Riages and founded long lines that blended with the F.irst Families of Virginia, specifically

Bollings (Boleyn), Howards, Johnstons, Walkers and “Pocahontas’ people.” 8 Of his first

wife, who miscarried four potential heirs, Shaftesbury wrote in his journal, “She was a

lovely beautiful fair woman, a religious devout Christian... yet [emphasis added] the

most sweet, affectionate, and observant wife in the world.”

 

In a pronouncement later admired by Benjamin Franklin, and enshrined by Benjamin

Disraeli in one of his novels, Shaftesbury once answered his critics with a defense that

might have been more than just a bon mot. After one of his characteristic alterations of

conscience during the Religious Wars, a lady of rank asked him what he actually believed.

“Madame, ” he said, urbanely, “people differ in their discourse and profession about these

matters, but men of sense are really but of one religion.” So the lady asked, “Pray, my Lord,

what religion is that in which men of sense agree? ” Shaftesbury replied, “Madame, men

of sense never tell it.” 9 To us, this seems the classic response of a Crypto-Jew.

 

At the end of Henry VIII’s reign, the Spanish Jews, both Crypto- and openly Jewish,

were well established in England. Three of these included Dr. Hector Nunez, Dunstan Anes,

and Simon Ruiz who lived in London and carried on successful professional careers. Nunez

was even made a fellow of the College of Physicians in 1554 and Anes became a freeman

of the Grocer’s Company in 1557. Nunez, who presented himself publicly as a Calvinist

minister, was in fact the rabbi of the Bristol, England, Jewish community (Katz 1996).

 

These three men may serve to some extent for us as prototypes of Jewish experi-

ence in the mid-1500s in England. One, Hector Nunez, was so skilled as a doctor as to

be allowed to enter the College of Physicians— a pattern we shall see followed in Scot-

land. Dunstan Anes (Ames) was a merchant in foodstuffs, another typical Jewish profes-

sion, and Dr. Henrique Nunes, the Crypto-rabbi of Bristol, England, pretended to be a

Calvinist (Protestant) minister, before fleeing to France. What we will find in Scotland

is very similar: Crypto-Jews in the merchant professions, as leading doctors and apothe-

caries, and as Protestant ministers. What is missing from this list are the several craft

skills which the Crypto-Jews possessed — silver smithing, leather tanning, tailoring, weav-

ing, iron mining and smelting, and an orientation toward intellectual pursuits, such as

mathematics, chemistry and astronomy.

 

Meanwhile, the conversos   outside of England had established an international trad-

ing network that linked Eastern Europe, Turkey, Palestine, Holland, Iberia, France and

England. The prime movers of this network were Joseph Nasi and his mother, Eva Gar-

cia Mendes Nasi. Joseph also held the titles of Duke of Naxos and Count of Andros and

was endeavoring to establish not only a commercial center but also a Jewish homeland

at Tiberias in Israel (Katz 1996).

 

The Crypto-Jewish community in England, which included several prominent physi-

cians and businessmen, affiliated itself with Protestantism. For example, Katz (1996, p.

65) writes that Santa Cruz testified in Madrid, “He knows, as it is public and notorious

in London that by race they are all Jews, and it is notorious that in their own homes they

live as such observing their Jewish rites; but publicly they attend Lutheran Churches, and

listen to the sermons, and take the bread and wine.”

 

In 1649 c.E., under Oliver Cromwell (whom, incidentally, Dutch Jews believed to

have Jewish ancestry from the tribe of Judah ), the Jews gained quasi-official entry to

England, though they were still not enabled to hold office, own land or become citizens.

It is very likely the continuation of these restrictions on Jewish social and economic

mobility that encouraged the resident Crypto-Jews dating from 1290 forward to remain

hidden. For why should they suddenly spring forth at that time and lose their lands, titles,

and political and clerical offices? Perhaps they also felt that they could better assist their

newly-arrived co-religionists by remaining as they were and had been for centuries—

secret Jews, public Christians.

