Jews in Elizabethan England

<plain_text><page sequence="1">Letter of Alvaro Mendez to Queen Elizabeth, with autograph signat? ure Facing p. 1]</page><page sequence="2">THE JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF ENGLAND. Jews in Elizabethan England. By Lucien Wolf. Presidential Address delivered at Manchester on Sunday, November21,1926. Between the years 1880 and 1888 the late Sir Sidney Lee inaugurated the renascence of Anglo-Jewish historical study by his researches into the middle period of Anglo-Jewish history?that is, the obscure period between the expulsion of the Jews by Edward I. in 1290, and their readmission by Oliver Cromwell in 1655. He gave special attention to the reign of Queen Elizabeth, and he argued, not unreasonably, that there must have been a considerable number of Jews in England at that period. The evidence on which he relied was, in the first place, the great expansion of foreign trade and the large immigration of foreign merchants and other aliens which took place during the second half of the sixteenth century, and, in the second place, the popular interest in Jews, their character and their activities, which is indicated by the frequent and sometimes very prominent references to them in the popular drama of the time. Unfortunately the number of Jews or persons of Hebrew race identified in proof of this argument was very few. For the whole forty-five years of Elizabeth's reign Sir Sidney Lee was not able to give us more than ten Jews, and of these, six?Arthur Antoe, Philip Ferdinando, Elizabeth Ferdinando, Fortunatus Massa, Judah Menda and James Wolfgang?were more or less obscure inmates of theDomus Conversorum who proved nothing, seeing that as Christians they were free to live in the country. Of the other four, Maria Nunes, a Portuguese Jewess who is alleged to have been captured under romantic circumstances on the high seas and brought to London, was probably a legendary personage. The remaining three were Rodrigo VOL. XL B</page><page sequence="3">2 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. Lopez, the Queen's ill-fated physician, Joachim Gannz, a mining chemist who came to England in 1581 in search of copper, and one Amis (sic), who, according to Thomas Coryat, who met him in Constantinople in 1612, was an English Jew born in Crutched Friars, London, in 1552. During the forty years which have passed since Sir Sidney Lee published his last paper on this subject?" Elizabethan England and the Jews," 3?scarcely any additions have been made to his slender census. I can only call to mind two of any note?John Tremellius, the baptised friend of Cranmer, who was in England in 1552 and was endenizened, and a Marrano or crypto-Jew, Alonzo de Herrera, who was seized by the Earl of Essex at the sack of Cadiz in 1596 and brought to England as a prisoner of war.2 Nevertheless, Sir Sidney Lee's conjecture was shrewdly founded, and it has been abundantly justified. My purpose to-night is to show you that there was quite a goodly company of Jews in England throughout the reign of Elizabeth, and that they played a not un? important part in the commerce and public affairs of those spacious days. They were almost all Portuguese " New Christians," that is to say, descendants of the Portuguese Jews who were forcibly baptised by order of King Manuel in 1496, and the majority of them, as of most of the New Christians of that period, were Marranos, or secret Jews. Some of them were Spanish Marranos, but they do not appear to have been an important element in the community. How they came to England is an interesting story. The migrations of the Marranos, after their terrible experiences at the end of the fifteenth century, were at first directed almost exclusively towards Eastern Europe and Northern Africa. For those who remained in Europe, Turkey was then the great land of refuge, and on the road thither through France and Italy they founded or fortified Jewish communities at Lyons, Ferrara, Rome, Turin, Venice and Ancona, whence they penetrated to Ragusa, Salonika and Constantinople, and southward to Suez and Cairo. This was the line of the overland trade with the Indies, and it was largely on the brokerages of that trade and, in some cases, on direct imports from their correspondents and 1 Transactions New Shakspere Society, 1887-1892, Part IL, pp. 143-66. 2 Papers read at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition (1888), pp. 66, 68.</page><page sequence="4">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 3 co-religionists in Basora and South-Western Hindustan that the exiles lived. With the opening of the sea route to India by the Portuguese navigators, these migrations became deflected northward. For the distribution of the great quantities of Indian produce and merchandise which now accumulated in Lisbon, a powerful syndicate was formed in that city by the great Marrano mercantile and banking house of Francisco and Diogo Mendes, who established for the purpose warehouses and " comp tors " in Antwerp under the management of Diogo. The firm and their partners, chiefly the Italian Affaitati, enjoyed a monopoly of the distributing trade in the North, competing with the Fuggers and the Hanseatic League, who had previously enjoyed a similar monopoly in regard to the overland trade, the headquarters of which were at Bruges.3 The Mendes house flourished exceedingly, and in the wake of Diogo many of his relations and other Marranos settled in Antwerp. It was not long before agents of the " spice trust," as it was called, were sent to England. The earliest seems to have been one George Anes, formerly of Valladolid, in Spain, a relative of whom, Alfonso Anes, was one of the first Secretaries of the organised Portuguese colony in Antwerp in 1517. It was a grandson of this George Anes whom Cory at met as an English Jew in Constantinople in 1612.4 When Charles V. granted to the New Christians permission to settle in the Netherlands in 1536, a fresh impulse was given to the Marrano migration. This was still further strengthened between 1537 and 1540 by the establishment of the Inquisition in Portugal.5 The refugees fled northward both by land and sea, and founded on their way Marrano settlements at Bordeaux, Bayonne, Nantes and Kouen. Meanwhile the Spanish authorities in the Netherlands had become aware of the crypto-Jewish character of many of the immigrants, who consequently became subject to arrest and imprisonment. Neverthe? less, the immigration continued, largely owing to the terror inspired 3 Antwerpsch. Archievenblad, vol. vii. pp. 190, 202 et seq. Cf. Goris, Les Colonies Marchandes Meridionales d Anvers, p. 104. 4 Commercial relations between England and the Mendez Trust existed before 1525 and they were so important that, when Diogo Mendez was arrested in 1532 for Judaism, Henry VIII intervened for his protection (Goris, op. ext., p. 104; Belgian National Archives, Etat et Audience, liasse 1504. 5 Belgian National Archives, Mat et Audience, liasse 11772.</page><page sequence="5">4 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. by the Inquisition at home. It became necessary, however, to take certain precautions, and an elaborate system was established, by which the immigrants could be warned of the situation in Antwerp before they reached their destination. It was arranged that the spice ships and other vessels carrying the refugees should call at an English port, where they could be met by messengers from London, who would let them know whether the coast was clear. If it was not, the refugees disembarked, generally at Southampton?then called Hampton? whence they proceeded to London to await a more favourable oppor? tunity of taking shipping for Antwerp. Of this curious movement very full details are available, as in 1540 a sort of unofficial Inquisition was set up in Zeeland, which arrested and examined all passengers on incoming Portuguese vessels before they were allowed to anchor at Antwerp. We learn from the records of this tribunal that the chief organiser of the system for warning the immigrants was a Marrano merchant in London named Christopher Fernandes, and that among the persons who flourished on the traffic was a Marrano money-changer named Antonio de Loroingue, who did a large business in selling bills on Antwerp to the refugees, as they were not allowed to carry their Portuguese specie out of England. A good many of these refugees never proceeded to Antwerp at all, but remained in England, where they swelled the ranks of the young Marrano community. In 1540 a flotilla of fourteen spice ships arrived in Zeeland from Portugal with many New Christians on board. When the officers came to examine the refugees two of the ships precipitately weighed anchor and returned to London, where the New Christians landed and apparently became permanent residents. This appears to have been the chief source of the Marrano immigration in the early years of Queen Elizabeth's reign.6 A few of the immigrants can be identified by name from depositions subsequently filed with the Lisbon Inquisition by informers who had visited London and Bristol. In March 1557 a slave of Gregorio Luiz, a New Christian, in the service of the Infante Dom Luiz, accused his master of going to England to visit his Marrano relatives. There he lived with one of them, named Ruy Nogueira. The informer accused Nogueira, his wife and Luiz of having tried to seduce him from the 6 Belgian National Archives, Etat et Audience, Hasse 11772.