Benjamin D'Israeli
Encyclopedia
Benjamin D'Israeli was an English merchant and financier, grandfather of the British prime minister Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
.
D'Israeli was born in Cento
, near Ferrara
, in Italy
on 22 September 1730; and died at Stoke Newington
, London
, on 28 November 1816. He came to England in 1748, and settled there as a merchant, though he did not take out papers of denization till 1801.
Though a conforming Jew, and though contributing liberally toward the support of the synagogue, D'Israeli appears never to have cordially or intimately mixed with the community; only on one occasion did he serve in a minor office—that of inspector of charity schools in the year 1782.
D'Israeli married twice. His first wife Rebecca Mendez Furtado (married 2 April 1756), by whom he had a daughter Rachel, died on 1 February 1765. Later that year he married Sarah Siprut de Gabay Villareal, on 28 May 1765. Their only child Isaac D'Israeli
was born the next year, on 11 May 1766.
, near Ferrara
, in Italy
on 22 September 1730, the son of Isaac Israeli.
He was the eldest of three children. The other two
were daughters, Rachel, born in 1741, and Venturina, born in 1745.
Although his grandson later wrote of the family's roots in Venice
, it seems the family's only connection with that city was through these sisters, for the only records of the family in the archives of the Venetian Ghetto
are Venturina’s death there in 1821, and the register of the death of Rachel in 1837.
Lord Beaconsfield, in the Memoir of his father, speaks of an elder
brother of Benjamin, who was a banker in Venice and a friend of
Sir Horace Mann
, but according to Wolf (1902) this must be a mistake, for, apart from the
absence of any record of this brother, and of any mention of him
in the minute and copious correspondence of Mann, the fact that
Rachel and Venturina Israeli kept a girls’ school in the Ghetto
renders their possession of a banker brother very doubtful.
Of Isaac Israeli nothing is known, but it is noteworthy that he bore a name
honoured in Jewry, and that he married into a family of great
antiquity and of considerable renown in Ferrara. He or his
ancestors probably came from the Levant, where the Arabic name-form
"Israeli" would find an environment more favourable to its survival
than in Western Europe, where the Israelis of Toledo
had long
before assimilated themselves to the native Israels. It is not
unlikely (according to Wolf), in view of the rarity of his patronymic, that he was of
the family of the famous philosopher and court physician, Ishac
Ibn Sulaiman El Israeli
of Kairouan
, who flourished in the tenth
century, but this can only be conjectured. His wife, Rica or
Eurichetta Rossi, was, however, unquestionably of the ancient
family of Min-Haadumin, which traced its origin to one of the
Jews led into captivity after the destruction of Jerusalem
by Titus
and Vespasian
, and, at a later date, translated its Hebrew name
into its literal Italian equivalent of Dei Rossi. The Min-Haadumin
were numerous in Ferrara, where Isaac Israeli spent his life, and
it was in the capital of the former duchy that the most illustrious
of the clan, Azaria dei Rossi, practised as a physician and wrote his
remarkable Cyclopædia of Bible Criticism, Meor Enayim, in the
latter half of the sixteenth century.
After a short apprenticeship in Modena
, Isaac Israeli’s son
Benjamin emigrated to England in his eighteenth year. A strong impulse
had been given to Anglo-Italian trade through the establishment, in
1740, of a branch of the great Venetian and Levantine banking house
of Treves in London, and consequently Italians, chiefly Jews, were
flocking into the country. From letters preserved by one of
Benjamin Israeli's great-grandchildren, it is clear that the attraction
which brought him to these shores had much less to do with the
stability of the dynasty in Great Britain, by which Lord Beaconsfield
has characteristically accounted for his migration, than with a
humdrum, but entirely creditable, desire to find the best market for his
knowledge of the straw bonnet
trade. Moses Chaim Montefiore, the grandfather of Sir Moses Montefiore
, also came to the country at much the same time for precisely the same reason. In both cases the prescience of the
emigrants was justified, for a few years later, owing to the patronage
of Maria
and Elizabeth the "beautiful Misses Gunning", Italian straw bonnets associated with Livorno
("Leghorn") became the height of fashion.
