History of the Emdon Family

LECTURE DELIVERED TO THE DEVON FAMILY HISTORY SOCIETY AT SCOTT LECTURE HALL, PLYMOUTH LIBRARY, WEDNESDAY APRIL 13th, 1977.

[by Bertram Harris Emdon]

ANCESTRAL TAPESTRY

I have long been a student of history, because, unlike Henry Ford, I do not believe history to be bunk, but I believe from history, can be distilled essences in which, if properly understood, one can savour the flavour of the future. My own particular interest is the study of Jewish History. I like to examine it, not as a series of dates and personalities, but rather as a closely woven tapestry where events and personalities interweave to make a coherent pattern.

No aspect of history presents a better basis for this point of view than that of the study of genealogy, here the continuous interweave of events, is woven closely around the individuals of a family, and, when the family concerned, is ones own family, then the research takes on a very personal and real meaning.

If you are lucky, you may be able to trace your family back for a number of generations, and, it is a source of great personal satisfaction if you can do so, It becomes even more so, when you are able to place your ancestry into the wider picture of external developments. This I have endeavoured to do and I have therefore entitled this paper, Ancestral Tapestry.

Being Jewish is a circumstance that has proved both fortunate and unfortunate to my endeavours. For many of my co-religionists, it is virtually impossible to trace ancestry back for more than one or two generations. The vast body, of our people, are, or were, refugees from one or the other many hundreds of acts of persecution perpetrated against them in the both recent and ancient past.

If the persecution from which your family fled, was in the recent past, then the chances of tracing them back more than one or two generations is virtually nil. If, for example, from the Polish or Russian persecutions of the latter half of last century, or the terrible holocaust of the Hitlerian carnage, then your family tree is likely to be rooted in soil that has been so burnt and scarred that it is beyond recognition. On the other hand, because of this virtually unrelenting persecution, family life has become a very precious thing to the Jew, and we have a very special term for family relationships, which is simply the Hebrew word for family, 'Mispoochah', it has, however, to the Jew, a deeper, richer meaning than the mere word family. It embraces all aspects of the family, in both the past and the present, and covers all manner of relationships, both by blood and marriage, so when a Jewish man says that someone is "Mispoochah, he means that somewhere, somehow, they are related, no matter how distant or remote this relationship might be.

This characteristic of Jewish life means, that if, by some chance, your family did escape from oppression at a more distant date, than some of your brethren, then the probability is that you will be able to establish a very extensive family tree.

As I have said, in this respect I have been, both lucky and unlucky, on my maternal side my grandparents were refugees from Polish oppression in the latter half of the XIXth Century, and, although their escape to Britain, and establishment of a new life, in the face of great adversity, in a country in the throes of an Industrial Revolution, is an interesting, exciting, and often, romantic one, it is, nevertheless, of too wide a general experience to be remarkable, countless thousands of Jews have a similar tale to tell.

On my paternal side, however, the prospect is a much more exciting one, and it contains a history, so colourful and worldwide that it is quite impossible to cover all its aspects here, in this short paper.

I have been even more fortunate in as much, as I have two cousins who have researched very deeply into the genealogical side of my family history. They are a Mr. William Jessop of America and a Dr. Anthony Joseph, lately domiciled in Australia, but now residing in Birmingham. Furthermore the Rev. Susser has done much research into Westcountry Jewry's general history. I shall draw, very heavily, on the researches of these gentlemen. For my part I shall endeavour to add my own researches, particularly of historical and local background.

The difficulty is, that, in so wide a field of research and span of time and material with which to work, where to begin, but, as orthodox genealogy, tends to regard the male lines as the important one, which is incidentally, in some ways contrary to Jewish Tradition, I have chosen, for my starting point, a point in time somewhere about two thirds of the way through the XVIIIth century. About that time, two direct male ancestors of mine were both resident in Plymouth, They were Abraham Joseph a character known locally as 'The King of the Jews' and Abraham Emdon, whose brother Gompert Michael Emdon, was one of the original founders of Plymouth Synagogue. These two personalities, Abraham Joseph and Abraham Emdon, were great grandfathers of my paternal grandmother and grandfather respectively. Their family streams crossed and recrossed in a number of other instances but both of them were direct male ancestors.