</page><page sequence="6">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 5 Christian faith.7 In the following year two New Christians at Bristol, Pedro Vaz, a Portuguese surgeon, and Diogo Alvarez, a native of Ponta Delgada, were accused of celebrating the Fast of Kippur.8 In 1575 Pedro Vaz, who was still living in Bristol, was denounced in company with Antonio Brand?o, a Portuguese physician, of publicly professing heretical doctrines. The same deposition also contains denunciations of four New Christians resident in London, who were accused of wilful sacrilege. Their names are given as Sim?o Henriques, Sim?o Gomes, Diogo Pires and Duarte Pires.9 Diogo Pires came from Antwerp, where he was living in 1572.10 Duarte had been living in London for at least three years, for in 1572 he figured on a list of Merchant Strangers included in the Returns of Aliens for that year.11 None of these people appear to have distinguished themselves in any way outside their counting-houses and their Judaical heresies. For the important members of the Anglo-Marrano community we have to seek elsewhere. In the spring of 1588 two prisoners of war, a Portuguese named Francisco de Valverde and a Spaniard named Pedro de Santa Cruz, were liberated in London. While prisoners they lived in the houses of two London merchants named Simon Borman and John Naunton, who had made themselves sureties for their good conduct. Both merchants were Catholics and had been in the Spanish trade, and Borman was married to a patriotic Spanish lady named Dona Isabel Gil de Aviles. In Borman's house the prisoners heard all about the Marrano com? munity, and especially about their intrigues against Spain. Dona Isabel had apparently spied on the heretics to good purpose, and had even invited them to her house in order to study them more closely. When Valverde and Santa Cruz were released, she looked upon it as an act of Providence which would enable her to send all her information to the lay and ecclesiastical authorities at Madrid. " May you have a bad journey," she said to Santa Cruz when he called to take leave of her, " and may the curse of God fall on you if you reach Spain in safety and do not denounce Jeronimo Pardo and Bernaldo Luis, for 7 Bai?o, Inquisic?o en Portugal no seculo XVI., p. 222. 8 Ibid., p. 177. 9 Ibid., p. 204. 10 Goris, op. cit., p. 615. 11 Returns of Aliens (Huguenot Soc. Publications), vol. ii. p. 155.</page><page sequence="7">6 jews in elizabethan england. they are traitors and have sold Spain." It appears that the said Jeronimo Pardo and Bernaldo Luis were at the moment in Lisbon and Madrid respectively, attending to certain espionage business, and the fiery Dona Isabel was half crazy with anxiety lest they should get away on their return journey to London before they could be denounced to the Spanish authorities. Santa Cruz and Valverde shared her anxiety, and when they found they could not get shipping to take them home for several weeks, they resolved to send their information by letter to the famous Ambassador of Spain in Paris, Don Bernardino de Mendoza. This step proved successful. Mendoza sent the letter direct to King Philip, who both read it and annotated it; and when Valverde and Santa Cruz reached home?the one in April and the other at the end of June?they found that both Pardo and Luis were safe under lock and key.12 Both the liberated prisoners hastened to make depositions to the authorities in amplification of their letter to Bernardino de Mendoza, while the authorities in Madrid submitted Bernaldo Luis to a separate examination.13 The most interesting of these statements is that made by Pedro de Santa Cruz before the Madrid Alcalde, Valadares Sarmiento, on July 4, 1588.14 He gave a detailed account of the Portuguese and Spanish colonies in London, and formally denounced the following Portuguese as being engaged in espionage and smuggling to the detriment of Spain, under cover of a shipping trade with Lisbon, supposed to be carried on by loyal subjects of the Emperor : Dr. Hector Nunez Alvaro de Lima Jeronimo Pardo fernan dalvarez Francisco de Tapia Bernaldo Luis Vlierm Ames (sic) Benjamin George. 12 Infra, Appendix of Documents, pp. 37 et seq., 47. 13 Ibid., pp. 37-45. 14 Martin Hume's statement (Col. Spanish State Papers, vol. iv. p. 326) that the deposition was made in Lisbon is incorrect. It was Valverde who made the Lisbon deposition (ibid., pp. 263-266).</page><page sequence="8">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 7 At this point in his deposition Pedro de Santa Cruz was asked by the Magistrate whether he knew that the aforesaid were Catholics. The official report gives his answer as follows : " He knows, as it is public and notorious in London, that by race they are all Jews, and it is notorious that in their own homes they live as such observing their Jewish rites; but publicly they attend Lutheran Churches, and listen to the sermons, and take the bread and wine in the manner and form as do the other heretics . . . and it is notorious that the said Alvaro de Lima is married to his niece and this witness knows that one day when Francisco de Valverde and Juan de Valverde were coming from Mass the said Alvaro de Lima said to them : ' Where do your Worships come from ? ' to which they replied : 4 Sir, we come from seeing God,' and the said Alvaro de Lima there? upon replied mockingly : ' It remains very much to be seen, whether your Worships have seen God.' And witness knows that the above named and the others utter many heresies." 15 Although this important statement is not conceived in a strictly judicial spirit, there can be no doubt of its substantial accuracy. Apart from circumstantial evidence with which I shall deal later, we have an interesting piece of contemporary corroboration of its main allegations. A few weeks before Santa Cruz made his deposition before the Madrid Alcalde?April 26, 1588?a man, who gave his name as Alexandre Simones, had appeared before the Lisbon Inquisition and had asked permission to make a statement on oath concerning certain Portuguese heretics in foreign parts. He declared that he had been seven times in London, where he had known Dr. Hector Nunez and his wife, as well as Pedro Freire and Jeronimo Pardo, all of whom he formally denounced as " Judaisers." 16 It will be seen that two of these persons are mentioned in Santa Cruz's list. The third, Pedro Freire, of whom I shall have something to say later, was a brother of Bernaldo Luis. On the face of it Santa Cruz's statement does little more than add eight names to our slowly growing list of Elizabethan Jews. As a matter of fact it does much more than this, for the names represent personages of some importance, and they give us clues to other names, being those of their relations and associates, which enable us still 15 Infra, Appendix, p. 46. 16 Bai?o, op. cit., p. 264. It is unfortunate that the full text of this Denuncia? tion, of which Bai?o only gives a brief abstract, is not to be found.</page><page sequence="9">8 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. further to enlarge our list. I will tell you something more about these persons presently, but before I do so it is necessary to call attention to Santa Cruz's strange statement that the London Marranos all pretended to be Protestants. This is quite an unfamiliar aspect of Marrano life, and at first it might lead us to imagine that Santa Cruz was more con? cerned to prejudice the Portuguese than to tell the truth about them. As a matter of fact all the Marranos he mentions were, as he says, pseudo Protestants,17 and they had probably, with few exceptions, entered the Protestant Church in Antwerp before they came to England. From an early period the Marranos in Antwerp had taken an active part in the Reformation movement, and had given up their mask of Catholicism for a not less hollow pretence of Calvinism. The change will be readily understood. The simulation of Calvinism brought them new friends, who, like them, were enemies of Rome, Spain and the Inquisition. It helped them in their fight against the Holy Office, and for that reason was very welcome to them. Moreover, it was a form of Christianity which came nearer to their own simple Judaism. The result was that they became zealous and valuable allies of the Calvinists. The Nuncio Aleander reports in 1521 that in Flanders Spanish versions of Luther's books were being printed and circulated by the Marranos. It is also on record that they rose to high office in the Councils of the Reformed Church, and in the troubled year of 1566 the chief of the Calvinist Consistory at Antwerp was the Marrano, Marcus Perez.18 These facts are of importance because they enabled the Elizabethan Marranos to assimilate themselves far more com? pletely with English social life than their successors in the seventeenth century who, coming direct from Spain and Portugal, remained pseudo Catholics until they could openly declare themselves to be Jews. Let me now tell you something about the leading members of the Marrano community, as revealed to us by Pedro de Santa Cruz and Alexandre Simones. I will take them in the order in which their names are recited in the above list. Dr. Hector Nunez was a distinguished physician, a native of Evora in Portugal, who lived and practised in Mark Lane. He probably 17 Returns of Aliens, vol. ii. pp. 279, 280 ; vol. iii. pp. 342, 376. 18 Goris, op. cit.y pp. 553 et seq. Lea, History of the Inquisition of Spain, vol. iii. p. 413.</page><page sequence="10">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 9 settled in London because of the decree of the Emperor in 1549 ordering the New Christians to quit Antwerp, as it is in that year that we first hear of him as living in the Parish of St. Olave's, Hart Street. He was admitted a Fellow of the College of Physicians in 1554, and F.R.C.S. in the same year. In 1566 he married Leonora Freire, a sister of Bernaldo Luis, then of Antwerp, and in 1579 he was endenizened. In addition to practising medicine he was extensively engaged in trade, and in 1568 was a member of the Corporation of Italian Merchants residing in London, although on the list he is described as " Portuguez." He is also entered as a Merchant Stranger in the Return of Aliens for 1572. He seems to have prospered, for in 1582 his household consisted of his wife, three clerks, a butler and two negresses. The clerks were all relatives of his or of his wife.19 Two of them, Francisco de Tapia and Fernan Dalvarez, are mentioned in Pedro de Santa Cruz's list. The third, Francisco Dalvarez, also a relation and a Marrano, is an addition to my list. He was a member of the secret Synagogue in Antwerp, in 1579, when he was known as Francisco Pessoa.20 Hector Nunez died in September 1591, and at his special request was buried near his sister-in-law, Grace Freire, in Stepney Churchyard, although he was a parishioner of St. Olave's, and his burial dues were paid there.21 Of Dr. Nunez's political activities I shall have something to say later on. The facts of his life as known to us afford little direct evidence of his Jewishness. We know, however, that his wife was a devout Jewess, for it is on record that she sent, through Dr. Rodrigo Lopez, a contribu? tion for the upkeep of the secret Synagogue in Antwerp in 1593.22 Alvaro de Lima, the second name on Santa Cruz's list, was a 19 Infra, Appendix, pp. Zl, 41 ; Bai?o, op. cit., p. 264; Returns of Aliens, vol. i. pp. 167, 384, vol. ii. pp. 154, 279 ; M?nk, Roll of College of Physicians, vol. i. p. 49 ; Harl. Soc. Reg., No. 46, p. 123 ; Bannerman, Registers of St. Olave, Hart Street, p. 248 ; Hug. Soc, Denizations, Part i. p. 181. 