Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2010 with funding from The Library of Congress http://www.archive.org/details/reportofforeignaOOamer l-wW' EEPOET OF THE FOREIGN ARCHIVES COMMITTEE. Pbepabed by Albert M. Feikdenbebg, Chairman. ^ /Sl Lie /Crnj- Reprinted from Pdblications op the Ambbican Jewish Historical Society, No. 23, 1915. ■f KEPOKT OF THE FOREIGN ARCHIVES COMMITTEE. Peepared by Aldebt M. Friedenbebg, Chairman. At a meeting of the executive council, held in the autumn of 1913, the desirability and feasibility of dealing with the different volumes of the series of " Guides " to the material of American historical interest preserved in foreign archives, published and to appear in the future through the Depart- ment of Historical Research of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, were considered from the point of view of the investigator in and the student of American Jewish history. At the subsequent meeting of the executive council, on Feb- ruary 23, 1914, it was voted to appoint a committee of three to deal with the subject, and the sum of two hundred and fifty ($250) dollars to cover the necessary expenses of such committee was appropriated. The president thereupon named as such committee Messrs. Albert M. Friedenberg, chairman, Alexander Marx and Leon Hiihner. It remains to be added that theretofore the corresponding secretary of the Society had, with the approval of the presi- dent, made a careful examination of the " Guides " thus far published and extracted therefrom a list of items of Jewish interest for the use of the committee. Since then I have con- tinued this task. The lists in question naturally formed the basis upon which the committee has proceeded in its work. The most important and by far the greatest number of the items relating to American Jewish history are drawn from the volumes dealing with the English archives. Some of this material, notably that with respect to the naturalization of Jews in the American colonies imder the Act of George II, has already been utilized by our workers, and incorporated in several of the papers appearing in our Publications. It was 91 92 American Jewish Historical Society. to have been anticipated, however, that much inedited material still reposes in these archives, since the colonies of the ante- Revolutionary era and the Jews who resided in them, as well, bore a more or less direct and an intimate relation to Great Britain, For this reason, too, the items of Jewish interest bulk so large. In a letter from Prof. Charles M. Andrews, of Yale Univer- sity, the author or a co-author of several of the published " Guides," which he wrote to me under date of March 18, 1914, it is stated: .... As I remember the general nature of such documents as related to Jewish history, the contributory value was not very great, though I have some hesitation in making even this com- ment. There are hundreds of returns of one kind or another that may contain more than I know, but to find out what and where they are will be no slight task. For example, you cite the Bar- badoes Shipping Returns or Naval Office Lists — there are great numbers of such lists for all the colonies, and as they usually give the name of owner and master it may be that much might be gleaned from them. The committee has not done more up to this time, in the case of the English archives, than to sketch the details of the work which remains to be systematically prosecuted. For one reason, because the committee deemed it prudent not to involve either itself or the Society in an elaborate scheme of operations, entailing the expenditure of more considerable funds than are at our command. Furthermore, the existing European War has served to deter us from embarking on that preliminary investigation into and more or less careful exami- nation of the Jewish material in the archives — not only of England but also of all the other Continental countries thus far reported on — which are an essential prerequisite to the farther development of the matter. Finally, and on this head, the committee deems it appropriate to describe briefly the nature and extent of certain documents contained in the English archives, for the purpose of eliciting a discussion, QitJ Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenherg. 93 and, if possible, a resolution of direction in the future work of this committee thereon, in the Society itself. In that portion of Andrews' " Guide to the Materials for American History, to 1783, in the Public Record Office of Great Britain," which covers the departmental and miscel- laneous papers (vol. ii, p. 127 et seq., 1914), we are furnished with a detailed description of the Custom House papers and, more particularly, of the Port Books in the Public Eecord Office, London, contained under the rubric, " Exchequer K. R. Port Books." There are extant 1464 bundles of these Port Books, running in date from roughly 1275 to 1789. They begin to bulk large from Elizabeth's day, although quite a number of them are earlier. Each bundle contains from about eight to twelve books and, in the whole collection, there are to-day some thirty thousand parchment