The Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and the formation of the National Health Service (NHS)

The 'traditional' view of the workhouse system.

With regard to the authorship of the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834, which is usually attributed to Edwin Chadwick (1800-1890), the Economist (vol. 22, p. 770, 18 June 1864) stated:

'It was Mr. Senior who drew up the report which produced such a wonderous effect upon the public mind: it was Mr. Senior principally who, when the Ministers shrank aghast from the completeness and consistently logical principle of the measure recommended - as is the wont of Ministers to do - gradually screwed up their courage to the sticking point, and by his pertinacity and persuasiveness succeeded at once in convincing their loose understandings and encouraging their timid nerves. [...] It rarely falls to the lot of any individual to do so much permanent good to his country by the labours of a whole life as Mr. Senior effected on this occasion by the well-directed exertions of a few brief years.'

Nassau William Senior stated that the intention of the Act was 'to raise the labouring classes, that is to say, the bulk of the community, from the idleness, improvidence, and degradation, into which the ill-administration of the laws for their relief has thrust them. [...] The Act aims at affecting these objects, not by denying relief, not by affecting in the slightest degree the grand principle of the poor laws, that no man, whatever be his misconduct, shall want the means of subsistence, but by providing an administration by which that subsistence shall be given in a way which is favourable, instead of destructive to the welfare of society...'

Southwell Workhouse, Nottinghamshire. Rather nicer than some modern sink estates perhaps. This building is now owned by the National Trust and is open to the public. One of the attractions is that you can play 'The Master's Punishment' game.

The modern view of the workhouse system is perhaps typified by the following quote:

'The purpose of the workhouse was to discourage the poor from claiming poor relief. It was intended to "dis-pauperise" districts: that is, to make conditions so harsh and uncompromising in the institutions that people would prefer to try to manage outside, rather than enter them.'

This statement merely begs the question of whether it would have been a good idea to encourage the poor to claim poor relief, that is to have made conditions inside the workhouse so much better than those outside that they caused a rush of people into the workhouse to live at the taxpayers' expense. The naivety of such a policy should be obvious and it would hardly have been fair to those ordinary working families who remained outside, who would have had to continue to pay taxes to support those in the workhouse. Conditions in the workhouses were strict by modern standards (such as they are), sometimes perhaps unnecessarily harsh (and there were individual cases of abuse as well, though not of systematic corruption) but if the workhouse system had not been in place then thousands of people would have starved to death in the streets.

On the other hand the same website does state:

'On the positive side the workhouse provided better physical accommodation than most agricultural labourers' cottages, the workhouse diet contained about 33% more in solid food than most agricultural labourers would have, the food was solid if unappealing and boring, children in the workhouse were provided with a free education and were found work and inmates were provided with free health care.

In 1836, Assistant Commissioner Weale reported that in the counties of Gloucester, Worcester and Somerset, the 'aged, impotent and helpless have... in the majority of cases... been placed on a higher scale of allowances than they were by their respective parishes previous to the formation of the Unions [i.e. before the 1834 Act].' (Ruth G. Hodgkinson, 'The Origins of the National Health Service', p. 5)

Mealtime in a workhouse. How did they get there?

Furthermore, and as an illustration of how historical facts can be misused, many writers on the subject* emphasize the number of elderly people in workhouses, insinuating, if not directly stating, that this was an especially cruel and oppressive aspect of the system. But answer one simple question: 'Given that no-one was legally obliged to enter a workhouse, how did they get there?' Answer? It was often their children who put them there, either directly or through failure to support them. The workhouses, which were originally intended for the able-bodied poor, were quickly used as a dumping ground for the elderly by their own families. They were also used as a dumping ground for children (even babies), particularly the disabled and mentally handicapped, and by 1839 almost half the workhouse population were children. One can see that it is easier to blame one individual for this situation than to face the unpalatable truth that one's own family dumped their own parents or disabled children in the workhouse; a case of collective 'amnesia' comparable to that of France in relation to collaboration with the Nazis in the deportation of French Jews during World War II.

*For an example see here (see 'Introduction') - 'By the 1850s, the majority of those forced into the workhouse were not the work-shy, but the old, the infirm, the orphaned, unmarried mothers, and the physically or mentally ill.' The truth is that a). they weren't forced, b). many of the elderly and disabled were in the workhouse because they had been abandoned by their own families and c). it is fortunate that someone was prepared to provide them with food, shelter and medical care.

One of the practical points to consider in relation to the subject of workhouse discipline is that when you have hundreds of people living under one roof who have, not necessarily through any fault of their own, arrived starving, dirty, verminous and possibly diseased (even contagious), who are mostly uneducated and some of whom are drunks, thieves, petty criminals or vagabonds, and possibly violent, then discipline is absolutely essential in order to prevent the whole place from descending into chaos. In many cases, the separation of families was probably a necessary precaution against abuse but, even so, the workhouse rules did in fact allow children to stay with their mothers or fathers.

In short, it is clear that Nassau William Senior had more common sense, greater moral courage, a stronger sense of justice and a sounder judgement of the true interests of the people than many modern politicians who (largely from motives of self-preservation, political bribery or a kind of 'it's our turn at the trough of public money' attitude) support the payment of certain state benefits at a level which has resulted in large numbers of people choosing to 'live off state benefits as a career option' - the precise problem that Nassau William Senior sought to avoid. This not only creates a dependency culture in the recipients which undermines the moral foundations of society (and which has its worst effects on the recipients themselves and, even more sadly, on their children) but also leads to a situation where, for instance, people can jump to the top of council house waiting lists (ahead of others) as a reward for their own fecklessness or immorality (i.e. having illegitimate children). Once started, this vicious circle of dependency and moral decline is very difficult to stop, as we have found to our cost. Nassau William Senior knew better and had the courage to say so.

The gross historical distortions concerning the workhouse system that are peddled as truth, particularly in our schools, simply perpetuate misunderstanding and alienation, but it is those who are left ignorant and alienated (usually in order to suit someone else's political agenda) who suffer in the long run. There will be cases of injustice, abuse and simple failure in any system and it is easy to highlight a selection of them in order to give a highly misleading impression of the whole. This is not just dishonest, it is bad history. The fact remains that the system succeeded in providing help for most of the people who needed it for most of the time; it undoubtedly saved many lives.

Nobody can pretend that conditions for the working classes in Victorian Britain were anything other than hard for most (and indeed desperate for some - including one of my great-great-grandfathers, who was a 'gardener's servant' and who appears to have lived in a garden shed) or that exploitation did not take place, but we should remember that these problems were largely structural; they were simply too big to be solved overnight and could only be overcome gradually by the steady exertions of a large number of right-thinking people from all classes, together with advances in science and technology. They got there in the end but, in the meantime, the poor and vulnerable needed a safety net (often as a result of abandonment by their own families); that safety net was the workhouse system and it was Nassau William Senior who put it there. Senior himself wrote in his 'Biographical Sketches' (p. 415):

'The ingratitude of mankind towards their benefactors has long been notorious. It is not indeed universal... But in general it will be found that those whose merits have been promptly and adequately recognised, have been men who have participated in the opinions and passions of those around them. They have been statesmen or soldiers or demagogues, whose objects have been the same as their contemporaries and who have differed from them only in perceiving more clearly or employing more unscrupulously the readiest means of attaining them. Men of a higher moral and intellectual character - men who are unaffected by the prejudice of their age and country - who refuse to aid in gratifying irrational desires or in maintaining irrational opinions - must not expect power or even popularity. This is particularly the case where the services rendered have been those rather of a teacher than a legislator, where they have consisted in exposing fallacies, softening prejudices, stigmatising selfishness, and preparing in one generation the way for measures which are to be adopted by another.'

The workhouse infirmaries (which were always under the supervision of a qualified medical practitioner and which guaranteed medical attention for the poor) constituted the first national system of healthcare for the poor and needy. Over time many of them developed into substantial hospitals, often a separate building or group of buildings from the workhouse itself. The workhouse infirmaries were taken over by their local authorities as a result of the Local Government Act 1929 and from this network was formed, on 5 July 1948, the National Health Service (NHS), which is now the largest employer in the country (in fact, the second largest in the world) and which provides free healthcare to all. The development of public healthcare in the UK resulted from the efforts of many people over a long period but Nassau William Senior undoubtedly played a key part in laying the foundations of that service. What is a falsehood is the idea peddled by left-wing politicians that the then Labour Government somehow 'invented' the National Health Service in 1948; nothing could be further from the truth. See here for more information on workhouse infirmaries.

Life in the workhouse (1901).

So, in order to assess the workhouse system it is only necessary to ask two very simple questions, as follows:

1. How many people went into workhouses?

2. What would have happened to these people if there had been no workhouses?

Quite...

The Senior family were originally Spanish Jews (Sephardim), most of whom converted to Catholicism when the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492; many converted back again at a later date. The leading member of the family at that time was Don* Abraham Senior** of Segovia, Castile (b 1410/12 d 1493), who rose to become probably the wealthiest and most powerful Jew in Spanish history. His courtly appearance and manner, as well as his diplomatic and financial skills***, made him a great favourite of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile and he played an important role in arranging their marriage, which led to the union of the kingdoms of Aragon and Castile****. Don Abraham also effected a reconciliation between Isabella and her brother, Henry IV, which allowed Isabella to succeed to the throne of Castile. As a financier, tax farmer and tax collector, Don Abraham also played an important role in funding and supplying the armies that drove the Moors from Spain, helping Ferdinand and Isabella to bring to a successful conclusion the 800 year long Reconquista, the crusade against the Moors. Overall, it is clear that he played a significant role in the formation of modern Spain as well as, it appears, the discovery of the New World, as described below, and this undoubtedly makes him one of the most significant figures in 15th century Europe. Don Abraham was appointed Court Rabbi and supreme magistrate of the Jews in 1477 and Treasurer of the Santa Hermandad ('Holy Brotherhood'), a Catholic militia, in 1488. As supreme magistrate he held judicial authority over all the Jews of Castile including, it appears, the right to try capital crimes. In 1492 Don Abraham was appointed Regidor of Segovia as a reward for his services to the Crown. His appointment as Court Rabbi made him the chief representative of the Jews in Spain and senior Rabbi, which some considered unsuitable for someone without the proper religious qualifications; his enemies gave him the nickname 'Sonei Or' or 'Hater of Light'****. Interestingly, Don Abraham's power was such that on one occasion even Torquemada, the Inquistor-General, had to plead with Don Abraham concerning taxes in Segovia and in 1492 Don Abraham successfully sued the Inquisition to recover property. Don Abraham died in 1493 and was apparently buried at the Monastery of Santa María del Parral, Segovia.

*The title of 'Don' was accorded to certain prominent Jews in Spain and Portugal at the time; it is not a later invention. See Ray, Jonathan, 'The Sephardic Frontier', p. 117 and 127 for examples, including a 1373 royal confirmation of Ferdinand I of Portugal.

**I have seen Don Abraham Senior referred to as Abraham de Guadalajara, the city north-east of Madrid where he was apparently born. This name implies that he did not have a surname, which is a mystery.

