Minhah, Kuppat Hatanim (1796), and Derekh Emunah, published by his son after his death. He left several other works in manuscript. His scholarship attracted around him a circle in which were many of the most distinguished men of his day, including Benjamin Disraeli and Isaac D'Israeli; and it is noteworthy that he opposed the policy which produced the famous rupture between the latter and the mahamad. He maintained a literary correspondence with many of the most prominent Christian clergymen and scholars of his time; and his acquaintance with the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Canon of Windsor led to his being received by King George III.

Meldola married Stella Bolaffi (Abulafia), by whom he had four sons and four daughters.

His descendants include the chemist Raphael Meldola.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raphael_Meldola_(Sephardic_Rabbi)

http://i57.tinypic.com/ixffgl.png

[Empecinado]

No doubt more Jewish than Spaniard, but never trust Behar, he's a Jewish nationalist.

Have you head about the Chuetas of Majorca?

[Longbowman]

Have you head about the Chuetas of Majorca?

Yes.

[curupira]

David Abarbanel Lindo, the uncle of Benjamin Disraeli. He was a mohel and he performed the circumcision of Benjamin Disraeli:


On December 28, 1804, Isaac d'Israeli made a Brit Milah, ritual circumcision for his new-born son, Benjamin, in the d'Israeli home. The special chair—the "Kisseh shel Eliyahu"—on which the sandak, who holds the baby, sits, was brought over from the old Bevis Marks Synagogue, which Disraeli's grandfather joined when he came to England from Italy in 1748. Disraeli's uncle, David Abarbanel Lindo, was the mohel who performed the brit.
http://www.manfredlehmann.com/sieg231.html

http://i61.tinypic.com/687o8p.png

[curupira]

* Philip Guedalla:


Philip Guedalla (12 March 1889 – 16 December 1944) was a British barrister, and a popular historical and travel writer and biographer. His wit and epigrams are well-known, one example being "Even reviewers read a Preface," another being "History repeats itself. Historians repeat each other." He also was the originator of a now-common theory on Henry James, writing that "The work of Henry James has always seemed divisible by a simple dynastic arrangement into three reigns: James I, James II, and the Old Pretender".

Guedalla was born in Maida Vale, London into a secular Jewish family; in later life he embraced his Jewish identity. He was educated at Rugby School and Balliol College
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philip_Guedalla

http://lh4.ggpht.com/_5XvBYfxU_dM/StZ64F155bI/AAAAAAAADmg/seEbFrFB-pg/Philip%20Guedalla%20-%20b%26w-8x6.jpg?imgmax=800

* Sir Anthony Baruh Lousada:


Anthony Baruh Lousada, lawyer: born 4 November 1907; partner, Stephenson Harwood 1935-73; member of Council, Royal College of Art 1952-79, Vice-Chairman 1960-72, Treasurer 1967-72, Chairman 1972-79; member of Council, Friends of Tate Gallery 1958-94, Honorary Treasurer 1960-65, Chairman 1971-77; Trustee, Tate Gallery 1962-69, Vice-Chairman 1965-67, Chairman 1967-69; Vice-Chairman, Contemporary Art Society 1961-71; Kt 1975; married 1937 Jocelyn Herbert (one son, three daughters; marriage dissolved 1960), 1961 Patricia McBride (one son, one daughter); died London 24 June 1994.

Anthony Lousada was someone who could combine happily his career as a successful solicitor with his passion for the visual arts. It was a case of following a family tradition: his father, Julian Lousada, was also a lawyer and an art collector, and Anthony liked to recount how he had been taken as a seven-year-old child to visit the studio of the French-born sculptor Henri Gaudier-Brzeska, shortly before his early death at the front in the First World War.

Lousada was born in London in 1907, and educated at Westminster and New College, Oxford. The family name is Portuguese; the Lousadas were a Sephardic Jewish family who settled in London in the 17th century.

