Miscellanies: The Jewish Cemetery at Kalkara, Malta

<plain_text><page sequence="1">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta DEREK DAVIS The Kalkara cemetery1 is the earliest surviving Jewish burial ground in Malta. A single gravestone inscribed in Hebrew, probably from the medieval Jewish community of Mdina, remains at the Museum of Roman Antiquities (Roman Villa Museum), Mdina,2 and some catacombs at Rabat are believed to have been used still earlier for Jewish burial. Kalkara lies on the southeast side of the Grand Harbour. As one leaves the harbour, it is the third of four promontories, separated by creeks, opposite Valletta (see Figure i). The Knights of St John, ejected from Rhodes, made their original settlement in 1530 on the second promontory, Birgu or Vittoriosa. They also spread southwest to take in the first promontory, Senglea, and Bormla or Cospicua connecting the two. Valletta was built from 1566. During the Turkish siege of 1565 Kalkara formed part of the front line of fighting and is believed to have been used afterwards for the burial of Moslem dead. It remained open ground till well into the 19th century. The cemetery entrance is at the bottom of Rinella Street, where the street turns to run down to the modern church of St Joseph and its square beside Kalkara Creek. The place is about 30 feet by 40 feet, bounded by houses, and at the front by a retaining wall. Its elevation, some 8 feet above street level, suggests that the lie of the ground has been altered, probably in subsequent construction. The present entrance, a narrow wooden door, with steep, narrow steps at right angles to it, ill-suited to conducting funerals, would be contemporary with these alterations. The origins are recorded in a Latin inscription on a tablet over the door: RECONDENDIS GENTIS SUAE EXUVIIS HEBRHAEORUM MANCIPIORUM REDEMPTIO LIBURNIENSIS COEMETERIUM HOC AERE PROPRIO COMP ?RA VIT ANNO MDCCLXXXIV ('This cemetery was established in 1784 by the Leghorn fund for ransoming Hebrew slaves, at its own expense, for the burial of the dead of its race.') The text was first published by Professor Gotthard Deutsch who visited the cemetery during a short stay on the island in 190 5. He was unable to procure a key to the 'rusty iron door', but climbed on a ladder to an adjoining roof from which he saw a 'little place, about 40 feet by 60 feet, overgrown with weeds, without the 145</page><page sequence="2">146 Derek Davis Figure 1: Detail from Captain W. H. Smyth's 'Plan of the Harbours and Fortifications of Valetta . . .\ 1823. Scale: 1:1000. Courtesy of the British Library.</page><page sequence="3">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 147 slightest trace of a tombstone or an inscription on the walls surrounding it.'3 Twenty years later, Roth obtained the text, to be read over a 'bricked-up doorway* in 'the Strada Rinella, Calcara (Vittoriosa)\ from Sir Hannibal Scicluna. Neither, apparently, realized that there was a cemetery behind, and Roth misconstrued the inscription.4 A copy of the Knights' contemporary authorization for the cemetery is also preserved with an accompanying plan (see Figure 2) in the National Library of Malta: The First Day of March 1784 His Highness the Grand Master, on the application of Agostino Formosa de Fremeaux, Agent for the Jews' Fund at Leghorn, has granted and grants to the aforesaid Agent the site and authority for construction of a cemetery for burying Jews who die in this His Dominion, on the said shore of Salvatore5 or English Creek,6 to conform to the appended plan, 6 canes [41 feet 3 inches] in length and 5 canes 5 palms [37 feet 10 inches] in width, and as is marked on the said plan with the letters A:A;B:B; this being without prejudice to the said Fund's rights in the larger site claimed and indicated on the said plan by the letters G.G =^ G.D =^ D:D =^ D:A =^ A:E =^E:F =^ should the aforesaid Fund prove that ownership has been acquired in the past. Dr Samuel Caruana, Advocate Fiscal to the High Court of the Castellania.7 Figure 2: Kalkara cemetery. The plan appended to the 1784 authorization. Courtesy of the National Library of Malta.</page><page sequence="4">148 Derek Davis The fund was the hevrat pidyon shevuyim, the society for ransoming captives, at Leghorn (Livorno). Like the Venice hevrah before it, Leghorn coordinated funds raised for this charitable purpose by Jewish communities across Europe and negotiated with the Knights, as with the Barbary pirates, for the release of Jews captured in the Mediterranean by their galleys. The capture of slaves for ransom, sale or employment accounted for an important part of the Knights' income, and their fortress conurbation round the Grand Harbour (ha-ir malta, as it is regularly called in Hebrew correspondence) remained an active centre of the trade throughout their tenure of the island. During the 18th century, Bevis Marks Synagogue contributed towards the ransom of some eighty captives explicitly identified as at Malta, the last a group of five in 178g.8 Between 1790 and 1798 the Knights went on to capture some 1463 Moslems and Jews, the last recorded Jew in 1796.9 In 1798 they surrendered to Napoleon. The Venice ransom society had established a cemetery in 1675 for burying captives who died before ransom. A related plague pit (1677) was located 'outside Vittoriosa',10 or beyond the Cottonera Lines - the outwork being built at the time - and both were very likely in Kalkara. This cemetery still existed in 172 7.11 The Leghorn society seems to have taken the lead from Venice by around the mid-i 8th century. It no doubt built the extant cemetery to serve the same purpose, and, as both texts leave open, to bury any non-captives who happened to die on the island. Already in 1633 the Knights had issued a safe-conduct to a Jewish merchant from Zante, Isach Alsech, who was engaged in ransom and resided in Malta with his family.12 There is evidence of two 18th-century Leghorn merchants tolerated probably for the same reason. Samuel Farfara assisted the Venice agent and carried on his own trade at Malta in the 1720s.13 In the 1740s Abram di Michele Busnach, aged seventy, kept a store or warehouse on the Valletta waterfront, probably at the 'old quay' below Strada Levante and the slaves' prison (Figure 1), which was frequented by 'various Jews ... and notably Jewish traders' who also often ate there. He had a Jewish 'servant', Aron Acris, a British subject from Gibraltar, and his son had another, Raffaele, from Sousse in Tunisia.14 These visiting traders were admitted to the harbour area for shorter stays and under special controls.15 There was also a small population of converts to Christianity and of baptized slaves who presumably used other facilities.16 As will emerge, the total number of 18th-century burials in the cemetery is unlikely to have been large. Deutsch, thinking that the slave trade had ended and that the society's funds were underemployed, suggested that the cemetery was provided against 'the emergency of a death' among Leghorn merchants calling at Malta. The available evidence supports his working assumption that the