Let us take the case of Abraham Joseph first. The time of his arrival, in Plymouth is not exactly known, but, at the point of time, referred to above, he was an established resident of some repute. Why he chose to come to Plymouth, is also not known. Perhaps he came here because his wife, whom he married in the 1760's had "Mispoochah" here, in Plymouth, and elsewhere in the South West. She was a Miss Rose Abrahams, and her grandfather was a resident of Creerchurch Lane in London, which was the site of the first synagogue opened in England, after the readmission under Cromwell. There is a reference in the old ratebooks of Creerchurch Lane, to an Abraham Joseph, who was probably the same Abraham Joseph whom she married.

One of Rosa's relations, was a Moses Samuel, who was secretary to the infant Plymouth Jewish Congregation, he was resident in Plymouth together with his unmarried sister Bilah; other relatives were in residence in Poole and Penryn. But perhaps the most remarkable of Rosa's relatives in the Westcountry was a man called Alexander Moses resident in Falmouth. He was known as "Zender Moses of Falmouth", and was the father figure of the ancient now defunct, Jewish Community of that town. He had a most original method of community building as an established merchant, he encouraged young Jewish pedlars to come to Falmouth, by advancing them, on credit, goods to sell, in the countryside around the town, on condition, that they returned every Friday night, to Falmouth, in order that the Sabbath could be observed in a traditional manner. The idea succeeded well, and some of the pedlars became husbands for Zender's daughters. Later some of their progeny emigrated to Australia and New Zealand, and became founder members of communities in those lands. Dr. Anthony Joseph has written a learned paper on this particular colourful episode of family history.

Other relatives of Rosa's were the Hart and Woolf families of Penzance, another ancient, now extinct, Jewish Community. These families were again, at later stages, linked into the family tree, my great grandmother was a Miss Woolf from Penzance, for example. Two outstanding personalities of note must be mentioned from the Hart family. One was Lemuel Hart, who, under the anglicised name of Lemon Hart, founded the famous rum distilling house, that still persists today. He was a small working beer and spirit distiller using the connections with the West Indian sugar Trade, that existed in the South West, as basis for his trade. When Admiral Vernon instituted the naval custom of "Splicing the Main Brace", he succeeded in winning a contract for the supply of rum.

This connection with the West Indian trade, seems to suggest, that possibly, there then existed in the West, a link with the Sephardi (South European) Jews, who, two centuries earlier, had fled from, yet other persecutions, in Spain and Portugal, and had established themselves in the sugar plantations of the West Indies. It is known that many of their descendants returned to Europe, and some settled in England after the Cromwellian readmission. I do not have any direct evidence of any association of this kind, with the Hart family, but the strangeness of the Hart's Trade, from a central European Jew's point of view, seems to suggest it as more than a possibility.

The only Sephardi Jewish Family of note, that I know of, in the South West, is the Lopez family, of which the principal living representative is Henry Lopez, the present Lord Roborough, his ancestor, Sir Massy Manassey Lopez came to the West in the last decade of the XVIIIth century, and bought the Maristow house and estate from the Westcountry Slanning Family. He abandoned the Jewish Faith in 1802, but his family scroll of the law was presented to, and is still in possession of, the Plymouth Synagogue, My grandmother, used to say, that we were related through marriage, but I do not know the exact connection.