Anthony Lousada was a skilled chairman and negotiator, whose talents were sought by many. An eloquent speaker, he was an urbane and charming man, with many friends and a wide range of interests. A member of the Garrick, he was a notable amateur sailor. He had an exceptional visual memory, and was something of a painter himself, particularly after his retirement; he showed his drawings at the Covent Garden Gallery in 1977 and 1981. It was always the company of artists that he most loved, particularly valuing his friendships with the sculptor Barbara Hepworth, and the painters Ben Nicholson, John Piper and John Hubbard. He was able to help artists with advice; to contribute modestly to their creative achievements was probably what gave him most satisfaction in a long and rewarding life.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/obituary-sir-anthony-lousada-1425832.html

http://i61.tinypic.com/2q3rk1y.png

* Sir Gerald Nabarro:


Sir Gerald David Nunes Nabarro (29 June 1913 – 18 November 1973) was a British businessman and latterly Conservative Party politician of the 1950s and 1960s.

Nabarro was born in Willesden Green, the son of an unsuccessful shopkeeper. He was born to a prominent Sephardi Jewish family.

In the general election of 1950, Nabarro was elected as Member of Parliament (MP) for Kidderminster, Worcestershire which he held until 1964. He then retired on health grounds.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Nabarro

http://www.wfa.org.uk/photos/books/w01070721.jpg

[curupira]

Sampson Gideon:


Sampson Gideon (February 1699 in London – 17 October 1762) was a Jewish-British banker in the City of London.

He was born at London Wall, City of London, second son in five children of Rowland Gideon (né Abundiente), who traded with the West Indies, and his second wife Esther (also Jewish), daughter of Domingo (or Abraham) do Porto, a diamond buyer in Madras, India. Rowland's parents were Portuguese immigrants.

He was a trusted "adviser of the Government," and a supporter of the Jew Bill of 1753.

Early in the 1740s he married Jane (died 1778), daughter of Charles Ermell. His son, Sampson Gideon educated at Eton College, was created a Baronet in 1759 and Baron Eardley of Spalding in 1789. The elder Sampson had lobbied for a baronetcy for himself from the then prime minister, the Duke of Newcastle, but was denied it on account of his own religion, as he remained a practicing Jew. His son and two daughters, on the contrary, whose mother was English, were baptized and brought up in the Church of England.

He was also the father of Elizabeth Gideon, the wife of William Gage, 2nd Viscount Gage.

Gideon died of dropsy at Belvidere House, near Erith, Kent, in October 1762, aged 63, having a gained a fortune recorded as £350,000. He left £1000 to the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish congregation in London on condition he was buried with honour as a married man in their cemetery in Mile End.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampson_Gideon

http://p1.la-img.com/1094/26943/10137173_2_l.jpg

[curupira]

Moses da Costa Lindo:

http://i61.tinypic.com/se57xc.png


On one side of this silver medal is the City of London arms with the City motto and the name of Moses da Costa Lindo, and on the reverse are the Royal Arms. These medals were worn by sworn brokers on the Royal Exchange, of whom Moses Lindo was one. He was descended from one of the founding families of the London Sephardi Jewish community. Members of the Lindo family were brokers continuously from the 17th to the 19th centuries and there are five similar medals issued to them by the City of London in the Museum's collection.
http://archive.museumoflondon.org.uk/RWWC/objects/record.htm?type=object&id=445382

http://i58.tinypic.com/288tac8.jpg

[Longbowman]

Da Costa was the name of my great-great grandmother.

Of course I'm probably related to all of them.

[Mars06]

Da Costa was the name of my great-great grandmother.

Of course I'm probably related to all of them.

How closely related can a small community like Portuguese Jews in England be?

Do you have access to detailed genealogical records by any chance?

[Longbowman]

How closely related can a small community like Portuguese Jews in England be?

Do you have access to detailed genealogical records by any chance?

Very and yes. My family tree goes back to before the creation of the British community on that side.

Spanish* and Portuguese. Did you know the oldest synagogue in New York is Spanish & Portuguese? Oldest synagogue in Canada too, and most New World countries.

[curupira]

I have been to the oldest synagogue in the Americas. It was founded by the Sephardic Jewish community of Amsterdam.



Very and yes. My family tree goes back to before the creation of the British community on that side.