***'Reading a recent attempt to trace [Don Abraham's] career based on surviving documentation, one cannot but associate him with the typical image of the Renaissance courtier.' ('Spain and the Jews', p. 68).

****'On his arrival in Toledo, in accordance with a pre-arranged plan, the young prince [Ferdinand] went first to Senior's house, and in the evening was escorted by his host to the princess [Isabella].' So it appears that Don Abraham actually introduced the couple. See 'Nassau W. Senior 1790-1864', S. Leon Levy, David & Charles, Newton Abbot, 1970, p. 200, referring to 'Kayserling, M., 'Christopher Columbus', 1907, p. 23.

****The idea that Don Abraham Senior was irreligious is a calumny that was invented by his detractors (even after some 500 years some writers cannot 'forgive' Don Abraham for his 'sin' of converting to Christianity). In fact, what was almost certainly a secret synagogue attached to Don Abraham's house in Segovia (now a church) has been recently discovered. No-one of superficial beliefs would have gone to the trouble (or risk) or building a secret synagogue.

The interior of the secret synagogue attached to Don Abraham Senior's house in Segovia (photos below), now a church.

Monastery of Santa María del Parral, Segovia

The Moorish King, Boabdil, surrenders Granada, the last stronghold of the Moors in Spain, to Ferdinand and Isabella in 1492. Painting by F. Padilla.

The discovery of the New World. A biographer of Columbus, John Boyd Thatcher, has written that 'the triumph of Columbus was the triumph of the Converso Luis de Santangel, visionary and champion of the perennial lost cause of history, the cause of the Jews.' Other writers (notably Salvador de Madariaga and Simon Wiesenthal) have speculated that the longings of the Conversos who supported Columbus may have run parallel to the dreams of the discoverer himself, namely, an obsessive dream to find a refuge for the Jews in the lands that he hoped to find across the Atlantic. This refuge is of course the United States, whose military technology now protects Israel. It was a Sephardic Jew, Emma Lazarus (1849-1887), who, in 1883, wrote the famous poem now engraved on the Statue of Liberty, 'The New Colossus':

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she
With silent lips. "Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to be free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"

Don Abraham was apparently one of a small group of leading Jews who financed Christopher Columbus's voyage to America. Stephen Birmingham, in his book 'The Grandees' states (p. 45), with regard to Columbus' expedition, that 'when still more money was needed, and when Isabella was on the point of abandoning the project for lack of funds, Abravanel turned to other Jewish bankers, including Luis de Santangel [actually a Converso, that is a Jew who had converted to Catholicism or a descendant of such], Gabriel Sanchez, and Abraham Senior, who had played such an important role in bringing Isabella and Ferdinand to the altar. It was because of these bankers that the expedition was able to leave Spain under a Spanish flag and, as a result of their part in the undertaking, Columbus' first word back to Spain about his discovery was addressed not to the Queen - which would have been courteous - but to Senores Santangel, Sanchez and Senior, his bankers, which was practical [this letter from Columbus of 1493 is actually addressed to Santangel only but Santangel was apparently 'lead lender' for his friends]. As a result of these activities, Professor H. P. Adams of John Hopkins [John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland] has commented: "Not jewels, but Jews, were the real financial basis of the first expedition of Columbus".' Don Abraham met Columbus in Malaga in August 1487 ('Christopher Columbus', M. Kayserling, 1907, p. 42, 52-55).

Don Abraham converted to Catholicism in 1492 when the Jews were expelled from Spain and took the surname 'Coronel'. His conversion stemmed partly from the fact that he was an old man in his 80s and partly from personal pressure exerted by the King and Queen, Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, who (along with Cardinal Mendoza and the Papal Nuncio) subsequently acted as sponsors at his baptism. It has been said that the Catholic monarchs threatened reprisals against all the Jews if Don Abraham did not convert, no doubt hoping that the conversion of such an important figure would encourage others to follow suit. As Elijah Capsali (c. 1483-1555) wrote: 'Even Don Abram Seneor and his [son]-in-law, Meir Melamed, among the greatest Jews in Spain, were also baptized, willingly or unwillingly, for I have heard it rumored that Queen Isabella had sworn that if Don Abram did not convert, she would wipe out all the communities, and that Don Abram did what he did in order to save the Jews, but not from his own heart. His [son]-in-law also followed him, because it was important for the queen to have the two convert, by whatever means necessary and that they continue to serve her until the day of her death. And on that day that these two were converted, their children and families followed suit, and they worshipped other gods. Then King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella appointed the sons of Don Abram Seneor as judges and military officers, and they became prominent throughout Spain, being given lands over which they ruled, and all this for changing their religion.'

'The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain' painted in 1889 by Emilio Sala Frances, Museo de Bellas Artes de Granada.

A representative of the Jews pleads for the reversal of the decree of expulsion of 1492. The figure in the foreground is either Don Isaac Abravanel or Don Abraham Senior. The figure gesturing behind the table must be Torquemada; presumably this is the point at which Torquemada said that accepting Jewish gold would be like Judas accepting the 30 pieces of silver.

Don Abraham steered a difficult course between serving the Crown and protecting the interests of his fellow Jews. Behind the scenes he seems to have tried to minimize their suffering during a very difficult period. In Segovia in 1485 he intervened to prevent the rabble-rousing activities of Antonio de la Pena, a Dominican monk, against the 'Jewish wolves' who should be 'driven away by fire'; previously, in other Spanish cities, such activities had caused immense suffering amongst the Jews, including hundreds of deaths. In 1486 he interceded with the King to prevent the expulsion of the Jews from Valmaseda. In 1489 he paid, largely from his own fortune, the ransoms of 450 Jews captured at the fall of Malaga, mainly women who would otherwise have been sold into slavery*. In 1492 he strenuously opposed the decree of expulsion and with Don Isaac Abravanel tried to persuade the Catholic monarchs to rescind it, offering a vast bribe from his own fortune.

*See 'The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain', p. 431. 'He [Don Abraham] and Rabbi Meir Melamed [his son-in-law] bound themselves to pay the remainder of the ransom in instalments.' It was not Don Isaac Abravanel who paid the ransom, as is stated in the Jewish Encylopedia (Vol. 11, p. 500). See also Kayserling, M., 'Geschichte der Juden in Portugal', 1867, p. 101.

(Note that the Catholic Encyclopedia claims that it was the Catholic Church that was responsible for obtaining backing for Columbus' voyage and that it was church money that was actually used, having been merely collected by Santangel. However, if this was the case then why was Columbus' first letter describing the discovery of the New World addressed to Santangel (alone) and signed 'At your orders'? This would seem rather odd if Santangel had been a mere tax collector. Surely Columbus would have written either to the King and Queen or to his backers in the Catholic hierarchy? Note that Cardinal Mendoza, stated in the Catholic Encylopedia to have been one of Columbus' principal backers, had a Jewish grandmother.)

Was Don Abraham the last Exilarch?

King David playing his harp - The Vespasian Psalter, English, circa 750 AD

As Professor Haim Beinart has stated in 'The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain' (p. 420), Don Abraham Senior was referred to in a letter of 1487 from the Jews of Castile to the Jews of Rome and Lombardy as 'the Exilarch who is over us'*. 'Exilarch' means 'Prince of the Captivity' or 'Head of the Exile'** (that is, de jure King of the Jews in exile), a title dating from the Babylonian Exile of 597-538 BC which appears to have survived in Mesopotamia until Tamerlane the Great sacked Baghdad in 1401. The title was hereditary in and exclusive to the House of David (see II Kings xxv. 27 and I Chronicles iii. 17 et seq.) but was elective amongst the immediate male members of that family and subject to rabbinic approval. Given the fact that the title appears never to have been accorded to (or used to describe) anyone not acknowledged by rabbinic authorities to be of Davidic descent, and that the misuse of such a title would have been most unlikely, it is reasonable to infer that Don Abraham was descended from one of those branches of the House of David that have been traced to Spain (see the Jewish Encyclopaedia) and that the title was accorded to him in an attempt to revive the Exilarchate after it had ceased to be recognised in Mesopotamia, as happened in Egypt in 1081.

*'shall not turn away the tribe of Judah, he the Exilarch who is over us'. A translation of the same letter of 1487 appears in 'Spain and the Jews' edited by Elie Kedourie (page 70) and refers to 'the staff from Judah that is our Exilarch'. If this translation is correct then this would mean that the letter of 1487 contains an unequivocal statement (to Jewish readers at least) to the effect that Don Abraham was 'ruler of the Jews' ('staff') 'of the House of David' ('from Judah'; that is the Royal House of Judah, otherwise the House of David) in accordance with the Blessing of Jacob (Genesis 49:10): ‘The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.

The Lion of Judah - The arms of Senior, as borne by the family in Holland and Germany, quartered with the arms of de Mattos, as depicted on the tombstone of Ester Gomes de Mesquita, wife of Isaac Haim Senior Texeira (1625-1705), in the Ouderkerk aan den Amstel cemetery.

Arms of the Kalonymos family of Narbonne showing the Lion of Judah, the symbol of the Royal House of Judah (House of David).

(Note that Heinrich Graetz in his 'History of The Jews' (Vol. IV p. 228 - see here also) refers to 'an influential Jew, Abraham Benveniste, surnamed Senior' who was granted high office under King Juan II of Castile. That this is indeed intended to refer to Don Abraham Senior is borne out by the entry in the index which states: 'Benveniste, Abraham, Senior (Coronel), tithe-collector, accepts Christianity, 351. convenes a synod, 229. friend of Isaac Abrabanel, 341. holds office in Castile, 228. negotiates a royal marriage, 280.' It seems to be clear, however, that the Abraham Benveniste who was Court Rabbi under King Juan II of Castile (d 1454) cannot (it appears) have been Don Abraham Senior because the latter was not appointed to the post until 1477 (unless he was re-appointed to the post - interestingly, the first mention we have of Don Abraham Senior as such is in 1468 (Beinart, p. 413), when he was apparently 56, which gives rise to the question of what he was doing before that date). In any event it is quite probable (indeed likely) that Don Abraham Senior was a member or close blood relative of the Benveniste family, possibly via his mother, because (1) Abraham Benveniste had a son called Abraham, known as Abraham Benveniste the Elder, and a son Joseph who had a son called Abraham and while Abraham Benveniste the Elder does not appear to be Don Abraham Senior (Don Abraham was apparently aged 80 when he converted to Christianity in 1492, which would mean that he was born in 1412, whereas Abraham Benveniste the Elder was born in 1433 according to the Jewish Encyclopaedia), the nomenclature does prove that an Abraham Benveniste could have been called Abraham 'the Elder' - 'seneor/senor' means 'sire' or 'lord' in Spanish but could also have been used as a mark of respect for an elder (see the Jewish Encyclopaedia), (2) court positions were 'kept within the family' as far as possible and, in fact, such an arrangement suited the crown because the successor to a post would be trained into the job by his father, uncle or other relative, so that it is more than likely that Abraham Benveniste was succeeded as Court Rabbi by a relative, who may well also have been succeeded by a relative, (3) being a member of the Benveniste family could account for the reference to Don Abraham Senior as 'Exilarch' since the Benveniste family were an ancient and distinguished family whose members were sometimes designated as 'Nasi' (prince), including Sheshet Benveniste of Narbonne (d. about 1209), and they were, on this basis, originally a Jewish princely family of Narbonne (in this context note that Thomas of Monmouth in his 'Life and Miracles of St. William of Norwich' (1173 i.e. contemporary with Sheshet Benveniste of Narbonne above) says 'Wherefore the chief men and Rabbis of the Jews who dwell in Spain assemble together at Narbonne, where the Royal seed [of David] resides', as quoted by Baigent, Leigh and Lincoln in their book 'Holy Blood, Holy Grail'). See also Benjamin of Tudela's 'Book of Travels' (1173) (p. 2) in which he says of Narbonne: 'A three days' journey takes one to Narbonne, which is a city pre-eminent for learning; thence the Torah (Law) goes forth to all countries. Sages, and great and illustrious men abide here. At their head is R. Kalonymos, the son of the great and illustrious R. Todros of the seed of David, whose pedigree is established.' Moshe Shaltiel-Gracien, in his book 'Shaltiel - One Family's Journey Through History', a history of the Davidic descent of the Shaltiel family, quotes a reference (p. 156) to Sheshet Benveniste by the contemporary 12th century poet al-Harizi as follows: 'And there was the residence of our lord, our excellency, the Prince of All Princes, known by name from West to East, R. Sheshet, the pillar of the world and the foundation of all saints (may his memory be for a blessing).' The famous Gracia Mendes Nasi (1510-1569), also known by her Christianized name Beatriz de Luna Miques, married Francisco Mendes (originally Benveniste) and their daughter, Brianda, married Gracia's nephew, Joseph Nasi, Duke of Naxos. The Mendes family became one of the greatest banking families in Europe.)