Knights excluded Jewish settlers with much the same rigour as the Teutonic Order in Prussia and</page><page sequence="5">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 149 Livonia. Mgr A. Mifsud believed that a Jewish community existed and even thrived under the Knights. He took this to be demonstrated by placenames, by the cemetery and by enactments governing traders and slaves.17 It-triq tal-Lhud ('Jews' Street') in Vittoriosa seems to have been a place frequented in the early 17th century by Jewish slaves trading out of the Vittoriosa slaves' prison (see Figure i).18 It is identified today with Old Governor's Palace Street, or St Anthony Street, and is commemorated by a stepped alleyway ('Jewry Street') leading off the latter. J. Hobson Matthews, who took a house in Vittoriosa and descended by the 'Jews' Sallyport' to 'French' (namely English) Creek to bathe, may preserve an authentic tradition that an opening (it-tokba) in the fortifications by St Scholastica was once called Jews' Gate. But the significance is unclear, as in the case of the Valletta Jews' Sally Port (see Figure 1), a tunnel at the mouth of Marsamxett Harbour, which had, by the time of repair and reopening in 1676, become known as Ta porta dei giudei'.19 Roth, who partly followed Mifsud, suggested that the cemetery was built for an 18th-century community of freed slaves quartered round the Vittoriosa street, and that the 19th-century community sprang from this '"servile" origin'. He relies, apparently, on the Latin inscription ('established in 1784 at the expense of the community of Leghorn for the benefit of the freedmen, as an inscription over the bricked-up gateway still testifies').20 Known 18th-century free Jews tend to be found in Valletta. The cemetery (see Figure 3) appears to have been built to the plan shown in Figure 2. Wall to wall, it measures 40 feet 6 inches from east to west, compared with the 41 feet 3 inches stipulated (with walls) for A: A. The base of the north wall and its corners are cut in rock and are probably original. The line of the south wall is that of the street and may have been redrawn at the time it was laid. This would explain the difference of some 7 feet between the north-south dimensions of the present site (30 feet 6 inches wall to wall) and B: B (3 7 feet 10 inches). The incline shown in the plan's cross-section matches the basic rise of the ground towards the north, and the original entrance may well have been from the west, through what are now Nos 118 and 119 Rinella Street. If the pathway shown was laid, it has since been displaced by graves. Remains in the northwest corner (see Figure 3, No. 5) may be the tahara-house (for laying out and preparing corpses for burial) shown in the design, or a double grave.21 The cemetery today (see Plates 1 and 2) contains twelve identifiable graves (see Figure 3, Nos 3 and 6-16), four possible graves (Nos 1-2 and 4-5), one loose gravestone (No. 17) and two stone fragments (Nos 18-19). Seven gravestones and one fragment are inscribed, all in Hebrew. The best-preserved row of graves is Nos 10-16 (see Plates 3 and 4) and its three decipherable inscriptions are in date-order running northwards. Nos 7 and 9 in the next row</page><page sequence="6">150 Derek Davis I QU I \E\ n v7^ ^ ._ \ 1 5 oil ^ I I I I 2 I I-1 _ IdE^l qJ ,sD [cSllQQll 1 0 Scale: 1 in 100 Figure 3: A plan of the cemetery in 1983. to the west are later, as is the child's loose gravestone (No. 17) to the east, which may belong to Nos 3 or 6. It is not now clear whether burials began at the east end, continuing westwards with the graves that now remain, or at the west, where some burials were inserted later in vacant plots. On either assumption it is unlikely that the cemetery was completely filled. With allowance for a possible tflhara-house and 7 feet of lost ground, a maximum of about thirty people may have been buried over a fifty-year period. Most of the gravestones are of the soft local stone. As Deutsch had correctly foreseen, In the oldest cemetery the custom of orientals to mark the graves with horizontal slabs has evidently been the reason that the undisturbed vegetation of seventy years has covered if not destroyed every trace of a monument.' The standard construction is a slab laid flat on a stone plinth at ground level, or raised a few inches on stone supports. Uninscribed graves have, in most cases, lost this slab. Two plinths (Nos 7 and 13) carry coffin-shaped monuments laid</page><page sequence="7">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 151 Plate 1: View of the cemetery from the southwest. Plate 2: View of the cemetery from the southeast.</page><page sequence="8">152 Derek Davis horizontally in place of slabs, and there is one raised tomb (No. 10) of simpler design than the Victorian chest-tomb. One slab (No. n) is marble, and two inscriptions (Nos 13 and 17) are on marble panels. No. 9 at the end of its row, by the north wall, is badly cracked. This may have been caused by the collapse of the north wall, recalled by the occupant of No. 118 Rinella Street. The inscribed fragment (No. 18) could have been dislodged in this incident and may belong to No. 16 at the end of the next row. The early inscriptions, from between 1820 and 1831, are full and carefully composed epitaphs, two in rhyming half-lines, all deploying a store of Biblical allusion. These go beyond the merely conventional, offering fragments of pen portrait and comment, and may be the work of one man exercising his own licence. It is odd that no two inscriptions appear to have been cut by the same hand. The first texts are elegantly inscribed, but in 1831 such calligraphy ceases and epitaphs become perfunctory. At the successor Ta Braxia cemetery, standards declined further. The first Hebrew inscription, of 1836, was crudely scratched and heroically misspelt; most other early graves give only the names or barest details. The turning-point there was probably the arrival of Rabbi Joseph Tayar from Tripoli in 1846. The Kalkara inscriptions appear in the Register. They reveal five men, two women and a girl: Hannah Sda de Silva (No. 11) who died in childbirth in 1820, aged 44. A baalat teshuvah (a 'returned' convert or marrano) who could have originated among 18th-century 'neophytes' at Malta. She may, however, be connected with the de Silva family who came to Malta from Lisbon in the first quarter of the 19 th century, variously known as Silva and de, or da, Silva, and generally later called Borges da Silva. Jacob Borges da Silva was president of the community around 1830. Judah L . . . (No. 12) who died probably between 1820 and 1825. Menahem Benady (No. 13), who died in 1825 aged 70, was, from the terms of his inscription (see Plate 3) an active and prominent member of the Malta community. He was born in 1755, the son of Meshod and Hannah Benadi, at Gibraltar, where his trade was shoemaker. In 1799 he travelled to Minorca, probably to supply the occupying British forces. He may have come to Malta direct in 1802, following the surrender of Port Mahon to Spain under the Treaty of Amiens, or after a further interval at