Spanish* and Portuguese. Did you know the oldest synagogue in New York is Spanish & Portuguese? Oldest synagogue in Canada too, and most New World countries.

[Smaug]

Peter Sellers' mother was Serphadi.

[curupira]

I have been to the oldest Synagogue in the Americas. It was founded by the Sephardic Jewish community of Amsterdam.

It was established in Recife, Northeast Brazil, when the Dutch captured that part of Brazil:


Kahal Zur Israel (Hebrew: קהל צור ישראל‎, "Rock of Israel", Portuguese: Sinagoga Kahal Zur Israel), located in Recife, Brazil, was the first Jewish congregation in the New World. It was established by Spanish/Portuguese Jews that had taken refuge in the Netherlands fleeing forced conversion and were joined by New Christians who were already living in the colony. There is now a museum on this site of the oldest synagogue site in the Americas.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kahal_Zur_Israel_Synagogue

This is a pic I took inside it (the woman is my wife):

http://i61.tinypic.com/2nu261w.jpg

[curupira]

A short article telling the history of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community of England (the book by Hyamson offers a fuller description). They were quite successful, and many of those who left the community married into the British aristocracy.


The Hidalgos of Bevis Marks:
Glories of England's Sephardim
11.01.52 by Mark Raven
Share on printPrintPDF

For more than three centuries the Sephardic Jewish community of England has added its accent of color, tradition, and a certain aristocratic dignity—sometimes a bit stuffy, some say—to the British scene. MARK RAVEN, drawing upon Albert M. Hyamson’s recently published The Sephardim of England (British Book Centre, 468 pp., $7.50), offers here a description and appreciation of this exotic yet quite British strain in English society and culture.

_____________





On December 19, 1951, His Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh paid a state visit to the Bevis Marks Synagogue of the Sephardi (“Spanish and Portuguese”) Jews of London, to take part in the glittering yet reverent celebration of the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of its opening. In external form, nothing in the synagogue had changed over these two hundred and fifty years. The great hanging candelabra and sconces of polished brass still held innumerable real candles, throwing their warm glow on the paneling and latticework of another age. The ministers, in their 18th-century top hats, recited the prayers in the strangely nasal accent and the half-Oriental chant handed down to them in a strictly maintained tradition. The congregants still bore many of the same family names—de Mesquita, da Costa, Pinto, Casseres, Mocatta, Carvalho, etc.—common not only when the “new” synagogue was opened in 1701, but when the community had been originally founded in 1663, and indeed even a century earlier, in some cases, when Mariano Jews from Portugal, forced to conceal their religion, had visited England from time to time or lived there, with more or less tacit recognition of their true faith.

Certainly there is a marvelous indestructibility about the London Sephardi community. An empire has risen and grown old; man’s faith and habits in the outer world have felt many shocks and changes; but here nothing has changed. The royal family still gives the community the gracious patronage of an official visit, as Princess Anne (who later became Queen Anne) did in 1685. The leading families of the synagogue are still among the brokers and merchants of the City, with business connections all over the world. Jealous of its tradition, the community still looks up to the Mahamad (board of five executive officers) and the velhos (elders) to conduct the affairs of the synagogue with strict adherence to the ascamot (laws). The same charities for the poorer Sephardim of London still preoccupy the members: the Honen Dalim, Menahem Abelim, Hebrat Yetomot, Hebrat Moalim (succoring the poor, comforting the mourners, society for female orphans, society for circumcisers) still exist. And the same community which once collected funds regularly for cautivos (Sephardim in the Middle East captured by pirates and held for ransom) and terra santa (the needs of Jews in the Holy Land under the Turks) now does the same work by raising money to give to the State of Israel for the rehabilitation and training of Sephardi immigrants.