books of varying sizes. Originally there had been fifty thousand books; some were destroyed by fire a century ago and others disappeared through the carelessness or ignorant neglect of the earlier keepers of the records. Some of these papers had extraordinary adventures, particu- larly, by a curious stroke of fate, in the hands of booksellers in the city of New York. The Port Books, by the testimony of Prof. Andrews, are not easy to handle or use, whilst the form of the entries contained in them is such as to require a certain experience on the part of the one who attempts to read or make use of them. In his " Guide " Prof. Andrews presents examples of two or three of these entries, and, curi- ously or one may say characteristically enough, a Jewish item appears among them, viz. : London, 1696. In the Speedwell Jam. Moulton per Nevis Isaac Gomes als 14 lb wrot brass 18 doz plane Leather Gloves 4 1 wrot silk, 1 haberdashery 1 wrot iron One piece English lace att 121 18s d. It will be at once apparent that we have in these documents an important, and, for our purposes hitherto unknown, source 94 American Jewish Historical Society. of information on the subject of the participation of the Jews in the American colonial commerce. The Port Books took their origin in the altogether natural desire of the English government oflBcials to prevent frauds on the customs. The revenue officers were empowered to employ writs of assistance in order to procure the necessary details for the entries to be made in these books, if and when the merchants themselves did not do so voluntarily. The books were issued yearly to all customers, i. e., to the merchants making entries at the different ports, in tin boxes under the seal of the exchequer, and were returned regularly to the office of the King's Eemem- brancer. They were thus made up from the notes of the mer- chants themselves or the daily ledger entries of the local officials. The classification of the books, covering the details of the foreign and colonial trade, is, as follows : (a) customer's entries; (b) comptroller's entries; (c) searcher's entries; (d) surveyor's entries; (e) waiter's entries. Of the foregoing (d) and (e) are, apparently, only for the Port of London. We have the following particulars as to each entry in the Port Books, viz. : 1. the date by year and month; 2. the name of the ship, occasionally her tonnage or burthen, and the names of the master and shippers; 3. her destination, if outward bound; the place of shipment, if inward bound; 4. the amount, kind and value of the goods carried; 5. the p,mount of customs revenue paid, etc. It will be observed, then, that the expert examination and use of this material should be of prime value to our researches, affording as it does tolerably full data as to the growth of the English export and import trade, the development of com- Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenberg. 95 panies of merchant adventurers and ports, the history of colo- nial settlement and expansion, and the genealogy of mer- chants, making possible a unique statistical analysis of English trade and the outlines of the story of Jewish participation therein. In part 2, p. 45 et seq., of vol. i, of the " First Report of the Eoyal Commission on Public Records appointed to inquire into and report on the state of the public records and local records of a public nature of England and Wales " (Cd. 6395 : London, 1912) will be found interesting particulars of the Port Books, on which, it should be added, the present remarks are in a measure based. This commission, and especially Mr. Hubert Hall of H. M. Public Record Oflfice, its secretary, were the first to discover the value of the Port Books and to make this fact known to the body of students of history. Prof. N. S. B. Gras, of Clark University, who contributed a paper, " Some New Manuscript Sources for the Study of Modern Commerce," to the Annual Report of the American Historical Association for 1912, before this commission is reported to have investigated some four hundred of the Port Books, for his work on the early English grain trade. In a letter, dated October 23, 1914, he writes to me, as follows: It is my impression that the records in question, the English Port Books, would prove of great value in American Jewish his- tory. Nothing short of careful search and transcription of ex- tracts by someone on the grounds, would, however, be of much use. I have had about 800 photographs of the earlier series, 1275-1565, made for my particular purposes and I intend to publish these in a volume soon. I have nothing, however, of any value in your field. Prof. Andrews, again writing me, under date of October 5, 1914, says: I can hardly doubt but that the Port Books would be of material value to you in giving the names of Jewish merchants and masters engaged in colonial trade. I did not examine altogether more than fifteen or twenty bundles containing perhaps a hundred or a 96 American Jewish Historical Society. hundred and fifty books. I have an impression that I ran across Jewish names but I made no note of such. You will need to know that items of colonial interest are