 

They must also have felt an enormous psychological chasm between themselves and

the “real” Jews now immigrating to England. These latter Jews read and spoke Hebrew

and Ladino; they knew the appropriate prayers; they attended synagogue, had a rabbi

and circumcised their sons. The long-hidden secret Jews of England must have felt both

pride and shame regarding their new, public brethren — pride at these newcomers’ pres-

ence and economic success, yet shame about their own seeming cowardice in hiding and

choosing to remain in hiding. Secrets so long kept are excruciatingly difficult to divulge.

To our knowledge, none of the hidden Jews of England chose to expose their ancestry at

this time. Indeed, if their bloodlines were, as is evident from modern genealogical

research, deeply embedded in England’s aristocratic peerage and country gentry, they

had only to consider the hysteria sweeping Spain and Portugal over “purity of blood” dur-

ing the 1500s to resolve to remain as they were.

 

And yet their existence, and that of their fellow Crypto-Jews in Scotland, Switzer-

land and France (particularly in the last English foothold around Calais, forfeited only

in 1556), was having a transformational impact on the religious world. We will argue in

chapter 10 that some of the principle architects of the Protestant Reformation, in partic-

ular John Calvin of France and John Knox of Scotland, were descendants of Sephardic

Jews. However, we will focus now only on the impact that the Protestant Reformation

had on the Western European perception of Jews, particularly in England.

 

One of the primary tenets of Protestantism is the possibility of a direct relationship

between the individual and God. The priests, bishops, cardinals and Pope of the Roman

Church are no longer needed as intermediaries. Yet with this possibility of direct con-

tact comes the responsibility of individuals to educate themselves according to God’s laws,

as these are revealed in the Bible. This has been viewed by historians (including Katz) as

the primary motivation for the Protestant clergy to learn Hebrew, namely, as an entree

to the holy scriptures. To us, however, it is pretty flimsy reasoning. We propose that the

reason so many leading Protestant clergy “suddenly” began advocating reading in Hebrew

and poring over the Old Testament during the 1500s is because they were, in fact, either

Crypto-Jews themselves or the sons of Crypto-Jews, and believed that the Old Testament

(Torah) in Hebrew was, indeed, the Word of God.

 

Katz, however, does not share our suspicions and states the traditional view (pp. 110-111):

 

“As was the case everywhere that Hebrew studies flourished, Christian interest in the Old

Testament inevitably created a climate of theological opinion that attracted Jews, converted

or otherwise.... Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century English religious life was characterized

... by the intense emphasis placed on reading and understanding the Word of God as

expressed in Scripture.... [The] “language of Canaan” spoken by God to the Israelites became

a tool of biblical scholarship much in demand.”

 

In our view, the reemergence of the Old Testament was actually a “return to the Torah, ”

with recently “Christianized” Jews simply using Protestantism as a guise to practice their

traditional faith. (Indeed, in the Melungeon Appalachian Presbyterian church in which

one of the authors was raised, Sunday school teachers spent eleven months of the year

on the Old Testament [Torah] and only one month on the New Testament [Christian

gospels].) Further, by 1535, Thomas Cromwell had required both Oxford and Cambridge

to provide public lectures in either Hebrew or Greek. This was ratified by an act of Par-

liament in 1530 (Katz 1996).

 

Notably, Greek was the most common religious language used by Jewish commu-

nities in the Diaspora. The Septuagint, a translation of the Hebrew Bible into Greek from

the ancient world that remains in use in Greek Orthodox Christianity, still reigned

supreme among Jews. Much of the rabbinical literature of Judea during Greco-Roman

times had been composed in Greek. The Greek-speaking Romaniot Jews of the Turkish

East were still strong, fusing their culture with that of Ladino Jews of Spain and Portu-

gal who brought their Judeo-Spanish language to major cultural centers in the Ottoman

Empire such as Thessaloniki, Istanbul (Constantinople), Izmir (Smyrna), Rhodes and

Crete (Biale 2001, pp. 80-81, 160-61, 328, 864-66). 11

 

To understand Crypto-Jews in England and Scotland, we must look at the so-called

Marranos of Spain and Portugal. The origin and meaning of the term is disputed, and

 