Is it that nothing has changed, or perhaps that everything has changed—the Sephardim with it, so that they are less a dusty bypath of history, carefully preserved from modern traffic, than a recognizable part of the main route, constantly made over as the years go by? It might be tempting, sometimes, to think of this community as a strangely exotic flower imported from abroad and kept alive by the English climate of tolerance. But this does little justice to the interplay of history between England and the community, so interestingly told in a new book by Albert Hyamson. One is reminded, reading it, how wrong it is to think of the English tradition as overwhelmingly Anglo-Saxon in its inspiration. Nothing could be more “alien” than the Sephardi group, so proud of its foreign names and its outlandish—almost Spanishrespect for an inflexible code. Yet nothing at the same time could be more English. Indeed, the injection by this group of something “alien” into the stream of English life for nearly three hundred years is part of the process which has produced the English character.

_____________



Though the Sephardim came to England at different times and from different places, they were always conscious of an adherence to a separate physical group as much as to a religious sect. It was their family connections in many countries that had made them useful as “intelligencers” to Queen Elizabeth and her ministers in 16th century England. The few Marranos left had been expelled in 1609, but within twenty years the immigration had begun again, considerably before the open readmission of the Jews to England. With England’s trade position in the world growing, Jewish families, skilled in international trade, began to settle in London, coming from the Canary Islands, the West Indies, Amsterdam, and Portugal itself; and a Jewish community of “Portuguese” origin was openly recognized by 1656. Pepys’ visit to their synagogue in 1663 is not the only visit recorded.

These early settlers were men of means—merchants, financiers, and doctors, for the most part—and their family pride was as strong as their devotion to the Judaism that, in earlier years, they had had to conceal. They were rigidly Orthodox, but even then there was some movement in and out of the community. Sir Augustin Coronel, who had suggested the profitable and momentous marriage of King Charles II to Catherine of Braganza, was baptized before receiving as his reward the honor of knighthood. Later in life, having lost his wealth, he returned to Judaism and was supported by his relatives, the Mendes and da Costa families.

The early settlers, linked with Portugal, were reinforced by a considerable immigration of Sephardim from Holland after the accession to the English throne of William of Orange and Mary in 1688. In the early 18th-century, Italy provided a new source, some Sephardi families coming from Venice (including the d’Israeli and Treves families), some from Leghorn (including the Montefiores). Another source of Sephardi immigration during that century, especially towards the end, was North Africa, the immigrants to Britain coming by way of Britain’s new outpost, Gibraltar. They were often looked down on at first as Berberiscos (almost as bad as Tudescos, i.e. German Jews), but they produced many names later to be known—Bensusan, Sarfaty, Nahon, to mention a few.

The Sephardim were already a recognizable element in British life, almost as distinct from their Ashkenazi co-religionists as from the non-Jewish world around them. They made their special contribution to England, as the years went by, both by persisting and by disappearing. In their “persistent” role, with their distinctive names and dignified—some might say snobbish—bearing, they went about their business devoudy, solidly, and tenaciously, while presenting a picture often attractive to Englishmen, that of the well-born foreigner who is deeply identified with England and who has an additional charm because he is never quite the same as an Englishman. In their “disappearing” role, they wove themselves into the English tradition by a process of intermarriage so involved as to suggest that half the British aristocracy has some “Jewish blood” somewhere in its history. Intermarriage is not an unusual phenomenon in Jewish history. The distinctive thing about this intermarriage was that where one group, immensely conscious of its genealogy, married into another proud group, the mingling of streams can be observed over a long distance.

_____________



It is the story of the families that stayed loyal to the synagogue that is mostly told in Mr. Hyamson’s book, though the reader is invited to enjoy plenty of genealogical asides. It is interesting, for example, to see how a name like Moses Baruch Lousada, owned by a member of the Mahamad in 1663, turns up repeatedly in Anglo-Jewish history, either as held by one branch of Lousadas that remained within the Jewish community and are still active in it, or in the ennobled form of Duke de Losada y Lousada, a tide conferred on a member of the family by the King of Naples in 1759, or in the form of Barrow (Baruch), some Barrows remaining Jewish for a long time, others becoming non-Jews, including a whole dynasty of British generals.