The second figure of note, in the Hart family, was Solomon Alexander Hart the famous R. A. He was, one time, Chief Librarian to the Royal Academy, He presented the picture that won him his Academy Graduation, to Plymouth, the town of his birth, For a while it graced the walls of the Guildhall, it was later removed and hung on the south wall of the Southern Art Gallery in the Plymouth Museum. It was an immense study, of the rather melancholy subject, "Lady Jane Gray at her Place of Execution" and it positively dominated this gallery. I was taken to see it many times, as a child and my recollection is of a huge canvas, always a focus of public attention. It was, however removed, for safety, at the outbreak of the second World War and has never been rehung. I understand that it is still, "in store", it is a thousand pities that this important portion of Plymouth's heritage should now be concealed from the public, and it should be restored to view.

I am wandering perhaps, a little from the theme of my subject, but it is all part of the tapestry of life, and now before considering Abraham Joseph as a man, I feel that I should briefly sketch in the social and economic background of his origins and time.

He was, most certainly, an immigrant from Central Europe. The Plymouth Aliens List, compiled because of the Napoleonic wars, in 1798, and revised in 1803, was made just too late to establish this for certainty, as he died, in 1794. This list however, does contain, a list of nearly sixty Jewish immigrants, who were then resident, some forty odd came from Germanic States, mostly from a restricted area of country, running from the Rhine into Franconia. The earliest of these arrivals is dated as 1745. e know from the 1841 census returns that his eldest son, Joseph, s born in Devonshire in 1766, but, whether Abraham himself was born in England, or was the son of an immigrant, we are not sure.

Central Europe, at that time was a very uncompromising place for Jewry, split, as it was, into so many petty kingdoms of dukedoms, the Jew was very much at the mercy of the winds of change of the racial and religious bigotries of the time. The European Renaissance had consigned the Jew to the Ghetto, and every conceivable kind of humiliation and repression had been imposed on them, in the hope that they would wither away, The tenacity and human realism of Jewish philosophy had kept them alive, and now, they were emerging from their incarcerations as virtually the only people in Europe who, as a body, were possessed of a general education. enough to read. write. and figure The very humiliations. that had been piled upon them to hasten their demise, were now having the opposite effect. They had learnt, in a very hard school of necessity, the economics of individual and social survival, and their self reliance, and sense of opportunism, had been sharpened to a very fine edge of perception,

Within this seething cauldron of Europe, in spite of the ignorance and bigotry, a new role was carved for the Jew, and we saw the emergence of these twin enigmas, the so called, Court and Salon Jews. The Court Jew, was a Jew, appointed by the state ruler, of any the many petty despotisms of that time, to act in an advisory capacity to the States Government, he was a kind of early equivalent to the modern "Think Tank" so much in vogue today. The Salon Jew, in many ways, played the same role for the less exalted citizens, confining his activities to advice handed out in cafes and bars, hence his name. This did not prevent appalling outrages being inflicted upon helpless Jewish minorities, whenever suitable pretexts arose.

This was, of course, the period of the opening up of the commercial development of the New World, and much Jewish know-how went into this development. It is logical, therefore, that the oppressed Jew looked longingly at these new lands of Freedom, beyond the seas, and the ports of Western Europe became doorways to new hopes.

England became a kind of halfway house, in their endeavours to reach the new Eldorado, and having crossed the Channel or North Sea, the English Ports of the South and the West, with their colonial trade, were particularly attractive. Many Jews simply came West, and passed on, others came, liked what they found, and decided to settle.

In all probability as I have said Abraham Joseph was just such a one, perhaps, his bride with her West Country associations persuaded him to stay. It is said that his brother Naphtali who came West with them, passed onwards to Canada, and his sons became the founders of the Great Joseph family of Canada, but that is another story.

The Plymouth that Abraham came to, was a very different place from today's modern city. In those days it consisted, according to R. N. Worth, of merely 1, 600 or so houses, all clustered around Sutton Harbour. The Northern extremity of the town was about the present Royal Parade, Old Town Street led out to open country.