 

its use is only sporadic before about 1380, but it appears to have gained great currency

in the mid-fourteenth century anti-Jewish riots in Toledo and Cordova that immedi-

ately preceded the Spanish Inquisition. 12 Its heyday was the sixteenth century, when Mar-

ranos became “Judaizers” outside Spain and Portugal, hounded by the Inquisition through

all Europe and the Americas. “The wealthy Maranos, who engaged extensively in com-

merce, industries, and agriculture, intermarried with families of the old nobility; impov-

erished counts and marquises unhesitatingly wedded wealthy Jewesses; and it also

happened that counts or nobles of the blood royal became infatuated with handsome

Jewish girls. Beginning with the second generation, the Neo-Christians usually inter-

married with women of their own sect. They became very influential through their wealth

and intelligence, and were called to important positions at the palace, in government cir-

cles, and in the Cortes; they practised medicine and law and taught at the universities;

while their children frequently achieved high ecclesiastical honors” (Jacobs and Meyer-

ling in Jewish Encyclopaedia 1906-1911 s.v. Mutatis mutandis). The same description holds

for the secret Jewish privileged class in Britain.

 

By 1688, a new day was dawning in Britain. Prince William of Orange, the Protes-

tant ruler of the Netherlands, not only a friend of the Jews in that country but probably

of Jewish descent himself, 13 was poised to claim the throne of England from Charles II.

The Sephardic community in England, Ireland and the Netherlands coordinated finan-

cial and political efforts on William’s behalf. As Katz (1996, p. 156) notes, from at least

1674 the chief contractors for provisioning the Republic’s land forces were the Jewish

firm of Machado and Pereira. “Vous avez sauve l’etat, ” (You have saved the state), William

III wrote to Antonio-Moses Alvarez Machado, and there was probably a good deal of truth

in his praise....”

 

Once Prince William entered England, the Sephardim continued to be instrumen-

tal in assisting his military campaign, including even the Battle of the Boyne in Ireland

in 1690. As Katz (1996, p. 158) reports, “Isaac Pereira was assisted by Alfonso Rodriguez

alias Isaac Israel de Sequeira, son of a man long associated with London Jewry. He in turn

was joined by his relative, David Machado de Sequeira, and Jacob do Porto, his grand-

son. The contribution made by these four men to the success of the Glorious Revolution

was outstanding....”

 

By the 1700s English Sephardim were involved in the transport of diamonds, coral,

and silver along a trade route spanning from India to Italy, Amsterdam, London, and

Brazil (Yogev 1978). The Sephardim were becoming recognized as valuable members of

English society. Defenders of their rights now began to come forward in greater num-

bers. Sir Josiah Child (perhaps a Crypto-Jew himself) advocated their full assimilation

into British society (Katz, p. 176). Another to which we should attend closely is John

Toland 14 (Katz, p. 234), who published

 

“A Defence of the Jews against All vulgar Prejudices in all Countries” (1714), Toland’s

treatise addressed Britain’s bishops and archbishops. He stated, “as by your Learning you

further know a considerable part of the British inhabitants are the undoubted offspring

of the Jews... and as you are the advocates of the Jews at the Throne of Heaven, so you

will be their friends and protectors in the British Parliament.”

 

Toland also put forth Jews in England, noting their misfortunes under the Norman

kings, and reminding his readers that, after they had been readmitted during Cromwell’s

reign, under King Charles II “they were conniv’d at and tolerated, being not authoriz’d

by Charter or Act of Parliament: nor are they on any terms than permission to this day,

tho they have deserv’d much better....”

 

Most notably for our purposes, Toland expressed the belief that at the time of their

expulsion from England (1290) a “great number of ’em fled to Scotland, which is the rea-

son so many in that part of the Island have such a remarkable aversion to pork and black-

puddings to this day, not to insist on some other resemblances easily observable.”

 

We, of course, agree fully with Toland’s arguments and observations. Yes, there were

many offspring of Jews dwelling in England; yes, many Jews had escaped to Scotland after

the 1290 expulsion from England. And yes, many Scots do and did have “easily observ-

able” physical resemblances to Jews. A quick visual inspection of the portraits of promi-

nent Scots presented in chapter 1 will confirm this.

 

And so, let us now proceed to Scotland.