**The 10th century writer, Nathan ha-Babli, is quoted in the Jewish Encyclopedia as referring to 'our prince, the exilarch', making it clear that the Exilarch was regarded as the prince of his people.

A possible line of descent is from Abraham 'Nasi' ('Nasi' means 'Prince of the House of David'), apparently ancestor of several Marrano families, son of Hiyya Ha-Nasi, who was born in Spain, son of David (d 1092), 39th Exilarch of the 3rd dynasty***, who temporarily fled to Spain in 1040 when his father, Hezekiah, 38th Exilarch, was imprisoned by the Caliph of Baghdad (Hezekiah was later executed in 1058). Hezekiah was 117th Exilarch in succession to Jeconiah (d 559 BC), 1st Exilarch and penultimate King of Judah of the House of David, who, in 597 BC, was taken by Nebuchadnezzar as a captive to Babylon. Alternative possible lines of descent are from Nissim, 69th Exilarch, who was deposed in 1295 and went to Spain, and Issac Alfasi (d 1103), descended from Azariah, 34th Exilarch, who fled to Spain in 1088. Note that the surname 'Senior' is derived from the Spanish 'senor', that is 'sire' or 'lord', which may, in turn, be a translation of 'Nasi'; thus, Abraham Senior would mean Abraham 'Senor' (in fact the name was often spelled 'Senor'), that is Abraham 'Nasi', that is Abraham the Prince [of the House of David] - but this is speculation. 'Coronel', the surname adopted by the Senior family in 1492, means 'coronet' (used today to denote the rank of 'colonel'). It appears ('Spain and the Jews', p.68) that Don Abraham signed his name simply 'Abraham', without a surname, which might indicate that 'Senior' was not a surname but a title or nickname derived from a title. A prominent branch of the family in Portugal, the Counts and Marquises of Penafiel, adopted the surname 'Da Mata Coronel'. 'Da Mata' means 'of the bush' but a common variant of 'mata' in Portugal is 'matos', which in Hebrew means 'tribe'. Thus 'Da Mata Coronel' might be intended to mean 'the crown of the tribe' - but, again, this is speculation.

***Various sources give different numberings.

Don Abraham's signature on a letter to the Constable of Castile. From 'The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain', p. 500.

The 12th century writer, Rabbi Benjamin of Tudela (Spain), describing his visit to Baghdad in his 'Book of Travels' (1173), noted that Daniel, 52nd Exilarch of the 3rd dynasty (reigned 1150-74), who he described as 'Our Lord the Head of the Captivity of all Israel', and who was the great-great-grandson of David, 39th Exilarch (above), had 'a book of pedigrees going back as far as David, King of Israel'; this pedigree was clearly accepted as authentic by both the rabbinic authorities of the time and the Jewish people at large. While the pedigrees of the Exilarchs undoubtedly contain errors, inconsistencies and even some spurious entries, this does not mean that such pedigrees cannot be regarded as historical or cannot point to a fundamental historical truth, which is that for a period of around 2000 years (597 BC to 1401 AD), and almost reaching into the modern era, though not continually throughout that period, there was a dynasty of rulers of the Jews acknowledged by both the rabbinic authorities and the Jewish people at large, and indeed by the Caliphs and others under whose rule the Jewish people lived, to be not just of Davidic descent but rightful heirs to the throne of David. According to Benjamin of Tudela, when the Exilarch went to visit the Caliph the heralds announced his coming with the words "Make way for our Lord, the Son of David." ("Amilu tarik la Saidna ben Daud."). As David Einsiedler stated in his article 'Descent From King David - Part II' ('Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy', 1993, Vol. IX, No. 2, page 34) 'Genealogists who value religious tradition could say that our rabbis and sages did not make statements about Davidic descent lightly, that they were trustworthy and insisted on truth.'

The Babylonian Exilarchate had been seated (in an official rather than physical sense) at Baghdad since the 8th century AD, having moved, it appears, from Babylon to Seleucia on the Tigris in the 4th century BC, following the founding of that city in around 305 BC by Seleucus Nicator (c 358-281 BC), one of the generals of Alexander the Great (356-323 BC); to Ctesiphon in the 2nd century AD, after Seleucia was burned by the Emperor Trajan (53-117) in 117 AD; to Damascus after 637 when Ctesiphon was sacked by Umar (d 644), 2nd Caliph and Companion of the Prophet Mohammed (d 632), during the Arab conquest of Persia; to Baghdad after 750 when the Umayyad caliphate was overthrown by the Abbasids at the Battle of Zab. Note that Babylon, Seleucia, Ctesiphon and Baghdad are all in the same vicinity, so that it appears that the physical seat of the Exilarchs remained in the same place, even during the period when political power briefly shifted to Damascus. The physical seat of the Exilarchs seems to have been at Nehardea from the time of Jeconiah, at Sura from the beginning of the 5th century AD and then at Pumbedita from the end of the 8th century until the fall of Hezekiah, 38th Exilarch and last gaon, in 1040; after that the Exilarchs seem to have been seated at Baghdad. The Exilarchate survived the sack of Baghdad by Hulagu Khan (1217-1265), grandson of Genghis Khan (c 1162-1227) and destroyer of the Caliphate, in 1258 (although it is said 800,000 people were killed, the Jews were specifically spared) and the later collapse of the Mongol Khanate of Persia after 1335 into a motley of successor dynasties, including the Jalayirids (whose capital was at Baghdad), the Muzafarids, the Eretnids, the Sarbadarids and the Karts. Indeed, from the destruction of the neo-Babylonian Empire by Cyrus the Great in 538 BC to the sack of Baghdad by Tamerlane the Great in 1401 AD, a period of nearly 2000 years, the Exilarchate survived the violent collapse of 11 empires****, namely:

Baghdad was subsequently ruled by Shah Rukh, son of Tamerlane the Great, from 1401 to 1410, the Qara Quyunlu or Black Sheep Turkmen (1410-1469), the Aq Quyunlu or White Sheep Turkmen (1469-1508), the Safavids (1508-1534), the Ottoman Turks (1534-1917), the British (1917-1921) and the Hashemite dynasty (1921-1958). Although Tamerlane the Great ended the 'official' recognition of the Exilarchate after he sacked Baghdad in 1401, it appears that the line of Exilarchs continued to be acknowledged by the Jewish community in Baghdad until the death of the last heir of that line, Pasha, called 'King of the Jews', in 1825, after which the heirship passed to the Dayan family, descended from a house of Palestinian Princes. Pasha (d 1825) was descended from Chizkiya, 45/47th Exilarch (reigned 1092-94, 1096-97), elder brother of Hiyya Ha-Nasi above. The Dayan family are descended from Josiah, 27th Exilarch (reigned 930-933), younger brother of David 26/28th Exilarch (reigned 921-930, 933-940), who was the great-great-grandfather of Hezekiah, 38th Exilarch, mentioned above.

****'The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?' - Mark Twain

It is asserted that the first properly historical (that is provable from historical evidence outside the Bible) Exilarch was Nahun (reigned 140?-170 AD). Earlier Exilarchs, based on the genealogies in the Bible (I Chronicles iii. 17 et seq.*****), are regarded by some authors as legendary, mainly on the basis that the Josephus does not mention the office******. However, while earlier Exilarchs might well have been 'legendary' in the sense that they were not officially recognised as Exilarchs, this does not mean either that they are 'legendary' in the physical sense, that is that the individuals recorded in the genealogies never existed, or that they were not Exilarchs (the heirs of King David) by right of blood. No such conclusion can be drawn from Josephus.

*****The Biblical Exilarchs (I Chronicles iii 17-24)

17 And the sons of Jeconiah; Assir, Salathiel his son,
18 Malchiram also, and Pedaiah, and Shenazar, Jecamiah, Hoshama, and Nedabiah.
19 And the sons of Pedaiah were, Zerubbabel, and Shimei: and the sons of Zerubbabel; Meshullam, and Hananiah, and Shelomith their sister:
20 And Hashubah, and Ohel, and Berechiah, and Hasadiah, Jushabhesed, five.
21 And the sons of Hananiah; Pelatiah, and Jesaiah: the sons of Rephaiah, the sons of Arnan, the sons of Obadiah, the sons of Shechaniah.
22 And the sons of Shechaniah; Shemaiah: and the sons of Shemaiah; Hattush, and Igeal, and Bariah, and Neariah, and Shaphat, six.
23 And the sons of Neariah; Elioenai, and Hezekiah, and Azrikam, three.
24 And the sons of Elioenai were, Hodaiah, and Eliashib, and Pelaiah, and Akkub, and Johanan, and Dalaiah, and Anani, seven.

******'that these Biblical Exilarchs are legendary is obvious from the fact that Josephus does not mention the institution' - Goode, Alexander D., 'The Exilarchate in the Eastern Caliphate, 637-1258', 'The Jewish Quarterly Review', New Ser., Vol. 31, No. 2 (Oct., 1940), p. 149. This is not correct. Josephus, in his 'Antiquities of the Jews', book XI, chapter 3, para 10, says 'and the governor of all this multitude thus numbered [being the Jews who Cyrus the Great allowed to return to Jerusalem] was Zorobabel, the son of Salathiel, of the posterity of David.' So Josephus does in fact refer to one of the individuals mention in I Chronicles iii 17-24 and it is clear that this person was the ruler of the Jews and of Davidic descent. Though not actually referred to by the title 'Exilarch' it is clear that Zorobabel was ruler of the Jews in exile, that is a de facto exilarch (since 'exilarch' means 'ruler in exile'), since he is referred to as 'Zorobabel, the governor of the Jews' (book XI, chapter 1, para 3). Thus, we have, on the basis of Josephus, a de facto historical exilarch over 600 years earlier than is often asserted.