Charles Church, practically stood in fields, and the old stage coach route, used to leave Plymouth by Friary Gate and, after skirting the area of the ancient White Friars Monastery, (the eventual site of Friary Station, but then railways were still nearly a hundred years in the future) it proceeded up over Lipson Hill, down the steep gradient into the valley, and on via Crabtree and Plympton, to Exeter and all places North East.

Stage Coach was of course, the fastest mode of public transport, but it's cost, and limited accommodation, put it beyond the means of all but the affluent members of society. If the lower classes wished to travel, then, the only means of public transport open to them, were huge covered wagons, of the kind that one often sees in films depicting the opening up of the American Wild West, in the century or so, that followed, the period which we are now considering. Strange how these lumbering vehicles, are never now considered as once a part of the English Country Scene, but they were in fact a very essential part of it. Writing under the nom-de-plume Peripatectius a contributor to the Jewish Chronicle of July 20th 1910, gave a brief, but very vivid description of one of these vehicles, in describing the Jewish settlement of Falmouth. This particular vehicle, was known as Russel's Wagon, and in common with other vehicles of it's kind, it carried its human cargo as an extra, or afterthought, to the carriage of goods. Drawn by a team of six horses and protected by guards, heavily armed with blunderbusses, it lumbered Westward, from London to Falmouth taking about four days and nights. It's passengers surviving as best they could, on seats of straw and hay in a small compartment amongst the goods immediately behind the driver.

Much of the goods so carried, came from, or were destined for, the New World, for the ports of the West were key ports in the development taking place. It is recorded that from Plymouth as many as fifteen fully rigged, square sailed, merchant men sailed, every year to the West Indies alone.

In addition to its key position as a commercial centre, Plymouth was also a military and naval base of crucial importance. Millbay had not been developed and Devonport Dockyard, was in it's infancy. Sutton Harbour was therefore, the centre of all this hive of activity. Lambhay Hill was the supply base for the Fleet's victuals, Skirmishes with the enemy, were commonplace, but a few miles out in the Channel The enemy, was of course, principally the French, but it was also the Dutch, and others who were concerned with the rich colonial prizes of the new lands.

As one would rightly expect, this bustling busy seaport maintained a sturdy independence and nonconformity. During the previous two hundred years it had manifested itself in the freebooting activities of Drake, Hawkins and other of their ilk. It had been reflected in the welcome extended to the religious rebels the Puritans of the Mayflower, and again in the support given to Cromwell In religious matters, already in the early XVIIIth Century, there were established in Plymouth Presbyterian and Baptist congregations, and during this century religious leaders such as Whitfield the Calvanist, John and Charles Wesley, Fox the Quaker and many others found fruitful ground for preaching in Plymouth. The 1700s saw established in Plymouth, forms of religious worship so widely diversified, as the Huguenots, the Wesleyans, The Calvinists, The Quakers, the Plymouth Brethren and many others. It was to this atmosphere of bustling tolerance that the early Jewish settlers in Plymouth came.

As I have already mentioned, we do not know precisely whence came Abraham Joseph, but from what we know, I think it is fairly sae to deduce, that he came to Plymouth as a man of some substance, Mr. William Jessop of America has in his possession two miniature paintings of him, he describes them as showing a man correctly dressed in the height of current fashion, In one, he wears a periwig and in the other, a tricorn hat worn above a wig without a tail. The eyes he describes as piercing blue, in a well proportioned face not without humour and kindliness, a description of a man well blessed with worldly goods.

Apart from the fact that he had 'mispoochah" here, he probably was attracted to Plymouth, as a place wherein he could practise his calling, as a merchant slopman and, even perhaps more significant, a Naval Agent.

Now a naval agent is today, a largely forgotten profession, but in those days it was a most important factor in service life. Those were the days when the press gangs roamed the streets, and in a trice, a man could be whipped away from his hearth and home, and forced to accept "The Kings Shilling", became a serving member of H. M. Navy. Conditions were hard:- salt beef, scurvy and floggings for minor disciplines, were the accepted standards of the day.