 

Chapter 7

 

To Scotland’s Stirling,

Ayr, and Glasgow

 

We focus in this chapter on the western portion of Scotland. Our first task will be

to take a look at who was living in this area between 1500 and 1750. It would be very use-

ful to have earlier records, but to our knowledge these do not exist. 1 Therefore, we are

going to rely upon lists of burgesses, cemetery inscriptions, lists of guild members, and

censuses, the earliest of which date to the late 1500s.

 

Cemetery Records

 

Lists 1 through 8 the persons we believe may be of Sephardic ancestry who are buried

in local cemeteries in western Scotland. (A complete listing of all persons buried in these

cemeteries is available in the original works.) Starting with the Cluny Cemetery (list 1),

we find several surnames that are either linked with clans already discussed as having

Sephardic origins — e.g., Kennedy (fr. Candiani “from Crete, Candy or Turkish Khan-

dey “king’s administrator, ”), Forbes (Phoebus/Pharabee, a name from Jewish antiquity)

and Gordon (a version of Cohen, Hebrew “priest”) or are derived from a Hebrew tribal

or given name (e.g., Davidson, Daniel, Robbie, Abel, Adam, Lawrey, Lyon). Others appear

to have Arabic or Aramaic names— Carnegie, Ferries, Sherif, Cassie, Malcolm, Norrie

(“light, lamp, candle”).

 

Another category of interest is the color names that were usually assigned to dark-

complexioned persons (Black, Greig (= gray), Brown). There were also French-derived

names: Ramage, Norvel, Rae (“king”), Gall, Gauld, Moir (= Moor), Harvey, Bissett, Bar-

ron, Riddell, Noble), and others often carried by persons of Jewish descent: Bannerman

(= herald), Copland, Wyness, Slesser (“from Silesia”), Money, Cattanach, Proctor (=

administrator, prior), Horne (Hebrew shofar), Cromar, Kellock. Except for the clan

names, one would hardly expect to find these names lurking around a Scottish grave-

yard.

 

Nearby is the Symington Cemetery (list 2), which was founded in 1160 by Simon

Loccard, a French emigre, whose name (“family of Lock”) became Anglicized to Lock-

hart. 2 This graveyard contains some names that are strikingly Jewish or Sephardic: for

example, Arbell, Pirie (Hebrew “pear tree”; cf. Perry, Perez), Yuille (Hebrew Jehuqiel),

Samson, Cown (Cohen), Gemmell (Gamiel, or Gammel, the Hebrew letter), Corseina,

Rose, Wharrie, Orr (= gold), Pollock (“from Poland”), Speirs (= a town in Germany

from which the Jews were driven in 1180), Currie (Arabic), Hornal, Sangster (Cantor),

Akers (fr. Acre, the Crusader capital in the Levant). And again we also see persons from

clans discussed earlier as likely to be Jewish: Campbell, Douglas, Kennedy, Fraser, McDou-

gal, and Stewart/Stuart, as well as surnames known to have originated in Flanders or

France: Ritchie (“enriched”), Ramage (“branch of vine”), Galt (“money”), Fleming (“from

Flanders”), Moffatt (Hebrew for “excellent” and Arabic for “counselor”), Wallace (de

Walys, i.e. from Gaul, Wales or Brittany, or possibly Arabic, too, as noted above), Nisket,

Colville, Heneage, Bannatine and Kilgour.

 

The Girvan Cemetery (list 3) is southwards and has some names found in the other

two, but some additional ones as well. We find Brown, Davidson, Campbell, Law, Mur-

ray, Stewart, Orr and Bissett, and also some new French and Sephardic surnames. Among

these are Paton, Alexander (see chapter 4), Muir, Lees, Donell, Lamb (as in Passover),

Diamond (a Jewish trade monopoly from antiquity to the present day), McKissock (Isaac-

son), Caruths, Niven, Bone (French “Good”), Laurie, Tarbett, Hasack, Wasson, Hart (cf.

Hirsch in German), Sinclair, 3 Hannah (Hebrew for Ann), Waddell, Ryrie, Jardine, Robin-

son (“son of Rueben”), Austin, Marshall/Marischal, Cotes (French for Costa, an ancient

Jewish family), and Gardiner.