20 Returns of Aliens, vol. ii. p. 279 ; Bai?o, op. cit., p. 213 ; Goris, op. cit., p. 616. 21 Bannerman, op. cit., p. 123 ; Will of Hector Nunez, Lond. Reg., 66 Sains berbe; Grace Freire is thus entered in the Burials Register of St. Dunstan, Stepney : " 1573/4. Graco ffriarry an Italian was buried the xvijth of the same (january)." She was not an Italian but was no doubt so designated because her brother-in-law, Dr. Nunez, was at the time a member of the Corporation of Italian Merchants and her brother, Bernaldo Luis, belonged to the Italian Reformed Church. 22 Infra, p. 20.</page><page sequence="11">10 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. brother-in-law of Hector Nunez. He married Elizabeth Freire, another sister of Bernaldo Luis, in 1582. It is not quite true, as Santa Cruz alleges, that his wife was his niece, for he was only a first cousin of his wife's father. He was a merchant, trading on a large scale with Antwerp, and also appears to have done some banking business, for in 1594 Dr. Eodrigo Lopez drew a cheque on him for ?20 payable to Stephen Ferrara de Gama. He is described as having been " a great Intelligencer." He lived and died in Duke's Place, and was buried before the vestry door of St. Olave's in 1596, next to his nephew, Ferdinando Alvarez, jun., who is not to be confounded with the Fernan Dalvarez already mentioned.23 Besides being a nephew, Ferdinando Alvarez, jun., was also a brother-in-law of Alvaro de Lima, having married Agnes Freire, a sister of Alvaro's wife, Elizabeth Freire. He left a family of two sons, Lewis and Roger, and a daughter, Blanche.24 Jeronimo Pardo was a brother of Alvaro de Lima, and the con? fidential associate of Dr. Hector Nunez in all his commercial and political work. When he was not travelling on Nunez's business he lived with the Doctor in Mark Lane. We have already seen that he was arrested in Lisbon in 1588 on a charge of espionage. There is no record of him after that unfortuuate event.25 Fernan Dalvarez, or, as he is generally called, Ferdinando Alvarez, sen., has already been referred to as a clerk of Dr. Hector Nunez. He was also his brother-in-law, having married Philippa Freire, another sister of Bernaldo Luis, of whom he was afterwards a partner in business. Like his sister-in-law, Leonora Freire, he was a contributor to the secret Synagogue in Antwerp in 1593. He seems to have been much respected by his family. In the latter years of his life he lived in Duke's Place near his widowed sisters-in-law, Leonora, Agnes, and Elizabeth Freire, whose affairs and families he looked after until his death. He left three daughters, Helinor, Blanche, and Elizabeth.26 23 Infra, Appendix, pp. 41, 46; Bannrman, op. cit., p. 251 ; Col. 8.P. Dom. (1591-4), p. 455 ; (1598-1601), p. 120; Bannerman, op. cit., p. 128 ; Will of Alvaro de Lima, Lond. Beg., 28 Drake ; Returns of Aliens, vol. ii. p. 337. 24 De Lima's Will (see preceding Note). 25 Infra, Appendix, pp. 36,38,39,47,48,50, 52; Returns of Aliens, vol. ii. p. 161. 26 Infra, Appendix, pp. 41, 45,46; Wills of Hector Nunez and Alvaro de Lima (supra, notes 21, 23); Infra, p. 20 ; Returns of Aliens, vol. ii. p. 279, vol. iii. pp. 21-2, 337.</page><page sequence="12">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 11 Of Francisco de Tapia we know little more than what Pedro de Santa Cruz tells us. He was one of Dr. Nunez's clerks, and seems to have been a simple and garrulous soul, whom the Spanish spies in London found it easy to pump when they wanted information about his employer's mails or Jeronimo Pardo's movements.27 Bernaldo Luis was a more imposing personage. He came of a Lisbon Jewish family named Freire, or Freyle, and he migrated to Antwerp early in life to seek his fortune. Clever and unscrupulous, he threw himself with zest into the complicated and far-reaching net? work of plot and counterplot, espionage and counter-espionage, which grew out of the rivalries of England and Spain, the Civil War in the Netherlands, the struggle between the League and the Huguenots in France, and the restiveness of Portugal under the Spanish yoke. He made a fortune in trade, and acquired great influence in all the rival political camps. Each seems to have imagined that he was its devoted slave, and to-day, with a very copious documentation before us, it is difficult to say whether any of them was right. It is probable that he served and betrayed all in turn, as it suited his interest or convenience. We have already seen that he was arrested as a spy in Spain in 1588, and the case seemed black enough against him ; but he put up a clever defence, and with the assistance of Antonio da Vega, the head of the Spanish espionage service in England at the time, he managed to extricate himself and was released. He first came to England with his three unmarried sisters, Elizabeth, Agnes, and Philippa, at the time of " the Spanish Fury " in Antwerp in 1576. One other sister, Leonora, was, as we have seen, already married in London, and the fifth, Grace, had died unmarried, also in London, in 1573. He had three brothers: Pero or Pedro Freyle, who acted as his agent in Lisbon, and occasionally visited London, where he " judaised "; John, who came with him to London, and another, who was afterwards in the service of Antonio da Vega, but whose name does not appear. Until 1587, when Bernaldo imprudently went to Spain, he occupied a house in the Tower Ward, where almost all the Marranos lived. Here his two brothers-in-law, Alvaro de Lima and Ferdinando Alvarez, sen., who were also his partners, lived with him and managed his business in his absence. After 1591, 27 Infra, Appendix, p. 47 ; Returns of Aliens, vol. ii. p. 279</page><page sequence="13">12 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. when he was denounced by the informer Manuel de Andrada as one of the ablest of the Spanish spies in London, nothing was heard of him. He had probably to fly the country, and he certainly was under a cloud, for there is no word of him in the wills of his relatives, Hector Nunez and Alvaro de Lima, though they were much attached to him in spite of their devotion to the cause of England.28 A table of Bernaldo Luis's family printed on the opposite page illustrates the close relationship of some of the leading members of the Marrano colony in London. The last two names on Santa Cruz's list are perhaps the most interesting of all. They are the names of two members of the Anes family, to whom I have already referred, and who were among the earliest Marrano families to settle permanently in England. The founder of the family, George Anes, was a Jew of Valladolid who, at the time of the expulsion from Spain in 1498, saved himself by baptism, while many of his kinsmen took refuge in Portugal. Whether he was ever in England is not clear, but it is certain that his wife and children settled in London in 1521. Later on they seem to have returned to the Peninsula and to have taken up their abode with their relatives in Portugal, where the Inquisition had not yet been established. Their security in that country was short-lived. In 1540 the triangular struggle between Dom Joao III., the Pope, and the New Christians ended with the triumph of the King, and on September 20 of that year the Lisbon Inquisition celebrated its first regular auto da fe. The Anes family were under strong suspicion and, even before the auto, had made preparations for flight. George Anes had apparently died some years before, leaving a widow, Elizabeth Anes, and two sons and two daughters. In January 1541, during a raid on a shipload of Portuguese refugees who had arrived at Middelburg, a letter was seized in which the elder of the two sons, Francisco Anes of Lisbon, 28 Infra, Appendix, pp. 37-45 ; Goris, op. cit., p. 615 ; Calendars of State Papers Spanish (1580-6), pp. 675-7 ; (1587-1603), pp. 23, 242-3, 299, 326, 346, 487 ; Ibid., Dom. (1591-4), p. 101 ; Returns of Aliens, vol. ii. pp. 161, 256, 279, 337 ; Bai?o, op. cit., p. 264. Martin Hume (Cal. S.P. Span., 1587-1663, pp. 23, 601) is in error in assuming that Bernaldo Luis's real name was Montesinos and that he was a brother of a notorious Spanish swashbuckler and spy named Gaspar Dias Montesinos.</page><page sequence="14">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. ? o 3 pH - ? 3 ? ? o ^ &gt; ? ? g?1 ?^ 1 O N GO . ? co ""d TS II 8b?2 pa S.8Sofl . ? ? _J H&gt; ? ^ W o o ^ o S .9 ? ? .SP 2 ? ^ ? ?9 .0 ?5 -? S g ? 3 2 Q ^ o c m s_. w _ ^ ? ^ * ? n g ? . O 'I 'gl ? ?C5 * s ? o ? g ? J ? &amp; M PL, .