The Sephardic Poor of Amsterdam and London

 

THE AMSTERDAM AND LONDON POOR

 

After the Holidays, Sephardic World is back!

 

The popular conception is that Sephardim in Amsterdam and London were rich. Sadly this is not the case. This week we shall discuss impoverished Sephardim - maybe half the community - and how the community leaders managed the situation. There is a wealth of records in the archives dealing with the Sephardic poor, including the support they received from the congregations, including at festivals, and how they were managed and disciplined.

 

One solution was to put poor people on a boat, and send them somewhere else! This is how many of our ancestors reached the places they later called home. Ton has been studying the 'Despacho' records from Amsterdam and London.

 

You can watch live at: https://www.facebook.com/sephardicgenealogy/

 

The talk will later be uploaded to: https://www.youtube.com/c/SephardicGenealogyAndHistory

 

The Ancient Melodies of the liturgy of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews

Link to an 1857 book with Emanuel Abraham Aguilar's melodies for the de Sola prayerbook of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation of London.

First Jewish book in English? 1706

This is the cover page of what might be the first Jewish book published in English, Discourses of the Ecclesiastical and Civil Polity of the Jews by Isaac Abendana, published in 1706. Abendana was Haham in London, having succeeded his brother Jacob. Possibly this is how he was able to publish a book not under the auspicises of the Mahamad.

An engagement announcement in London, 1757

How things changed in the hundred years since Admission. A 1757 English announcement of a Jewish couple’s engagement

 June 3 [1757]. Mr. Ossoro [Osorio?], an eminent Jew Merchant, to Miss Nunes, of St. Mary Axe.

Miscellaneous Correspondence, Volume 2.  Page 577. 1759

English State Papers, 1607

Portuguese merchants, living as concealed Jews, frequenting mass, expelled from London

English State Papers, 1607

Sale of the Novo Cemetery (2), London, 1972

I hope it is OK to quote at length from this Museum of London report on the cemetery wall. One might contrast the care that a museum shows over the wall to the behaviour of the Mahamad and Board of Elders of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation in selling part of the cemetery.

The report contains useful historical background, Section 4.9 deals with the sale of the cemetery in 1972. The precise location of the reburials are not given below. For the record, our ancestors reside in a mass grave (no gravestones) at Coxtie Green, near Brentwood, Essex (GPS Coordinates: Latitude: 51.64206, Longitude: 0.24887)

Summary

Assessment in February 2007 of a brick wall in the grounds of Queen Mary, University of London, at 331-333 Mile End Road, London E1, has determined that this was originally built to enclose parts of a cemetery, known as the ‘Betahaim Novo’ or ‘New Cemetery’, of the Spanish & Portuguese Jews’ Congregation. This cemetery was established on the site in 1726 33, was extended in 1849 53, and was last used early in the 20th century. The stretch of wall examined, originally around the south-east corner of the cemetery, was accessible only on its inner face, towards the cemetery. This stretch of the wall contains fabric apparently belonging to both the 18th and 19th-century periods of use of the cemetery, and can be seen to be directly related to a portion of the cemetery, with about 2,000 burials, that is still in place forming an open space within the campus of the college. The wall clearly merits its statutory listing as a building of architectural or historic interest, which would require the wall to be archaeologically investigated and recorded before any of it was demolished or substantially altered, at a suitable time when both faces of the wall were accessible.

4 Outline description and history of the wall

4.1 Jews of Spanish and Portuguese origin, Sephardim, settled and practised their religion in London after being readmitted to England during the Commonwealth. They established a burial ground for their community in 1657, on the north side of the Mile End Road, about 2.5km from their synagogue in Bevis Marks on the eastern edge of the City. By the early 18th century more land was required for the community’s cemetery, and in 1726 a separate plot of land about 2.5 acres (1ha) in extent, called ‘Cherry Tree’, was bought a short distance further to the east along the north side of Mile End Road. At first this was kept as an orchard until the first burials took place there in 1733. This was thereupon called the Betahaim Novo or ‘New Cemetery’ while the earlier was called the Betahaim Velho or ‘Old Cemetery’; some interments continued to be made in the latter, in family graves.