Virtually, the only contact the Naval man had with his family in legal matters was through his agent, and all sailors, whether pressed or not, from the highest to the lowest of ranks, had to appoint a civilian agent, to look after such legal matters as he required. Jewish agents were very popular, as they not only were very able and literate, but they had an enviable reputation for fair dealing. This was most important as in those days, when an enemy ship was captured, it and it's contents, were sold off, and everybody from the captain to the cabin boy, of he ship that captured the prize, was entitled to a share in the booty. If, for any reason, death, injury, or other eventuality any member of the crew was unable to claim his share then, it was the duty of his agent, to see that it went to his next of kin, You can therefore see, that in that day and age of primitive accounting, a high degree of ability and integrity was called for.

The port of Plymouth was the most important centre in England for the sale of enemy prize ships, and at one time, it is recorded, that one could walk all the way from Sutton Harbour to Turnchapel, across the decks of such vessels, awaiting sale. Therefore the business of Abraham Joseph prospered, and he was appointed by Royal arrant to be slopman and agent to H. R. H. Prince William Henry the Third son of King George III, who then held the rank of Midshipman, he landed in Plymouth in 1780, with his elder brother Prince George (The Prince of Wales) with the news of Rodney's victory, and the relief of Gibraltar.

William Henry was again in Plymouth in 1786, when he was appointed Captain of the Frigate, Pegasus, just before his 21st Birthday, and two years later having earnt the disfavour of his Royal Father, he was compelled to spend a period in Plymouth in disgrace, and it is said that during that period, he frequently sought the help of Abraham Joseph,

Be it as it may, the Royal patronage so earnt, subsisted for several generations as we shall see. But, not only was the Joseph family held in high esteem by the Royal family, Prince William's colleagues also held them in some regard. Admiral Thomas William Hargood G. C. B., G. C. H. gave a letter of recommendation to Joseph Joseph, Abraham's son in 1833 when he (Hargood) was Flag Captain commanding Plymouth Station and a similar letter was also given by the Admiral of the Blue, the other royal Duke, the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV "The Sailor King".

A copy of Abraham Joseph's trade card showing his Royal appointment is today preserved in the London's Jewish Museum, as is a copy of his obituary notice as published in The Gentleman's Magazine of 1794.

It is a queer mixture of ingratiation and praise and is well worth quoting here in full, if only because it throws light on the attitude of mind in those days to the position of the Jew

'There died in Plymouth aged 63 years, Abraham Joseph. Popularly known in the South West of England as "the King of the Jews" a wholesale dealer in slops for the Navy. He was one of the people called Jews, but the actions of his whole life would have done honour to any persuasion. He amassed a considerable fortune by very fair and honest means. As an agent for seamen, his practice was well worth the imitation of every person in that business as several orphans and indigent widows can testify.'

He died in the Autumn of 1794, and just before his death, he drew a will. This will was witnessed by Moses Ephraim, Rabbi to the Plymouth Hebrew Congregation, and Charles Yonge, a member of the famous Plymouth family of that name.

I shall deal more fully with the contents of this will at a later stage, but must now, for a little while, turn my attention to those other ancestral figures Abraham and Gompert Michael Emdon.

As with Abraham Joseph we don't know the exact date for their arrival but they were certainly resident in the Plymouth area in 1762 when Gompert signed, on behalf of the Plymouth Hebrew Congregation, a Deed of Trust relating to the site and building of the synagogue whose construction was commenced that year. The deed was in the name of a Mr. Samuel Champion, as Jews, in those days, were not legally entitled to hold land or property. Gompert Emdon and his co-signatory, Joseph Jacob Sherrenbeck - merely signed that - "That Jews should enjoy the use of the land and said premises".