* nS h-3 ? ^3</page><page sequence="15">14 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. informed his correspondent at Antwerp, Dominique Mendes, that he was sending his mother and the remainder of the family to Flanders together with their household goods and other merchandise, which Mendes was asked to dispatch to London. Francisco added that he would follow in a later boat. The flight was successful, and it was in the nick of time, for in 1542 the Inquisition prosecuted the second son, Gonsalvo Anes, in contumaciam and burnt him in effigy. Happily in 1541 Elizabeth and her children were already safe again in London. Of the subsequent career of Francisco Anes we know little. He seems to have taken to a soldier's life, and in 1583-4 held a command in the English garrison at Youghal in Ireland. He became Burgomaster of the town and earned the commendation of the Earl of Ormond by his gallant defence against the raids of the Irish rebels. His only son, Erasmus, who was born in Portugal, was living in London as an alien in 1564. The chief interest of the Anes family centres in the second son, Gonsalvo, who was the Benjamin George of Pedro de Santa Cruz's list of Marranos in London, and was also known as Gonsalvo George, though more generally as Dunstan Anes. He was probably born at Valladolid, and must have been an infant when his mother first came to England. At the time of Santa Cruz's deposition before the Madrid Alcalde, he was the recognised head of his numerous and widely rami? fying family. He had married in 1548 a Spanish lady, Constance, the daughter of Simon Ruyse, who was living in London, and by her had eight sons and six daughters. The family had been still further augmented by a number of grandchildren, the issue of his sons Benjamin, Jacob, and William, and his daughter, Sarah. He carried on in his dwelling-house [in Crutched Friars the agency for Indian produce which had previously been established by his father or mother, and he became a Freeman of the Grocers' Company in 1557, although he was a " stranger." He was also appointed " Purveyor and Merchant for the Queen's Majestie's Grocery." But this spice agency was only a small part of his business. He traded direct with Lisbon, where he established his second son, Jacob, as his agent. He dabbled in the illicit shipping business which Hector Nunez and Jeronimo Pardo carried on to mask their intelligencing operations, and he acted as financial agent in England for the Portuguese Pretender, Don Antonio,</page><page sequence="16">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 15 Prior of Crato, purchasing all the stores and ships required for the Don's campaign in defence of his country and throne against the Spanish invasion in 1580. He died in April 1594, and was buried under his pew in St. Olave's Church, of which he had been a congre? gant for many years. His end was perhaps hastened by chagrin and anxiety over the fate of his son-in-law, Rodrigo Lopez, the Queen's chief physician, who had been convicted on doubtful evidence of plotting to poison his Royal Mistress, and was then lying in the Tower under sentence of death. Lopez was the husband of Dunstan's eldest daughter, Sarah, who was married to him when she was scarcely seventeen. As bearing on Dunstan's Marranism it is interesting to note that he gave typically Jewish names to five of his children Benjamin, Jacob, Hester, Rachel, and Sarah?and that he reserved for himself the Hebraic alias of Benjamin, for use, no doubt, on occasions when Dunstan and Gonsalvo would obviously have been inappropriate. Although a grocer he claimed to be a gentleman, and in that capacity received a grant of arms in 1568.29 Of Dunstan's fourteen children I need only mention three? Benjamin, his eldest son, Jacob, his second son, who had an exception? ally interesting career, and William, his seventh son, who is mentioned in Pedro de Santa Cruz's list as Vlierm Ames. Benjamin was employed by Walsingham, at the instance of his brother-in-law, Dr. Lopez, in paving the way for Drake's projected raid on the Azores. Letters of intelligence from him from Terceira in 1583 and San Lucar in 1588 are still extant.30 Jacob seems to have been the English Jew named Amis (sic) whom Coryat met in Constantinople in 1612, and who told the English traveller that he was born in Crutched Friars in 1552.31 If that is so? 29 Infra, Appendix, p. 46 ; Visitation of London, 1568 (Harl. Soc. Pubs.), p. 65 ; Denizations and Naturalisations (Hug. Soc. Pubs.), Parti, p. 6; Herculano, Historia da origen da Inquisicao en Portugal, vol. ii. pp. 331 et seq. ; Belg. Nat. Archives, Etat et Audience, 1177 2 ; Office Fiscal de Brabant, 1233 ; Returns of Aliens, vol. i. pp. 46, 342 ; Brit. Mus. Add. MSS. 5754, f. 235; Gal. S.P. Ireland (1574-85), pp. 467, 472, 474, 483, 557 ; Brigg, Registers of St. Nicholas Aeon, p. 59 ; Note from Mr. L. Hickman Barnes, Clerk to the Grocers Company communi? cated to me by Mr. Wilfred Samuel; Bannerman, op. cit., p. 127; Cat. S.P. Dom. (1594), p. 418 ; Ibid. Spanish (1580-6), p. 146 infra, p. 18. 30 Gal. S.P. For. (1583), Nos. 160, 166; B.M. Harl. MSS., 295, f. 197. 31 See Coryat's Account of his Travels in Purchas's Pilgrims, 1625.</page><page sequence="17">16 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. and the hypothesis is supported by the Birth Registers?he was also identical with the " nephew " of Alvaro Mendez whom that personage brought to Constantinople in 1592.32 Alvaro Mendez, the powerful Councillor of Sultan Murad, who was created by that monarch Buke of Metilli, had lived in England and was a brother-in-law and a great friend and ally of Rodrigo Lopez. His sister Catherine, alias Dona Esther, had married Rodrigo's brother Diego, alias Jacob Lopez Alleman.33 He was consequently only an uncle of Jacob Anes in a brevet sense. However that may be, Jacob found a career for himself in Turkey under his distinguished relative's auspices, for he was appointed to manage Alvaro Mendez's lease of the customs. The two sisters who were living with him in Constantinople when Coryat visited him could only have been Rachel and Elizabeth, for of his other sisters two were dead,34 and the eldest, Sarah Lopez, was still living with her children and her sister Agnes in England. Jacob's younger brother, William, was active in his father's business in London, and in 1581 was sent by Don Antonio on a secret mission to Portugal. In the following year he went to the Azores with his brother Jacob to spy out the islands, in preparation for Sir Francis Drake's raid, and on returning to England he and his brother were received by the Queen. He then joined his uncle Francis at Youghal, and distinguished himself in the defence of that town. Ormond wrote of him to the Council that he had " behaved himself like a tall and valiant man." William is the only member of our Marrano colony of whom we get a clear personal glimpse in the docu? ments. In a letter from Bernardino de Mendoza to King Philip announcing the despatch of William Afies to Portugal on business for Don Antonio, the Ambassador gives the following portrait of him; " He is a young fellow of twenty, well built, with a fair and handsome face and a small fair beard." 35 This is not quite the type of Jew that Shakespeare drew or that Marlowe gave us in the red-nosed monster that was afterwards put upon the Elizabethan stage in deference to the anti-Semitic passions excited by Lopez's alleged treason. 32 Cal. S.P. Venetian (1592-1603), No. 83. Infra, Appendix, p. 67. 33 Infra, pp. 21, 32. 34 See pedigree, infra, p. 18. 35 Cal. S.P. Ireland (1574-85), pp. 468, 474; Cal. S.P. Spanish (1580-6), pp. 179, 287, 306.</page><page sequence="18">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 17 The pedigree and Arms of the Anes family, printed infra, p. 18, are taken from the Visitation of London, 1568, recorded in the College of Arms (G. 10, p. 896, and F. 1, p. 174), with additions from the printed Registers of St. Olave, Hart Street, the MS. Registers of St. Bartholomew the Less, and other sources. At this point I may perhaps be permitted to sum up the statistical and social results of my investigations. From the Antwerp and Brussels Archives I have obtained the names of two Elizabethan Marranos, besides references to a large number of others whose names are not given. The records of the Lisbon Inquisition, still very im? perfectly examined, give me ten more. From the deposition of Pedro de Santa Cruz I get a further eight, and an examination of their family connections and other associates yields no fewer than fifty more. There are also a dozen whom I have identified as Marranos on various grounds, but who have not yet been mentioned by name. These are Jeronimo Anriques, who was living with Hector Nunez in 1583 36; Gomez d'Avila, who figured in the Lopez case, but who was afterwards identified in Antwerp as having been active as a Marrano 37; Solomon Cormano and Judah Serfatim, who were sent in 1592 and 1594 respec? tively as Ambassadors or Messengers to the English Government by Alvaro Mendez of Constantinople 38 ; Alvaro's sister Catherine and her husband, Diego Lopez Alleman, who visited England probably in 1572 39; Jeronimo Lopez, a cousin of Rodrigo, who took no pains to hide his Judaism, and Gabriel Fernando, who lived with him in Aldgate; Lewis Lopez, a brother of Rodrigo and John Lopez, another cousin; Bartholomew Nunez, apparently a relative of Hector Nunez, who lived alternately with him and with Lewis Lopez40; Pedro Rodrigues, the Jewish banker of Lyons who was to have married Rodrigo Lopez's daughter, and who came to England and lived with Jeronimo Lopez in 1587 41; and finally we have one Fernando del Mercado, alias Jacob 36 Returns of Aliens, vol. ii. p. 324. 37 Ibid., vol. iii. p. 134 ; Belg. Nat. Arch., Office Fiscal de Brabant, dossier 924. 38 Infra, pp. 27-29, Appendix, pp. 64 68, 76 89. 39 Infra, p. 20. They were living in Antwerp in 1572 (Goris, op. cit., p. 614). 40 Belums of Aliens, vol. i. pp. 365, 483; vol. ii. pp. 10, 136, 161, 476; vol. iii. pp. 55, 124, 125, 128. 41 Hatfield MSS. (Hist. MSS. Com.), vol. vii. pp. 253, 257, 260, 264, 278. VOL. XL C</page><page sequence="19"></page><page sequence="20">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 19 Bueno, who lived with his brother Simon in London in 1603 and who, in the course of some litigation in the English Courts, is alleged to have avowed that he was a Jew.42 Altogether, with the ten names collected by Sir Sidney Lee, we have an identified Jewish community of between eighty and ninety souls living in the England of Good Queen Bess.43 There were probably also not a few humbler Jewish refugees who are still unidentified. In this connection I may remind you of a passage quoted by Sir Sidney Lee from an anonymous Elizabethan comedy, " Every Woman in her Humour," in which a City wife suggests to a neighbour that he might " hire a good suit at a Jew's." This early reference apparently to a Jew old clo' man has been ridiculed on the hypothesis that the word " Jew " does not really mean what it says. Its literal interpretation, however, is not so improbable as it seems. In the official Lista of the first regular Lisbon auto in 1541 appear the following two entries of Jews: " Philippe G-omes, aliabebe" and " Manuel Ferrera, aliabebe" 44 The word aliabebe means " dealer in old clothes," and, as both these Jews were burnt in effigy because they had escaped from Lisbon, it is not at all unlikely that they found a refuge in London. How many of these men and women were real Marranos in the sense that they regularly professed and practised Judaism in secret is, of course, impossible to say. That they were all New Christians is, however, certain, and it is equally certain that they were all united by a more or less slender bond of Jewish consciousness. Perhaps the bond was not so slender after all, for what Judaism there was among them found plenty of instruction and nourishment in Antwerp, where, despite the anti-Semitic vigilance of the Spanish authorities, a secret Synagogue existed between 1579 and 1583, and also in 1594. A list of the congre? gation of this Synagogue appears among the denunciations filed in the Lisbon Inquisition in 1585, and it is there stated that the Marranos imported two Rabbis from Italy to conduct the services for them on 42 Belg. Nat. Arch., Office Fiscal de Brabant, dossier 924. 