At first D'Israeli was employed at a moderate salary in the
counting-house of Messrs. Joseph and Pellegrin Treves in Fenchurch Street.
Here he made the acquaintance of Mr. Aaron Lara, a friend of the
principals, and a prosperous City broker, who thought sufficiently
well of him to introduce him to his family. In 1756 he married
Aaron Lara’s sister-in-law, Rebecca Mendez Furtado. She was
the second daughter and fourth child of Gaspar and Clara Mendez
Furtado, and was three years older than her husband.
On his marriage with Rebecca Mendez Furtado,
D'Israeli left the Messrs. Treves and established himself in New
Broad Street as an Italian merchant, importing straw hat
s, marble
,
alum
, currant
s, and similar merchandise. He soon found this
occupation pall upon what his grandson calls his “ardent
temperament”, and in 1759 he obtained for himself an address at Sam’s
Coffee House, and devoted a large portion of his time to the more
exciting operations of ‘Change Alley. With capital, credit, and
experience alike limited, it was not difficult to tell whither this was
likely to lead. Within a few months he found himself in serious
difficulties and beset with litigation. He resumed business, however,
but with indifferent success, and, after struggling on for five more
years, he suffered a further affliction in the loss of his wife.
His fortunes were repaired by his second marriage, which took
place in May 1765. The bride was Sarah Shiprut de Gabay Villareal,
younger daughter of a prosperous city merchant, Isaac Syprut, whose
mother had been a Villareal, and whose wife, Esther, was
sister-in-law to Simon Calimani, then Chief Rabbi of Venice.
The relationship must also have proved very useful to him in
the City. At any rate, he soon became a man of substance. For
ten years he prudently devoted himself to his import business, which
he carried on at No. 5 Great St. Helens.
In 1769 the business was also one of the sixteen leading coral
merchants in London,
an activity also closely connected with Treves bank, and Livorno.
There also he established his private abode, until in 1783 he leased a large house in Baker Street, Enfield
. The Stock Market, however, never ceased to attract him, and in 1776 he rented an office in Hamlin’s Alley, Cornhill, and recommenced business there as an unlicensed broker. Three years
later he took to himself two partners, and the firm became known as Messrs. D'Israeli, Stoke & Parkins. At the same time he continued his business at Great St. Helens, which was afterwards transferred to Little Winchester Street, and, in 1792, to Old Broad Street. His
success is attested by the fact that the more respectable of the brokers, who had already organised the beginnings of the present Stock Exchange
at New Jonathan’s Coffee House, admitted him to their body, and afterwards elected him a member of their Committee for General Purposes. When, in 1801, it was resolved to build new premises at Capel Court (where the Stock Exchange remained until 1972), Mr. D’Israeli was appointed a member of the committee entrusted with the plan of conversion. He remained a member of the Stock Exchange until 1803, when he
retired from business; but to the day of his death he retained an address at Tom’s Coffee House, and was often seen in Cornhill, dabbling in stocks and shares.
One of the most notable enterprises with
which he was associated was an attempt to substitute English
straw-plaiting for the finer Italian straws then used for the best hats and
bonnets. He patented a process by which "a wood which is the
growth of this kingdom" was to be so treated as to yield a plait in every
way equal to the Leghorn straws. The enterprise does not seem to
have proved successful.
D'Israeli died in November 1816 at his
house in Charles Street, Stoke Newington
, and was attended on his
deathbed by a noted physician, Dr. John Aikin
, who happened to be his neighbour.
He left a fortune valued at £35,000.
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield
Benjamin Disraeli, 1st Earl of Beaconsfield, KG, PC, FRS, was a British Prime Minister, parliamentarian, Conservative statesman and literary figure. Starting from comparatively humble origins, he served in government for three decades, twice as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom...
.
D'Israeli was born in Cento
Cento
Cento is a city and comune in the province of Ferrara, part of the region Emilia-Romagna . In Italian "cento" means 100.-History:The name Cento is a reference to the centuriation of the Po Valley...
, near Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
, in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
on 22 September 1730; and died at Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...
, London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, on 28 November 1816. He came to England in 1748, and settled there as a merchant, though he did not take out papers of denization till 1801.