Abraham and Gompert Emdon came from a different background, and social stratum to Abraham Joseph, This fact is indicated in the legal document referred to above, for Gompert's address and occupation are given as "Shopkeeper of the Parish of Stoke Dameral". Now in those days, Stoke was not the rather decaying district of Plymouth that it is today. It was a rural parish, some two miles or so into the countryside, a very different kettle of fish from the thriving heart of the town centred on Sutton Pool, wherein Abraham Joseph established himself.

The brothers came from Amsterdam and the 1798 Napoleonic Aliens Register shows that Abraham was probably followed to Plymouth by his three sons, all of whom are shown with Amsterdam as their place of birth

Amsterdam was a very thriving and prosperous city, and was the centre of a very considerable amount of Jewish population and activity, this is outside the scope of this paper, except that they are said to be sons, or other close relatives of Rabbi Emdon of Amsterdam who was such a powerful opponent of the Jewish dissident Shabbatai Zevi. Rabbi Emdon was himself probably a descendant, of the even more famous scholar Rabbi Jacob Emdon of Prague.

Why the Emdon brothers came to Plymouth is not known, probably they also intended to emigrate further to the New World. Why they did not do so, we don't know, but they most assuredly were not men of wealth, the small amount we know of them indicates everything to the contrary. They were, apparently, men of some religious zeal, as their close interest in the synagogue shows.

I have in my possession a bible produced in Amsterdam in the XVIIth century in the Yiddish tongue printed in Hebrew character. It is well preserved copy of the work of a well known early printer Athias the Martyr, and it was almost certainly brought here from Amsterdam by one of my ancestors. It was obviously a prized family possession because an inscription in it reveals that it was passed into the safekeeping of Solomon Hart (the artist) on the occasion of his Barmitzvah ie. the occasion when he attained his religious majority at the age of thirteen. The year incidentally was 1812, the year of Napoleon's retreat from Moscow.

It was obviously preserved, and a second inscription, many years later, records it's presentation to my grandfather Eleazor Emdon, on his barmitzvah. It was, however, lost sight of, at some period after this, and was found by Rabbi Susser amongst old books in the synagogue, he, fortunately recognised the inscription and returned it to the family. I have had it examined at the British Museum who declared it a book of some rarity and worth.

Abraham's eldest and youngest son's Eleazor and Solomon (who for some unexplained reason was known Phineas) for a number of years were responsible for baking the Matzos (unleavened bread) for the Passover Festival for the congregation. Solomon also acted as beadle for the congregation and lived in the synagogue house. This house stood on the Eastern wall of the Synagogue in Catherine Street itself. When Catherine Street was widened in 1870. the house and site were exchanged, with the corporation, for the present site of the Synagogue House, situated on the other side of the building with access by the narrow opening between the Synagogue and the City Treasury.

These events take us into the XIXth century, so perhaps, before proceeding, we had better return to Abraham Joseph, or rather to his family, and see what the records have to say about them.

Abraham Joseph's will, which I have referred to before, records seven children. Two boys and five girls, all born in Plymouth in the latter half of the 18th century. Of the five daughters Geller died in 1813 and we know nothing of the fate of Hensel, both apparently left no progeny. Phoebe married a Abraham Aaron's and they had a large family; many of their descendants emigrated. Brinay married a Nathan Joseph their children reverted to Nathan Joseph's original family name Altman. Nathan Joseph Altman was born in Prussia he came to Plymouth in the latter half of the 18th century and by public deed renounced his Title to his estate in his homeland. In Plymouth he followed the same calling as his father in law, Abraham. and was for many years a successful Naval Agent he was promiment and active member of the Plymouth Hebrew Congregation, Esther, the youngest daughter, married Isaac Elkins they had children but little is known of them.