Gibraltar. He was joined at Malta in 1815 by his eldest son, Meshaud, who moved on to Corfu in 18 21, returning to Gibraltar in 1840. Samuel, probably another son, went also to Corfu, most likely by way of Malta, his children returning to Gibraltar.22</page><page sequence="9">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 153 Rika Abeasis (Abiaziz) (No. 15) who died in 18 31, aged 22 (see Plate 4). A young woman married into the family of Moses Abeasis, a merchant and shipowner from Gibraltar. His privateer, the 'Two Brothers', brought several prizes into Malta in 1804-5 and was re-registered there by November 1804. Moses himself first appears in July 1804, 'a Jew, owner of the xebec', when the prize turned out to be a Ragusan vessel bound from Sousse for Marseilles with a 'Jewish supercargo' or trader's agent on board.23 The 'Two Brothers' was arrested at Algiers, with two prizes in June 1805 by the British Consul, and subsequently came to grief on the Barbary Coast. Sir Alexander Ball, the naval officer who helped raise Malta against the French and became His Majesty's Commissioner for Civil Affairs (effectively governor), took up the case with Downing Street, forwarding a memorial signed in Hebrew. Eventually, Moses Abeasis was compensated in the Admiralty Court at Malta for loss of the prizes. He must have been absent for a considerable period following the plague in 1813, when, his affairs 'getting into disorder', he 'became and was for a long time unable to take the proper steps': he re-emerges in 1839 seeking compensation for the privateer.24 His son Jacob led the community in mid-century. Jacob Lucena (No. 7) who died in 1831. Probably from Ragusa. Rebecca Abea[si]s (No. 17) who died in 1831. A child probably of the same family as No. 15. Rafael Elieser Sarfati (No. 9) who died in 1833. Probably the husband of Rachel Sarfati nee Cortissos. She was born in London, where they were married at Be vis Marks Synagogue in 1802, and died at Malta in 1863. . . . Fano (No. 18) a young, unmarried man who died in 1834. Part of the collection of prints belonging to the Cathedral Museum, Mdina, was stolen from Florence in 1796, later captured at sea by corsairs and taken to Algiers. The prints were sent, probably around 1810, to Malta to two Jews named Cesana and Fano. They were bought in 1813 by an Englishman, J. R. Stewart, who sold them in 1815 to the cathedral.25 This Fano is probably a junior member of the same family. These are all burials carried out by the 19-century community, under British rule, and the individuals concerned were some of its earliest members. Other names are recorded elsewhere: Abram Alves (c. 1778-1846) and Sara (d. 1846) Correa. He was born in England,26 probably a relative of the 18th-century Abraham Alvares or Alves</page><page sequence="10">154 Derek Davis Correa of London, 'formerly a Portuguese merchant'.27 Correa claimed to be the first English-teacher on the island. He taught both British officers' children and Maltese in schoolhouses successively at No. 31 St Lucia Street (1809-10) and No. 55 Zachary Street (1810-19), provided by the government; the arrangement broke down in the 1820s when he and they were unable to agree on alternative premises. He was secretary of the synagogue around 1830 and claimed to be leader of the community in 1846. In the early 1830s he was involved in some obscure and acrimonious court proceedings and in later years proved a tireless correspondent in his own and others' causes. 'Correa is a man who earns his bread by writing grievance letters', the Colonial Secretary, Lord Stanley, gently pointed out when, in 1842, exasperated officials presented him with a ten-year tally. Correa wrote regularly to the Voice of Jacob, and was probably the 'Truth' protesting to the Malta Times (No. 16 of 20 June 1840) about II Portafoglio Maltese's coverage of the Damascus Affair. His son migrated to Barbados; his two daughters married into the Benselum family from Gibraltar; and he is buried in Ta Braxia.28 /. Israel who was living at No. 54 St Christopher Street, Valletta, in 1814 and advertised to all Jews resident in Malta and Gozo, styling himself 'Head of the Jewish Nation' and inviting 'petitions regarding business and commerce'.29 This initiative may have had some bearing on the establishment of formal community arrangements in the following year. Joseph and Miriam (d. 1840) Mamo who had reached Malta by 1810. Joseph was probably a 'broker' or import-export agent, as were all his four sons. The Mamos were much intermarried with the Abeasis family and the Nahums.30 Miriam is buried in Ta Braxia. Nessim Nahum (c. 1800-60) who was born in Malta, probably son of Israel and Zolli Nahum, and who married Moses Abeasis' daughter Rebecca. He too was a 'broker', evidently with Tunisian connections: one daughter settled in Sfax, another married a man from Sousse.31 Salamon (c. 1775-1860) and Memia (c. 1779-1859) Natafwho were both born in Tunis and had reached Malta by about 1820. Another broker.32 Joseph (d. 1850) and Rachel Pariente from Gibraltar, probably connected with the British Pariente family who were bankers in Tangier. He settled at Portoferraio, Elba, in the 1790s, provisioned the British garrison there during the war with France, and fought against the French in 1801 with a command of privateers from Gibraltar and Port Mahon. Rachel may have been sent for safety to Malta, where their son Joshua Richard (c. 1801-77) is recorded as having been born and later as attending Correa's school. Joseph continued on</page><page sequence="11">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 155 Elba until it was surrendered to France under the Treaty of Amiens in 1802. He was afterwards a prisoner of war, and then came to Malta where, in 1821, he was awarded an annuity of ?200 by the British Government for past services. In 1827 he applied for, but did not get, the British Vice-Consulship in Oran. Richard became a 'broker and auctioneer' and probably partner in Eynaud &amp; Pariente, agents from 1844 for the pioneering Anglo-Maltese Steamship Co. Either the parents or the son and daughter-in-law will be 'Mr and Mrs Pariente' mentioned in Sir Moses Montefiore's diary during his br ief call at Malta in 1840, and are, very likely, the 'Mr and Mrs P' who 'have lived twenty years at Malta' of the Montefiores' 1839 visit.33 Joseph is buried in Ta Braxia. Jacob Sarfati, a Malta resident whose home Rabbi Joseph Mazliah from Jerusalem frequented when he called at Malta in 1821 on a fund-raising tour. Jacob, whose name is preserved because he urged Rabbi Mazliah to report the death of a mutual friend, lest his widow remain an agunah, may well be the 'Hazan' who read a prayer in the synagogue for the safe passage of Mr and Mrs Montefiore at the close of their first visit to Malta in 182 7, and the author of the early Kalkara inscriptions.34 If so, he probably left the island around 1831. A number of other known persons are likely, on grounds of age, to have reached Malta by 1840, though their presence cannot be proved until later. These include Juda Bendaham (c. 1764-1858), merchant, and his