Though a conforming Jew, and though contributing liberally toward the support of the synagogue, D'Israeli appears never to have cordially or intimately mixed with the community; only on one occasion did he serve in a minor office—that of inspector of charity schools in the year 1782.
D'Israeli married twice. His first wife Rebecca Mendez Furtado (married 2 April 1756), by whom he had a daughter Rachel, died on 1 February 1765. Later that year he married Sarah Siprut de Gabay Villareal, on 28 May 1765. Their only child Isaac D'Israeli
Isaac D'Israeli
Isaac D'Israeli was a British writer, scholar and man of letters. He is best known for his essays, his associations with other men of letters, and for being the father of British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli....
was born the next year, on 11 May 1766.
Life
D'Israeli was born in CentoCento
Cento is a city and comune in the province of Ferrara, part of the region Emilia-Romagna . In Italian "cento" means 100.-History:The name Cento is a reference to the centuriation of the Po Valley...
, near Ferrara
Ferrara
Ferrara is a city and comune in Emilia-Romagna, northern Italy, capital city of the Province of Ferrara. It is situated 50 km north-northeast of Bologna, on the Po di Volano, a branch channel of the main stream of the Po River, located 5 km north...
, in Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
on 22 September 1730, the son of Isaac Israeli.
He was the eldest of three children. The other two
were daughters, Rachel, born in 1741, and Venturina, born in 1745.
Although his grandson later wrote of the family's roots in Venice
Venice
Venice is a city in northern Italy which is renowned for the beauty of its setting, its architecture and its artworks. It is the capital of the Veneto region...
, it seems the family's only connection with that city was through these sisters, for the only records of the family in the archives of the Venetian Ghetto
Venetian Ghetto
The Venetian Ghetto was the area of Venice in which Jews were compelled to live under the Venetian Republic. It is from its name in Italian , that the English word "ghetto" is derived: in the Venetian language it was named "ghèto".-Etymology:...
are Venturina’s death there in 1821, and the register of the death of Rachel in 1837.
Lord Beaconsfield, in the Memoir of his father, speaks of an elder
brother of Benjamin, who was a banker in Venice and a friend of
Sir Horace Mann
Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet
Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet KB , diplomat, was a long standing British resident in Florence.-Biography:...
, but according to Wolf (1902) this must be a mistake, for, apart from the
absence of any record of this brother, and of any mention of him
in the minute and copious correspondence of Mann, the fact that
Rachel and Venturina Israeli kept a girls’ school in the Ghetto
renders their possession of a banker brother very doubtful.
Of Isaac Israeli nothing is known, but it is noteworthy that he bore a name
honoured in Jewry, and that he married into a family of great
antiquity and of considerable renown in Ferrara. He or his
ancestors probably came from the Levant, where the Arabic name-form
"Israeli" would find an environment more favourable to its survival
than in Western Europe, where the Israelis of Toledo
Isaac Israeli ben Joseph
Isaac Israeli ben Joseph or Yitzhak ben Yosef was a Spanish-Jewish astronomer/astrologer who flourished at Toledo in the first half of the fourteenth century...
had long
before assimilated themselves to the native Israels. It is not
unlikely (according to Wolf), in view of the rarity of his patronymic, that he was of
the family of the famous philosopher and court physician, Ishac
Ibn Sulaiman El Israeli
Isaac Israeli ben Solomon
Isaac Israeli ben Solomon , also known as Isaac Israeli the Elder and Isaac Judaeus, was one of the foremost physicians and philosophers of his time. He is regarded as the father of medieval Jewish Neoplatonism...
of Kairouan
Kairouan
Kairouan , also known as Kirwan or al-Qayrawan , is the capital of the Kairouan Governorate in Tunisia. Referred to as the Islamic Cultural Capital, it is a UNESCO World Heritage site. The city was founded by the Arabs around 670...
