Familieminder

THE MENDES DA COSTAS.

A l l students of the Earl of Beaconsfield’s Life know the story of the legacy of £ 40,000 left him by Mrs. Brydges Willyams. Mrs. Brydges Willyams was the daughter of Abraham Mendes da Costa, son of Daniel Mendes da Costa of Jamaica.

Daniel Mendes da Costa died about 1755 I

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Abraham

Rachel Lousada

d. 1782 I Sarah (Mrs. Brydges Willyams)

Abraham Mendes da Costa died during Sarah’s infancy, and her mother, who was a gentile lady named Leigh was remarried to a Mr. Ford, and Sarah seems to have been cut of from all associations with the Jewish relatives of her father. Through the Laras, Mrs. Brydges Willyams was remotely connected with the Earl of Beaconsfleld himself. No family in this record is of greater distinction than that ofMendes da Costa. Together with their cousins, the Mendes’ and the Da Costas, they played an important part in the history of the crypto-Jews of Portugal, and subsequently in the founda­ tion of the Anglo-Jewish community. They were active on the Royalist side during the Civil War, and, after the Restoration, acquired a considerable importance. Alvaro da Costa, merchant and banker, was one of the earliest Jewish land-owners in Eng­ land. His seat at Totteridge was afterwards sold to the Mannings, and it was in the house he had built that the Cardinal was born. His brother-in-law and cousin, Fernando Mendes, M.D., was body