There are plenty of similar, even more “glamorous,” examples. Among the descendants of Sampson Gideon, a leading financier of the 18th century, were the Irish patriot Robert Erskine Childers, the present Lord Auckland, and a former Duchess of Norfolk. One branch of the famed Mendes family produced the non-Jewish military family of Head, Sit George Head being Commissary-General, and Sir Francis Head, Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada. The Mendes and da Costa families united in the romantic figure of Kitty Villa Real, whose daughter married Viscount Galway, an ancestor of the Marquess of Crewe. As for the Treves family, which tradition relates to Rashi of Troyes, one member who left the faith—Pellegrin Treves—is the direct ancestor, says Mr. Hyamson, of “an appreciable section of the Roman Catholic aristocracy of England.”

_____________



It is a familiar pattern to find the clumsiness or inflexibility of the synagogue leading to the first breach, with the departed member, having made his children Christians, turning back at the end to the shelter of his ancestral faith. Sampson Gideon, who saved the credit of the government during the rebellion of 1745 by putting at its disposal a vast sum of money subscribed by his fellow Jews, was a loyal if passive member of the synagogue under the name Rehuel Abudiente, but sent his resignation to the Mahamad when they used his name without his permission in a public statement on naturalization. In a long, furious—and notarized—letter, he wrote: “Tour assuming a power of representing me in point of political or Civil Interest . . . is certainly as little consistent with prudence, as with the Law of Nature, or the law of the Land, and the more so as you knew the matter solicited for to be directly contrary to my declared Sentiments. . . . I hereby declare that I am not, nor will be from henceforth, any Member of your Society or Congregation, by whatever name you may have entered me or distinguished me therein. . . .” The resignation was duly recorded in the minutes of the Mahamad (which, incidentally, were kept in Portuguese until 1819); but when Gideon died, nine years after his resignation, it was found that he had bequeathed a thousand pounds to the synagogue and other legacies to the orphanage and Beth Holim Hospital, asking to be buried with his people.

Even more dramatic in its consequences was the resignation, equally unnecessary, of Isaac d’Israeli, father of Benjamin Disraeli. It had been laid down in the ascamot from the beginning that every yahid (member of the synagogue) was bound to accept any office in the community bestowed on him, and to pay a substantial fine if he refused. This, with other fines for synagogal offences, had become a considerable source of revenue. Isaac d’Israeli, a devoted book-lover who took no more active interest in the synagogue than he did in his father’s business, was informed one day in 1813, to his surprise, that he had been elected Parnas (president). On declining the honor, he was told that the same laws under which he had been elected Parnas provided a fine of forty pounds for refusal to accept. He refused to pay, pointing out that he was quite unfitted for the office and deploring the legalistic approach of the Mahamad: “Even the Government of a small sect can only be safely conducted by enlightened principles. . . . But against all this you are perpetually pleading your existing laws. . . . It is of these obsolete laws that so many complain. They were adapted by fugitives to their particular situation. . . . You have laws to regulate what has ceased to exist. . . .”

Yet he hesitated to make a final breach, and even four years later he was willing to pay his finta (regular assessment) if they would stop pressing him for the fine. They refused, and he withdrew. For his children he finally decided on baptism, with the result that there was, in that event, no bar to his son entering Parliament in 1837 and rising to become Prime Minister. But Isaac never lost his attachment to his faith; in 1842, blind and with little strength, he left his house in the country to attend the inauguration of a new synagogue, founded by the “progressive” elements in both the Sephardi and Ashkenazi communities.

_____________



The foundation of this new synagogue— the West London Synagogue of British (as distinct from Portuguese or German) Jews—was a climactic moment in the history of the Sephardim. The first law of their constitution had laid down in 1663 that no other Sephardi synagogue could be founded in the city of London, under penalty of herem(excommunication) for those attending it. As the residential area moved westward in London from the old city, the movement for a branch synagogue grew in strength, but the conservative elements in the Mahamad continued to resist the proposal, mainly, as they said, because “there is reason to apprehend that their contemplated establishment is to be on principles opposed to the received religious institutions and ordinances of our Nation, that it is not to be subject to ecclesiastical discipline in religious matters and that its promoters are engaged in alterations and abridgements of our established ritual. . . .”