Note, in this context, that the title of 'Pope' was first used in the third century but no-one has claimed as a consequence that the heads of the Catholic Church in Rome before that period should not be described by that title.

Sir Iain Moncreiffe of that Ilk (1919-1985), Albany Herald of Arms (Court of the Lord Lyon), writing in 'Books & Bookmen', February-March 1976, wrote: 'What's already known is that the Jews in exile in Asia were ruled under the Persian and later the Arab empires by 'Princes of the Captivity' called 'Exilarchs', with a genealogy claiming descent by at least the second century from the Royal House of David, probably with justification because it was based on their acceptance.' (Quoted from 'Lord of the Dance', London, 1986, Hugh Montgomery-Massingberd, p. 155).

In addition to the Babylonian Exilarchs there were several dynasties of Palestinian Princes, that is dynasties of princes in Palestine of Davidic descent, who maintained what appears to have been an intermittent authority parallel but subsidiary to the Babylonian Exilarchs, whose suzerainty they seem generally to have acknowledged. The existence of two parallel dynasties of secular rulers reflected the fact that there were two main centres of world Jewry at that time, namely Babylon/Mesopotamia and Judea; there was a similar parallel arrangement in religious affairs, namely between Jerusalem and the great Babylonian academies of Sura and Pumbedita.

• Initially, it appears, there were two lines of princes, the Tobitite and Onaidite lines, descended from Tobit and Onaid, co-rulers and twin sons of Hananiah, Prince of Israel (reigned 425-405 BC), who was the son of Hattush, 1st Prince of Israel (reigned 457-445 BC), son of Meshullam, 4th Exilarch of the 1st dynasty. Hattush returned to Palestine with Ezra the Scribe who proclaimed him 'royal heir'. These lines appear to have survived (but only intermittently ruled) until at least the period of Herod the Great (74-4/1 BC).

• At this time another dynasty of Palestinian Princes or Patriarchs emerged in the person of Hillel the Great, who was the teacher of Jesus Christ. This dynasty survived until the office of Palestinian Patriarch was abolished by Theodosius II (410-450), Emperor of Byzantium, in 425 AD.

• A further dynasty, founded in about 550 by Sutra, son of Mar-Zutra (x 520), 30th Exilarch of the 2nd dynasty, survived until about 890 at Tiberias, with a rival dynasty seated at Jerusalem from 691 to 1099, presumably ending with the massacre of the population of Jerusalem during the First Crusade.

• In 1187 another line of Palestinian Princes, ancestors of the Dayan family, was founded by Yosef Ha-Nasi, descended from Josiah, 27th Exilarch (reigned 930-933) as stated above, and continued until 1678 when Moshe Ha-Nasi was deposed by the Turks. Subsequently the 'Nasi' (so-called) was appointed by the Turkish governor until the Sultan abolished the office in 1849, when the duties of the office were taken over by the Hakham Bashi, Chief Rabbi of the Ottoman Empire. In 1933 Yitzak Dayan, of this line, Chief Rabbi in Aleppo (Syria), was recognized by rabbinic authorities as the 'Davidic heir' and the heirship has presumably passed down to the current day in the Dyan family.

There would have been numerous other descent lines of course; those listed are those that rose to prominence in Judea/Palestine.

The evidence therefore indicates that Don Abraham Senior was of Davidic descent but this cannot have been unique amongst the leading families of the Sephardim, who formed a closely-related and exclusive elite. Various Sephardic families claim Davidic descent, including those of Abravanel/Abarbanel, Shaltiel and Benveniste, and in respect of the two latter at least there are published pedigrees tracing their Davidic descent; a tombstone dated 27 August 1097, now in the Museo Sefardi in Toledo, records the death of a Rabbi Shemuel bar Shealtiel ha Nasi. It is possible that the title of Exilarch was accorded to Don Abraham Senior in an attempt to resurrect the Exilarchate in Spain after it had ceased to be recognized in Mesopotamia, but this only lasted until the Jews were expelled from Spain in 1492. After that, it would seem, there was no Jewish community of sufficient size, stability or prestige to allow for the resurrection of the Exilarchate, until 1933 that is. Note that there was a historical precedent for attempting to establish the Exilarchate outside Mesopotamia. This happened in Egypt in 1081 when David ben Daniel, a descendant of the house of Exilarchs, was proclaimed Exilarch by the rabbinic authorities of that country; the attempt ended with his downfall in 1094.

This would appear to be the most common sense solution to the question of why we find the title of 'Exilarch' being used in Spain at that time. Further, the existence of families of Davidic descent in Spain at that time should not be viewed as extraordinary, given that there was such a dynasty in Palestine at that time; indeed, the absence of such families from Spain would have been a far greater oddity given the long-standing prominence of the Jewish community in that country.

The fact that Don Abraham Senior appears to have had no surname; the fact that he was, apparently, born in Guadalajara, where the palace of the Dukes of Infantado, heads of the Mendoza family, is situated; the fact that he had close links with the Mendoza family (including the fact that his grand-daughter, Maria Coronel, married Juan Bravo (x 1521), a scion of that family); the fact that he was clearly close to Cardinal Mendoza, who acted as one of the sponsors at his baptism in 1492; the fact that in 1492 he adopted the name Coronel, apparently associated (according to Beinart, 'The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain', p. 461) with the Guzman family, Dukes of Medina-Sidonia, who were very closely related to the Mendoza family, indicate that there is a possibility that Don Abraham Senior may actually have been an illegitimate child of a member of either the Mendoza or Guzman families by a Jewish woman. Such liaisons were not unkown, even amongst the royal family I understand. Such a parentage would not have affected his Jewishness (in the eyes of Jewish people - although he could not, presumably, have been Exilarch in this case) since that comes through the mother, but it may make some sense of the unanswered questions surrounding Don Abraham, such as 'Why don't we know the name of his father?' Given that Don Abraham took the name Fernan Perez Coronel in 1492, I wonder whether Don Abraham's father might have been Fernan Perez de Guzman (d 1460)*, son of Pedro Suarez de Toledo and Leonor de Guzman, and second cousin of Íñigo López de Mendoza, Marquis of Santillana (1398-1458). See Nader, Helen, 'The Mendoza Family in the Spanish Renaissance 1350-1550', p. xv). On the other hand, it may be that Don Abraham's father was a Jew who simply worked for one of these families in a trusted position, but that would leave unanswered the question of why Don Abraham was described as 'Exilarch' or even, according to one translation (see above) 'the staff from Judah that is our Exilarch', an even more specific description.

*Is this the great Spanish poet? (Search for Fernán Pérez de Guzmán)

The Palace of Infantado, Guadalajara, which dates from about 1480 and replaced an earlier building.

The translation of the letter of 1487 which appears in 'Spain and the Jews' edited by Elie Kedourie (p. 70) and refers to 'the staff from Judah that is our Exilarch' explains the use of the word Exilarch by saying that its use 'is consistent with an ideology which legitimized institutions by mentioning antecedents', thus implying that the leading Jew in any large community could be referred to as 'Exilarch', a usage that would seem to be most unlikely and, indeed, of which I can find no instance. The position of 'court rabbi' was long-established in both Spain and Portugal and some previous holders of the post had exercised similar powers to those exercised by Don Abraham Senior, and yet, as far as I am aware, no previous court rabbi had been called 'Exilarch'. See 'The Sephardic Frontier' by Jonathan Ray. Note, in this context, that the title of 'Nasi' was debased over time, so that it came to be used by prominent families with no accepted Davidic descent, but sometimes to bolster such a claim (e.g. Sassoon), and the word now equates to 'President' or 'Chairman'; the word for Prince is now "Nasich".

Apparently all descendants of David, even in the female line, are rightly called "Nasi" - "Prince" - to honor their royal descent' ('Shaltiel - One Family's Journey Through History', Moshe Shaltiel-Gracian, p. 134).

King David

The Senior name still seems to carry some weight amongst the Jewish matriarchs of New York, as recorded by Stephen Birmingham in his book 'The Grandees', where he states (p. 39) 'The two principal matchmakers [in relation to the marriage between Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile] were Don Abraham Senior of Castile and Don Selemoh of Aragon, men of such prominence that they had never taken the trouble to be baptized. ("Yes", Aunt Ellie would assure the children when she spoke of these great men, "We are connected, we are connected.")'.

It is worth noting that Don Isaac Abravanel (1437-1508) wrote of the Expulsion that 'In the end there left, without strength, three hundred thousand people on foot, from the youngest to the oldest, all at one time, from all the provinces of the king, to wherever they were able to go. Their King went before them, G-d at their helm. Each pledged himself to G-d anew. Some went to Portugal and Navarre, which are close, but all they found were troubles and darkness, looting, starvation and pestilence. Some traveled through the perilous ocean, and here, too, G-d's hand was against them, and many were seized and sold as slaves, while many others drowned in the sea. Others again, were burned alive, as the ships on which they were traveling were engulfed by flames.' This contemporary source implies that there was a King of the Jews (i.e. an Exilarch) in Spain at that time. I have seen it mentioned elsewhere that this royal line ended up in Portugal.

Juan Bravo (c.1483-1521), hero of Segovia, grandson-in-law of Don Abraham Senior

One of Don Abraham's grand-daughters, Maria Coronel, married the Spanish nobleman Juan Bravo (c.1483-1521), one of the three leaders of the 'first modern revolution', namely the 'War of the Communities' of 1520-1521, which was a revolution against the Emperor, Charles V. They had two children, Andrea Bravo de Mendoza and Juan Bravo de Mendoza. Juan Bravo's mother, Maria de Mendoza, was a daughter of the Count of Monteagudo. Maria de Mednoza was of the same family as Cardinal Mendoza (see above), who some sources state may have had a Jewish grandmother. It would seem possible therefore that Juan Bravo was partly Jewish and he married the grand-daughter of a Converso Jew, Don Abraham Senior. The Mendoza family are probably the most illustrious in Spain, holding numerous titles, including that of Duke of Infantado (created 1475), some 10 years older than the Premier Dukedom in the UK, the Dukedom of Norfolk.

Statue of Juan Bravo in Segovia, Spain - a Jewish revolutionary?

Execution of the Comuneros of Castile (Juan de Padilla, Juan Bravo and Francisco Maldonado) in 1521, by Antonio Gisbert (1834-1901). They were known as the 'Caballeros Comuneros' (literally I guess 'Communist Knights') and they inspired several later revolutions, including one in Paraguay and another in Colombia.

