Apr 27, 2017 - Sale 2444

Sale 2444 - Lot 181

Price Realized: $ 4,000
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 2,000 - $ 3,000
(JUDAICA.) List of the Number of Jews Naturalized in His Majesty's Plantations from 1740 to 1752. One manuscript page, 12 3/4 x 7 3/4 inches; folds, minimal wear. Np, circa 1753

Additional Details

This document summarizes all Jewish naturalizations under the 1740 Naturalization Act. The act allowed for the easy naturalization of Protestant immigrants to the colonies upon swearing an oath of allegiance and profession of faith. It offered exemptions to Quakers and Jews regarding oaths (but notably excluded Catholics altogether). It became the first real opportunity for British citizenship for its Jewish colonists. This list gives the annual number of naturalizations in four Jewish communities in the English colonies: 151 in Jamaica from 1740 to 1750, one in South Carolina in 1741, 26 in New York from 1741 to 1748, and 6 in Pennsylvania from 1747 to 1752. The names of individual settlers are not given. This list was likely compiled in preparation for (or reaction to) the controversial Jewish Naturalization Act 1753, which opened citizenship to those Jews actually living in England.