wife Ester nee Benzacar (c. 1785-1865), both born in Gibraltar; Lea Benhamu (c 1780-1864) born in London, her daughter Sarah/Sale {d. 1852), and Sale's husband Prospero Dayan (c. 1793-1847) 'Inglese', that is England or Gibraltar; Rafael Bismot (c. 1808-71), merchant, born in Leghorn, and his wife Annina; Abram di Moise Messiah (c. 1800-64) born in London, and his wife Meriam/Mary nee Seruga (c 1814-74) born in Gibraltar; Gentile Servi nee Passigli {d. 1850) of Tuscan nationality, and Gabriel Simon or Symons {c. 1806-51) 'Inglese', and his wife Sara(h) nee Eshel. Scialom Taman [c. 1812-4 7) may have been born in Malta or Tunisia.3 5 Early graves in Ta Braxia with names that do not recur (Anna Sara Ambron, d. 1837; Shalom Abitbol, undated, c. 1840; Biliya Aboab, d. 1849) may be visitors. The picture that emerges from the cemetery and the other sources is of a small community that builds up from around the turn of the century, possibly during the French occupation, and certainly from 1800 under de facto British rule. One important contingent probably reached Malta on 14 October 1804 among a party of a hundred migrants from Gibraltar in convoy with HMS Hydra. They may have been fleeing from, or simply have coincided with, an outbreak of yellow fever at Gibraltar. Sir A. Ball, writing two years later and in</page><page sequence="12">156 Derek Davis another context, said that during the outbreak 'many persons of the Jewish persuasion took refuge at Malta'. But, shortly before, one of the vessels had carried a clean bill of health; some private letters from the Governor of Gibraltar and others had merely reported a 'slight fever' known to occur at that season; and the captain of the Hydra had had no dire news to impart.36 Other traceable early arrivals originate in England, Italy, Portugal, Tripoli and Tunisia. Others may have come from places such as Corfu, Austria Hungary and Russia, that were to yield later immigrants. The contemporary attractions of Malta are not far to seek. Those who already traded there no longer faced discriminatory controls. Gibraltar Jews, following the flag around the Mediterranean during the Napoleonic wars, found their lines of communi? cation leading to, or through, the island. The provisioning requirements of the British fleet - and, still more, the short-lived boom in trade conducted via Malta at the beginning of the century - drew an unprecedented influx of foreigners. 'The number of Foreigners residing in Malta during the six or seven years preceding the plague which infested these islands in 1813,' says the compiler of the 1881 census, 'was estimated at from 30 to 40,000. Many houses were fitted up like ships, with tiers of berths, and several large vessels were converted into floating hotels. This influence of foreigners was caused by Malta having become at that time the centre of all the commerce of the Mediterranean, when all the continental ports were closed to British vessels during the Napoleonic Wars.' The daily bulletins, while the plague was running, reveal few non-Maltese and still fewer Jewish names: Lazzaro Salmone, Elia Brucovich, Elia Baracovich (?the same) and Giovacchino Israel.37 After 1813, Malta was kept under close quarantine for fourteen years and, as in Moses Abeasis' case, trade only recovered gradually. The trade was with Tunisia and Tripoli and may have extended as far afield as Malta's grain imports from the Black Sea. Within a few years Malta was already one of four principal places of trade for Tripoli Jewry, as was discovered by a visitor there. David Uzziel of Tripoli established a business-house in Malta around 181 o and continued to visit the island regularly until after the Ottoman takeover, when he is found petitioning for a British passport in 1836. Tunisian traders visited before and after 1798: one such was Moses Maymon of Sousse, calling at Valletta in November 1804. By 1812 a British firm, belatedly surveying commercial prospects, could write off the trade with Tunis altogether, as 'principally carried on by Jews who have also their agents and establishments in Malta'.38 The resettlement in Malta did not pass without incident. In 1805 there was a concerted campaign against the growing number of foreigners on the island, which made re-emerging Jewry its special target. 'Vagabonds' of assorted</page><page sequence="13">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 157 nationality were said to be acting as spies and depriving Maltese of their livelihood; and it was rumoured that the Jews 'stole children (though none were missing) and sacrificed them in their religious rites'. In March 1805 a woman from the Mdina district was banished to Gozo for raising a commotion against a Jewish neighbour who was being visited by a French prisoner. Tales of ritual murder were no doubt embroidered round the coincidence of Passover and Easter Sunday on 14 April that year and there seems to have been further trouble in mid-May. Matters came to a head at the end of May or beginning of June. There was a demonstration of two thousand people, which lasted several hours, round the Governor's Palace in the centre of Valletta. The ostensible purpose - the organizers were conscious of no irony - was to protest at Ball's alleged comment about the campaign, 'li Maltesi sono come tanti pappagalli, e di lasciarli cantare' ('a lot of parrots, let them chatter'). While this was proceeding, a mob of boys and women with a few men, staged a separate attack on a group of Jewish shops and houses, probably in the vicinity of Fort St Elmo and the later synagogue. There they 'beset and insulted' the occupants until dispersed by the peace-officers. Three men involved in the attack were tried, convicted and punished, probably with exile. S. T. Coleridge, who was standing in as Public Secretary at the time, claims to have quoted Paul's Epistle to the Romans ('For I also am an Israelite . . . ') in evidence to the Maltese judge. The agitation drew on popular prejudice and commercial rivalry fomented probably by a group round Vincenzo Borg, sometime luogotenente of Birkirkara, who had fought with Ball against the French and then fallen out with him. After the demonstration the authorities cut ground from under the feet of the general campaign with new restrictions on entry to Malta from Italy, Greece, Albania and North Africa. Momentum evidently collapsed in the belief that the Military Commissioner, General Villettes, had given orders to open fire in the event of a fresh incident. The Borg group, baulked in Malta, then mounted a vain attempt to discredit Ball in London. Ball's own surviving account, which confines itself to a persecution of Jewish refugees from Gibraltar, is a product of the correspondence this generated.39 Following the firm action taken, though intermittent reports of difficulty continue, the blood libel was not heard of again at Malta till 1892.40 The Leghorn ransom society had been, in effect, the only Jewish representa? tive body in Malta up to 1798. The hevrah itself became defunct in 1799, but Leghorn may have continued to take a tutelary interest in the new settlers: in 