4.2 When the New Cemetery was opened in 1733 a brick wall is documented as having been erected around the site. The wall in lengths (1), (2) and (3) is on the line of the earliest wall around the cemetery shown on a map of 1799-1819 (Fig 3). The southern boundary of the cemetery is not shown so clearly on an earlier map of 1746, by Rocque, and possibly either the boundary was changed slightly during the 18th century, perhaps as more ground was occupied by graves and less by fruit trees, or alternatively the 1746 map was not surveyed very precisely. Of the surviving walls, (1) and the base of (2) and (3) are possibly of 18th-century origin, containing, for the most part, dark red hand-made bricks, laid rather irregularly but generally to English bond and set in crumbly cream yellow lime mortar (Figs 5 and 6). Much of this wall face has been repointed and there are many signs of patching and alteration.

4.3 In 1733, according to Barnett (1955), a ‘fine mortuary hall’ was also built, which remained until it was demolished in 1922. The plot of land for the New Cemetery had cost £450 to buy and a much greater sum, £2,000, was spent on its buildings, walls and so on (Rodrigues-Pereira et al 1997, ix xi). The only building shown on the 1799 1819 map is in the centre of the southern half of the cemetery, and this could have been the ‘mortuary hall’.

4.4 In the late 18th and early 19th centuries grave-robbing was much feared. A newspaper advertisement of 1786 offered a reward of £50 for assistance in apprehending and convicting robbers of recent graves in ‘the Portuguese cemetery’, by which must be meant the New Cemetery. A watchman’s hut on wheels was set up over newly-filled graves, and the contemporary rules for the watchmen included the injunction to see ‘that no tree grows near the walls surrounding the burial ground, or near enough for its branches to help anyone trying to climb [the walls]’ (translated and quoted by Barnett, 1955). This indicates that the cemetery had walls around it, and they were high enough to have to be climbed with the help of overhanging tree-branches, if there were any.

4.5 By the 1840s the new cemetery was going to have to be enlarged, and more land adjoining it to the east, covering some 4.5 acres (1.8ha), was bought in 1849 and used for burials from 1853. The burials were always in very orderly rows, being successively laid out and filled from the rear of the cemetery going towards the Mile End Road. ‘The numbers of the rows were to be “conspicuously painted in White letters on a Black Ground on the Wall with a line marking the width of each Carreira [or row]”’ (Barnett 1955, x).

4.6 By the time of the first edition of the Ordnance Survey large-scale map, in 1870, the cemetery had clearly been extended to the east, and the line of the wall at (4) (8) is shown on this map as well as (1) (3); these wall-lines continue to be shown on subsequent maps, such as the revision of 1893 4 (Fig 4). The junction of the two parts of the cemetery can be seen in the existing walls (Fig 7), and it is marked by a change in the level of the ground, the extension to the east being at a slightly higher level than the initial area of the cemetery to the west.

4.7 A small rectangular building, one corner of which adjoins the junction of (1) and (2), was possibly a watch-house, referred to in documentary sources. On the 1870 and later maps, such as that of 1893 4, this is shown as having a small garden attached, which suggests that it was where a watchman could have lived. By 1961, the possible watch-house at the junction of (1) and (2) appears to have been the only building left connected with the cemetery, despite the watch-house being documented as having been demolished in 1892 or 1922. A map of 1962 shows the rectangular plot as existing but empty, as if the corner building had gone by then, and thereafter not even the plot appears.

4.8 By the end of the 19th century the community’s cemetery moved to north London. In 1895 unused land on the east of the New Cemetery at Mile End amounting to 2 acres (0.8ha) was sold to the Great Eastern Railway, and another cemetery, at Hoop Lane, Hampstead, was in use from 1896. The New Cemetery at Mile End was closed in 1936, and the superintendent’s lodge and mortuary hall were demolished. According to Rodrigues et al (1997, x) ‘paths were levelled and the boundary walls and gates rebuilt’. The walls to the east, (7) and (8), retain their original top courses intact, as the coping still rises and falls to accommodate former changes of level in the adjacent ground (Fig 8). This area of the cemetery seems to have been fairly level, so the changes of ground level must have been immediately outside the cemetery. The latter ground, according to a map of 1938, was occupied as in 1893 4 (Fig 4) partly by houses and partly by open areas, such as gardens, yards and Govey’s Place, adjoining the cemetery wall. Almost all the latter ground had been built up by about 1947, according to a map of that date.