The split was clearly doctrinal. The seceders—many descended from the earliest Sephardi settlers—were proposing a “reformed” Judaism, while holding, as all seceders do, that they were really only adapting the true spirit of the old tradition to meet modern needs. They went their way, along with Ashkenazi reformers, and were officially excommunicated by the Sephardi and Ashkenazi authorities. The joint rabbinical statement of excommunication said that persons “who do not believe in the Oral Law cannot be permitted to have any communion with an Israelite in any religious or sacred act.” Sir Moses Montefiore, the redoubtable leader of the Sephardim and head of the Board of Jewish Deputies for nearly forty years, refused for some time even to allow members of the seceding synagogue to sit on the Board of Deputies and deal with lay problems of the Jewish community. But time healed the wounds, not by establishing some middle way—a futile procedure in theology— but by allowing the parent synagogue to see that it could still express itself fully, without the need to compromise. When it realized this, the parent became friends with its offspring.

With reformers peacefully out of the way, the old synagogue seems to have suffered little from any further theological controversies. Many of the old rigidities relaxed.

Intermarriage between Sephardi and Ashkenazi had already been conceded, though earlier it had been heavily frowned on, and the mingling of the leading Jewish families in England became a common occurrence. The synagogue itself founded a “branch” in the west of London that became the center of the community, with the old-city synagogue of Bevis Marks little more than a showpiece. The services became increasingly orderly—an objective of the “reformers”—and tradition received another century of reinforcement. One wonders indeed, reading Mr. Hyamson’s book, whether acute theology, in the form of argumentative conviction, did not disappear too completely. Have the English Sephardim become the antiquarian guardians, “all passion spent,” of a beautiful relic?

Certainly one misses today the excitement that could be generated, as Mr. Hyamson records, in 1703, when the Haham (the leader of the community) was publicly attacked by a member of the synagogue for teaching pantheism in a sermon in which he had stated that “God and Nature are one.” The attacker, Joseph Sarfaty, challenged the Mahamad to submit the case to any Jewish authority anywhere, and offered to pay one hundred pounds if he lost the decision. The members were split into two camps, and at one point the Mahamad had even to appeal to the attorney-general for a ruling as to whether they could on legal grounds refuse synagogal privileges to dissidents. In due course, the religious question was submitted to the Beth Din of Amsterdam, but the ruling was inconclusive. Finally it was put to the revered scholar Rabbi Zevi Ashkenazi of Altona, and a ruling was given in the Haham’s favor.

Passions burn equally fiercely today, but in different guise, so that a history of the contemporary synagogue becomes a social study, and only political questions, it seems, glow with the fervor of theology. Within these limits, the Sephardim of England may claim to be very much alive. They play a leading part in the institutions for Jewish education and study. They have become the central group for a revived World Federation of Sephardim. And in their synagogue, devotion and tradition combine to produce a service that has its own authenticity and beauty.

http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-hidalgos-of-bevis-marksglories-of-englands-sephardim/

The Bevis Marks synagogue (their site offers plenty of information: http://www.bevismarks.org.uk/ ), in the City of London, the oldest in Britain (over 300 years old), the song sung is the "Bendigamos" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendigamos ):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaM2ZY11ns0

[Longbowman]

A short article telling the history of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish community of England (the book by Hyamson offers a fuller description). They were quite successful, and many of those who left the community married into the British aristocracy.



http://www.commentarymagazine.com/article/the-hidalgos-of-bevis-marksglories-of-englands-sephardim/

The Bevis Marks synagogue (their site offers plenty of information: http://www.bevismarks.org.uk/ ), in the City of London, the oldest in Britain (over 300 years old), the song sung is the "Bendigamos" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bendigamos ):


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaM2ZY11ns0

I've been many times and my family sing Bendigamos as grace, I know it by heart. This version seems a little Arabic influenced vis-a-vis singing style.

[Longbowman]

Altisimo is the word we use.