 

Monkton Cemetery (list 4) is named for the Monck/Mank/Monk/Mock family which

is Jewish and has offshoots in Eastern Europe; there were numerous matches of this sur-

name with Caldwell and Kennedy; the name may be a French rendering of Mag, the com-

mon designation for “Hungarian.” Familiar associated clan names here include Kennedy,

Gordon, Stewart, Campbell and Sinclair. The French/Sephardic names show a mixture

of new and old: Brown, Muir, Moore, Gray, Law, Blackly, Cowan, Dalmahoy (“from

Almohad, ” the name for a Berber dynasty in Spain), Bone (“good, ” a common Sephardic

Spanish surname as Buen), Purdie, Goldie, Porteous, Hannah, Legge, Gemmell, Tinnion,

Alexander, Marr, Lees, Weylie, Howie, Highet (= Hyatt, “life” in Arabic), Nisbet, Bis-

sett, Harvey, Wallace, Dalziel, Frew (“early” in Flemish), Darroch, Currie (Arabic

Khoury ), Currans, Seaton, Rae, McHarrie, Smellie (I’smaeli), Smee and Howat.

 

If we move northward to the cemeteries of Geddes (Cadiz) (list 5), Lochaber, and

Skye (list 6) we find many of the same surnames: Fraser, Cameron, Sinclair, Garden,

Campbell, Davidson, Morice (Maurice, the French form of Moses), but with some novel

French/Sephardic entries: Falconer, Rose (an adaptation of Hebrew Rosh “head”),

McGlashan, de Moynes, de Glastalich, de Morenge, de Boath, Dollas (D’Allas), de Badzet

and Ellis (= Elias). This cemetery was established by one Hugh Rose in 1473 and though

located in northern Scotland, it has flat stones and table stones indicative of Jewish bur-

ial practices.

 

The farthest north of our cemeteries, Skye and Lochaber, has not only our Jewish

clans Fraser, Cameron, Kennedy, Stewart, Gordon, but also the following remarkable set

 

 

7. To Scotland’s Stirling, Ayr, and Glasgow

 

of Sephardic surnames: McTurk, McMartine, Dow (— Dau, David), Rankin, Rose, Parr

(pear), Barnet (“son of Nat”), Fleming, Hannah, Scobie, Matheson, Dallas (= d’ Allas,

likely Muslim), Davidson, Sansoury, Imry and Tolmie (Egyptian). And, as if to drive home

the point, there is a 1699 pyramid tombstone dedicated to Simon, Lord Fraser of Lovat. 4

 

Returning to Ayr in the southwest (lists 7 and 8), we find three of the same Sephardic

clan names, Kennedy, Caldwell 5 and Stewart. However, what impresses one here is the

sheer number and diversity of French/Sephardic Jewish names. Consider these: Black,

Ross, Semple, Currie, Vass, 6 Steele (Castille), Givans, Armour, Brown, Hannay, Gouldie,

Norvall, Orr, Stobo, Alexander, Jamieson, Wharrie, Cowan, Wise (cf. German Weis

“sage”), Savage, Love (Lowe, “lion”), Izat (Arabic), Meikle, Bone, Frew, Hazle, Adams,

Doustie, Goudie, Cossar, Affleck (French “with spots/freckles”), Mair, Templeton, Nor-

ris (= Noor, “light” in Arabic), Hague (Dutch town), Eccles, Ritchie, Kilgour, Pringle,

Samson, Spiers, Peddie, Beaton, Fogo, Purdie, Nimmo (“from Nimes, in southern

France), Lamb, Porteous, Eaton (= Eitan, Hebrew), Wyllie, Dawson, Lash, Bantine, Telfer

(“blacksmith”), Gemmell, Highet, Simson, Span (“Spain”), Fleck, Boag, Belfon, Greage

(= gray), Pollock (“from Poland”), Adam, Bone, Paton, Gross (German “tall, large”),

Arbuckle (Hebrew), Noble, Herkes, Vine, Wharrie, Laurie (= Lurie, Luria, a famous

Rabbinic line), 7 Lammie, Imrie, Napier, Goldie, Bowie, Kelso, Guild, Law, Tannock

(Hebrew), Lowrie, Beveridge, Muirhead (Moorhead), Parrot (Perrot), Corsane, Ratter

(“advisor”), Tarbet, Smellie (Ismailie) and Ferriel (“iron worker”).

