#30 WHAT MY BROTHER-IN-LAW DIDN'T KNOW

 

                                             THE LINDO FAMILY OF LONDON, ENGLAND

 

Here is a real surprise for my brother-in-law, Douglas—that he is descended from a fugitive of the Spanish Inquisition, from one of the wealthy Jewish families of 17^th century London, England and one of the first Jewish brokers of the Royal Exchange.

The Lindo family was a Sephardic Jewish merchant and banking family which rose to prominence in medieval Spain.

It was in the mid-1650s, during the Cromwell Commonwealth, that Jews in England were allowed to openly practice their faith. In the latter part of the century many more Jews emigrated from Europe. One of these was Isaac Lindo.

Isaac was born about 1638 in Badajoz, Spain, near the Spanish-Portugal border. He married Perpetua (Leah) Lopez in 1653. Isaac was a merchant in Tenerife, Canary Islands, when, in 1656, he and his wife were arrested by the Spanish Inquisition. He was charged with carrying a picture of the Christ in his shoe “to desecrate his holy image.” They were held for two years (the property of the prisoner was used to pay procedural expenses and his maintenance and costs). Isaac and his wife were penanced; this meant they were considered guilty, had to publicly abjure their crime and accept a public punishment such as wearing a penitential garment called a sansbenito, exile, fines, or even service as an oarsmen in the royal galley. After Isaac and Perpetua were released, they lived in France before moving to London in 1670.

In 1681, Isaac became one of the first Jewish brokers of the Royal Exchange. The Royal Exchange had opened in 1571 as a place where merchants and tradesmen—English and strangers-- could meet for the “general making of bargains, contracts and commerce.” In 1697, to deal with the problem of unauthorized brokers “who have lately set up and carried on most unjust practices in selling and discounting tallies, bank stock, bank bills, shares and interest on joint stocks…and ...do unlawfully combine to raise or fall the value of such securities, for their own private advantage and whereas the number of such brokers and stock-brokers are very much increased in these few years and do daily multiply”,  the City of London framed new rules: there would now only be 100 English brokers, 12 alien brokers and 12 Jewish brokers. (Nine successive generations of members of the Lindo family were sworn brokers of the City of London, until the registration of sworn brokers was abolished in 1886.) In 1707, the City required the stockbroker, before admittance, to be recommended by six London merchants, to produce certificates of his knowledge and capacity, to promise he would not ask more than the usual brokerage, and that he would keep a broker’s book recording all contracts. He must, as was the general rule for all trades in the City, be a Freeman of the city. In addition to his license, the newly fledged stockbroker was presented with a silver medal, engraved with his name, to be produced when required, as proof of his bona- fides. These medals bear upon one side the Royal Arms, and upon the other those of the City of London, beneath which latter is a space for the recipient’s name. Six of the Lindo family’s medals are on display at the Museum of London.

Isaac was an elder in the Bevis Marks Synagogue. This synagogue was built in 1701 once Jews could begin to openly practice their religion under the rule of Oliver Cromwell. The Bevis Marks Synagogue was affiliated with London’s historic Spanish and Portuguese communities who were Sephardi Jews. (For the last 1000 years, the Jewish people have been grouped into two categories: Ashkenaz and Sephardic. Contemporary Ashkenazim are Yiddish-speaking Jew and their descendants. Sephardim originated in the Iberian Peninsula and the Arabic land. While there are differences in culture, language, genetics and nuances of ritual observance, commonalities between the two groups are much stronger than what divides them; there is common ground in a prayer service that is 95% identical, in mitzvah observance, and the Hebrew language.)

                                                                Bevis Marks Synagogue

For Sephardic Jews, the Bevis Marks Synagogue was a religious centre of the Anglo-Jewish world for more than a century and it served as a clearinghouse for congregational and individual Jewish problems all over the world. These included the appeal of Jews in Jamaica for a reduction in taxation (1736). The Bevis Marks is the oldest synagogue in the United Kingdom in continuous use for more than 300 years.

One of the earliest Chanukiah made in Britain is the silver Lindo Lamp (Sometimes called a menorah, it is a nine-branched candelabrum used on Hanukkah. On the first night of Hanukkah, the Shamash is lit; this is the candle used to light all other candles. Every subsequent night another candle is lit until, on the eighth and final night of Hanukkah, all the branches of the Chanukiah are lit.)  The Lindo Lamp was commissioned in 1709 to celebrate the wedding of Isaac Lindo’s son, Elias, and Rachel Ferreira who were married that year in the Bevis Marks Synagogue. The Chanukiah is intended for use with oil and includes eight little holders for placing the oil and the wick. At the top of the lamp is a larger holder intended for the oil of the shamash—the light used to light all others. The Lindo Chanukiah is decorated with a relief image of the biblical story of the prophet Elijah being fed by the ravens; the choice of decoration is probably a reference to Lindo’s Hebrew first name—Eliyahu (Elijah). The Lindo Lamp was passed down through the Lindo family for many generations and was on display at the Anglo-Jewish Exhibition of 1887—the first British exhibition of Judaica at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum. It has been on loan to the Jewish Museum of London and was bought by the museum in 2009 for 300,000 pounds. (today over $6.4 million C)

                                                                   Lindo Lamp

Isaac Lindo died February 1712 in Mile End, London. His wife, Perpetua, died the next year. They were most likely buried in the "Portuguese burying plot" in the Velho Cemetery in Mile End. Velho, the oldest Jewish Cemetery in the UK, opened in 1657 and reached full capacity in 1733.

Between the mid to late 18th century, Isaac's grandson, Alexandre, immigrated to Jamaica. (but that story will require much more research.)

Isaac Laurenco Rodrigues Lindo

    b. 1638 in Badajoz, Spain

    m. Perpetua (Leah) Lopez (1640-1713) in Temerife, Canary Islands

    d. Feb 1712 in London, England

my brother-in-law, Douglas', 6x great grandfather