not over common and to use the books one will have to exercise much patience I may say that as a rule, the departmental books do not mention the names of individuals engaged in trade. Such names were not of interest to those whose business it was to make up statistical returns. In most cases the best results will be obtained from such records as registers, naval oflBce lists, sixpenny books, passes, and the libel files in the High Court of Admiralty, whence actual names can be obtained. My own feeling is that unless one comes across Jewish names of those engaged in commerce, more or less as an accidental happening in connection with other searches, he will have much discouragement before he will find such through any particular search. I do not recall meeting with any great number of such names. It must be noted, however, that Prof. Gras and not Prof. Andrews, made a careful and exact examination of a fairly large number of these Port Books. In this connection, also, it may be apposite to point out the excellent use that may be made of the Port Books in a special investigation. Mr. Worthington Chauncey Ford, of the Massachusetts Historical Society (Proceedings, vol. xlvii, p. 178 et seq.), furnishes an example of their employment in the case of his investigation of the details of the mercantile career of Governor John Winthrop of Massachusetts. I am of the opinion that these Port Books warrant and demand a patient, special and detailed examination from the point of view of this Society and its interests. Because of the vast amount of this extant material and of the difficulties, heretofore indicated, attending its thorough investigation, the funds at the committee's disposal are quite inadequate for the execution of such an intention. A special fund ought to be created to this end. In the case of the American Loyalist papers in the English archives, which Prof. Andrews describes in the second volume of his " Guide .... to 1783 . ..." (p. 262), and which Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenberg. 97 may be found in the Audit Office, London, records under the rubric, "A. 0. Claims. Amer. Loyalists, 109," we have the advantage of possessing a complete and faithful transcript thereof in the New York Public Library. The documents cover the years 1784 to 1789 and comprise reports and state- ments affecting the Tories of the Revolution. They are pre- served in the special room for American history at Bryant Park, and may be called for by the title, "III. Transcripts of the MSS. Books and Papers of the Commission of Enquiry, etc." There are in this collection, in all, sixty volumes of folio size, and I have carefully gone through volume xi thereof, commissioners' reports, etc., which furnishes a useful and convenient index to the whole work. My examination disclosed the presence of exactly two Jews of undoubted identity as such in this Index of Loyalists, and I supply herewith the details of the entries affecting them, viz. : No. of Cert. Name of Claimant Province Claim for Loss of Property Sum originally allowed 223 281 Franks David Hart Moses Pennsyl R. Isio £1125 2000 125 1081 Total sum payable under Act of Pari' Sum already received Ballance after such rec' Deduct a/c of Pension Final Ballance 125 1081 37.10 324.6 87.10 756.14 'i 87.10 749.14 In these records there are scores of other names of persons who bear what may be called, for better or worse, Jewish names, but they are very often found on a painstaking enquiry not to be names of Jews. I have rigorously excluded such from my notes. I have not done this for the purpose of em- phasizing or giving point to the special plea that the Jews of America during the Revolutionary War were almost to a man 98 American Jewish Historical Society. adherents of the patriot cause, although this was the indubi- table fact, proved by the statements of contemporary observers and of other historical sources referred to here and there in our Publications, but for the reason that the United Empire Loyalists, as they have come to be known, whose affairs form the staple of these documents, settled in Canada and, more particularly, in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the Maritime Provinces of the present Dominion, after the conclusion of the Treaty of Peace of 1783 between the United States and Great Britain. The Maritime Provinces of Canada received practically no Jewish immigrants before the anti-Jewish excesses in the Empire of the Czars in the preceding century compelled the Eussian Jew to become a wanderer up and down the rest of the habitable earth. Mr. M. J. Wessel, the headworker of the Henry Meinhard Memorial, a Jewish settlement-house in New York, with whom I was in correspondence, spent a portion of his vacation in the summer of 1914 in this section in the endeavor to discover the facts of Canadian Jewish history on the spot. He reported to me, in substance, as follows : Digby, N. S., has a population of 2000 souls, and only two families of Jews ever resided there. One of these moved away some time ago, whilst the other came to Digby in 1888. One section in the business district of the town is known as " Jew's Cove " or " Jew Cove," because, curiously enough several Irish merchants trafficking there upwards of thirty years ago had charged exorbitant prices for their commodities ! In Halifax and Sydney, N. S., there are Jewish communities embracing respectively forty families, but none of these pos- sesses what may be called a history. St. John, N. B., has a Jewish community of 260 persons, not of an ancient stock however, as is apparent from the fact that H. Green, president of a local congregation, came to St. John in 18Bl as a boy, his parents fearing the result of the American Civil War on their fortunes, and that his marriage to a Miss Hart was the first Jewish union celebrated in the Maritime Provinces. Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenherg. 99 Therefore, it is fairly deducible from our knowledge of the history and conditions of the Jews in Canada that the two names of Jewish Tories, given heretofore, comprise practically all the Jews mentioned in the American Loyalist papers. Hence these documents may be adduced as an additional and tolerably positive proof that the Jews of America during our Eevolution were, quite uniformly, holders of the patriot fortunes. The items of Jewish interest found in the " Guide " of Prof. Marion D. Learned, of the University of Pennsylvania, to the German archives embrace several noteworthy matters. For one thing, they supply us with new sources of information and offer us hitherto undisclosed evidences of the activity of the Jews in various channels of public and quasi-public affairs. The identification of Jews in these records is facilitated by reason of the fact that the oflBcial writers, whose monuments are preserved in the papers of these archives, nearly always refer in characteristic German fashion to the Jews by the word or words of religious and racial definition. " Jude " or " der Jude " is the qualifying designation almost never absent from the German official pieces relating to the Jews, dating from the eighteenth and from practically the entire first half of the nineteenth century. Thus, at Marburg, in the archives of the mediatized landgravate of Hessen-Cassel, may be found a mass of material relating to the operations of one Philipp Marc, a sutler or commissary of the third English-Waldeck regiment of mercenaries, or Hessians, in our Eevolutionary War. His brother, Jacob Marc, was the court-factor of the landgrave, and we have in these archives long and circumstan- tial accounts of the supplies furnished the electoral house and its troops of mercenaries by one, the other or both of these Jewish brothers. This material is of considerable intrinsic interest and, besides, of added value from the fact that it supplies the student of American Jewish history with new names and new occupations of German Jews in those days, and 100 American Jewish Historical Society. thus equips him with the necessary details to be used by him in filling in the picture of a philosophy of American Jewish history. The German archives, moreover, afford interesting addi- tional information regarding the life and the career of that Jew who is so well-known to our investigators as Jacob Phila- delphia, and concerning whom extended references may be found in the Publications of this Society. The archives, too, are important, and it may be said untapped, mines of knowl- edge on the genesis and the development of the immigration of German, especially Bavarian, Jews to the United States in the nineteenth century. This material is splendidly adminis- tered and is, or at least was up to the commencement of the European War of 1914, readily accessible. I happen to know that a Privatgelehrter of Munich, David Wassermann by name, has undertaken and, perhaps, completed by this time rather detailed studies in this archival material from the point of view of Jewish history, but regrettably cannot give any account of their general nature and serviceableness for our enquiry because of my inability to get into satisfactory communication with him. Our fellow-member, Mr. August Kohn, of Colum- bia, S. C, has in letters to the English- Jewish press of this country (see, for example. The American Israelite, May 1, 1913) referred to the value and importance of Herr Wasser- mann's work, but, in a written statement to me, dated May 16, 1913, he declares that at that time he could do nothing about it. I ought to add that Max J. Kohler, Esq., has knowledge of Herr Wassermann's activity in this line of archival re- search, for, I recall that, in the summer of 1912, he showed me a letter which either described or bore directly upon it. One further word : in attempting to utilize this almost super- abundant Bavarian material the student must be fully informed as to the locale of the Jewish settlements in that kingdom. The Jews, e. g., lived in villages like Dinkelsbiihl and Feucht- wangen, but they did not reside to an appreciable extent in Pforrinff, Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenherg. 