Before their execution, Juan de Padilla said to Juan Bravo: 'My Lord Bravo, yesterday we fought as knights, today we must die like Christians.' Juan Bravo then asked to be executed first, as he 'did not wish to see the death of such a good knight.'

The Mendoza family intermarried with another well-known Spanish family, that of de la Vega, a name made famous centuries later by 'The Mask of Zorro', thus giving rise to a (sort of) connection between a real 16th century revolutionary, Juan Bravo, and a fictional 19th century one, Don Diego de la Vega or Zorro.

Zorro - 'He could be anywhere.'

Here are the closing lines of the film:

Zorro (whispering to his baby son): 'And so it was. Lighting split the sky, thunder shook the earth, and then all was quiet. The great warrior known as Zorro was gone. The people of the land gave him a hero's funeral, the largest anyone had ever seen. They came from far and wide to say farewell to their brave and noble champion. But don't worry, little Joaquin. Whenever great deeds are remembered, your grandfather will live on. For there must always, always be a Zorro. And some day, when he's needed, we will see him again... on his fearsome steed Tornado, riding like the wind, his sword blazing in the sun... leaping, jumping, swinging through the air... fighting like a lion. Fighting like a tiger. Fighting... [sees Elena watching him] ...as safely as possible.
Elena: 'Is this your idea of putting the baby to sleep? ...When I sleep, I will dream of this dashing rogue Zorro. But what face shall I give him?'
Zorro: 'He has been many different men, but he has loved you as all of them.'
Elena: 'How can I refuse such a man? Do you know where I might find him?'
Zorro: 'You know Zorro. He could be anywhere.'

Fabulous stuff.

Joseph Senior Saraiva, a descendant of Don Abraham Senior as detailed below, died in Barbados in 1694 and was possibly the grandfather of my ancestor, (Moses) Aaron Senior (b 1690/1 d 1736), who was described as a West Indian Jew. (Moses) Aaron Senior also married the widow of an estate owner of Barbados and his children owned estates on Barbados, including one called 'Seniors'.

Tomb of Joseph Senior Saraiva on Barbados.

I have found the following on the Haring-Santen Family Tree, which is based on the following sources: Jose Amador de los Rios, 'Estudios historicos, politicos y literarios sobre los Judios de Espana', p 445; Jose Amador de los Rios, 'Historia social, politica y religiosa de los judios de Espana y Portugal', iii, p 279-296; Kayserling, 'Geschichte der Juden in Portugal', p 83 & 102. See also the pedigree prepared by the Portuguese historian, Luis de Bivar Pimentel Guerra, in 1976.

Don Abraham Senior/Fernando (Fernao) Perez Coronel of Castile (1410/12-1493), lived at Segovia, near Madrid = (1) Dona Violante de Cabrera* and (2) Dona Maria Sanches del Rio and had issue an eldest son;
Juan ('Joao') Perez Coronel (d c 1504/5), lived at Segovia, described as a 'Knight of Philip I [King of Spain 1504-6] in France' i.e. ambassador = Cataline del Rio and had issue;
Inigo Lopez Coronel (b c 1490), born in Segovia = Not known and had issue;
Francisco Coronel, lived at Salvaterra, Spain, served in the army of Flanders = Not known and had issue;
Antonio Coronel (b c 1523), moved to Moncao, Portugal in 1588 = (c 1548) Isabel Dias** (b c 1527) and had issue;
Heitor Coronel (b c 1549) = (c 1574) ? Saraiva (b c 1553) and had issue;
Antonio Saraiva Coronel of Hamburg (d 1665) - see below.

*The mother of Cervantes, author of 'Don Quixote', seems to have been of Jewish extraction. His paternal great-grandmother was a Catalina de Cabrera. Perhaps there is a connection here.

**In 1540 a Luis Diaz, 'the Messiah of Setubal', Portugal, a poor, uneducated shoemaker, claimed to be the rightful heir to King David's throne and made messianic claims. His pedigree from ancient Jewish royalty was apparently known from his family's records, who were 'Marranos' or Hispanic Jews. The popularity of Luis Diaz caught the attention of the Spanish Inquisition which arrested and burned him at the stake in 1542. I have no idea whether Luis Diaz and Isabel Dias were related (it is a common name) but they lived coterminously. It is worth noting for further investigation.

Antonio Saraiva Coronel of Hamburg (d 1665), above, was the father of Joseph Senior Saraiva (d 1694 Barbados) (see below) by his wife Ester de Joao Ramires (Studemund Halevi, Hamburg, Biogr. Lexicon der Hamburger Sefarden, pages 790 and 791, which also refers to Antonio's brother, David (b c 1575 Amarante, Portugal d 1650 in Brazil) as a descendant of Don Abraham Senior). David's young son, Joseph, who died on 11 April 1614, was the first person to be buried in the Ouderkerk aan den Amstel cemetery.

Amarante, Portugal - birthplace of David Saraiva Coronel (David Senior) - see above.

Joseph Senior Saraiva of Barbados

a). Hanah Senior, daughter of Joseph Senior Saraiva, died on Barbados on 14 Dec 1679, which proves that Joseph Senior Saraiva married and had at least one child (E M Shilstone, 'Jewish Monumental Inscriptions in Barbados', p 97);
b). a Barbados parish register of 1680 records a Joseph Senior, a Jew, with '3 persons', who are probably a wife and two children or three children; they cannot be slaves because these are listed separately; on the preceding page the column is headed 'children'; wives are listed with their husbands (for non-Jews) but the wives of Jews do not seem to have been included at all (J C Hotten, 'Persons of Quality etc.', p 450);
c). a Jacob Senior sold two slaves on Barbados in 1695 (N D Davis, 'Additional Notes on the History of the Jews of Barbados', Vol 19, p 174);
d). an Aaron Senior witnessed the will of a Tobias Clutterbuck on Barbados on 15 Oct 1695 ('Barbados Wills', Vol 2, p 66), so it would seem likely that Jacob Senior and Aaron Senior were the children of Joseph.
e). an Aaron Senior, husband of Sarah Dias, is mentioned in the will of a Sarah Israel Dias (aunt of her namesake) in 1695 (Wilfred S Samuels, 'A Review of the Jewish Colonists of Barbados in the Year 1680').

Is there a connection?

The Aaron Senior who witnessed the will in 1695 cannot be my ancestor (Moses) Aaron Senior because the latter was (apparently) born in 1690/1 (see SOG Great Card Index) and would therefore have been 4 or 5 years old in 1695. Similarly, the Aaron Senior recorded as the husband of Sarah Dias in 1695 cannot be my ancestor (Moses) Aaron Senior for the same reason - so we have two Aarons. The conjecture must be that my ancestor (Moses) Aaron Senior (d 1736) was the son of the Aaron Senior who was recorded as the husband of Sarah Dias in 1695 and that the latter Aaron Senior was child of Joseph Senior Saraiva (d 1694). Aaron, son of Joseph, would probably have been born in the early 1670s, given that his father appears to have arrived in Barbados in 1669 (Studemund Halevi, Hamburg, Biogr. Lexicon der Hamburger Sefarden, p 801) and probably married shortly afterwards - but it is also possible that Joseph arrived in Barbados with a young family. Thus, Aaron, son of Joseph, would have been about 20 when my (Moses) Aaron was born in 1690/1, which would not be unreasonable.

Note that the book 'Jews of Britain' by P H Emden (published c.1943) states, page 58, footnote 1, 'NASSAU WILLIAM SENIOR, son of the Rev. John Raven Senior, Vicar of Durnford, Wiltshire, and great grandson of Aaron Senior, a West Indian Jew, who had been naturalised in 1723 ...' but there is no indication of the source of this information.

There can be very little doubt that my ancestor, Moses Aaron Senior (1690/1-1736), was a member of the Senior/Senior-Coronel/Coronel family. It is merely a question of identifying to which of the many branches existing at that time he belonged.

Barbados.

Fernao Perez Coronel/Fernao Nunez Coronel

Abraham Senior changed his name to Coronel when he converted to Catholicism in 1492. There has been some cconfusion as to whether Don Abraham changed his name to Fernao Perez Coronel or to Fernao Nunez Coronel. Beinart in his 'Expulsion of the Jews from Spain' takes the view that Don Abraham was in fact the latter and that Fernao Perez Coronel was the new name of Rabbi Meir Melamed (d 1493), Don Abraham's son-in-law, who was the King's Secretary and a member of the Royal Council from 1492. On this basis the descendants of Fernao Perez Coronel were descended from Don Abraham (Fernao Nunez Coronel) via his daughter, whose name was possibly Reina. Other historians and genealogists believe that Don Abraham Senior was Fernao Perez Coronel and some state specifically that Baer (from whom Beinart derived his opinion) is wrong (Norman Roth, 'Conversos, Inquisition, and the Expulsion of the Jews from Spain' (University of Wisconsin Press, 2002, pp. 129-130).

Many of Don Abraham's descendants seem to have used or reverted to the Senior name when it was safe for them to do so. Like most other Jews at this time they often used a Christian-sounding alias, sometimes more than one. 35 Dutch Jews named Coronel, nearly all from Amsterdam, were killed in the Holocaust, mostly at Auschwitz, including a 10 year old girl called Rebecca (Thursday 23 July 1942) and other children.

The 1492 expulsion of the Jews its aftermath

This branch of the family seems to have moved from Segovia, Spain, to Salvaterra, Galicia, Spain (near the Portuguese border - to provide an escape route I imagine) and from there they spread out, mostly via Portugal, to Amsterdam, Brazil (Recife, Pernambuco), Curacao, the West Indies, Hamburg and so on. In addition, members of the family were constantly moving between these places, sometimes back and forth. Some branches of the family remained in Portugal, as described below. Generally, the family seems to have been prominent members of all the Jewish communities in which they settled.

A Senior family marriage contract from Hamburg (1690). Marriage of Samuel Senior de Mattos and Rachel Senior de Mattos. Note the coat of arms at the bottom, which are the arms exemplified below, namely quarterly, 1st and 4th, gules (red) a lion rampant or (gold), 2nd and 3rd, gules (red) a tree vert (green) upon a terrace. The shield seems to be surmounted by a crown but the crest should be 'a lion rampant issuant out of a crown or'.

Under the wedding canopy are the bride and groom, with his parents on the right: Don Manuel Teixeira de Sampayo, alias Isaac Senior Teixeira (1631-1705) and his third wife Esther Gomes de Mesquita (their marriage in 1671 is recorded in the Amsterdam Municipal Archives). To the left of the bride are her parents and Diego Ribca Nunes Henriques Teixeira de Mattos, aka Abraham Senior Teixeira de Mattos (1650-1701). Also shown are other family members, guests and a band. The officiating rabbi was leading Chacham Abraham Cohen Pimentel. In the tradition of the seventeenth-century art two virtues are depicted - on the left 'Love' with a relevant Bible quote about Rachel from Ruth (4, 11) and on the right 'Abundance' with a text referring to the groom (1 Samuel 3, 19 - 'As Samuel grew up, the Lord was with him and let none of his words fall to the ground.'). Both Samuel and his wife, who lived in Amsterdam from 1690, were buried in the cemetery at Ouderkerk aan de Amstel (see a photo of her gravestone below).