4.9 In 1972, when a compulsory purchase order was likely to be made in order to rebuild and enlarge the adjacent Queen Mary College, the major part of the cemetery, to the west, was cleared and the land sold to the college. About 7,000 bodies were exhumed and reburied near Brentwood, Essex. ‘A small section containing graves from 1865 to 1916’ [about 2,000] was left intact in the eastern part of the cemetery (Fig 9), the part which had been added in 1849. In 1975 listed building consent was obtained to reduce the boundary wall on the street frontage to 6ft (1.83m).

4.10 The New Cemetery fronted directly on to the Mile End Road, except for two rectangular plots of land on the south-east, one of which was owned in the 18th century by Richard Govey, hence the name of the short side-road into it from Mile End Road, and the other, even smaller, to the west, which contained until the mid 20th century a public house called the ‘Three Mackerels’. It is the acquisition of these two plots and the proposed demolition of the buildings on them, which abut the cemetery wall to their rear, which has given rise to the present assessment.

Museum of London Archaeology Service. Author: Andrew Westman; Project Manager: David Lakin. WALL OF THE NEW CEMETERY (BETAHAIM NOVO) OF THE SPANISH AND PORTUGUESE JEWISH CONGREGATION. QUEEN MARY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. A standing building assessment

Sale of the Novo Cemetery, London

Selling the Novo Cemetery on the Mile End Road circa 1972 was unquestionably the worst thing ever done by the leadership of the English Spanish & Portuguese Jews in their 300 year history. Even forty years later, this act of blasphemous vandalism has not lost its power to shock.

The Planning Statement below, from 2011, proposed doing a little more damage, and gives some of the history. Some Hasidic Jews turned up to protest the desecration.

2.1 In 1733 the Novo Cemetery (Jews New Burying Ground) was constructed on land purchased by the Spanish & Portuguese Jewish Community of the Bevis Marks Synagogue located in the City of London. At the time, the congregation’s original burial site, the Jews Old Burying Ground (1657), which is the oldest Jewish Cemetery in the UK, had reached capacity, and land was required to increase the area available for burials. (see fig 3: Rocque’s Survey of London 1746.

2.2 By the early part of the twentieth Century the land surrounding the two burial grounds had been absorbed by development into the city’s fabric. Both of the burial sites had reached capacity and the cemeteries were no longer in active use by the community. Although the Bevis Marks Community continues to exist, the main centre for Spanish and Portuguese Jewry had moved to northwest London with Burial (sic) new burial sites to serve the community’s ongoing needs (see fig 4: 1914 Survey of London)

2.3 In 1970 The Queen Mary University of London purchased the Novo Cemetery site form (sic) the SPJC for the expansion of the University’s facilities in the Mile End Campus. The SPJC retained freehold possession of the remaining section of the cemetery which is surrounded on all sides by the University Campus (see fig 5: Aerial photography of Novo Cemetery site pre 1970 and post 1970)

2.4 As part of the sale of the land, it was decided that the graves that were not retained would be exhumed and reinterred at a site in Brentwood, Essex that was given to the SPJC as part of the conditions of sale.

…

4.1.4 In addition the overriding design criteria for the above is to minimise wherever possible [my italics] any excavation or significant alterations to the ground, as it has been shown that any excavation within the bounds of the original cemetery footprint (which applies to the entire site) is liable to disturb remains left over when the graves were originally exhumed in 1970. It is for this reason that all of the proposals have been developed in collaboration with the SPJC to seek there (sic) approval of both construction methodology and the final result.

Queen Mary University of London with the Spanish & Portuguese Jews Congregation. Proposed Works to the Perimeter of the Novo Cemetery at Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Campus. Seth Stein Architects. Planning Statement January 2011.

Proposed demolition of Bevis Marks synagogue, London

In 1886, and again in 1891, the Elders of Bevis Marks synagogue proposed that the historic building be pulled down, and the site sold to the highest bidder!

French report of Bevis Marks, London, 1708

A French report on Bevis Marks, dated 1708, and possibly derived from one of the earlier English reports:

Les Juifs avoient été bannis autrefois d'Angleterre, mais Cromwell leur permit de revenir. Dans ce tems-là ils étoient peu considerables, mais aujourd'hui leur nombre est si fort augmenté, qu'ils ont bâti à Londres près de Duke's Place, une fort belle Synagogue.

Guy Miège. L' Etat Present De La Grande-Bretagne Après son heureuse Union. 1708.