Of the two sons, Samuel the youngest one, emigrated to America, and finally settled in Cincinnati on the Ohio river, then the second largest Jewish Community in America after New York. Before he left Plymouth, he too practised as a Naval Agent. But he was obviously a man of some versatility, for in Cincinnati, he set up business as beer and cordial purveyor, a trade he probably learnt from Lemon Hart. here is a family link here, albeit a tenuous one, with the American Declaration of Independence. Julia, his third grandchild married a David Johnson, whose brother Phineas Johnson had married Clarissa Clark, daughter of the signer of the Declaration. The Johnson Brothers had emigrated to America from Portsmouth in 1786, their descendants live today in the cities of Cincinnati and St. Louis. One of whom, Samuel A. Johnson of Cincinnati was President of the American Legal Bar Association and deputy Mayor of Cincinnati in 1912.

Of the children of Abraham Joseph this only leaves his eldest son, Joseph unmentioned, he too was a practising naval agent, and he also was a very prominent member of the Plymouth Hebrew Congregation, and, like his father before him, president of and signatory to documents on the congregation's behalf. He was a qualified and practising Mohel i. e. he was licensed to practise the religious rite of circumcision, and his circumcision register is a valuable historic document. Later in life he became a publican and amongst the taverns and inns he owned was the Mayflower on Plymouth Barbican.

There is a family tradition that it was in this Inn, a hostelry of some repute, that he extended hospitality to a royal party of H. M. King George III, who at the time was holding court at Saltram House. The sudden descent of a sea mist had made it impossible to return up the Laira (the Estuary of the river Plym) by royal barge, the mode of travel then used between Saltram and Plymouth The Royal party therefore, sought shelter at the hostelry of their Naval Agent, conveniently situated, as it was, immediately opposite the Mayflower Steps, the usual point of embarkation. Family tradition has it, that the party included the King, his three sons, the Prince of Wales, The Duke of Clarence, later to be King William IVth and Prince William Henry. It also included the wife, or future wife, of the Prince of Wales (also Prince Regent and later George IVth), Princess Caroline of Brunswick. It is said, that, during the course of the evening, Joseph Joseph danced with the Princess, and renamed the hostelry the Brunswick in her honour. It was known, by that name, right up to the time of it's destruction, except for two periods of the World War's, when, because of its German associations, this name was dropped and it temporarily reverted to its original name, The Mayflower. Alas it is no more, the Acropolis Restaurant now stands on it's site. The family story also insists that Joseph, at the time also burnt the Royal L O. U's but there is no means of establishing whether this was true or not. Be it, as it may, we do know that later Joseph Joseph became bankrupt, and, as a result lost his licence to be a Naval Agent. He did, however, continue his association with the navy as a slopman, and as already recounted, received Royal commendation. His eldest son Henry Joseph received a legal post in Gibraltar on the recommendation of King William IVth He filled this post with great aplomb and rose to become Recorder of Gibraltar and lay reader of the Gibraltar Hebrew Congregation.

Again I am ahead of myself, the turbulent period of the XVIIIth century and the opening decades of the XIXth century came to an end. The stories of Colonial Wars of Clive of India, Wolf of Quebec and others passed into history. Captain Cook made his famous voyages of discovery from Plymouth, and New Zealand and Australia became British Colonies, and many Jewish families from the West country emigrated and settled there. The scars of the American War of Independence healed. The horrors of the French Revolution faded, and Napoleon came, dominated the world stage, and likewise faded away, with the end of the Napoleonic wars, the close reality of war, receded from those shores, for over a hundred years. Wars there were, a-plenty, but, for next century, as far as England was concerned they were fought in distant places like the Crimea, The Sudan, The North lest Frontier and other such like distant places. English civil life broadened and deepened in intensity. The ever growing Empire and the Industrial Revolution were to take Britain to a position of World dominance.

During this period the religious minorities of Britain fought for, and won, their political and religious freedoms and became co-partners in the expansion taking place.