[curupira]

Samuel de Sola:


Portrait below is Samuel de Sola , the youngest son of David de Aaron de Sola. In 1863 he was elected to succeed his father as minister of the Bevis Marks Congregation. He is wearing an early version of a top hat.
http://jewishaldgate.blogspot.com.br/2012/11/top-hats-tricorns-or-canonicals.html

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-kA5QTOIBbxc/UJmR26Ee7uI/AAAAAAAAIbg/NzG_bF8pZTw/s1600/museum++DeSolaPool+2.jpg

[curupira]

Daniel Mocatta, son of Abraham Lumbroso de Mattos Mocatta and Esther Lumbroso de Mattos Mocatta (1774-1865)

The Mocatta family


Mocatta (also de Mattos Mocatta, Lumbroso de Mattos Mocatta and Lumbrozo de Mattos Mocatta) is the name of a prominent Anglo-Jewish family originally from Spain known for philanthropy, leadership and sponsorship of arts and letters, particularly in the United Kingdom. Long involved in finance, commerce, and the law, they are considered to be one of the principal families in the "cousinhood" of senior sephardic Anglo-Jewish families, the de facto Anglo-Jewish aristocracy: these influential families of the "cousinhood" include the d'Avigdor family, Sassoon family, Goldsmid family, Henriques family, Kadoorie family, Lousada family, Mazza Family, Montefiore, Samuel family and De Leon family.


The origin of the name Mocatta is unknown. Potential origins include: (i) Mukattil, Arabic for champion, or (ii) a river called Wadi Mokatta, or (iii) mukata, Arabic for fortress. The family left Spain in 1492, settling in France, the Netherlands and Italy, after the Alhambra Decree expelled Jews and Muslims from Spain, not long after the beginning of the Spanish Inquisition.

Some moved to England following Oliver Cromwell's readmission of Jews to England. In the mid 17th century, Antonio de Marchena, from a branch of the Mocatta family that had stayed in Spain and ostensibly become Catholic, left for the Netherlands, and was welcomed back into the Amsterdam Spanish & Portuguese community, adopting the name Moses Mocatta. By 1670 he had taken his family to London. In 1671, Moses Mocatta founded a bullion brokerage firm in Camomile Street in the City of London, known as Mocatta & Goldsmid, after Asher Goldsmid joined in 1783. The world's oldest bullion house, it exists today largely as ScotiaMocatta. In 1790, one branch of the family obtained a royal licence from King George III to cease the use of "Lumbrozo de Mattos". During the 19th century members of the Mocatta family helped found of British Reform Judaism.

Prominent members of the Mocatta family have included Frederick David Mocatta, a prominent philanthropist, bibliophile, patron of the arts, and bullion broker. Also among them are David Mocatta, a well-known architect, as well as more recently Sir Alan Abraham Mocatta, a British Judge. The brother-in-law of F.D. Mocatta, Sir Julian Goldsmid, was a Member of the British Parliament, but the family has tended to be involved in finance, commerce, and the law rather than politics. Bernard Mocatta is a partner at McGuireWoods London LLP, a US law firm with an office in the city of London.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocatta

http://i61.tinypic.com/2aikoed.jpg

[SardiniaAtlantis]

It was established in Recife, Northeast Brazil, when the Dutch captured that part of Brazil:
[/url]

This is a pic I took inside it (the woman is my wife):

http://i61.tinypic.com/2nu261w.jpg

Does your wife always wear that smudgy thing over her face?

[Longbowman]

Daniel Mocatta, son of Abraham Lumbroso de Mattos Mocatta and Esther Lumbroso de Mattos Mocatta (1774-1865)

The family Mocatta


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mocatta

http://i61.tinypic.com/2aikoed.jpg

Christ! This man is my direct ancestor. I knew it was only a matter of time.

As anyone who has me on 23andme can tell you, Mocatta is one of my family lines.