A 1704 report on the establishment of Bevis Marks synagogue, London

A rather grudging 1704 report on the 1701 establishment of Bevis Marks synagogue:

"Touching the Jews, which by the late Usurper were admitted at London, and since continued by the bare permission of our Princes, and suffered to hire a private House, wherein to hold their Meetings; they were not considerable either for Number, making not above 80 or 100 Families; or for their Wealth or Abilities, being for the most part poor and ignorant, to what they are in other Countries; yet of late they are increas'd and have built themselves a sumptuous Synagogue near Duke's Place, within the City of London."

Robbery at Bevis Marks, London, 1748

Robbery at Bevis Marks in 1748:

The Jews synagogue, in Duke's Place was broke open on the 28th ult by one Jeremiah Levi, a Jew (since apprehended) and robb'd of plate, vestments, &c. value 300 £.

Bevis Marks synagogue, London, 1714

An 1714 description of Bevis Marks, London.

Observe that this and other Churches are for Distinction, denominated Jewry, from some few Jews who dwelt thereabout in former Times ; but now having more considerable Admission into England and London by the late Usurper ; to whom large Proposals were made at White-Hall in 1656, by Manasses Ben Israel) a Jewish Merchant in Name of the rest, for Leave to trade and dwell in this Nation, than in former Days, when they were banished, taxed, and punished by King Edward I, and others, and a bare Permission since his Days; they are exceedingly increased both in Number and Wealth, and have built a sumptuous Synagogue near Duke's Place by Aldgate, whither they do now all resort, and have their Habitations thereabout only, which Place may be properly called the Jewry of London at this Time ;

James Paterson (A.M.). Pietas Londinensis: or, the present ecclesiastical state of London. 1714. Page 132.

Bevis Marks synagogue, London, 1745

A 1745 description of Bevis Marks synagogue, in London.

The Jews synagogues are in Dukes-place, where, and in that neighbourhood, many of that religion inhabit: The synagogue stands east and west, as christian churches usually do: The great door is on the west, within which is a long desk upon an ascent, raised above the floor, from whence the law is read. The east part of the synagogue also is railed in, and the places where the women sit inclosed with lattices; the men sit on benches with backs to them, running east and west; and there are abundance of fine branches for candles besides lamps, especially in that belonging to the Portuguese.

A collection of voyages and travels. The Voyages of Don Gonzeles. 1745. Page 116

Jews in Hampstead ahd Highgate, London, 1725

High-gate and Hamstead are next on the Northside; At the first is a very beautiful House built by the late Sir William Ashurst, on the very summit of the Hill, and with a view from the very lowest Windows over the whole Vale, to the City: And that so eminently, that they see the very Ships pasting up and down the River for 12 or 15 Miles below London. The Jews have particularly fixt upon this Town for their Country Retreats, and some of them are very Wealthy; they live there in good Figure, and have several Trades particularly depending upon them, and especially, Butchers of their own to supply them with Provisions kill'd their own way; also, I am told, they have a private Synagogue here.

Daniel Defoe. A tour thro' the whole island of Great Britain. 1725

Loyal Jewish Sermon in London, 1756

A glowing report of a sermon by Isaac Nieto, Haham of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews congregation of London, son of David Nieto. Contrast this with some of the negative stereotypes seen elsewhere. Needless to say, then as now, the community was too busy squabbling to notice.

22. Preached in the Jews Synagogue. By Isaac Netto [Isaac Nieto], Archisynagogus [possibly Haham, although he resigned the following year after a fight with members of the Bet Din over job titles] of the Portuguese Jews Synagogue.

This sermon was written originally in Spanish and is now translated by the Author into English. The translation is well executed, but there is a dignity in the Spanish, which makes us prefer the original to the copy: it is printed in both languages. There is, in this discourse, a strain of piety, goodness, and loyalty, that is greatly commendable. The practice of morality and benevolence is recommended as the great end of religion ; and the prayer for the King is such as any Christian may with pious pleasure pronounce, it being perfectly agreeable to the sentiments of every good citizen, whether Christian or Jew, who is a well-wisher to his country.

Ralph Griffiths, G. E. Griffiths. The Monthly review, or, Literary journal: Volume 14. 1756.