, who flourished in the tenth
century, but this can only be conjectured. His wife, Rica or
Eurichetta Rossi, was, however, unquestionably of the ancient
family of Min-Haadumin, which traced its origin to one of the
Jews led into captivity after the destruction of Jerusalem
Siege of Jerusalem (70)
The Siege of Jerusalem in the year 70 AD was the decisive event of the First Jewish-Roman War. The Roman army, led by the future Emperor Titus, with Tiberius Julius Alexander as his second-in-command, besieged and conquered the city of Jerusalem, which had been occupied by its Jewish defenders in...
by Titus
Titus
Titus , was Roman Emperor from 79 to 81. A member of the Flavian dynasty, Titus succeeded his father Vespasian upon his death, thus becoming the first Roman Emperor to come to the throne after his own father....
and Vespasian
Vespasian
Vespasian , was Roman Emperor from 69 AD to 79 AD. Vespasian was the founder of the Flavian dynasty, which ruled the Empire for a quarter century. Vespasian was descended from a family of equestrians, who rose into the senatorial rank under the Emperors of the Julio-Claudian dynasty...
, and, at a later date, translated its Hebrew name
into its literal Italian equivalent of Dei Rossi. The Min-Haadumin
were numerous in Ferrara, where Isaac Israeli spent his life, and
it was in the capital of the former duchy that the most illustrious
of the clan, Azaria dei Rossi, practised as a physician and wrote his
remarkable Cyclopædia of Bible Criticism, Meor Enayim, in the
latter half of the sixteenth century.
After a short apprenticeship in Modena
Modena
Modena is a city and comune on the south side of the Po Valley, in the Province of Modena in the Emilia-Romagna region of Italy....
, Isaac Israeli’s son
Benjamin emigrated to England in his eighteenth year. A strong impulse
had been given to Anglo-Italian trade through the establishment, in
1740, of a branch of the great Venetian and Levantine banking house
of Treves in London, and consequently Italians, chiefly Jews, were
flocking into the country. From letters preserved by one of
Benjamin Israeli's great-grandchildren, it is clear that the attraction
which brought him to these shores had much less to do with the
stability of the dynasty in Great Britain, by which Lord Beaconsfield
has characteristically accounted for his migration, than with a
humdrum, but entirely creditable, desire to find the best market for his
knowledge of the straw bonnet
Straw hat
A straw hat is a brimmed hat that is woven out of straw or reeds. The hat is designed to protect the head from the sun and against heatstroke, but straw hats were also used in fashion and as a decorative element of a uniform.- Manufacture :...
trade. Moses Chaim Montefiore, the grandfather of Sir Moses Montefiore
Moses Montefiore
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London...
, also came to the country at much the same time for precisely the same reason. In both cases the prescience of the
emigrants was justified, for a few years later, owing to the patronage
of Maria
Maria Coventry, Countess of Coventry
Maria Coventry, Countess of Coventry was a famous London beauty and society hostess during the reign of King George II.- Life :...
and Elizabeth the "beautiful Misses Gunning", Italian straw bonnets associated with Livorno
Livorno
Livorno , traditionally Leghorn , is a port city on the Tyrrhenian Sea on the western edge of Tuscany, Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Livorno, having a population of approximately 160,000 residents in 2009.- History :...
("Leghorn") became the height of fashion.
At first D'Israeli was employed at a moderate salary in the
counting-house of Messrs. Joseph and Pellegrin Treves in Fenchurch Street.
Here he made the acquaintance of Mr. Aaron Lara, a friend of the
principals, and a prosperous City broker, who thought sufficiently
well of him to introduce him to his family. In 1756 he married
Aaron Lara’s sister-in-law, Rebecca Mendez Furtado. She was
the second daughter and fourth child of Gaspar and Clara Mendez
Furtado, and was three years older than her husband.
On his marriage with Rebecca Mendez Furtado,
D'Israeli left the Messrs. Treves and established himself in New
Broad Street as an Italian merchant, importing straw hat
Straw hat
A straw hat is a brimmed hat that is woven out of straw or reeds. The hat is designed to protect the head from the sun and against heatstroke, but straw hats were also used in fashion and as a decorative element of a uniform.- Manufacture :...
s, marble
Marble
Marble is a metamorphic rock composed of recrystallized carbonate minerals, most commonly calcite or dolomite.Geologists use the term "marble" to refer to metamorphosed limestone; however stonemasons use the term more broadly to encompass unmetamorphosed limestone.Marble is commonly used for...