43 Infra, Appendix, pp. 33-35. 44 There is a copy of this Lista in Belg. Nat. Archiv., Mat et Audience, liasse 11772, and further details are given in the MSS. of the Council of Brabant (liasse 1233). Of Philippe Gomes it is recorded that he had performed the rite of circum? cision on himself.</page><page sequence="21">20 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. the Day of Atonement.45 Another Lisbon denunciation gives an account of a Jewish Prayer Book in Spanish which was printed and circulated in Antwerp in 1577.46 There is good reason to believe that this congre? gation kept in touch with their co-religionists in England. They were certainly in close commercial relations with them, and that their spiritual association was perhaps not less intimate is indicated by the fact that money was collected in London for the maintenance of the Antwerp Synagogue. This collection has already been alluded to in this paper, and some of the contributors have been mentioned. The letter referring to it is, however, worth quoting at length. It was addressed to Rodrigo Lopez, under date of Antwerp, February 18, 1594, and ran as follows : " Worship11 " Wth. muche content I red yors of the 20 of the last moneth, and wth the licke content did all of this yor howse Receave the same, speatially mye con sorte, Dona Estir, whoe wth teares from hir hart did reade yor sayd letter often tymes, remembringe hir mystris, hir deare, and awncient friend, desyar inge the Lord, that it might please hime, to ioyne them, in that conversation, wch they weare wonte to have, to enioye the friendshipp and Systerlye love, all wch maye come to passe, for there is nothinge in this worlde impossibleJ and cominge to the purpose, I doe see that yow ordained Diego Lopez Soeiro to give vnto Luis fernandes, to send vnto me 15 pistoletts and from the said fernandez there was onely remitted vnto me 8 pistoletts wch I recovered ioyntlye wth other twenty pistoletts, wch alsoe weare sent me, bye the order of Sra Leonor Freire, and Fernao Daluerez, and they weare, by and bye bestowed, one the Divine worke./ I see that they did the accustomed Seremonyes wch are there vsed, to him who was soe benefitiall to the Suptuous (sic) and devout howse, allwayss prayeinge to the god of heaven, to augment and increase Lyfe estate and honor, to yow, yor wyffe and children, and all that weare healpef ull herein. / and no we yow vnderstand what is remitted vnto me, beinge 8 pistoletts, wch yow saye shoulde be 15 pistoletts, soe resteth, wch he is bound to satysfie 7 pistoletts, I saye this muche, to thentent, that yow knowe, the remaynder is to be made good and seinge that yow promysed, I praye yow to see it accomplished." 47 Owing to the apparently mysterious terms of this letter and the fact that it was unsigned, it was at first regarded by the English counter 45 Bai?o, op. cit., pp. 212-3. 46 Ibid., p. 205. 47 P.R.O., S.P. Dom. Eliz.f vol. 247, No. 69, f. 145.</page><page sequence="22">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 21 espionage service as corroboration of the theory that Lopez was engaged in sinister conspiracies against the Queen, and in that character it still figures in the dossier of the Lopez case. Its true meaning, however, can be no mystery to anyone acquainted with the customs and necessary equivocations of the Marranos. Of the identity of its writer there can be no question. It is fixed by the reference to " mye consorte Dona Estir " and to her " systerlye love " for Lopez's wife. Dona Estir, as has already been shown, was the wife of Lopez's brother, Diego Lopez Alleman. On one occasion at least the Elizabethan Marranos assembled for Divine worship in London. When Solomon Cormano was here in 1592 as the envoy of the Jewish Duke of Metilli, he availed himself of his diplomatic privilege to hold Jewish services in his house. The English Ambassador in Constantinople, Edward Barton, writing to Burghley on Cormano's mission, in August 1592, says &lt;? that he and all his trayne used publickely the Jewes rytes in prayinge, accompayned wth ciiyers secrett Jewes resident in London." 48 What was the legal position of this community of crypto-Jews ? Apart from the statements I have quoted from the depositions of Pedro de Santa Cruz and Alexandre Simones, it must be obvious that its true character could not have remained altogether unknown to the general public, while to the Government, with its vigilant watch of all strangers hailing from Spain and Portugal, it must have been in every sense an open secret. And yet we hear nothing of the outlawry of the Jews, which, even down to the middle of the following century, was popularly supposed to have been enacted for all time by Edward I. The truth probably is that the Elizabethan lawyers, if they considered the question at all, arrived at the conclusion that there was no legal impediment to the incoming of Jews as such, precisely as their successors did in 1655, on the occasion of the famous Whitehall Conferences.49 However that may be, our Marranos entered England without hindrance, and remained in the country unmolested. The knowledge of the Govern? ment in regard to them is illustrated by two letters written by Waad, the Clerk of the Council, respectively to Burghley in 1591 and to Robert 48 Infra, Appendix, p. 68. 49 Wolf, Menasseh b. Israel's Mission to Oliver Cromwell, pp. xlix, lv-lvi.</page><page sequence="23">22 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. Cecil in 1597. The first relates to Lopez and his relations with Alvaro Mendez in Constantinople, and shows quite clearly that both Waad and Burghley had known for years that Lopez was not merely a New Christian but a practising crypto-Jew.50 The second letter con? cerns Pedro Rodriguez, the Lyons banker who was to have married one of Rodrigo Lopez's daughters. He had arrived in England, but had been placed under surveillance because it was believed that he had visited Spain and had been in communication with English Catholic refugees there. Incidentally, Waad explains that Rodriguez is "a Portugal by nation and a Jew by race." Later on in the same letter he recommends that a bond for Rodriguez's good conduct should be accepted from Jeronimo Lopez, who was willing to receive him in his house, and who, adds Waad, " is one of his nation and sect whom your honour doth well remember." 51 There is no hint here of the outlawry of Jews. The truth is that Jews were quite free to live in Elizabethan England, so long as they did not break the law or outrage public senti? ment in regard to religion or otherwise. The limits within which they were allowed are clearly indicated by the case of the German-Jewish mining chemist, Joachim Gaunz, who was expelled by the Privy Council in 1590. He had lived as a Jew and worked in London and Keswick untroubled by the authorities for eight years, and he was only arrested because he created some scandal by what were not unreasonably held to be blasphemous reflections on Christianity.52 There was, moreover, no practical reason why the Marranos should be expelled. They appear to have been, on the whole, quite decent folk, who worked honestly and unobtrusively at professions, trades, and handicrafts which added appreciably to the well-being of the country, while some of them rendered substantial services to the State, both as intelligencers and in the higher walks of diplomacy. Of their activity as intelligencers the State Papers and other public documents give many examples. The first in this field appears to have been Dunstan Anes. He was in the habit of importing oranges and other produce from Spain, and 50 P.R.O., S.P. Foreign, Turkey, 2. 51 Hatfield MSS., vol. vii. p. 253. 52 Papers read at the Anglo-Jewish Historical Exhibition, pp. 71, 72 ; Francis, The Smelting of Copper, pp. 24-34 ; Trans. Jew. Hist. Soc, vol. iv. p. 82.</page><page sequence="24">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 23 at an early period he placed his ships at the disposal of Walsingham for the carriage of letters to and from the British spies in the Peninsula. Later on, when Portugal was conquered by Philip II, Dunstan obtained news for Walsingham from his son, Jacob, who was established in Lisbon and married there; and it was in connection with this traffic, which got to the ears of Bernardino de Mendoza in Paris, that Jacob was arrested in 1582.53 Similar work was done on a much larger scale by Hector Nunez, who seems to have enjoyed the complete confidence of both Burghley and Walsingham. Many of his letters of advice, addressed now to one, now to the other, are preserved in the Domestic and Foreign State Papers and the Hatfield MSS. Ships were specially chartered for the traffic, with the full knowledge and licence of the Government, and in connection with it Jeronimo Pardo made many hazardous journeys to Lisbon, and brought back extremely valuable information, besides much priceless contraband in the shape of bullion and cochineal. How he was arrested on one of these expeditions has already been told. Nunez also received much Spanish and Portu? guese intelligence through his Marrano correspondents in Flanders, and all this was duly communicated to the Lord Treasurer or the Secretary of State. The espionage system thus established by Nunez proved extremely valuable in 1587 and 1588, when Philip was pre? paring the Invincible Armada for the invasion of England. According to Pedro de Santa Cruz it was through a despatch received by Nunez from Jeronimo Pardo that the English Government first learnt of the arrival of the Duke of Medina Sidonia in Lisbon, and the great military and naval parades which followed. It was in this way, he says, that " the English finally concluded the destination of the Spanish Armada, and they began to take precautions with greater care and earnestness." Santa Cruz tells a story of Nunez which shows that he did not spare himself in communicating his news promptly to the Secretary of State. The Doctor was one day dining with Dona Isabel, the wife of the English merchant, Simon Borden, when a messenger from his house arrived with letters which had been brought in one of his ships from Jeronimo Pardo. " And the said Dr. Nunez took them and rose from 53 Cat. S.P. Spanish (1580-6), pp. 146, 287. Jacob Anes must have been released as he was afterwards in London and Constantinople (supra, pp. 15-16).