1851 the Malta community was still able to preface an appeal for assistance in replacing stolen torah ornaments by saying that they owed their existence to Leghorn, had always turned there in time of difficulty and had always met with generous relief.41 They established a synagogue at No. 155 Strada Reale</page><page sequence="14">158 Derek Davis (Republic Street) in Valletta, where most members were concentrated through? out the 19th century.42 In 1815 a 'British Jews' Committee' was formed; a president, treasurer and secretary were elected; and 'articles' or 'regulations' were approved by the governor, General Sir Thomas Maitland. The provisions included payment of synagogue dues and contributions towards poor-relief. Some revisions of the original document were approved in 1827 by the Hon. F. Ponsonby, but government recognition lapsed soon afterwards when an attempt was made to enforce the provisions in the courts. There was, evidently, a dispute about poor-relief involving up to four out of eighteen synagogue members, a Mr Sananes and a Dr Bruno.43 The 1827 provisions may have been more onerous. Twenty years later, with poor arriving from 'Morocco, Algiers and Poland', Correa was to serve general notice that the community was reinvoking 'a former minute of Sir Thomas Maitland' ordering captains to carry poor passengers on, 'we Israelites giving them their provisions'.44 Total numbers, including children, in the early years were probably under one hundred. Information about the more settled population is incomplete, and it was at most times augmented by longer- and shorter-stay transients. Not all of these were poor, though this was a constant theme: 'the multitude of our poor brethren who are continually passing to and from our Island', the community wrote to London in 18 51; and half a century later Deutsch discovered that 'they found it hard enough to keep up their community and to provide for the assistance of the itinerant poor who sometimes came at the rate of 3 a week'.45 In 1827 Mr and Mrs Monteflore were told that there were 'twenty Jewish families here7. The source seems to have been 'a person... of our persuasion, named Turbiana [Toubiana]', who approached Mr Monteflore for money to return to Tunis.46 Since he had no cause to make distinctions, the estimate is likely to be comprehensive and reasonably accurate. Post-1846 records identify a population around 1840 of up to about 70.47 (See the table on the facing page.) This is liable to be an underestimate, though the presence of those marked (?) is uncertain. By 1851 the resident population had reached about 130 (50 British, 80 other nationalities), comprising 41 men and some 25 families.48 In 1881 it stood at 145 (79 British, 66 foreign; 72 males and 73 females), and by 1905 numbers had declined to 60.49 in 1839, on her second visit, Lady Monteflore obtained a different estimate which has been requoted.50 'About six families of our nation reside here,' she reported, 'and the congregation [in synagogue on Saturday 20 April], including strangers and children amounted to about thirty persons. I was the only female present_'51 This information probably came from the Parientes or from Jacob and Stella Abeasis on whom she may have called at No. 227 St Ursula Street, Valletta: 'We [Lady M. and a Mrs C(opeland)] paid a visit to Mr.</page><page sequence="15">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 159 The population from the post-1846 records Men Women Children Abeasis 31 3 Bendaham (?) 31 1 Benhamu/Dayan (?) 12 1 Bismot (?) 11 Borges da Silva 32 5 Correa 11 2 Mamo 31 3 Messiah (?) 11 4 Nahum 11 4 Nataf 11 3 Pariente 2 1-2 ? Sarfati - 2 Servi(?) - 1 Simon or Symons (?) 1 1 - Taman (?) 1 22 17-18 26 + and Mrs. A. who take so much pains in providing our dinner. They reside in a very excellent house, delightfully clean, and the rooms are ornamented with drawings by their son, and specimens of embroidery by their daughter. They had cake, wine and liqueurs prepared and were delighted at our visit/52 What was meant was that there were about six families of British nationality, or in the words of a letter thirteen years later to Sir Moses Montefiore,'... by the fact of our being British Jews though few in number yet considerably augmented by the very great numbers continually passing through the Island - including also some families who though not British subjects have been residents in these possessions from thirty to forty years/53 Correa's 'only six individuals able to afford relief, as being sole contributors for the rent of the Synagogue . . . \ in 1846, is a similar shortlist, perhaps partly trimmed by faction in that year.54 The Montefiores' first visit to Malta in 182 7 was devoted primarily to British friends and to inspecting the silkworm-rearing experiment at Buskett in which he held an interest. Towards the end of their stay, however, following Toubiana's approach, a 'deputation from the synagogue' called on Mr Montefiore. The next day the 'Parnassim' returned and showed him General Maitland's 'constitution'. These will have been Jacob Borges da Silva, President, and A. A. Correa, Secretary; probably with Jacob Abeasis as Treasurer.55 They evidently asked for his help in securing government approval of changes to the document and in obtaining permission for a new cemetery, 'their present ground being nearly filled'. On the return journey, as he sat out his quarantine on Manoel Island, Mr Montefiore heard from 'Monsieur Peynado [i.e. Abram</page><page sequence="16">i6o Derek Davis A.] Correa' that the revisions had been approved, and, before departing, he raised the question of the cemetery with the British authorities.56 On today's evidence, Kalkara was perhaps half full at that stage, but the development of Rinella Street may have been in progress or impending. Smyth's 1823 map (see Figure 1) shows the street with a few buildings to the northwest of the cemetery; by 18 54 the Admiralty Hydrographie Office map has a number clustered at the lower end. In the event, another nine years were to pass, during which most of those now identifiable were buried, before a permit was issued to Jacob Abeasis and the new cemetery was opened at Ta Braxia (by Pieta), where it was joined in 1857 by the British cemetery. So the fifty-year history of the bet-olam ha-shevuyim, with its now nameless early occupants and its 19th-cen? tury settlers, came finally to a close. REGISTER OF GRAVES AND INSCRIPTIONS Numbers refer to Figure 3. 1 Flat, rectangular stone (28 in. x 14 in.) set in the ground. Perhaps the remains of a grave or a paving stone. 2 Flat, rectangular stone (45 in. x 29 in.) As No. 1. 3 Plinth (45 in. x 29 in.) made up of three stones set in the ground. Will have supported an inscribed slab (possibly No. 17). 4 Stone (63 in. x 20 in., narrowing to 17 in.) set in the ground. Perhaps part of a plinth or of the same structure as No. 5. 5 Remains of low walls extending some 3 feet to the north and west. Perhaps formed base for a large, probably double, gravestone. But may be part of the tahara-house shown in Figure 2. 6 Plinth (52 in. x 31 in.) made up of two stones set in the ground. 