,
alum
Alum
Alum is both a specific chemical compound and a class of chemical compounds. The specific compound is the hydrated potassium aluminium sulfate with the formula KAl2.12H2O. The wider class of compounds known as alums have the related empirical formula, AB2.12H2O.-Chemical properties:Alums are...
, currant
Zante currant
The Zante currant , or currant are dried berries of small, sweet, seedless grape variety Black Corinth . The name comes from the Anglo-French phrase "raisins de Corinthe" and the Ionian island of Zakynthos , which was once the major producer and exporter...
s, and similar merchandise. He soon found this
occupation pall upon what his grandson calls his “ardent
temperament”, and in 1759 he obtained for himself an address at Sam’s
Coffee House, and devoted a large portion of his time to the more
exciting operations of ‘Change Alley. With capital, credit, and
experience alike limited, it was not difficult to tell whither this was
likely to lead. Within a few months he found himself in serious
difficulties and beset with litigation. He resumed business, however,
but with indifferent success, and, after struggling on for five more
years, he suffered a further affliction in the loss of his wife.
His fortunes were repaired by his second marriage, which took
place in May 1765. The bride was Sarah Shiprut de Gabay Villareal,
younger daughter of a prosperous city merchant, Isaac Syprut, whose
mother had been a Villareal, and whose wife, Esther, was
sister-in-law to Simon Calimani, then Chief Rabbi of Venice.
The relationship must also have proved very useful to him in
the City. At any rate, he soon became a man of substance. For
ten years he prudently devoted himself to his import business, which
he carried on at No. 5 Great St. Helens.
In 1769 the business was also one of the sixteen leading coral
Coral
Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.A coral "head" is a colony of...
merchants in London,
an activity also closely connected with Treves bank, and Livorno.
There also he established his private abode, until in 1783 he leased a large house in Baker Street, Enfield
Enfield Town
Enfield Town is the historic town centre of Enfield, formerly in the county of Middlesex and now in the London Borough of Enfield. It is north north-east of Charing Cross...
. The Stock Market, however, never ceased to attract him, and in 1776 he rented an office in Hamlin’s Alley, Cornhill, and recommenced business there as an unlicensed broker. Three years
later he took to himself two partners, and the firm became known as Messrs. D'Israeli, Stoke & Parkins. At the same time he continued his business at Great St. Helens, which was afterwards transferred to Little Winchester Street, and, in 1792, to Old Broad Street. His
success is attested by the fact that the more respectable of the brokers, who had already organised the beginnings of the present Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
at New Jonathan’s Coffee House, admitted him to their body, and afterwards elected him a member of their Committee for General Purposes. When, in 1801, it was resolved to build new premises at Capel Court (where the Stock Exchange remained until 1972), Mr. D’Israeli was appointed a member of the committee entrusted with the plan of conversion. He remained a member of the Stock Exchange until 1803, when he
retired from business; but to the day of his death he retained an address at Tom’s Coffee House, and was often seen in Cornhill, dabbling in stocks and shares.
One of the most notable enterprises with
which he was associated was an attempt to substitute English
straw-plaiting for the finer Italian straws then used for the best hats and
bonnets. He patented a process by which "a wood which is the
growth of this kingdom" was to be so treated as to yield a plait in every
way equal to the Leghorn straws. The enterprise does not seem to
have proved successful.
D'Israeli died in November 1816 at his
house in Charles Street, Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington
Stoke Newington is a district in the London Borough of Hackney. It is north-east of Charing Cross.-Boundaries:In modern terms, Stoke Newington can be roughly defined by the N16 postcode area . Its southern boundary with Dalston is quite ill-defined too...
, and was attended on his
deathbed by a noted physician, Dr. John Aikin
John Aikin
John Aikin was an English doctor and writer.-Life:He was born at Kibworth Harcourt, Leicestershire, England, son of Dr. John Aikin, Unitarian divine, and received his elementary education at the Nonconformist academy at Warrington, where his father was a tutor. He studied medicine at the...
, who happened to be his neighbour.
He left a fortune valued at £35,000.