101 An item from the archives of the Grand Duchy of Baden, judging from the rather alluring reference to it in Prof. Learned's " Guide," seemed to possess great interest. Prof. Learned gave the follovs^ing particulars of it (p. 234) : 6735. Matter relating to the scarcity of grain and bread and a contract with a certain Jew for 10,000 Centners for the troops, with the remark, that the emigration " in die sogenannte Land- schaft Pennsylvaniam " has contributed much to this state of things. I had it copied through the courtesy of the director, Ge- heimer Archivrat Prof. Dr. K. Obser, in Karlsruhe, and deem it appropriate, because of its early date and general interest, to give it here in extenso for suitable preservation in our records. Abschrift. Grossh. Oenerallandesarchiv Karlsruhe Akten Pfalz Generalia Nr. 6735. Praesentibus Heydelberq den 22'*°. Herren Geheimen Raths und May 1709. Regierungs Praesidenten Excellenz Freiherren von Hillesheimb Freiherren von Heuel Herren Geheimen Rath und Vice- kanzler von Mezger von Scherer Becker Liils Otto. Nachdeme der, in denen Chur Pfaltzischen sowohl als negst- anliegenden Landten je langer je mehr anwachsende Frucht- und Brodtmangel zu dem Auszug der Chur Pfaltzischen Underthanen in die sogenante Landtschafft Pensylvaniam und andere nicht wenig contribuiret; Vundt als man dahero bedacht gewesen, wie diessem iibel wenigstens in etwas gesteivret und das Landt von Underthanen nicht gar erostiget werden mbge; So ist Von allhiesigem Kriegs Commissariat zuevernehmen vorkom- men, wie dass ohnlangsthien von Ihme Kriegs Commissariat mit einem sicheren Judten, zue Behueff der Churpfalzischen Troup- pen auf 10000 Centnern Mehl ein Accordt getroffen worden seye, und weyllen dasselbe einer so grossen Quantitet in Anseh- 102 American Jewish Historical Society. ung fast alle Regimenter nacher Brabandt, und anderstwo wiirklich abmarchiret, dermahlen nicht benothiget; So hielte man von Regierungs wegen, dafiir, dass bemelter Judt zue ad implirung des mit Ihme getroffenen Contracts und fordersamer Anschaffung, des Mehls an zuehalten, und so dan von solcher Quantitet Mehl denen Armen Nothleidenden Underthanen, zu ihrer Rettung sowohl, als auch zue evitirung ferenerer emi- gration eins weyllen mit einigen Tausendt Centnern Oder so viel das Kriegs-Commissariat fiir jezo entbehren kan, aus zue- helfen were, vund zwar dergestalt dass Sie die Underthanen ermeltem Kriegs Commissariat den von Ihme gethanen Vor- schuss nach der Erndte hien widerumb in natura und eadem qualitate et quantitate zue ersezen schultig seyn sollen, welches Ihrer Chur-Fiirstlichen Durchlaucht underthanigst zue hinter- bringen und deroselben dabey gehorsambst anheim zuegeben ware, ob Sie es also gnadigst zue aggreyren mithien mehr ge- dachtem Kriegs Commissariat disfals die Nothdurfft zue sou- lagierung der Underthanen bey gegenwertiger Brodtklemer Zeit anzuebefehlen gnadigst geruehen woUen. Freyh. C: W. v. Hillesheim mpria Freyhe. von Heuel mpria Mezgeb SCHEEEE F R Beckeb A LtJLS Otto. Comment is not required; the document speaks for itself and its Jewish interest, it must be confessed, is somewhat microscopic. The incident serves to show how much of dis- criminating care is required in any enterprise such as ours and how impracticable a long-distance searching of the archives is likely to be ! The enquiry must needs be conducted in the interest of the objects of the Society by trained investigators on the spot in the archives of the various countries we wish to examine. A more or less superficial examination of the contents of the Italian archives was made possible through the careful study of the " Guide " thereto of Prof. Carl E. Fish, of the Report of Foreign Archives Committee — Friedenherg. 103 University of Wisconsin. On p. 217 of Prof. Fish's book I came upon a reference to a letter of Christopher Columbus, addressed to Gabriel Sanchez, reposing in the Biblioteca Valli- celliana in Eome, belonging to the priests of the Oratory of St. Philip ISTeri. As noted it bore the date May 3, 1495, Dr. Cyrus Adler, the president of the Society, through the courtesy of the Hon. Thomas Nelson Page, American Ambassador to the Court of King Victor Emmanuel III, secured a copy of the letter in photographic facsimile. On this, our fellow- member, Dr. Abraham A. Neuman, Instructor in History in the Dropsie College, has made a report, indicating that the " 5 " should read " 3." The Department of Historical Eesearch of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has been advised of the error to the end that the necessary correction may be made in fresh printings of Prof. Fish's valuable work. The committee asks to be continued, that the balance of the appropriation with which it has been provided be suffered to remain at its disposal, and solicits the favorable dispositions of the members of the Society to the end that a sum sufficiently large for the ambitious undertaking it proposes to initiate may be at its command." »See The Hebrew Standard, March 5, 1915; The Jewish Voice, March 12 and 19, 1915; The Jewish Ledger, ibid.; Jewish Com- ment, March 19, 1915, p. 307; March 26, 1915, pp. 316, 319; The Reform Advocate, October 23 and 30, 1915. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS \\\\\\\\''\ y\ liiiiii iiiiiiii lllMiiiniiiiii" ■'■' ■■ 011640 502 7 ^ Hollinger Corp. pH8.5