[curupira]

Francis Jacob Salvador (d. 1736), London merchant, painted by Catherine da Costa in 1720:

http://stories-of-london.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Francis-Jacob-Salvador-d.-1736-London-merchant-painted-by-Catherine-da-Costa-in-1720..jpg

[curupira]

They were quite endogamous. Look at what Albert Hyamson said about interbreeding among them in his book "The Sephardim of England":


The families were not only large. They were also closely interrelated. It was the rule for cousins to marry one another, and when the parties were not cousins they were generally uncle and niece or brother and sister-in-law. So frequent were these intermarriages that cases are known in which instead of thirty two great great great grandparents (the number if every marriage is outside the previous circle) a man had less than ten.
p. 219, 1991 edition


How closely related can a small community like Portuguese Jews in England be?

Do you have access to detailed genealogical records by any chance?

[Longbowman]

They were quite endogamous. Look at what Albert Hyamson said about interbreeding among them in his book "The Sephardim of England":


p. 219, 1991 edition

Sadly true. In the 1700s in my family, seven brothers married seven sisters.

You do what you gotta do to keep that Crypto-Jew Herrenvolk limpieza de sangre.

[curupira]

Daniel Mendoza, boxer, the 4th from right to left in the depiction below, champion of England 1792-1795:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5d/Foul_play,_or_Humphreys_and_Johnson_a_match_for_Me ndoza...'_(Richard_Humphries%3B_Daniel_Mendoza)_by _Samuel_William_Fores.jpg

Another pic of him:

http://i62.tinypic.com/s6q1s1.png


Daniel Mendoza (5 July 1764[a] – 3 September 1836) (often known as Dan Mendoza) was an English prizefighter, who was boxing champion of England in 1792–1795.

Before Mendoza, boxers generally stood still and merely swapped punches. Mendoza's style consisted of more than simply battering opponents into submission; his "scientific style" included much defensive movement. He developed an entirely new style of boxing, incorporating defensive strategies, such as what he called “side-stepping”, moving around, ducking, blocking, and, all in all, avoiding punches. At the time, this was revolutionary, and Mendoza was able to overcome much heavier opponents as a result of this new style. Though he stood only 5'7" and weighed only 160 pounds, Mendoza was England's sixteenth Heavyweight Champion from 1792 to 1795, and is the only middleweight to ever win the Heavyweight Championship of the World. In 1789 he opened his own boxing academy and published the book The Art of Boxing on modern "scientific" style boxing which every subsequent boxer learned from.

Mendoza helped transform the popular English stereotype of a Jew from a weak, defenceless person into someone deserving of respect. He is said to have been the first Jew to talk to the King, George III. Mendoza was second for Tom Molineaux, a freed Virginia slave, in his fights.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniel_Mendoza

[curupira]

Fernando (Moses) Mendes

http://i57.tinypic.com/2u7uas8.jpg


Physician; son of Marranos in Portugal; professor in the faculty of medicine at Coimbra, and physician to King John IV, of Portugal; died, according to some sources, in 1725, or, according to others, Nov. 26, 1724. When the king's daughter Catherine, wife of King Charles II. of England, became seriously ill in Castile on her way to London, Fernando was sent to her, and at her request he accompanied her to London and remained there as her physician. His brothers Andreas and Antonio went there with him. In London Fernando and his wife openly confessed Judaism, he taking the name of Moses. A daughter was born to him in the royal palace, to whom the queen was godmother, and who was named Catherine (Rachel) after her. In 1698 this daughter married Moses (Antonio) da Costa. In 1687 Mendes was elected a member of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons
http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10666-mendes-mendez

[Longbowman]

Fernando (Moses) Mendes

http://i57.tinypic.com/2u7uas8.jpg


http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/10666-mendes-mendez

Da Costa is another name in my family.

[curupira]

A John Greenhalgh visited their synagogue in 1662, and this is how he described them to his friend Thomas Crompton:


When I was in the Synagogue I counted about or above a hundred right Jews [...] they were all gentlemen (merchants) I saw not one mechanic person of them; most of them rich in apparel, divers with jewels glittering (for they are the richest jewellers of any) [...] they are generally black (haired) so as they may be distinguished from Spaniards or native Greeks, for the Jews hair hath a deeper tincture of a more perfect raven black, they have a quick piercing eye, and look as if of strong intellectuals; several of them are comely, gallant, proper gentlemen.
p. 19 of "The Sephardim of England", by Albert M Hyamson