Locally, a relation by marriage into the Joseph family, a man called Phineas Levy was elected, by popular vote, to serve as commissioner for Devonport in July 1829. One of the earliest examples in England of a Jew elected to Public Office. Others followed his example, and my great grandfather, Abraham Emdon became a town councillor for Morice ward, Devonport, in 1870 and was, on his death in 1876 succeeded by his son (my grandfather) Eleazor Emdon, who later became the first provincial Jewish Alderman in England, an office that he filled, until his untimely death in February 1900. He was a kind of father figure in Devonport, and was known to Jew and Gentile alike as the Friend of the Poor, it is said that no poor person ever knocked on his door in vain, A measure of his philosophical outlook on life may be gauged by the fact, that, when he was offered the Mayoralty of Devonport, he refused, because the office carried with it the post of Chief Magistrate, and he said he did not feel that he was paragon enough to sit in judgement of his fellow men.

What of the Joseph side? Joseph Joseph's bankruptcy apparently reflected on his family life, his eldest son Henry, as we have seen, emigrated to Gibraltar. Solomon, his second son, married and set up as an antique dealer in Torquay. Angel the fourth son, went to America, and all of the girls married and settled down to a very ordinary life. There is perhaps one point worthy of note, Matilda, the youngest daughter but one, married a member of the Hart family and he was in turn related by marriage to a family in Plymouth called Alexander, the most famous of which, was a Michael Solomon Alexander, who converted to Christianity, and eventually became the first Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem.

This only leaves to be dealt with, the fate of Joseph Joseph's third son Abraham Joseph, named after his grandfather the original Abraham Joseph. The reason why this was so, is that in the Jewish Faith it is not customary to name a child after a living relative, and his grandfather was still alive when his two elder brothers were born. Fate, may have played a hand there, for it was Abraham Joseph the younger, who was destined to fill something of the role of his illustrious forbear.

He, like his brothers, left Plymouth, and he went to live in Penzance, He was apparently of a deeply religious disposition, and he became a kind of lay minister, reader and general factotum to Penzance Synagogue. Here he met and married Elizabeth Woolf, a beautiful woman known as the Belle of Penzance, a member of the Hart family.

Her husband's fortunes apparently flourished, and they left Penzance, and lived for a time in London. They returned to Plymouth, and took up residence in some style in Lockyer Street. They had a large family of some ten children Abraham was, by then, a man of some standing in the Jewish community, both locally and nationally. He was President of the Plymouth Hebrew Congregation on a number of occasions, and was a member of the National Board of Jewish Deputies, where he exercised considerable influence. The then, Chief Rabbi, Dr. Marcus Adler was himself a distant relative of the Plymouth Joseph's he was in fact a second cousin to Abraham. When Abraham died he left his extensive library to Dr. Adler.

Notwithstanding all this, he was, in family life, something of a martinet, and in consequence his family all left home. Rose, his eldest daughter, married Leon Solomon of Dawlish, and they had an even larger family most of whom eventually emigrated to America. The eldest son changed his name from Solomon to Simpson and his son was the Simpson who married Miss Wallis Warfield, who later divorced him, to marry King Edward the VIIth, who as you all know, became the Duke of Windsor.

Hyman the eldest son emigrated to New Zealand and was lost sight of.

Henry and Solomon both emigrated to Australia and the period of the Gold Rush. Henry use his specialised knowledge of minerals (he was a man of some repute in this direction) to become an assayer. Solomon went into journalism and became a pioneer of the Australian press. Their progeny are now scattered over the English speaking world, and William Jessop, one of their descendants now lives in Florida, America, various other notable figures link into the family tree, perhaps Benn Levy, the author is the most well known.

Sarah the second daughter, married the Rev. Raphael Harris of Bayswater Synagogue, a noted cleric, because of his tremendous charitable work for the blind. Hannah married a Henry Nathan, and the rest never married, except for the youngest Eliza who married Eleazor Emdon and became my grandmother.

With the death of Eleazor Emdon the family fortunes as far as Plymouth is concerned went into eclipse, and although it is still a great influence in other parts of the World, such as America, Australia, S. Africa, Canada, New Zealand etc., these are all other stories.