Resettlement of the Jews in England

Breif Summary

The Resettlement of the Jews in England was a historic commercial policy dealing with Jews in England in the 17th century, and forms a prominent part of the History of the Jews in England.


Oliver Cromwell

The commercial policy which led to the Navigation Act in October 1651, made Oliver Cromwell desirous of attracting the rich Jews of Amsterdam to London so that they might transfer their important trade interests with the Spanish Main from Holland to England. The mission of Oliver St John to Amsterdam, though failing to establish a coalition between English and Dutch commercial interests as an alternative to the Navigation Act, had negotiated with Menasseh Ben Israel and the Amsterdam community. A pass was granted to Menasseh to enter England, but he was unable to use it because of the war between England and Holland, which lasted from 1652 to 1654.


Menasseh Ben Israel's petition

As soon as the war ceased, Menasseh Ben Israel sent his brother-in-law, David Abravanel Dormido, to London to present to the council a petition for the readmission of Jews. The council, however, refused to act. Cromwell therefore induced Menasseh himself to come over to London, which he did at the end of September 1655, and there he printed his "humble address" to Cromwell. As a consequence, a national conference was summoned at Whitehall in the early part of December, which included some of the most eminent lawyers, divines, and merchants in the kingdom. The lawyers declared no opposition to the Jews' residing in England, but both the divines and merchants were opposed to readmission, leading Cromwell to stop the discussion in order to prevent an adverse decision.

Early in the following year (1656), the question came to a practical issue through the declaration of war against Spain, which resulted in the arrest of Antonio Rodrigues Robles, and forced the Maranos of London to avow their Judaism as a means of avoiding arrest as Spaniards and the confiscation of their goods. As a final result, Cromwell appears to have given informal permission to the Jews to reside and trade in England on condition that they did not obtrude their worship on public notice and that they refrained from making proselytes. Under cover of this permission Antonio Fernandez Carvajal and Simon de Caceres purchased a piece of land for a Jewish cemetery in 1657, and Solomon Dormido, a nephew of Menasseh Ben Israel, was admitted to the Royal Exchange as a duly licensed broker of the City of London without taking the usual oaths involving faith in Christianity. Carvajal had previously been allowed to take out letters of denization for himself and son.


Debating the return of the Jews

This method of finding a solution to the Jewish question in England had the advantage of not raising anti-Semitic feeling too strongly; and it likewise enabled Charles II, on his return, to avoid taking any action on the petition of the merchants of London asking him to revoke Cromwell's concession. He had been assisted by several Jews of royalist sympathies, such as Mendes da Costa and Augustine Coronel-Chacon, during his exile. In 1664 a further attempt was made by the Earl of Berkshire and Mr. Ricaut to bring about the expulsion of the Jews, but the king in council assured the latter of the continuance of former favour. Similar appeals to prejudice were made in 1673, when Jews, for meeting in Duke's Place for a religious service, were indicted on a charge of rioting, and in 1685, when thirty-seven were arrested on the Royal Exchange; but the proceedings in both cases were put a stop to by direction of the Privy Council. The status of the Jews was still very indeterminate. In 1684, in a case connected with the East India Company, it was contended that they were alien infidels, and perpetual enemies to the English crown; and even the Attorney-General declared that they resided in England only under an implied license. As a matter of fact, the majority of them were still aliens and liable to all the disabilities which that condition carried with it.


Help from Jews abroad

William III, though it is reported that he was assisted in his descent upon England by a loan of 2,000,000 gulden from Antonio Lopez Suasso, afterward Baron Avernes de Gras, did not interfere when in 1689 some of the chief Jewish merchants of London were forced to pay the duty levied on the goods of aliens; though he refused a petition from Jamaica to expel the Jews. His tenure of the throne, however, brought about a closer connection between the London and the Amsterdam communities, and thus aided in the transfer of the centre of European finance from the Dutch to the English capital. Early in the eighteenth century the Jewish community of London comprised representatives of the chief Jewish financiers of northern Europe, including the Mendez da Costas, Abudientes, Salvadors, Lopezes, Fonsecas, and Seixas. A small German contingent had arrived and established a synagogue in 1692; but they were of little consequence, and did not figure in the relations between the Jews and the government. The utility of the larger Jewish merchants was recognized. Marlborough in particular made great use of the services of Sir Solomon de Medina, and indeed was publicly charged with taking an annual subvention from him. These merchants are estimated to have brought into the country a capital of £1,500,000, which had increased by the middle of the century to £5,000,000. As early as 1723 a special act of Parliament was passed which permitted them to hold land on condition of their taking oath when registering their title; they were allowed to omit the words "upon the faith of a Christian." Some years later (1740) an act was passed permitting Jews who had resided in the British colonies for a period exceeding seven years to become naturalized (13 Geo. II., cap. 7). Shortly afterward a similar bill was introduced into the Irish Parliament, where it passed the Commons in 1745 and 1746, but failed to pass the Lords in 1747; it was ultimately dropped. Meanwhile, during the Jacobite rising of 1745 the Jews had shown particular loyalty to the government. Their chief financier, Samson Gideon, had strengthened the stock market, and several of the younger members had volunteered in the corps raised to defend London.