7 Hexagonal, coffin-shaped monument (56 in. x 26 in. maximum width) laid horizontally and standing 10 in. above a plinth (72 in. X42 in.) set in the ground. Inscription across the top: ururn rrnsp rma nxT T3K n 3 v 3 n This is the gravestone of the venerable and honoured Jacob Lucena, may he rest in peace. He died on Friday 7 Heshvan 5592 [14 October 1831].</page><page sequence="17">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 161 May his soul be bound in the bond of life [2 Sam. 25: 29]. Amen may it be so. Probably 'Luzena' a Jew from Ragusa encountered at Malta in the 1820s by the exotic Rev. Joseph Wolff ('Travels and Adventures ...' [i86o]i66). There is no further trace of this family. 8 Two sides of broken plinth (58 in. x 27 in.). 9 Horizontal stone slab (53 in. x 29 in.) with bevelled edges, raised on stone supports 11 inches above a plinth (75 in. x 41 in.) set in the ground. The slab is cracked into fragments, of which eight remain: nxr ?wn rrnsp na[s&amp; 'trn ]vo nV a nva yaton n a x 3 n This Is the gravestone of a venerable And honoured man who bore The name Rafael Elieser Sarfati. He died on 3 Sivan [Tuesday 21 May] in the year 5593 [1833] since the creation. May his soul be bound in the bond of life. The yod in Elieser (line 4) has slipped towards the level of a Roman alphabet hyphen, as if hedging between Elieser and Eleazar. This is probably 'Elieser', husband of 'Rachele Sarfati', who was born in London and died at Malta in 1863 'aged 92' (see note 26). They should correspond to 'Eleazier Sarfaty and Rachael de Joseph Cortissos' who were married at Be vis Marks Synagogue on 16 May 1802 (L. D. Barnett [ed.] [see note 27] No. 1395). Rachel's age is probably overstated. Sintia, daughter of 'R. &amp; E. Serfaty', married Rabbi Israel Almosnino, an Austrian or Russian subject, in 1848 when she was - perhaps also approximately - 'aged 25'. 10 Raised tomb, consisting of horizontal slab (61 in. x 30 in.) and four sides, standing 19 inches above a plinth (79 in. X46 in.) set in the ground. The inscription may have been on an additional slab or panel now missing. 11 Marble slab (56 in. x 28 in.) with stone surround, laid horizontally on a plinth (81 in. x 51 in.) set in the ground. The marble is cracked in several places and bears traces of black paint. Inscription in rhyming half-lines: Dpr]p to id Vip&gt;a . naV?i?n rrx onw vtdo t'? rr?n w bo . nawjn mi rnpp nnrn nnn</page><page sequence="18">i?2 Derek Davis owed n^ion nVun .nmuV riD1? naroT nVin omn Dxn npVm . nranp nnaz *o nm^ u?pm irn mp^ . rDlpa du?3 xiVo *h xo n^ra1? nan craw rPn^ ypfp'u; . nDi^p nmo uraun 5* uv d'apT m^i omax am? . nawnn 'Van Vxnw dd'tox n"3"ar'3"n Grieve, women, for an unhappy woman of worth [Pv. 31:10]; in a voice of bitterness, woe and lamentation. For she was of a sorrowful spirit [1 Sam. 1:15] and in pain; the days of her life were 44 years. Her remembrance is gone before God, [may she be remembered] for good; send and redeem her from [thy] dwelling-places. She had hard labour [Gen. 35:16]. for misfortune is ever-present; a mother was taken from her children. She was called Hannah of the house of S?a de Silva; she was dearer than rubies [Pv. 3:15]. The 12th day of Shebat [Friday 21 January] her term was fixed; in the year a horn 'shall be blown' [Is. 27:13 = 5580/1820] to wake the sleeping. Happy, 0 Israel, are ye who repent; the stock of old Abraham and Sarah May her soul be bound in the bond of life. The reference in line 6 is to the Day of Judgment. The woman died in childbirth (line 4); her name and circumstances echoed in the allusion to Samuel's mother at the temple praying for a child (line 2). She was a baalat teshuvah, a 'returned' convert or marrano (line 7). Abraham and Sarah are conventional Jewish names for the 'parents' of such people (see B. Wachstein, Die Inschriften des Alten Judenfriedhofes in Wien II (Vienna 1917)2 78-9 [Diego d' Aguilar]). This may be the Portuguese maiden-plus-married surname of Anna, wife of Abram (Borges) da Silva, mother of Aron (c. 1801-77) and probably of Jacob (c. 1799-1874), both born in Lisbon. Abram died in 1849 aged 9 5 (see note 26) or 90 (his tomb in Ta Braxia) i.e. his age is only approximately known. 12 Horizontal stone slab (62 in. x 32 in.) with bevelled edges, laid on a plinth (78 in. x 51 in.) set in the ground. Two cracks and traces of black paint. The inscription consists of six lines (rhyming half-lines on the same pattern as No. 11), closed by the regular formula. It is very badly worn. The first two lines appear to read: Dwam onpTi mn ^?n 'airan .m? w *&gt;m raw nmno ^nb ...onvw "??ip v...*? wib .mm"? n ^ax urx 71a? mpa My heart fluttereth, my strength faileth me [Ps. 38:11], my days are a measure; the king hath brought me into his precious and pleasant chambers [SS. 1:4],</page><page sequence="19">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 163 The place of glory. I am Rab Judah; of the house of L[.. .a] my name, at the gates... No date is decipherable. The site of the grave suggests 1820-5. 13 Octagonal, coffin-shaped monument (59 in. x 28 in. maximum width) laid horizontally and standing 9 inches above a plinth (75 in. x 34 in.). Inset with octagonal marble panel (31 in. x 28 in. maximum width), the top left-hand corner of which is missing. Traces of black paint on the stone (see Plate 3). ...D^rpi iTnan 3*?3 mm rraa Vip3 vrsoi m ...] p'3D xwn JpT D^iVx KT w upx mo bv ...] (dtp3x?) a^TKn fWV pD3 10371 "DDK h DKT1 Wl ... jrnnn pur Ii? iK3i f?n fh nu^pn id ^nrn n^nai Km -o ]K '333 VDTl TI33 VinK D^TDK yVln to331 V331 o^h D^h 1ds3? V3D K1? D'KVn ^3103 nVmi K313 *&gt;3 ^Kl : D^IK 3v1? D^KT D^irD ft nK 1331? p '3S31 fK in^Hp : D'33-13 VnHD mTITO . ..iDun zd^dixi d^snun nrn htu Dipo^ d'dio 'd^V nVvn inDW3 3?"3V3 v D^IDK 1DW D^K p3 man hpd3 hks? |3 T3V DmD Kip3 :HTrV fiDpnn U3U? tznnV r3 p"u;y uvi n 3 ^ a n Mourn and lament, with a wailing and grieving voice, with a burning heart, with lamentation . . . At the death of an upright, God-fearing man, old and distinguished . . . He was straight and the fear of the Lord was his treasure [Is. 33:6] and he stood in the breach at the right hand of the [needy] . . . For he was crushed and stricken with a bitter and troublesome sickness and it pleased God to crush him [Is. 53:10] until there settled behind him . . . 