</page><page sequence="25">24 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. the table without finishing his dinner and took them to Senor Gual zingham (Walsingham) who is the head of the most arduous affairs of that Kingdom." 54 The diplomatic work of our Marranos reached a high level of historical importance. It touched Elizabethan foreign policy at many points, and was at times a material element in the political calculations of both Burghley and Walsingham. The Marranos being all Portuguese, and animated by a bitter hatred of Spain on account of the cruelties of the Inquisition and the annexation of their native land, brought to the main problem of English foreign policy at the time of the Counter Reformation a large measure of valuable experience and zeal. The first important question in which they played a conspicuous part was that of the candidature of Don Antonio for the Portuguese throne. Here the chief Jewish actors were Alvaro Mendez, his brother-in-law, Rodrigo Lopez, and the latter's father-in-law, Dunstan Anes. Mendez was at once a patriotic Portuguese and a devoted Jew. He is the most important and picturesque figure in the story I am now telling. In view of his importance, it is, indeed, quite inexplicable that not a word about him has hitherto appeared in any standard work of Jewish history, and only a few brief references to him elsewhere? chiefly in the ethnographic literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He was born at Tavira in Portugal about 1520, of a Marrano family which seems to have been connected with the Mendez's of Lisbon, whose subsequent career in Antwerp has already been touched upon. He served an apprenticeship to a goldsmith and became an acknowledged expert in precious stones. Probably through the interest of his wealthy Lisbon relatives, who were then forming their great sales syndicate of Oriental produce under the Portuguese Crown, he was sent to the East Indies about 1545. There he acquired an enormous fortune by farming the diamond mines of the kingdom of Narsinga, a native State, which comprised the whole of what is now known as the Madras Presidency. About 1555 he returned to Portugal and won the confidence of King Jo?o III., who created him a Knight of the Portu 54 Infra, Appendix, pp. 46-^7 ; Read, Mr. Secretary Walsingham, vol. iii. pp. 125-6, 292 ; Hatfield MSS., vol. ii. pp. 205, 513 ; Gal. S.P. Foreign (1579-80), No. 499 (1582), Nos.^240, 382, 393 (1585-86), p. 473 ; Gal. S.P. Dom. (1581-90), p. 431; Gal. S.P. Spanish (1587-1603), pp. 219, 253.</page><page sequence="26">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 25 guese Order of St. Iago de Compostella. After the death of the King he spent some years in Madrid. In 1564 he was living in Florence. About this time he seems to have visited Constantinople, where his kinsman, Jo?o Miquez, Duke of Naxos, was at the height of his wonderful career. Five years later he settled in Paris. Thence from time to time he paid visits to Antwerp, London, Lyons, and Venice. His great wealth and political acumen, and more especially his devotion to Portugal and his hatred of Spain, brought him into contact with the leading statesmen of Northern Europe. Queen Elizabeth formed a high opinion of him, and he wTas frequently consulted by Henry III. of France and Catherine de Medici. This was his position in 1580 when the Portuguese dynastic crisis became acute through the death of the Cardinal-King Henry and the claim to the throne of Don Antonio, who was the natural son of the Infante Luiz by a Jewish mother, Violante Gomez. From the first Mendez had espoused the cause of the Pretender as the only alternative to Philip of Spain, perhaps also because of some sense of kinship, for his own mother was a Gomez. So intimate were their relations that when the crushing victory of Alva at Alcantara compelled Antonio to fly the country, it was with Mendez in Paris that he took refuge. Mendez succoured him, and otherwise helped him by his influence with the French King and the Queen Mother. When Antonio went to England to solicit the support of Queen Elizabeth, Mendez's brother-in-law, Eodrigo Lopez, became his chief adviser and the main channel of communication between him and the Government. In 1585 the Don lived in Lopez's house in Holborn, where he was visited by the Queen, and in 1589 it was on the advice of Lopez that Elizabeth sanctioned the expedition of Drake and Norris to Portugal, to restore Antonio to his throne. In the organisation of this expedition Dunstan Anes appears to have played a useful part on the financial side.55 55 Infra, Appendix, pp. 56, 71-76; Boterus, Belacion, Pt. III., " De Giudei " ; Brerewood, Enquiries touching the Diversity of Languages and Religions (1635), p. 92 ; Menasseh b. Israel, Hope of Israel (Eng. Edit., 1652), p. 49, Humble Addresses (1655), p. 6; Belg. Nat. Arch., Office Fiscal de Brabant, dossier 2126; Lamansky, Secrets d'Etat de Venise, pp. 80-3 ; Cal. S.P. For. (1581-2), Nos. 256, 340; Cal. S.P. Spanish (1580-6), pp. 81, 138, 456, 459, 552, 672; B.M. MSS., Nero, D.i. f. 251.</page><page sequence="27">26 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. Meanwhile, on August 2, 1579, Jo?o Miquez had died in Constan? tinople, and, probably with a view to the reversion of his great prestige, Alvaro Mendez had settled with his family in the Turkish capital. Here he speedily acquired great influence with the Sultan, who created him Duke of Metilli and Grand Commissary of the Court, and renewed to him the grant of Tiberias which had previously been held by his relative, the Duke of Naxos. Soon after his arrival in Constantinople he had thrown off his mask of Marranism, declared himself a Jew, and assumed the Jewish name of Solomon Abenjaish, although in the diplomatic corps he continued to be known as Don Alvaro Mendez.56 In Turkey Mendez stood for the interests of England and Don Antonio as against the interests of Spain, and he carried on a regular correspondence with Rodrigo Lopez, who conveyed to him the wishes of the Queen, to whom he was devoted. During the English Embassies of Harborne and Barton, Mendez appears to have been the chief instru? ment of English policy in Turkey. Such was the confidence he enjoyed at the hands of Queen Elizabeth and Burghley, that when in 1591 he quarrelled with Barton, who had circulated a calumnious story about him, the Queen disavowed her Ambassador, and wrote a strong letter to the Sultan testifying to Mendez's high character. It appears that Don Antonio had always envied Alvaro Mendez his great wealth, and more than once had dropped wicked hints in Paris and London that it had been obtained by fraud at the expense of the Portuguese Crown. In 1588 he began to despair of the efforts of Barton and Mendez on his behalf, and he entered into communication with another Portuguese Jew in Constantinople, David Passe, who had managed to secure the ear of the Sultan although he was notoriously a Spanish pensionary.57 At first Barton refused to have anything to 56 Infra, Appendix, pp. 57 ; Belg. Nat. Arch., Office Fiscal de Brabant, dossier 2126; Hammer, Geschichte d. Osman. Beiches, vol. ii. p. 468 ; Gal. S.P. Spanish (1587-1603), p. 92 ; Gal. S.P. Venetian (1581-91), No. 598. 57 Passe was a nephew of the Sultan's Jewish Physician, Moses Hamon. At one time he stood in high favour at Court and in 1585 it was reported in Venice that he had been invested with the vacant Dukedom of Naxos which had been enjoyed by Jo?o Miques until his death. The statement by Knolles and Bycaut (The Turkish History (1687), vol. i. p. 708) that he was murdered in 1588 is errone? ous. See Gal. S.P. For. Eliz. (1584-5), p. 663 ; Gal. S.P. Venetian (1581-91), Nos. 892, 994, 1004, 1028, 1030, 1060, 1075, 1081, 1101.</page><page sequence="28">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 27 do with Passe, but when, in February 1591, Don Antonio appointed Passe his agent and the latter succeeded in persuading the Grand Vizier to promise his master the armed support of Turkey?-a promise which, of course, was never fulfilled?-Barton found himself compelled to receive him at the Embassy. This gave rise to a quarrel with Mendez, and in May 1591 the Ambassador?-clearly at the instigation of Passe?adopted Don Antonio's malicious story of the origin of Mendez's wealth, and even wrote to Burghley suggesting that the Sultan should be informed of it. It was further proposed to ask the Sultan to confiscate Mendez's fortune and divide it with Don Antonio. The suggestion found no support in London, but it soon reached Mendez's ears?no doubt through Lopez. He took prompt steps to vindicate himself. Towards the end of 1591 he sent a special Embassy to London, under one of his Jewish factors, Solomon Cormano, with instructions to lay the whole matter before the Queen. Cormano was completely successful in his mission. In March 1592 he obtained a letter from Elizabeth to the Sultan, of which the following is an extract: " Your Majesty's subject, Solomon Abenjaish, Knight, has lately sent us letters praying that since he is troubled unjustly and undeservedly by many calumnies and lies of enemies we will graciously assist him by our testimony. Therefore, since we have found him, being a man of consequence, most ready in the furthering of business and our affairs for many years, we desire to signify to Your Majesty what opinion we have of him. Now we can truly testify that not only we ourselves but also many other Christian Princes have wished him to tarry and dwell in our Kingdoms because of his virtue, honesty and industry where, without doubt, he could have lived quietly in all plenty and abundance, but when he chose rather to dwell at Constantinople in your dominions than anywhere else in the world, the artifices and lies of the Ministers of the King of Spain