Curacao - an orange liquer invented by the Senior family of Curacao.

Curacao.

Willemstad, Curacao.

Old Recife.

New Recife.

The Senior/Coronel family in Portugal

The Senior/Coronel family had many distinguished descendants in Portugal including, according to notes in my possesion (prepared by the Portuguese historian, Luis de Bivar Pimentel Guerra), Luiz Gomes d'Elvas Coronel (b 1547) of Loures, Lisbon, who was recognised by Philip II (III of Spain) as a noble by virtue of his descent (great-grandson) from Fernao Perez Coronel (charter dated 26 September 1607, grant of arms of Coronel impaling da Mata on 16 February 1600). The family changed its name from Coronel to da Mata Coronel, then to da Mata (dropping the Coronel) and then to da Mata de Sousa Coutinho (on marriage to a daughter of the de Sousa Coutinho family) and is, according to my notes, currently represented by Dona Maria Assuncao Salema da Mata de Sousa Coutinho (b 1967), presumably 6th Marchesa and 7th Countess of Penafiel. The family built two palaces, the 140-room Palace of Correio-Mor at Loures, near Lisbon, essentially their country villa, and the Palace of Penafiel in Lisbon itself (see below for pictures of both palaces). See 'Nobiliario das Familias de Portugal', Felgueiras Gayo, Carvalhos de Basto, 2nd Ed., Braga, 1989 and 'Pedatura Lusitana', 6 vols., Cristovao Alao de Morais, Carvalhos de Basto, 2nd Ed., Braga, 1997.

In this database you can trace from the current Marchesa of Penafiel back to Fernao Perez Coronel. The first Count of Penafiel, created 1798, was Manuel Jose da Mata de Sousa Coutinho (1782-1859), a direct male-line descendant of Fernao Perez Coronel according to the database. The title then passed through his daughter, the 1st Marchesa.

Other titles of various branches of the de Sousa Countinho family include Baron of Balsemao, Viscount of Balsemao, Viscount of Maceio, Count of Barreiro, Count of Linhares, Count of Obidos, Count of Palma, Count of Redondo, Count of Sabugal, Count of Soure, Count of Sousa Coutinho, Count of Vimioso, Count of Barreiro, Marquis of Borba, Marquis of Maceio, Marquis of Valenca, Marquis of Funchal.

Don Vitorio Maria Francisco de Sousa Coutinho Teixeira de Andrade Barbosa (1790-1857), 2nd Count of Linhares, was the 2nd Prime Minister of Portugal, though he was in office for only 3 weeks.

Note that the title 'Countess of Penafiel' seems to have been one of those 'adopted' by Maria Pia (1907-1995), apparently (but this is disputed) natural daughter of King Carlos of Portugal and pretender to the Portuguese throne. I have no idea why she used this title. See also here.

Direct male-line descent of the 1st Count of Penafiel from Fernao Perez Coronel (Don Abraham Senior)

Fernao Perez Coronel (Don Abraham Senior) (1410/12-1493) had issue;
Inigo Perez Coronel (d 1522) m Guiomar Mendez del Rio and had issue;
Tristao Reimao Coronel m Isabel Nunes da Ponte and had issue;
Luis Gomes d'Elvas Coronel m Brianda Nunes da Ponte and had issue;
Antonio Gomes d'Elvas Coronel (b. about 1515 d. about 1604) m Beatriz Nunes de Azevedo and had issue;
Luis Gomes da Mata (d'Elvas) Coronel (b 1547), 5th Correio-Mor* (Postmaster-General of Portugal) m Branca Antonia d'Elvas and had issue;
Joao Gomes da Mata Coronel m Filipa Barbosa (b 1583), and had issue;
Luis Gomes da Mata (d 1674), 7th Correio-Mor m Violante de Castro**, daughter of Lopo de Sousa Coutinho and had issue;
Duarte de Sousa Coutinho da Mata, 8th Correio-Mor m Isabel Caffaro (b 1661) and had issue;
Luis Vitorio de Sousa Coutinho da Mata (1688-1735), 9th Correio-Mor, Fidalgo da Casa Real (Noble of the Royal Household) m Joana Catarina de Menezes (b 1700) and had issue;
Jose Antonio da Mata de Sousa Coutinho (b 1718), 10th Correio-Mor, Knight of the Order of Christ (successors in Portugal to the Knights Templar - see below), m Dona Catarina da Camara (b 1735) and had issue;
Manuel Jose da Mata de Sousa Coutinho (1782***-1859), 11th Correio-Mor, 1st Count of Penafiel****, father of the 1st Marchesa, m Maria Jose de Castelo Branco, daughter of the 1st Marchesa of Belas.

A Jew in armour - this is the only picture that I have come across of a Jew, or a Converso Jew, in armour.

The text reads 'Quadro a oleo do 8 Correio-Mor Duarte de Sousa da Mata Coutinho (1674/1696)', that is 'Oil painting of the 8th Postmaster-General Duarte de Sousa da Mata Coutinho (1674/1696)'. I assume that this is Duarte de Sousa Coutinho da Mata (b. 1661), see above, great-grandfather of the 1st Count of Penafiel. I do not recognize the arms but the first quartering shows the arms of de Sousa de Arronches, that is Portugal (modern) with a bar sinister quartered with de Sousa ('Armorial Lusitano', Lisbon, 2000, p. 510-511), indicating a bastard line of the royal house of Portugal. The arms of de Sousa de Arronches appear (without the bordure, that is ancient, or bar sinister) on the arms carved over the entrance to the Palace of Penafiel, Lisbon, being the 2nd and 3rd quarterings; the 1st quartering is da Mata and the 4th is Coutinho, as illustrated below. His mother was Violante de Castro, through whom he also inherited the blood of the royal house of Aragon, so he probably felt he had the right to look grand. See here.

The arms over the entrance to the Palace of Penafiel, Lisbon. 1st, da Mata; 2nd and 3rd, de Sousa de Arronches (Portugal quartered with de Sousa); 4th, Coutinho - thus da Mata de Sousa Coutinho. The cross in chief of the da Mata arms denotes membership of the Knights of Christ (formerly the Knights Templar). A unique coat of arms, being the arms of a Jewish family, quartered with the arms of a royal house (Portugal) and bearing the device of the Knights Templar. The arms are surmounted by the coronet of rank of a marquis, the Marquis of Penafiel.

Manuel Antonio Gomes da Mata de Sousa Coutinho (1862-1922), 2nd Marquis and 3rd Count of Penafiel, grandfather of the present (5th) Marchesa.

The following notes refer to the preceding pedigree:

*In 1606, in recognition of services rendered to the King, he was granted a royal charter changing his name from Coronel to 'da Mata', meaning, literally, 'of the bush'. This apparently refers to bushes that grow on the hillsides around the site of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures (see the pictures below), and which had been used for centuries to provide firewood for the nearby Convent of Odivelas (now a girls school called 'Instituto de Odivelas' run by the Ministry of Defence); he was therefore, it appears, taking his name from his estate - the 'place of the bushes' (it was called the 'Quinta da Mata') - in the normal feudal manner.

He was granted arms of 'or, three bushes vert ('matas de verde') flowering of their colour ('floridas de sua cor'). These arms of da Mata can be seen below (painted on a ceiling in the Palace of Correio-Mor) as the first quatering in the arms of Manuel Jose da Mata de Sousa Coutinho, 1st Count of Penafiel. The second and third quarterings are the arms of Camara (the 1st Count's mother was Catarina da Camara) and the fourth quartering is the arms of Mendocas, Counts of Vale de Reis and later Dukes of Loulé (the 1st Count of Penafiel's maternal grandmother was Isabel Maria de Mendoca e Moura), daughter of the 4th Count of Vale de Reis. The 1st Duke of Loulé (and 8th Count of Vale de Reis) married Ana-de-Jesus-Maria de Bragança, Infanta of Portugal, daughter of King John VI of Portugal, and the current 6th duke is believed by some to be senior claimant to the throne of Portugal in right of this descent. This explains why the arms of the Counts of Penafiel are different from those of Coronel. In the male line the 1st Count was a Coronel.

D. Constança Maria da Conceição Berquó de Mendoça Rolim de Moura Barreto (1889-1967), 4th Duchess of Loulé in her own right and, according to some, rightful Queen of Portugal. The basis of this assertion is, as I understand it, that the descendants of Ana-de-Jesus-Maria de Bragança, Infanta of Portugal, have remained Portuguese citizens not debarred from the succession, while all other branches have either (1) not remained Portuguese citizens, whereby they have become debarred from the succession, or (2) have been specifically debarred from the succession by a constitution of 1838 (which has not been repealed but which was apparently over-ruled by an 1842 re-instatement of an 1826 constitution). It is a complicated subject which is partially explained here, here and here (which shows the Loulé connection to the royal family). Note that the Dukes of Loulé have never claimed any right of succession (though they are undoubtedly in the line of succession) and the overwhelming majority of people, including, it seems, the Portuguese state, recognise the Duke of Bragança as rightful heir. In any event, the Loulé branch of the royal family seems to be the only branch which has unquestionably not been debarred at any time for either reason.

The arms of the 1st Count of Panafiel painted on the ceiling of the Hall of Arms, Palace of Correio-Mor, as described above. Quarterly, 1st, da Mata, 2nd and 3rd, da Camara, 4th, Mendoca.

**The de Castro family, Counts of Monsanto, were one of the oldest and noblest families in Spain who were connected by blood to the royal family of Aragon. Violante de Castro (above) was the great-great-great-grand-daughter of Pedro de Castro, 3rd Count of Monsanto (1460-1529) who was the great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grandson of James I, King of Aragon. Violante de Castro carried this royal blood into the Coronel/da Mata family so that about 150 years after the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 a Jewish family married into the royal line of Aragon. The Coutinho family, Counts of Marialva, were descended from Denis, King of Portugal (1269-1325), via his illegitimate son, Alfonso Sanches (1289-1329). The 5th Marquis of Marialva rebuilt the Palace of Seteais, Sintra, now a luxury hotel. Note that in Portugal, for reasons that I am not entirely clear about (but presumably because the ladies concerned were heraldic heiresses), people often seemed to assume the names of their mothers; thus the daughter of Lopo de Sousa Coutinho and his wife, Joana de Castro, was called Violante de Castro. Sometime children of the same parents have different surnames.

***This would mean his mother was 47 when he was born. Presumably there is an error here somewhere.

****He was also granted the feudal lordship of Penafiel, a town about 20 miles east of Porto. He had a distinguished military career and served in the Peninsular War.

The Order of Christ

The Cross of the Order of Christ

Jose Antonio da Mata de Sousa Coutinho (b 1718), 10th Correio-Mor, see above, was a Knight of the Order of Christ. The Knights of Christ were founded in 1317, Papal Bull 1319, and were direct successors in Portugal to the Knights Templar (founded 1119, suppressed 1312), whose property in that country was transferred to them; in other words, the Knights Templar simply changed their name. Only Catholics of noble descent were admitted to the Order. The order continues to exist today in Portugal as a state order of merit. There is also a Papal Order of Christ.