5 Of howling jackals, and his sons and daughters, brought up in scarlet [Lam. 4:5] .. . after him with weeping, wailing and tears, With abundant strength. Though crushed and stricken with a great weight of sickness, he did not fail to watch Joyfully at his doorpost [Pv. 8:34]. He bustled before his community and was like a swift hind in glorifying God with wealth and vigour. May his soul rise up to heaven on high, to where the bands of Hayot, Seraphim and Ophanim are. His name . . . Was Menahem of the house of Benady. May his spirit rest in the Garden of God who watches over the faithful. He died 10 On Friday, eve of the Holy Sabbath, 23 Shebat in the year 5585 since the creation [11 February 1825]. May his soul be bound in the bond of life. Menahem Benady (1755-1825) from Gibraltar, whose father, Meshod, had moved there from Morocco c. 1735. The 1791 Gibraltar census gives his</page><page sequence="20">164 Derek Davis Plate 3: Grave No. 13, Menahem Benady (1755-1825), from Gibraltar. occupation as shoemaker, and he probably moved first to Minorca, later to Malta, to supply the British forces with boots. From the terms of the epitaph he prospered modestly at Malta and was a leading member of the community. The apparent involvement with poor relief (line 3) suggests a treasurer of the 'British Jews' Committee' elected in 1815. The 'jackals' (line 5) may be adapted from Psalm 44:20 ('Though thou has crushed us into a place of jackals and covered us with the shadow of death'). There may also be some topical allusion, perhaps to problems surrounding poor relief, which were to become recurrent. One and possibly two sons had moved to Corfu by the time of his death. Nothing is known of the daughters and there is no later trace of the family at Malta (see note 22). Benady (line 9) originates in an Arab and North African tribe name, the Ban? 'Adi (Eisenbeth, Tes Juifs de 1'Afrique du Nord...' s.v. Addi, Encyclopaedia of Islam s.v. Hil?l). The curious ayin-aleph spelling is a usual variant. An incidental pun (Arabic *?di, 'runner', echoing the Hebrew verbs 'to run' in line 7) may have been intended. The three fabulous creatures of line 8 are drawn</page><page sequence="21">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 165 from the penultimate benediction before the Shema in the morning prayers. The Seraphim derive from Isaiah 6:3-4; the Hayot from the 'living creatures', and the Ophanim from the 'wheels' of Ezekiel 3:12-13. The honorific zaken (line 2) denotes his age. Mr Mesod Benady writes that, in Gibraltar, ha-yashish is used in calling a man of 60, zaken a man of 70, to the reading of the law. 14 Plinth (69 in. x 35 in.) set in the ground. 15 Horizontal stone slab with bevelled edges, laid on stone supports (50 in. x 38 in.) and standing 13 inches above a plinth (75 in. x 54 in.) set in the ground. The inscribed surface measures 38 in. x 26 in. Single crack across the centre (see Plate 4). d'nso xti nip*' . noo nipai . noro np-m nmn . naixn wxna . narro nnai nrra nan? nnaD .noao xina mann Va no *?3? . nawn nnTnn xVi *pw 3d na noaa no *?in nrn xr di1?^ nan . nai^p nnro d*w ou?a nnnax na npn .no ^ no . nox^ p Vx wax rraV naipa nama xh x^n Vi^x ^in ova d^n^x pa xspn nau?a n[nma]o xnn n a s 3 n Mine eyes are poured out [Lam. 3:49] and my flesh shuddereth [Ps. 119:120] For an unhappy graceful doe [Pv. 5:19]. She was dearer than rubies [Perror for hashuvah]. She was worthy and righteous as Tamar [Gen. 38:26 or Ps. 92:13]. She left her house and her daughter. At the head of 5 All the streets, as an antelope in a net [Is. 51:20] she turned Her back and did not offer repentance. Why Did her judgment issue and why did a girl of 22 years Perish, her span cut short? Behold for my peace I had great bitterness [Is. 38:17]. Rika, daughter of Abraham, 10 Was her name, of the house of Abeasis [Abiaziz]. Wherefore, be it said: On the day of the month Elul: 'May she [the 16th] be inscribed' In the year 5591 [Thursday 25 August 1831]. In the Garden of God Be her repose. May her soul be bound in the bond of life.</page><page sequence="22">i66 Derek Davis Plate 4: Grave No. 15, Rika Abeasis (c. 1809-31), whose family also came from Gibraltar.</page><page sequence="23">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 167 This epitaph, like Nos 11-13, is the work of someone well versed in biblical text, a skill not in evidence again at Malta for a decade. Unlike Nos 11-13, it is roughly inscribed, as if the author had delivered his text but not stayed - or been able - to supervise the mason. The quotation in line 11 is adapted from Esther 10:2, to refer to the book of life. The earliest Abeasis, Moses, came to Malta from Gibraltar. Like the Borges da Silvas and others, they seem to have divided time between Malta and other ports. At least one child was born in Tunis and another probably outside Malta (Zollina d. 18 6 8; Israel, d. 18 5 6: see note 2 6) and one branch of the family later settled in Tripoli (information from Mrs Daniela Maghnagi). The prevalent practice of naming the first son and daughter after the husband's parents and, often, the second son and daughter after the wife's, offers some aid. Moses (floruit 1804-40), Jacob (c\i8oo-after 1852) and Moses (c. 1830-after 1870), whose first son was Jacob (1862-72), should represent the direct male line. Rebecca Nahum nee Abeasis (c. 1805-after i860), whose second son was M(oses: see note 30) and second daughter Rachelle, should be Jacob I's sister. By the early 1830s Jacob was married to Ester (Stella) Mamo, who seems to have been the mother of Moses II (Ester Abeasis, 1859-60) and the first daughter (Rachella: see her second, Ester Nahum, b. 1864). Rika's husband may have been Shalom Abeasis (later married to another Ester, and father of a child in 1846) or a relative. Known Malta candidates for her father Abraham are limited to Borges da Silva: Correa had three children who are accounted for. The circumstances of Rika's death are unclear. There is an ominous undercurrent to the allusions. The 'antelope in a net' (line 5) is a simile for Jerusalem's recalcitrant sons. She may have 'turned her back' (lines 5-6) on her family in death or, more comprehensively (Jer. 2:2 7, 3 2:3 3) on her religion. The second quotation from Isaiah (lines 8-9) means: may her sins be set aside as King Hezekiah's were. 16 Remains of plinth (37 in. x 20 in.) set in the ground. 17 Child's rectangular stone tomb (33 in. x 21 in.) standing 11 inches high. Similar in form to Nos 9 and 15 but comprising a single stone rather than a slab and supports. It lacks a plinth and may have been moved, perhaps from No. 3. Inscribed marble panel (15 in. x 14 in.) inset in the top, with one fragment containing left-hand side of second line missing. Traces of black paint on the stone. rrvop nax? nxT ...] npn rnV?n uv2 nn&amp; *o rurax rra1? 2"sp"n nw nau rif? "a rp"W n"2"2rm</page><page sequence="24">i68 Derek Davis This is the tombstone Of the child Rebecca . . . Of the house of Abea[si]s. She died on The Sabbath, 20 Tebet [5]592 [24 December 1831]. May her soul be bound in the bond of life. Probably a cousin of the older Rebecca (see No. 5) and niece of Moses Abeasis. Conceivably the daughter mentioned in No. 5. 18 Loose stone fragment (14 in. x 14 in.) containing left-hand side of inscription. xt Tmn rmap [rmo nxT d^w Trips nop[3 ... rraV in[ ... nj?-rc 'u? ]tn nb r&gt; noDp '2 nvi n 2 s 3 n on[ ... [This is the] grave[stone] of a bachelor who feared [God] . . . died in the shortness of years. [His name was] ... of the house of Fano. He died [On the second day of] Passover, 16 Nisan [Friday 25 April] in the year 'the righteousness of [5594/1834] . . . ' May his soul be bound in the bond of life. This may have become detached from No. 6. 