prevented him from resting even there in safety. . . . We judge that these calumnies were falsely brought against him that he might lose faith and credit thenceforward with Your Majesty (although he has acted and does act zealously against the King of Spain and his allies for the furthering of our interests). Similarly therefore if our Agent residing at Constantinople has said or done anything against his reputation or interest we interpret it to have been done by the deceit and artifices of Paolo Mariani the Italian who being a spy there for the King of Spain has persuaded himself that, this being done, he would certainly enter his favour." Apparently, in order to show that this remarkable tribute to a sixteenth-century Jew was not the personal act of the Queen alone,</page><page sequence="29">28 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. but was also the act of her Government, Burghley sent it to Mendez himself for transmission to the Sultan, together with another letter echoing the sentiments of his Royal Mistress and a letter of reprimand for Barton. Some years later the treasonable practices of both Passe and Mariani were discovered, and the one was imprisoned and the other hanged. When Mendez died the Spanish authorities in the Nether? lands, with a view to confiscating his property in that country, investi? gated the story of his alleged frauds on the Portuguese Crown. The evidence collected proves beyond doubt that Don Antonio's allegations had no foundation.58 In 1593 Mendez sent a second embassy to London headed by another of his Jewish retainers, Judah Serfatim, who appears to have been a trained and competent diplomatist. The main object of the mission, which was suggested by the Sultan himself, was to obtain an assurance of the benevolent neutrality of England in the Turkish war against Hungary. It had, however, other aims more personal to Mendez. He was still troubled by the intrigues of Don Antonio and also by the thoughtless conduct of Barton, who continued to rely very much on the tainted counsels of Paul Mariani, and through him had got into serious monetary embarrassments. On both these heads Serfatim was instructed to make representations to the Queen through Rodrigo Lopez. Unfortunately when he arrived in London Lopez was already under arrest on the charge which brought his career to a tragical end. The mission appears, nevertheless, to have been successful. Barton afterwards, as a token of English sympathy, accompanied the Sultan to the battle front and was present at the great Turkish victory at Kereztes. His monetary troubles were also settled owing to the generosity of Mendez. At the prompting of Mariani, but against the advice of Mendez, he had guaranteed the backsheesh which a Moldavian of Jewish extraction named Emanuel Aron had contracted to pay the Grand Vizierate as the price of his nomination to the Voivode ship of Moldavia. Aron got his appointment but failed to honour Barton's guarantee, with the result that the Ambassador was besieged 58 Infra, Appendix, pp. 56-68 ; Read, Walsingham, vol. iii. pp. 328-9, 331; English Historical Review (1893), pp. 446-7, 448-9, 451, 452-3, 456-7, 458, 462 ; Cal. S.P. Venetian (1581-91), No. 753, (1592-1603) No. 83 ; P.R.O., S.P. Dom. Eliz. 233, No. 97 ; P.R.O., S.P. Foreign, Turkey, 1, No. 55, 2, No. 37a.</page><page sequence="30">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 29 by his creditors. Mendez offered the English Government to advance the money?some 300,000 crowns?and the offer appears to have been accepted.59 " Dn sallomo abenajaex." Autograph of Alvaro Mendez, from his letter to Queen Elizabeth, July 28, 1592 (supra, plate opposite p. 1; infra, Appendix, pp. 67-68). The full story of Mendez's crowded life and, more particularly, his services to England in Constantinople, I must reserve for another occasion. It must suffice to say here that he consistently supported Elizabeth's policy of an Anglo-Turkish alliance against Spain, and although he did not succeed in actually concluding an armed alliance, he maintained cordial relations between England and Turkey, and thus defeated for many years all the Spanish schemes for securing the neutrality of the Sultan in the war between England and Spain. By his services in this latter respect he was instrumental in immobilising in Italy and the Eastern Mediterranean large Spanish forces, which otherwise would have been turned against England.60 There was another side to English foreign policy at this period in which the Marranos also took an active part, although it could not have been altogether agreeable to them. This was the policy of peace with Spain, which was always more or less secretly favoured by the Queen from motives of thriftiness, and was supported by Burghley and Cecil and the conservative party against the bellicose Puritans, 59 Infra, Appendix, pp. 71-88 ; further facts about Aron Voivode will be found in Hurmuzache, Documents istorice privitoare la istoria Bomanilor, vol. iii. p. 153, No. cxl. I have to thank Dr. M. Gaster for this reference. See also Jewish Encyclopoidia, art. Roumania, and Schwartzfeld in American Jewish Year Book (1901-2), p. 33. 60 Professor Lewis F. Mott, of New York, has kindly called my attention to a passage in an old play, The True Tragedie of Richard the Third (1589), which may perhaps refer to Alvaro Mendez. It appears in a panegyric of Elizabeth and runs as follows: " The T?rke admires to hear her government, And babes in Jurie sound her princely name."</page><page sequence="31">30 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. under Essex and Leicester. There were two sets of these extremely delicate negotiations, in one of which Hector Nunez played a large part, and in the other Rodrigo Lopez, with disastrous consequences to himself. Hector Nunez was an intimate friend of Antonio de Castilio, the gifted Portuguese Ambassador in England who was recalled by Philip II. after the conquest of Portugal. Castilio was a Legitimist, and he had rallied to Spain ; he was also known to be a pacifist with idealist views on European peace, on which he corresponded with his friend Nunez. In 1585, at the prompting of the Queen, Walsingham asked Nunez to write to Castilio, and recommend him to take up the question of peace with the Spanish King or some member of his Council. Nunez agreed, but at the same time suggested that a Spanish prisoner of war named Villareal, who had great influence at the Spanish Court, should be offered his release if he would consent to convey the peace proposals to the King himself. The negotiations were continued all through 1586 down to the spring of 1587, Nunez's letters and Castilio's replies being carried by Jeronimo Pardo. They came to nothing through no fault of Nunez, but apparently because Walsingham, who was a strong Puritan, had no real enthusiasm for peace with Spain.61 Other peace negotiations were opened from time to time with a like result, but it was not until 1590 that Rodrigo Lopez, having broken with Don Antonio owing to his scandalous behaviour to Alvaro Mendez and to his (Lopez's) father-in-law, Dunstan Aries, took a hand in the game. As in the case of Nunez in 1585, there can be little doubt that the Queen, and perhaps also Burghley, were privy to Lopez's overtures. But the times had changed since 1585. The Armada had been fought and destroyed, and the country remained in a warlike mood, ready to look upon anybody who uttered the word 66 Peace " as a traitor. It must also be confessed that Lopez played his cards badly. He quarrelled with Essex, who vowed to be avenged on him. He employed disreputable go-betweens to convey his proposals to Madrid. He did not scruple to accept gifts from the other side. He found his action disapproved even by his brother-in-law, Alvaro Mendez, who wrote to him reproachfully from Constantinople that 61 Infra, Appendix, pp. 50-55 ; Read, op. cit., vol. iii. pp. 125-7, 148-9, 292 ; Gal. S.P. For. (1585-6), pp. 281, 472-3, 473 et seq., 508 ; (1586-8), p. 79; Cat. S.P. Spanish (1580-6), p. 654 ; P.R.O., S.P. For. 94/2, Nos. 70, 71.</page><page sequence="32">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 31 " despite your discretion and prudence and being a Portugall you forget the misery of Portugal." 62 I need not repeat the tragical denouement of the story, how Essex discovered the negotiations, how letters ad? dressed to Lopez were seized and deliberately misinterpreted, how his disreputable associates turned upon him and invented a plot against the Queen's life as an explanation of the obscurities in his letters which would be most agreeable to his enemies, and how, in the end, this con? spiracy and the popular excitement to which it gave rise brought Lopez to the gallows. Major Martin Hume, in a masterly paper read before this Society eighteen years ago, made out a strong case for the innocence of Lopez. All the fresh evidence which has come to light since then tends to support Major Hume's plea. Lopez was not without defects of character, but he had no motive whatever for the crime attributed to him, and all we know of his private character?his attachment to his proscribed religion, his affection for his family, his devotion to the Queen, and his personal amiability?seems to indicate that he was really incapable of it.63 A vigorous effort to save Lopez was made at the last moment on behalf of Alvaro Mendez by the latter's envoy, Judah Serfatim, whose mission to London coincided with the trial. Serfatim urged that the execution would probably lead to the ruin of his master, and that if only a reprieve were granted he was certain that Mendez would be able to produce evidence which would entirely clear his unhappy brother in-law. The answer he received through the medium of Waad, the Clerk to the Council, was that '' the discontent of the people was so great " that it was impossible to grant his request. This curious plea goes far to confirm M. Forneron's contention that Lopez fell a victim 62 Infra, Appendix, p. 72. 63 The literature of the Lopez Case is voluminous, and most of the documents have been published. For the case against the Doctor see A. Dymock in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1894), pp. 440-72, and Lord Algernon Cecil's Life of Robert Cecil, pp. 69-85; for the defence see S. L. Lee in Genfs. 