The Convent of the Order of Christ, Tomar, Portugal. Built by the Knights Templar in 1160, it became the headquarters of the Order of Christ in 1357.

A seal of the Knights Templar. It reads 'SIGILLUM MILITUM XRISTI' or 'Seal of the Knights of Christ'. The seals of several of the Grand Masters of the Order of Christ in Portugal depict the Dome of the Rock on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, from which the Knights Templar took their name.

A snapshot from the film 'The Kingdom of Heaven' before the battle of the Horns of Hattin (1187). The scene in that film where 140 Knights Templar charge a Moslem army of 7,000 (picture below) is based on fact; the charge took place at The Wells of Cresson, near Nazareth, in 1187 - three men survived ('The Knight and Chivalry', R. Barber, p. 230). Funnily enough, one of the knights who fought (and died) at Cresson was Roger des Moulins (French equivalent of Milne), Grand Master of the Knights Hospitaller, whose arms were argent on a cross moline sable an escallop or.

Arms of Coronel in Portugal/Spain

Here is a larger version.

The arms borne by the Coronel family in Portugal - azure, five eagles displayed or in saltire, the middle eagle crowned or. The crest is an eagle displayed and crowned or (i.e. the same as the middle eagle). These arms, together with hereditary nobility ('e a seus filhos, privilegio para que se possam chamar fidalgos, e gozam das honras de fidalgos' - 'and to his children, the privilege of being called nobles, and of enjoying the honours of nobles*'), were first granted by King Manuel I of Portugal to Nicolao Coronel, Physician to the Royal Family, apparently a nephew of Don Abraham Senior (Fernao Perez Coronel), in 1499 (Arquivo Nacional da Tore do Tombo, Liv 4 de Misticos, fls 165 verso e Chanceleria de D. Manuel, Liv 16 fls 108 verso). Nicolao Coronel appears to have accompanied Queen Maria, daughter of Ferdinand of Aragon and Isabella of Castile, into Portugal on the occasion of her marriage to Manuel I in 1497.

*This hereditary nobility descended not just to the grantee's children but to his remoter descendants, as demonstrated by the following further grants of the Coronel arms or charters of nobility:

• Arms granted in 1600 by Philip II (III of Spain) to Luiz Gomes d'Elvas Coronel, even though the grantee was not descended from Nicolao Coronel (as far as I know) but from Fernao Perez Coronel via his third son, Inigo Peres Coronel.

• Luiz Gomes d'Elvas Coronel (b 1547) of Loures, Lisbon, was recognised by Philip II (III of Spain) as a noble by virtue of his descent (great-grandson) from Fernao Perez Coronel (charter dated 26 September 1607).

• Arms granted to descendants of Fernao Perez Coronel's eldest son, Joao Peres Coronel, namely Manuel Soares Coronel, of Crato, who received a charter on 15 Nov 1605 from Philip III (IV of Spain)* granting him the right to bear the arms of Coronel as a descendant of Fernao Perez Coronel (See Jose de Sousa Machado, in Brasoes Ineditos, Braga, 1906, p. 127).

• Manuel's son, Andre Soares de Saraiva Coronel of Lisbon was granted a charter of nobility by King John IV of Portugal on 3 Aug 1644. This charter cites the earlier charter of 1499 granted (according to the charter) by Manuel I to his ancestors (See Arquivo Nacional da Tore do Tombo - Chancellaria de D. Joao IV - Liv XVIII, fls. 64 verso).

• Arms were granted to descendants of Branca Coronel, daughter of Antonio Coronel (b c 1523) (great-grandson of Joao Peres Coronel above), who moved to Moncao, Portugal in 1588, by charters dated 15 Feb 1678 and 21 Nov 1818.

*This must be incorrect. Philip III (IV of Spain) was born in 1605 and succeeded in 1621. Presumably it was Philip II, not Philip III.

On the basis that five descendants of Fernao Perez Coronel, as listed above, have been granted arms and/or charters of nobility, apparently as descendants of Fernao Perez Coronel, it appears to be clear that the arms of Coronel and hereditary nobility (as 'Fidalgos de Cota d'Armas' - literally 'Noblemen with a coat of arms') have been recognised in Portugal as being descendible to the desendants of Fernao Perez Coronel, both in the male and female lines.

Coronel crest.

Isaiah 46:11 - 'From the east I summon a bird of prey; from a far-off land, a man to fulfill my purpose. What I have said, that will I bring about; what I have planned, that will I do.

In Spain the arms of Coronel are, apparently, gules (red), five eagles displayed argent (white) in saltire, the middle eagle crowned or (gold), on a bordure argent (white) seven fleur-de-lys azure (blue) (source: http://heraldicahispana.com). I have not identified whether these are the arms of an unrelated non-Jewish family or arms granted to the Jewish family in Spain; I assume it is the former.

In 'Dicionario das Familias Portuguesas', D. Luiz de Lancastre e Tavora Quetzal Editores, 2nd Ed., Lisboa, p. 296, it says of the Coronel family:

'Lineage of great antiquity and nobility, and their name was first written as Cornel. Frequently, members of this family passed over to Portugal, and this since the beginning of the XIII cent. Later, in the XVI cent., Antonio Coronel came to our country, from Galicia. He belonged to the Coronels of Segovia. He established himself in the town Moncao, and his descendants remained in Portugal.'

This entry is somewhat misleading. There was an ancient Spanish family called Coronel but Antonio Coronel came from a family of Sephardic Jews called Senior, who changed their name to Coronel in 1492. Some members of the family, such as Nicolao Coronel, moved to Portugal soon afterwards, others, including Antonio Coronel of Moncao, moved to Portugal some generations later. The Senior family adopted an existing Spanish name apparently (according to Beinart p. 461) associated with the Spanish Guzman family (See 'Armorial Lusitano', Lisbon, 2000, p. 174-6).

The arms of the Senior/Coronel/Texeira(Teixeira)/de Mattos family in Holland and Germany.

The Lion and the Tree.

The arms of the Senior-Texeira (or Teixeira)/Texeira (or Teixeira)-de Mattos family as inscribed on the gravestone of Ester Gomes de Mesquita, wife of Isaac Haim Senior Texeira (1625-1705), in the Ouderkerk aan den Amstel cemetery.

According to the sources cited these are as follows: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, gules (red) a lion rampant or (gold), 2nd and 3rd, gules (red) a tree vert (green) upon a terrace and for the crest a lion rampant issuant out of a crown or (gold) (Source: Rietstap, 'Armorial Général, Precedé d'un Dictionnaire des Termes du Blason', 2nd ed., 2 vols. Gouda, 1887, Supplement, p. 1303; Castro, D. Henriques de, 'Keur van Grafsteenen op de Nederl. Portug. Ysrael. Begraafplaats te Ouderkerk aan den Amstel.' Part i., Leyden, 1883, p. 103). These arms were apparently born by Don Manuel Texeira, alias Isaac Haim Senior Texeira (1625-1705), resident minister from the Court of Sweden to the City of Hamburg (1661-1687/9), who apparently left Lisbon with his father (d. 1666) in 1643. He was a great favourite of Queen Christina of Sweden who in 1661 spent a year living in his house in Hamburg. These arms were registered in the Armorial General de France (register 2, folio 352) following certification by Jean Geoffrey Petrik, Heraldist and Genealogist of Paris, on 20 November 1926. Don Manuel married, firstly, Ribka de Mattos, and, secondly, Ester Gomes de Mesquita. In 'Armorial Lusitano' (p. 351) the arms of de Matos are gules (red) a fir tree vert (green) rooted argent ('arrancado de prata') supported by two lions rampant combatant (two lions rampant facing eachother) or, armed and langued azure (blue), so perhaps these arms are actually just a variation on those of de Matos. The Portuguese de Matos family (I don't know whether they were actually related to the Jewish family of that name) were descended from the Kings of Leon. In the certified document dated 20 November 1926 it is stated that the arms of Senior-Texeira (or Teixeira)/Texeira (or Teixeira)-de Mattos derived from a marriage alliance between the Senior and Texeira de Mattos families ('par la suite d'un marriage entre les familles SENIOR et TEXEIRA DE MATTOS'), implying that the 1st and 4th quarters were the Senior arms and the 2nd and 3rd quarters were the Texeira de Mattos arms, which may be derived from the de Matos arms described.

Note that according to the Jewish Encyclopedia Don Manuel's father, Diego Teixeira Sampayo (Abraham Senior Teixeira), was ennobled in 1643 at Anvers (Antwerp) and granted arms as follows: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, or an eagle displayed purple; 2nd and 3rd, checky or and sable (sixteen fields); bordure gules, charged with eight "S's" argent and for the crest five ostrich-plumes, sable, or, gules, argent, sable. (Source: Rietstap, 'Armorial Général, Precedé d'un Dictionnaire des Termes du Blason', 2nd ed., 2 vols. Gouda, 1887, vol. ii, p. 891; Rietstap, 'Wapenboek van den Nederlandschen Adel', vol. ii, p. 87). His son, Don Manuel, seems to have used different arms as described above. Both of these arms seem to have been used by Don Manuel's descendants at various times.

The reference in the Jewish Encyclopedia to the effect that the arms of Sampayo (azure a cross patonce or) were included in the Spanish roll of arms seems to be an erroneous reference to the arms of the Spanish family of Teixeira (azure a cross potent voided of the field or), which arms seem also to have been borne by the Senior-Texeira (or Teixeira)/Texeira (or Teixeira)-de Mattos family (Castro, D. Henriques de, 'Keur van Grafsteenen op de Nederl. Portug. Ysrael. Begraafplaats te Ouderkerk aan den Amstel'. Part i., Leyden, 1883, p. 103).

At the moment the only proper grant of arms would seem to be that of 1643 of: Quarterly, 1st and 4th, or an eagle displayed purple; 2nd and 3rd, checky or and sable (sixteen fields); bordure gules, charged with eight "S's" argent and for the crest five ostrich-plumes, sable, or, gules, argent, sable. We do not have evidence at the moment of an actual grant of the three others (quarterly of the lion and the tree as illustrated, de Matos or Teixeira) to the Senior-Texeira (or Teixeira)/Texeira (or Teixeira)-de Mattos family. Note also that the arms granted in 1643 to Diego Teixeira Sampayo seem to be the arms of a distinguished Portuguese family of Sampayo, the head of which are the Counts and Marquises of Sao Paio and which held/hold numerous other titles, including 3 counties, 10 viscountcies and 3 baronies (the arms of the Marchesa de Sao Payo in 'Anuaria da Nobreza de Portugal', 1985, p. 154 are identical to those granted to Diego Teixeira Sampayo in 1643). If such a grant was actually made it would indicate that Diego Teixeira Sampayo was a scion of this family, which would indicate that they were Jewish in origin, possibly with an original Jewish name of Senior (this would explain why the family adopted the Senior name on arriving in Hamburg). Note that 'Armorial Lusitano' (p. 488) says that the origins of the family are unclear*. See also here.