Allegation of Sharp Practices by Jewish merchants trading from London, circa the 1630s

"Our merchants do much complain of some Portugal Jews here in London, that trade greatly for Spain, to their great prejudice. But this is not all: they do receive damage by them another way, as thus : a ship of London being laden with linen cloth at St. Malo, in France; this ship the French took, as she was homeward bound, and, searching what lading she had aboard, they find, by the bills of lading, some parcel of this linen cloth was consigned for Lisbon in Portugal, and to be first landed at Dover, to be shipped presently again to go for Spain. This landing of these French goods was only a deceit, to avoid the French king's edict, that no French commodity should go for Spain, under the penalty of forfeiture of the ship, and all the goods aboard her. This ship is carried to Boulogne, our merchants having near £6000 in her, which goods were to be brought up to London; but the other small parcels belonging to some Portugals have confiscated all. Our merchants complain ; but the French will not forego that advantage; so we lose all."

Cyprien (de Gamaches). The court and times of Charles the First. 1848
By

Fire near Bevis Marks synagogue in London, 1737

Maybe this article solves the mystery of who invented one of England's national dishes, fried fish.

On Friday in the Afternoon a Fire broke out in White Horse Yard, Dukes Place, near the Portuguese Jews Synagogue, occasion’d by a black Woman, that was dressing some Fish after the manner of the jews, in which they use Oil, which by Carelesness boil'd over into the Fire; and, for the want of Water, consum'd by the nearest Computation upwards of 20 Houses, and part of Dr. Watts's Meeting House, and damaged several other Gentlemen's Houses thereabout. We bear that two Children and a young Women of 20 Years of Age, perished in the Flames and several others were much bruised. The Right Hon. the Lord Mayor was present, to give Orders to blow up what Houses should be thought necessary to prevent its spreading any farther; but having just before, and then, a Plenty of Water, the Fire was got under by Seven o' Clock. The Inhabitants sent to the Tower for a Party of Soldiers to keep the Mob off.

We hear that Mr. Isaac Delvalle's Collection of Books, deem'd worth about 700L was consumed in the said dreadful Fire.

On Monday the Portuguese Jews met in their Council Chamber by their Synagogue, for the Relief of tbe Poor who were burnt out of their Houses by the Fire the Friday before, when a Collection was made, which amounted to 1200£, and upwards.

Source: Laurence Clarke, Samuel Butler. Exposition on the Common prayer. 1737

Coffee arrives in England from Turkey, 1651

Coffee was introduced into England from Turkey in 1651 by "Jacob", a Jew who presumably had contacts or experience of the Ottoman Empire. He started trading in Oxford, then moved to Southampton Buildings in Holborn in London. That area is overwhelmed by coffee shops today, but not sure what Jacob would think about the quality.

"It has been held by many respectable authorities, that coffee was first brought to England in 1652 by Mr. Edwards, a member of the Turkey Company, and that his servant was the first who opened a house for publicly vending it as a drink; but it appears from the following extracts from the Life of Wood, the antiquarian, that a coffee-house had been opened at Oxford a year or two sooner. “In 1651 one Jacob, a Jew, opened a coffee-house at the Angel, in the parish of St. Peter, in the East Oxon, and there it was, by some who delighted in noveltie, drunk. When he left Oxon, he sold it in Old Southampton Buildings, in Holborne, neare London, and was living there in 1671.”

William Milburn. Oriental commerce, Vol 2. 1813. Page 530.

"Remarkable for the haughtiness"

I found this gem on Google Books. It was published in The Living Age magazine in 1846. I think it gives an honest account of Sephardi Jewish disdain towards the Ashkenazim in mid-19th Century Britain. As a "Portuguese Jew of London" I can confirm that a healthy self-regard is still a characteristic of our community. Fortunately, under the influence of Moses Montefiore and others, the arrogance and disdain towards our Ashkenazi co-religionists disappeared over the following fifty years.

"The Portuguese Jews of London could never drop their national characteristic; they were remarkable for the haughtiness, their high sense of honour, and their stately manners. Subsequently, Jewish emigrants flocked from Germany, Poland and Barbary, a race in every respect of inferior rank. The Portuguese shrank from all contact with them; different synagogues separated them; and the Lusitanian Jew would rather have returned to the fires of Lisbon than have intermarried with the Jew of Alsace or Warsaw. The latter was humiliated by indigence, and pursued the meanest and not infrequently the most disreputable crafts. The former, opulent and high-minded, indolent, polished and luxurious, splendid in dress and equipage, felt himself disgraced by the beard and gabardine of the Polander."