3Iag.,Feb. 1880, Martin Hume in Trans. Jew. Hist. Soc, vol. vi. pp. 32-55, and Forneron's Histoire de Philippe II., vol. iv. pp. 266 et seq. Mr. Cecil Roth has called my attention to an interesting reference to Lopez in the State Archives at Florence, dated February 16, 1594. It pays a tribute to his " friendly and agreeable " character and incidentally mentions that he had paid a visit to the Ghetto in Venice, in the company of " his brothers and wife." (Archivio Mediceo dopo il Principato, filz. 4185, f. 238b.)</page><page sequence="33">32 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. to anti-Spanish mob clamour rather than to any misdeeds of his own. Serfatim's fears with regard to Alvaro Mendez were, however, not realised. It was inevitable that his political relations with the English Government should become strained, for after the Lopez affair they could not have been agreeable to either side ; but Alvaro's great position in Constantinople remained unshaken and his political ideas and activities underwent no change. Spain was quick to seize what appeared to be an opportunity of securing the powerful Jew's favour, and there was an exchange of envoys between them. Serfatim was sent to Madrid to negotiate an exchange of prisoners, but when the Spaniards again raised the question of a truce with Turkey, Mendez opposed it as strongly as in the happier days of his collaboration with Barton, and it was not further entertained.64 In 1595 he appears to have become reconciled to Barton.65 He died in 1603. The following is a table of the ascertained members of Alvaro Mendez's family : i Maria Gomes, d. in Antwerp 1607; m. 1564 Nicolas Rodrig ues Devora. s.p. Alvaro Mendes, = Margarita de Saa b.atTavira ; d. ! 1603 at Con- j stantinople. Catherine Mendes (Esther); m. Diego Lopes Alle man (Jacob) and had issue. Francisco (Jacob). Benjamin. Hannah. Bianca Mendes, = d. in Spain. I Alvaro Mendes Pinto. Mendez had two brothers who are referred to in the records, but whose names are not given. He had also a cousin, Leonora Mendes, who married Amador Rodrigues. 64 Infra, Appendix, pp. 89-91; Belg. Nat. Arch., Office Fiscal de Brabant, dossier 2126; P.R.O., S.P. Turkey, 3 ; Cal. S.P. Venetian (1592-1603), Nos. 408, 412, 416, 436, 622. 65 There is a fragment of a letter in P.R.O., S.P. Foreign, Turkey, 3, dated February 2, 1595, addressed to Barton and signed " Salomon Vche," apparently an abbreviation of Salomon Aben Jaish. The writer addresses Barton as his " friend, patron and benefactor" and signs himself " old and most obliged servant."</page><page sequence="34">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 35 This concludes the story I have to tell you to-night. It is not the full story, for the voluminous material with which I have dealt, and much of which will be found set forth in the appended documents, can only be briefly summarised in the time at my disposal. It is also not complete, for there are still unexplored sources, such as the trials of the Portuguese Inquisition and the Spanish State archives, which probably contain much additional information. Unfortunately no calendars have been compiled of the Inquisition processes, while the catalogues and calendars of Simancas covering this period are extremely defective. There is, consequently, a very large and hopeful field for further research relating to the Elizabethan Marranos, and I shall be glad if my paper to-night has the effect of encouraging some of our members to undertake it. APPENDIX OF DOCUMENTS. I.?List of Marranos in Elizabethan England. Diego Lopez Alleman, alias Jacob Alleman, brother of Dr. Lopez. Agnes Alvarez, wife of Ferdinando Alvarez, jnr, Blanche Alvarez, daughter of Ferdinando Alvarez, sen. Blanche Alvarez, daughter of Ferdinando Alvarez, jnr. Diogo Alvarez. Elizabeth Alvarez, daughter of Ferdinando Alvarez, sen. Ferdinando Alvarez, sen. Ferdinando Alvarez, jnr. Francisco Dalvarez. Helinor Alvarez, daughter of Ferdinando Alvarez, sen. Lewis Alvarez, son of Ferdinando Alvarez, jnr. Philippa Alvarez, wife of Ferdinando Alvarez, sen. Roger Alvarez, son of Ferdinando Alvarez, jnr. Avis Anes, sister of Dunstan Anes. Benjamin Anes, sen., son of Dunstan Anes. Benjamin Anes, jnr., son of Benjamin Anes, sen. Constance Anes, wife of Dunstan Anes. Diego Anes, son of Dunstan Anes. Dunstan Anes, alias Gonsalvo Anes, alias Benjamin George. Elizabeth Anes, mother of Dunstan Anes. Elizabeth Anes, daughter of Dunstan Anes. VOL. XI. D</page><page sequence="35">34 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. Erasmus Anes, son of Francis Anes. Frances Anes, wife of William Anes, sen. Francis Anes, brother of Dunstan Anes. George Anes, son of Dunstan Aries. Henry Anes, son of Dunstan Anes. Hester Anes, daughter of Dunstan Anes. Jacob Anes, son of Dunstan Anes. Joan Anes, sister of Dunstan Anes. John Anes, son of William Anes, sen. Mary Anes, daughter of Dunstan Anes. Rachel Anes, daughter of Dunstan Anes. Roger Anes, son of Dunstan Anes. Thomas Anes, son of Dunstan Anes. William Anes, sen., son of Dunstan Anes. William Anes, jnr., son of William Anes, sen. Jeronimo Anriques. Arthur Antoe. Gomez d'Avila. Antonio Brand?o. Solomon Cormano. Christopher Fernandes. Elizabeth Ferdinando. Philip Ferdinando. Gabriel Fernando. Grace Freire, sister of Bernaldo Luiz. John Freire, brother of Bernaldo Luiz. Pedro Freire, brother of Bernaldo Luiz. Joachim Gaunz. Sim?o Gomez. Sim?o Henriques. Alonzo de Herrera. Alvaro de Lima. Elizabeth de Lima, wife of Alvaro de Lima. Anne Lopez, daughter of Dr. Lopez. Anthony Lopez, son of Dr. Lopez. Douglas Lopez, son of Dr. Lopez. Jeronimo Lopez, cousin of Dr. Lopez. Wife of Jeronimo Lopez. John Lopez, cousin of Dr. Lopez. Lewis Lopez, brother of Dr. Lopez. Dr. Rodrigo Lopez, Physician to the Queen. Sarah Lopez, wife of Dr. Lopez. William Lopez, son of Dr. Lopez.</page><page sequence="36">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. 35 Antonio de Loroingue. Bernaldo Luis. Oregorio Luiz. Fortunatus Massa. Judah Menda. Chevalier Alvaro Mendez, alias Don Salomon Abenjaish. Ester, alias Catherine Mendez, sister of Alvaro Mendez. Fernando del Mercado, alias Jacob Bueno. Simon del Mercado. Ruy Nogueira. Wife of Ruy Nogueira. Bartholomew Nunez. Dr. Hector Nunez. Leonora Nunez, wife of Dr. Nunez. Maria Nunez. Jeronimo Pardo, brother of Alvaro de Lima. Diogo Pires. Duarte Pires. Pedro Rodriguez. Judah Serfatim. Francisco de Tapia. John Tremellius. Pedro Vaz. James Wolfgang. The references to the above persons in the text of the paper and in the Appendix will be found in the Index to this volume. II.?The Denunciations. Francisco de Valverde and Pedro de Santa Cruz to Bernardino de Mendoza, Spanish Ambassador in Paris. (Cal. S.P. Spanish, 1587-1603, pp. 219-22.) Extract: . . . However careful your friends may be to supply information, we are sure they are not more diligent than the Portuguese Ceronimo Pardo, in Lisbon, and Bernaldo Luis, in Madrid 66 who are relatives of Dr. Nunez, who lives here. 66 The letter was sent to the King, who underlined and called special attention to this passage.</page><page sequence="37">36 JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN ENGLAND. They carefully report hither everything that passes at Madrid and Lisbon, and transmit their news by ships which they send from Spain in the following way. Last year Bernaldo Luis took a ship from here loaded with cloth worth 70,000 ducats. When the ship arrived in Lisbon it was embargoed, on suspicion that the cargo belonged to Englishmen, as in fact it did. But they arranged so cleverly as to get permission to deal with the merchandize, on condition that neither it nor they were to. return to England. They have fulfilled these conditions in the following manner. Geronimo Pardo arrived in London in June last in a ship with a little salt as an excuse, but the rest of the cargo consisted of spices, cochineal, and a large sum of money. He brought on that occasion two packets of letters in cipher, giving a full account of the warlike preparations which were being made in Spain. After trans? lating them, he carried them to Secretary Walsingham, and within two months Pardo was on his way back to Lisbon. Since then he has sent three more ships ; the first with raisins and wine, from Ayamonte, the second with wine and cochineal, and the third from Algarves, with wax and figs in barrels, many of the barrels also containing bags of money. By this latter ship full accounts were sent of the ships, men, and stores for the Armada in Lisbon. The despatches were delivered to Dr. Hector Nunez whilst he was at a dinner to which he had been invited. He rose in great haste, and went direct to Secretary Walsingham's house. On one occasion we asked a certain Francisco de Tapia, who is a servant and relative of Nunez, whether there were any letters from Spain from Geronimo Pardo ; and he replied in the following words : " Gentlemen ! Geronimo Pardo dares not write anything, little or big, for they have had him straitly shut up in Lisbon on suspicion of being a spy in the service of England ; and the master of a German ship who knew Pardo here, tells us that when he was in Lisbon, Pardo said to him, ' Brother, since you are going to England, it is a matter of life or death to me that you should carry this letter to Dr. Hector Nunez.' The shipmaster consented, and Pardo then gave him a packet of letters, again repeating that the lives of both depended upon their safe delivery, and their not being seen in Spain. The shipmaster hid the packet in a feather bed and on coming up the Channel in a storm he ran ashore, and lost everything but the lives of his crew. You may see by this how poor Pardo is to be pitied.'' This Tapia may be captured in Lisbon as he is going thither in a ship bound for Brazil. She is one of those that went last year with the Marquis of Santa Cruz to Terceira, and was captured off Cape Spichel (her crew being sick) and brought to England. She must call at Lisbon, and will be taken from there either by Tapia, Pardo, or by one Pero Freire, of Lisbon. She will land also in a port of Galicia or Portugal a man well disguised in the garb of a pilgrim. The ship and cargo are entirely English property, nothing belongs to the Portuguese who ostensibly own her, but to Mr. Cob, Mr. Richard Mayo, his son-in-law, and other Englishmen. Even if the goods belonged to the Portuguese, it would</page><page sequence="38">JEWS IN ELIZABETHAN EN