19 Loose stone fragment (28 in. x 20 in.). Probably part of a plinth. NOTES 1 I owe particular thanks for help and en? couragement in the preparation of this account to Dr Richard Barnett, to Mr George Tayar and to my father, Stanley Davis, who in this, as other causes, p fX in^np ^D1?. Mr Michael Ellul and Dr Godfrey Wettinger pointed me to important source material. Mr A. Schischa kindly read the epitaphs in tran? script and made invaluable comments and suggestions. I should also like to thank Mr Joseph Caruana for Figure 3. Error is my own. 2 Cecil Roth, 'The Jews of Malta', Trans JHSE XII 202 ('Solomon son of Yeshua'). The Museum read 'Rachel wife of Y.' Both are doubtful. 3 Jewish Chronicle 9 June 1905. 4 Roth (see n. 2) 244. 5 Kalkar a, including Bighi Heights (Mount Salvatore). 6 Now Kalkar a Creek. The Auberge and battle-station of the Knights' English Langue, already in decline in the 16th century, were nearby. 7 NLM Library MS No. 429 (Vol. 7) ff. 178-9. Translated from the Italian. 8 G. Laras, 'La "Compagnia per il riscatto degli schiavi" di Livorno', La Rassegna Mensile d' Israel (1972) 101-2, 105. R. D. Barnett, 'The Correspondence of the Mahamad . . . ', Trans JHSE XX 23-5, 40-3. E. Bashan, She viyah u-fedut (Bar-Ilan 1980) 125, 134 (where the total of 90 over-allows in 1768). 9 G. Wettinger, 'Some aspects of slavery in Malta, 1530-1800' (unpublished Ph.D. thesis) University of London Library 1972, 450 and Table 9. NLM Archives 6532, 9 July 1796. 10 Roth (see n. 2) 234-5.</page><page sequence="25">The Jewish cemetery at Kalkara, Malta 169 11 Roth, 'The Slave Community of Malta', The Menorah Journal (New York 1929) 229. 12 Wettinger (see n. 9) 236. 13 Roth (see n. 2) 225, 244. 14 Archivum Inquisitionis Melitensis (AIM) Cathedral Museum, Mdina, Processi Vol. 120 C, Item 212, ff. 1361-6 (1746). The case concerned an employee or visitor denounced as a lapsed New Christian. On the Acris family: M. Benady, 'The Settlement of Jews in Gibral? tar', Trans JHSE XXVI 94, 98. 15 A. Mifsud, 'Tracce dell' antica vitalita giudaica maltese', Archivum Melitense IV. 1 (1919) 20-1. S. Asaf le-toldot ha-yehudim be-i maltaZion II (Jerusalem 1928) 70. Roth (see n. 2) 243-4. 16 Roth (see n. 2) 246. 17 Mifsud (see n. 15) 18, 21. 18 AIM Processi Vol. 43 B, Item 14, f. 254 (1623). 19 J. Hobson Matthews, 'Reminiscences of Malta', Guida Generale (Muscat 1914) 291. Mifsud (see n. 15) 18. 20 Roth (see n. 11) and (see n. 2) 244-5. 21 The larger site claimed would have sufficed for some 300 burials. Leghorn were, perhaps, attempting to deploy earlier rights or undertakings. The title-deeds of the Venice cemetery were already proving elusive in 1727: Roth (see n. 11). 22 Benady (see n. 14) 101. I owe to the author, Menahem's great-great-great-grand? son, details from the 1777 and 1791 Gibraltar censuses and from passports in the family's possession. 23 NLM Library MS No. 818 ('Arrivi') 7 April, 14 May, 10 lune, 9 and 25 July and 5 Sept. 1804, 13 March 1805. Ball's despatch of 5 Feb. 1805 (CO 158/10). 24 Cartwright's despatch of 26 June 1805 (FO 3/10), Ball's of 31 Jan. 1806 (CO 158/11) and Bouverie's of 4 Feb. 1839 (CO 158/105). 25 Fr. J. Azzopardi, 'Count Saverio Mar chese (175 7-1833) his Picture-Gallery and his Bequest to the Cathedral Museum', Pro? ceedings of History Week 1982 (Malta 1983) 30-1. 26 Comunita Israelitica di Malta, Nascite, Mortalita, Matrimonii 1846-84. Anglo-Jew? ish Archives. Sara's death: Voice of Jacob 22 May 1846. 27 Colyer-Fergusson Collection, Anglo Jewish Archives s.v. Correa. L. D. Barnett (ed.) Bevis Marks Records II (London 1940) Abstracts of Ketubot No 955 (1764). 28 Correa to Colonial Office 3 March 1832, 5 Aug., 3 Sept. and 8 Dec. 1836, 8 Jan. 1837 (CO 158/74, 94 and 99). Bouverie's despatch of 16 Oct. 1838 (CO 158/102). Submission on Correa's 1842 correspondence (CO 158/124). Voice of Jacob 28 Aug. 1846. 29 Gazetta del Governo di Malta (No. 43)17 Aug. 1814. Translated from the Italian. 30 See n. 26. Alphabetical Return of the Jews Resident in Malta . . . ' enclosed with despatch of 26 Dec. 1851 (CO 158/158). 31 See n. 26, n. 30 and Register No. 15. 32 See n. 26 and n. 30. 33 Memorial of 17 Feb. 1827 (CO 158/58). See n. 26 and Correa to CO 8 Dec. 1836 (CO 158/94). See n. 30 and 'Civilisation' (Malta 1983: article on early steamships). Lady Montefiore, 'Notes from a Private Journal of a Visit to Egypt and Palestine . . . ' (London 1840) 191 and communication from Dr Bar nett. 34 R. Yitzhak ibn Walid of Tetuan's Vayomer Yitzhak (Leghorn 1855) quoted by Asaf (see n. 15) 70-1. Lady Montefiore, 'Private Journal of a Visit to Egypt and Pales? tine . . . ' (London 1836) 116. 35 See n. 26 and n. 30. The Alphabetical Return' confuses Abram Messiah and Abram Masliah, either or both of whom may have kept a 'Bazaar for the sale of Turkish and Maroqueen manufactures'. 36 Villettes' despatch of 26 Nov. 1804 (CO 158/15), Ball's of 30 Jan 1805 (CO 158/10) and 28 Feb. 1807 (CO 158/13) 67. 3 7 Census of the Islands of Malta, Gozo and Comino taken in 1881 by George Cousin (Malta 1882). Explanatory Notes p. 3. British Library Cat. No. CS.A. 231/2: bulletins for 22, 26 and 30 July 1813. 38 'Viaggi di Ali Bey El Abbasi . . . dall' anno 1803 a tutto il 1807' (Milan 1816) II. 16 5. CO 15 8/94 s.v. Uzziel. NLM Library MS No. 818, 18 Nov. 1804. Holland &amp; Co to Lord Castlereagh, 19 Oct. 1812 (FO 49/4). 39 Ball (CO 158/13, 28 Feb. 1807)67-9. Anonymous letter of 14 March 1806 in Italian to the Prime Minister (CO 158/12). Avvisi signed by Coleridge on 25 March, 21 and 23 June 1805. K. Coburn (ed.) 'The Notebooks of</page><page sequence="26">170 Derek Davis S. T. Coleridge' Vol. 2 (London 1961) entries 2594, 2646. D. Sultana, 'Samuel Taylor Coler? idge in Malta and Italy' (Blackwell 1969) 304, 336-8. 40 Roth (see n. 2) 249-50. L. Loewe (ed.) The Diaries of Sir Moses and Lady Montefiore II (London 1890 and 1983) 64. 41 Laras (see n. 8) 106-7. MS copy letter of 22 Oct. 18 51, probably drafted by R. Bismot from Leghorn (Malta community records of 1851-2, presented by Mr George Tayar to the Anglo-Jewish Archives). 42 See Malta Government Gazette (No 1671)31 July 1849 (voting list for Members of Council) for some mid-century addresses. Deutsch (see n. 3). 43 Correa to CO 3 March 1832 (CO 158/74). 44 Voice of Jacob 28 Aug. 1846. 45 MS copy letter of 11 Nov. 18 51 (see n. 41). Deutsch (see n. 3). 46 Lady Montefiore (see n. 34) 114. 47 See n. 26 and n. 30. Joseph Pariente (see n. 33) claimed 'a wife and numerous family'. 48 See n. 30. 49 See n. 37 and n. 3. 50 Asaf(seen. 15) 71, Roth (seen. 2) 248. 51 Lady Montefiore (see n. 33) 184. 52 Ibid. 188. Sir Moses Montefiore men? tions 'Mr Abeasis' by name in 1840 (com? munication from Dr Barnett). Compare Mr and Mrs Foa at Alexandria whose residence was 'extremely respectable' and whose private synagogue was 'small but extremely clean': (see n. 34) 168. 53 MS copy letter of 30 Jan. 1852 (see n. 41). A similar, accurate sub-total of Italian 'Nazionali' was deployed on 2 Aug. 1852 in answering an appeal from Ragusa for help in restoring the Syracuse synagogue after an earthquake. 54 See n. 44. 5 5 Who were re-elected under the revised 'constitution' in December 1827 (see n. 43). 56 Lady Montefiore (see n. 34) 115, 277. L. Loewe (ed.) (see n. 40) 1.50.</page></plain_text>