Metadata: Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation
Collection
- Country:
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland
- Holding institution:
- London Metropolitan Archives, City of London
- Holding institution (official language):
- London Metropolitan Archives, City of London
- Postal address:
- 40 Northampton Road, London EC1R 0HB, United Kingdom
- Phone number:
- (+44) 20 7332 3820
- Email:
- ask.lma@cityoflondon.gov.uk
- Reference number:
- LMA/4521
- Title:
- Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation
- Title (official language):
- Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation
- Creator/accumulator:
- Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation
- Date(s):
- 1598/1997
- Language:
- English
- Portuguese
- Extent:
- 57.6 linear metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- Records of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews Congregation relating to the administration of the Congregation including: laws and regulations (Ascamot); orders and resolutions; minutes and agendas for meetings of the Mahamad, Elders and Yehidim of the Congregation and other committees; membership lists; reports including annual reports of the Mahamad to the Elders; correspondence of the Mahamad, Synagogue and associated organisations; records of the Portuguese Marranos Committee; records of denization relating to members of the Congregation (denization was a legal process allowing foreigners to gain the certain privileges equivalent to British subjects, including the right to hold land, through letters patent); records relating to shehita (ritual slaughter of animals in accordance with Jewish dietary laws); and 'livros dos pleitos', case books which record the Mahamad's arbitration of various disputes amongst the Congregation. Also records relating to the Synagogue's services including: registers of births; register of circumcisions; marriage registers (ketubot) and marriage licences; registers of burials in the Old and New Cemeteries, Mile End; seats lists; sermons; apprentice books and records of religious classes. With records relating to property and legal matters; finance; history of the congregation; records of branch synagogues in London; records of congregational and related organisations including schools, hospitals and charities formed by the congregation; records of provincial and overseas congregations in Manchester, Ramsgate, Barbados, Bordeaux, Amsterdam and Venice; deposited records of individual members of the congregation including Moses Montefiore and the Meldola/de Sola families; papers received from the Board of Deputies of British Jews
- Archival history:
- Deposited at London Metropolitan Archives in 2007, 2013 and 2015.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- In 1290 anti-Jewish feeling in England led to the expulsion of all Jews from the country. In the seventeenth century a small number of Jews arrived in London, fleeing persecution by the Inquisition in Spain. They outwardly behaved as Christians while holding secret prayer meetings and began to petition Protector Oliver Cromwell for the official re-admittance of Jews to England. Eventually their petition was successful and the first official Jewish place of worship was opened in Creechurch Lane, London, in 1657. This building soon became too small and in 1699 work began on a new synagogue, to be situated on a street named Bevis Marks, around the corner from Creechurch Lane. The building, known as the Bevis Marks Synagogue, was opened in September 1701. Throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries immigrants joined the Congregation, coming from Portugal (known as Marranos) or from Jewish communities elsewhere including Spain, Holland, France, Italy and North Africa, the Middle East, Egypt, Lebanon and Iraq. The congregation began to leave the City of London and the East End to settle in the west of London, leading to the establishment of a branch synagogue which after several moves of premises settled in Lauderdale Road, Maida Vale, in 1896. Another synagogue was constructed at Mildmay Park in North London in 1883, which closed in 1936. A further synagogue was opened in North London at Wembley in 1962. The Spanish and Portuguese Jews' Congregation is led by a small group (Mahamad) consisting of four Wardens (Parnassim) and a Treasurer (Gabay), chosen annually by the community (Yehidim) from amongst the Elders. In the mid 19th century this body became an elected Executive. The Mahamad compiled the first Laws of the Congregation (Ascamot) which were intended to maintain a pious, united and ordered community. The Mahamad levied taxes on members, selected and paid the Haham (Chief Rabbi) and other officials, received offerings and legacies, authorised the solemnisation of marriages and distributed charity (both money and goods such as matzot, coal and blankets). The synagogue also established various charities to help its members. These included an orphanage; the Shaare Tikvah (Gates of Hope) School for boys, founded in the seventeenth century; the Villareal School for girls, established by Isaac da Costa in 1729; Dower Societies which provided assistance for brides to set up their homes; the Welfare Board offering assistance to people in need; and medical provision through the Beth Holim, now an old people's home but formerly a hospital founded in 1747. From 1885 the Elders of the Congregation also became responsible for the Montefiore Endowment, established by Sir Moses Montefiore in 1866, which financed the Judith Lady Montefiore College in Ramsgate, Kent, and Ramsgate Synagogue. The Endowment also took over the Ramsgate Jewish Burial Ground in 1887.
- Access points: locations:
- Amsterdam
- Barbados
- Bordeaux
- Manchester
- Ramsgate
- United Kingdom
- Venice
- Access points: persons/families:
- Montefiore, Moses
- Subject terms:
- Aid and relief
- Aid and relief--Philanthropy and charity
- Education
- Education--Schools and universities
- Health and medical matters
- Health and medical matters--Hospitals
- Jewish community
- Marriage and divorce
- Marriage and divorce--Ketubot
- Ritual slaughter
- Sephardi Jews
- Synagogues
- Vital records
- System of arrangement:
- Catalogued in seven sections: Congregation and Synagogues; Congregational and Related Organisations; Deposited personal and family records; International Congregations; Public Appeals; Papers of the Board of Deputies of British Jews; Provincial congregations
- Access, restrictions:
- These records are available only with written permission from the depositor. Records containing personal information may be subject to additional restrictions.
- Finding aids:
- Please see online catalogues.
- Links to finding aids:
- https://search.lma.gov.uk/opac_lma/index.htm
- Yerusha Network member:
- London Metropolitan Archives
- Author of the description:
- Nicola Avery, London Metropolitan Archives, 2018