Arms of Sampayo.

*Note that according to the Portuguese historian, Luis de Bivar Pimentel Guerra, Branca de Andrade, the first wife of Diego Texeira de Sampayo, father of Isaac Haim Senior Texeira (1625-1705), see above, was the great-great-great-granddaughter of Don Abraham Senior (see here). He refers to his own article 'Os Sampaios e Veigas d'Evora, nobreza sefardine' ('The Sampaios and Veigas d'Evora, Sephardic nobility') published in 'Armas e Trofeus', so it appears that the Sampayo family are Jewish in origin.

See this article on Jewish Heraldry.

The Lion of Judah; gules a lion rampant or. The arms of Senior?

The Senior-Texeira arms embroidered on what is I think a wedding shawl. These arms have a different crest which I think is the top of a tree (it looks like a palm) issuing from a crown.

The Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, near Lisbon, Portugal

The 140-room Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, near Lisbon, Portugal, former seat of the Senior/Coronel/da Mata de Sousa Coutinho family, Counts and Marquises of Penafiel (the building shown is 18th century). The building now appears to be run by Sociedade Imobiliaria e Turistica, Rua Rodrigo da Fonseca, 53-2º (Tel: 386 3413) as a venue for functions, conferences, as a film location* and so on. It is difficult to get an idea of the scale of the building but the central pediment is about 60 feet high. The width of the palace shown (from the left to the right of the picture) is about 235 feet. Click on the picture for a larger image.

*including scenes from the Sharpe TV series.

A genuine fairy-tale palace in pink and white. Note that the pink and white colour scheme is well-known in Portugal and is also to be found at the Palácio de Belém ("Bethlehem Palace"), the official residence of the President of Portugal, which is known as 'The Pink Palace'.

Following financial reverses the palace was sold to Luis António Louza in 1874, whose family owned it until 1996 when it was sold to Casa Agrícola da Quinta da Matta, Lda, who presumably sold it to the current owners.

The family owned the property from the last years of the 16th century (late 1500s) until 1874, that is about 275 years. There are references to buildings on the site from 1557.

'Correio-Mor' translates as 'Postmaster-General'. 'Correio' means 'post office' and 'mor' means 'big', so 'correio-mor' literally means 'big post office' - so 'the palace of the big post office' (but more reasonably 'the palace of the postmaster-general'). The family, who had already made a fortune in the spice trade (particularly pepper), trading with the Atlantic islands, India and the East, made an even larger fortune by purchasing from the King in 1606 a monopoly on the postal service in a manner rather similar to the Von Thurn & Taxis family, who became Princes of the Holy Roman Empire as a result of the vast fortune they made by this means. The family held this monpoly until 1797.

A mail coach preserved in the Museum of Communication, Lisbon. The writing on the door says 'CORREIO'.

Here be treasure...

'Red Rackham's Treasure' - one of my favourite books as a child.

Given that the family were rich merchants trading with both the Azores and the East Indies at the relevant time, it is possible that they were financial backers (there would usually have been a number of backers in order to spread the risk) of the Portuguese ship Las Cinque Chagas, which was sunk by English privateers off the Azores on 13th June 1594, while carrying a huge cargo of gold, rubies, diamonds and pearls from the East Indies. This cargo is estimated to be worth over one billion US dollars in today's terms, making it one of the richest treasure shipwrecks in the world. In any event, the family would almost certainly have been involved in similar voyages trading for gold and jewels, if not that particular voyage. Anyway, who cares! I am laying my claim to half the treasure...

An old map of the Azores. The skull and crossbones marks the area of the wreck, 18 miles south of the channel between Pico and Fayal.

A satellite image which shows the contours of the sea floor. There is a billion dollars worth of gold and jewels somewhere in that picture. Cripes!

A reception at the Palace of Correio-Mor, which was held for Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh, on 17 March 2002.

The Palace of Correio-Mor. Plan of the principal state rooms on the second floor. The room at the bottom of the plan is the 'Sala do Brasao' or 'Hall of Arms' ('Brasao' = 'Coat of Arms'); the alcove at the bottom leads through French windows onto a bridge (not shown) to formal gardens, as pictured below. The main staircase comes up on both sides of the Hall of Arms. The main state rooms are, from left to right, the Hall of Fame, the Hall of Music, the Central Hall (adjoining the Hall of Arms), the Hall of Trophies and the Hall of the Stations (Sala das Estações). The central courtyard is about 35m (115ft) square. On this basis, the Central Hall would be about 12.65m (42ft) by 7.5m (24ft). The room at the top right of the plan (room no. 140) is called the Hall of the Chase (i.e. Hunt). The bit jutting out on the right of the plan is the chapel and there is a photo of the chapel entrance below; you can just make out the spiral staircase of the spire. The ground level on the right of the plan is level with the second storey, meaning that you can walk straight out of the second floor rooms in that wing into the garden. The north wing on the left of the picture contained the private apartments of the Marquises of Penafiel.

The Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. Up behind the palace you can see the cutting where a motorway passes from left to right. See pictures below.

The Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. I am guessing that the bush in the foreground is of the same type as those from which the family took the name 'da Mata' - 'of the bush' - in 1606 and which appears on the da Mata arms illustrated above.

The Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The main courtyard of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. Behind where the lady on the right is walking (the one in the distance) is the main kitchen (see photo below). You can see the kitchen chimney just to the right of the tree in the background as well as the tip of the chapel spire. Click on the image for a bigger version.

These photographs show the main state rooms in order, starting with the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Fame, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, taken roughly from the doorway leading to the Hall of Music. This is the only main room with a fireplace.

The Hall of Music, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, looking through to the Central Hall, taken roughly from the doorway leading to the Hall of Fame.

The Hall of Music, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The Central Hall, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, looking through to the Hall of Arms on the left and the Hall of Music on the right, with the Hall of Fame beyond.

The Central Hall (detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The Central Hall (detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, looking through to the Hall of Arms. You can see the huge main lantern of the Hall of Arms, about as tall as a person.

The Central Hall (detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The Central Hall (detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. This series of tiles, dating from the mid 18th century, depicts the life of a ship; the scene above is presumably the last in the series, where the hulk of the ship is left rotting on a beach. This subject matter probably reflected the family's trading connections as spice merchants. Another series of tiles in this room depicts the life of man.

The Hall of Trophies, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, looking down one of the arms of the main staircase. Going through the doorway and then turning right takes you into the Hall of Arms. The staircase turns 90 degrees to the right at the further ceiling lantern.

The Hall of the Stations, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, looking at one of the doors leading into the Hall of Trophies.

The Chapel, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The Hall of the Chase, Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. Picture taken from in front of a french window leading directly into the garden. The window shown overlooks the main courtyard of the palace.

The Hall of the Chase (detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The Hall of the Chase (tiling detail), Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

Interior detail of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

Interior detail of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal.

The main staircase of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. This photo gives some idea of the construction of the building; on the right is a marble block taller than a person. The staircase shown is directly beneath the Hall of Arms. Halfway up the stairs is a drinking fountain.

Interior of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. The statue on the main staircase - a nymph of some sort I guess.

Kitchen of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. You can just see the edge of the basins (next picture) in the alcove on the right and a baking oven on the left. There is a modern kitchen on the second floor, next to the Hall of the Chase on the garden side (away from the courtyard).

Kitchen (tiling detail) of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal

The Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. Possibly the poshest kitchen sink in the world.

Garden of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal, taken roughly from the french window leading from the Hall of the Chase into the garden.

Exterior of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. This is the chapel entrance; you can see the spire in the background.

Exterior of the Palace of Correio-Mor, Loures, Portugal. The door leads into the Hall of the Chase (see above).

A map of the Lisbon area. The red pointer indicates the position of the palace.

An aerial photo of the palace (the white patch surrounded by woods in the middle of the picture). Still an island of green amidst the motorways, housing estates, tower blocks, shopping malls and light industrial units. The town of Loures is on the right of the picture. The palace is less than 4 miles NW of Lisbon airport.

A somewhat enlarged view. You can see blocks of flats at the top right hand corner of the picture.

A further enlarged view, giving an idea of the layout of the gardens, which are rather overgrown.

Apelacao, near Loures, from the air, approx. 2.5 miles ESE of the palace. It all looks remarkably new and clean. The pace of development must have been fantastic. Loures was a hilly and wooded area close to but outside the city of Lisbon. As with Sintra, a similarly hilly and wooded area, but closer to the sea, Loures provided a rural location where the aristocracy could build villas to retreat to in the heat of the summer, serving a similar function to the villas built outside Venice or Florence. Today, Loures has not escaped development, as you can see. Sintra appears to have been luckier.

A plan of the Palace of Correio-Mor below a plan of Vaux-le-Vicomte. The scale shown at the bottom of Vaux-le-Vicomte is 110ft and the courtyard of the Palace is 115ft (35.2m), so the relative scale of the two buildings looks about right. The facade of Vaux-le-Vicomte is about 233ft long on this basis and that of the Palace about 235ft, the building being some 260ft at its widest point. This is comparing the state rooms on the second floor of the Palace with the piano nobile (first floor), that is state rooms, of Vaux-le-Vicomte. At the bottom is a plan of the ground floor of a local 'big house' called Milne Graden, Coldstream, Berwickshire which is about 113 feet wide; this gives some idea of the difference between a house and a palace. Going further down the scale, my entire cottage would easily fit into one of the rooms of the palace - with room to spare.

Technically, at least in the UK, the word palace means 'seat of royal or ecclesiastical authority' and only the official residences of the monarch, archbishops and bishops (e.g. Lambeth Palace) should be called palaces, so the word 'palace' has nothing at all to do with the size of a building. In Scotland, the caput of a regality is also technically a palace, since it was a seat of regalian authority (Nisbet, 'System of Heraldry', Vol. II, Part IV, p. 46), which means that Edrington House, as the caput of the Regality of Nether Mordington (erected 1636), where my family lived between 1998 and 2003, is a palace. I think Edrington House might qualify as the smallest palace in the UK.

Vaux-le-Vicomte.

The Palace of Penafiel, Lisbon. This is now the Ministry of Public Works (Ministério das Obras Públicas, Transportes e Comunicações
Palácio Penafiel, Rua de S. Mamede ao Caldas, 21
1100-533 Lisboa). The palace was acquired by the state in 1919.

The ballroom of the Palace of Penafiel, now used as a meeting room.

An old photograph of the Palace of Penafiel.

Don Abraham Senior's house, Segovia, Spain - above the front door. This is now the Jewish Quarter Education Centre (Centro Didáctico de la Judería), which is open to the public.

The front door.

The courtyard.

The name of the street.

View of Segovia.

The castle of Segovia, considered to be the most beautiful in Spain. Don Abraham Senior effectively captured this castle single-handedly when he negotiated the surrender the castle to Ferdinand and Isabella (I assume that this was during the civil war with Joan, Princess of Castile). See 'The Expulsion of the Jews from Spain', p. 416.

'The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed, and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other peoples have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?' - Mark Twain