 

The frequent occurrence of names ending in-el cannot help but strike us and deserves

to be addressed. Jacobs (1906-1911) remarks that the earliest Hebrew names usually incor-

porate the name of God, as in Samuel, Nathaniel, Daniel, and the like. Most of our Scot-

tish-el names seem to belong to Norman retainers who came over with the Conqueror.

Before becoming concentrated in Flanders and Normandy, these families probably lived

in the southern part of France, either in the regions of Narbonne, Toulouse or Aquitaine,

at a time when the whole southern frontier had just with difficulty been won back from

the Arabs. We believe the-el suffix is a sign of southern French Judeo- Arabic roots. In Islam,

the word alah or Al- is added to names, indifferently designating “man” and “God.”

 

Thus, as far as burials are concerned and on the basis of male family names, we

would seem to have significant coverage by persons of Jewish (and likely also Moorish)

ancestry from north to south in western Scotland.

 

 

Burgesses and Taxpayers

 

But a sampling of cemetery inscriptions can take us only so far. Many persons liv-

ing in western Scotland may not have been buried in one of these graveyards and not all

inscriptions are decipherable. Thus, lists 9, 10, and 11 show names taken from burgess

listings in Stirling and Tron. A burgess was originally an inhabitant of a burgh who

held a piece of land there from the Crown (or other superior). Later, a burgess was a

merchant or craftsman influential in burgh affairs. Here we find even more surnames

from the 1600-1799 time period that appear to indicate Jewish descent. For example,

in Stirling between 1600 and 1699, we find persons named Arral, Ana, Bachop, Cassilis,

Gaston, Jak (Jacques, Jacob), Lyoum, Lyon, Mushet (Moses), Orrock, Reoch (“wind” in

Arabic), Savin, Shirray (Arabic; cf. shi’ir, Shiraz, a town in Persia), Touch (a Hebrew

letter), and Yaire (Hebrew), along with many others previously encountered, are serv-

ing as burgesses of this small city. By the period 1700-1799, the list includes Corbet, Cor-

sar, Clugstone, Cassels (Kassel, a town in Germany), Hosie (Hosiah), Hassock, Jaffray

(Geoffrey), Oliphant (from “elephant”), Peacock, Runciman, Rattray, Salmond (Solo-

man) and Yoole (Hebrew Yehuiel).

 

In nearby Tron Parish in the year 1694 (the first year a census was taken), taxpay-

ers included a Basilly (Greek “king”), Veatch, Berrie, Pouries, Chartres (city in central

France), Pyot, Smellum, Mannas (Hebrew Manasse), Hackets, Dejet (de Jette, Yates), 8

Rouart (“from Rouen”), Tarras, Arnot (Hebrew Aaron), Lune (Luna, the family of Dona

Gracia of the House of Nasi, 1510-1569), 9 Cave, Scougall, Baptie, Antous, Cubie, Bemeny,

Lendo, Elphinstone (from Elephantine, a Jewish colony in Egypt), Moncrief, Jolly (French

“happy, pleasant”), Montray (Royal Mountain: Spanish), Cant, Buris (Hebrew: Baruch),

Riddell (from Arabic ridda “warrior”), 10 Scrimjours (Clan Scrymgeour), 11 Eizat (Arabic

related to Izod, Izot), Blau (“blue”), Tailfer (Spanish Talliaferro, “blacksmith”), and

Picaris (from Picardy) — not names one usually associates with Scotland!

 

 

Craftsmen and Seamen

 

Jews coming to Scotland from Iberia during the 1400s and 1500s (and later) carried

with them an ample store of what sociologists term “cultural capital” (Bourdieu 1993).

They had valuable knowledge and skills that were incalculable assets to the countries

where they settled, notably medical, metallurgical, mining, sailing, leather working, glass-

making and mercantile expertise. Unlike their Christian cohorts, European and Middle

Eastern Jews of even modest means in the early modern period also possessed literacy

and “numeracy, ” the two requirements for running a business. Some of the craft guilds

in western Scotland kept records of these specialties beginning in the 1600s, and it is to

an examination of these that we now turn.

 

 

Goldsmiths

 

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