HENRY LEVY LEWIS-SOPHIA LEVY LEWIS

[phillip]

Henry's will is signed and sealed 16 March 1816 and the later date 14 February 1831 in which his natural children William,Emma and John are set free. See Centre for the Study of the legacies of British slavery where Sophia has 26 enslaved slaves in 1821 and has a claim for compensation in 1836 following 1834 emancipation. These natural children are not going to be youngsters in 1831 and often were assigned to the descendants of the Testator including as babies or very young children.

I could be wrong but it looks as if the Codicil is linked to the changes to slavery and significantly post-dates Henry's death.
What are your views on the Codicil?

[ABrooks]

Hi Phillip,

Thanks I read the will again and there is a date before the start of the will which says will of H L Lewis En? 1st October 1819. At the end of the will before the codicil its dated 14 March 1816. The codocil to me looks to be dated 23 December 1830 and then is proved in 1831. What is the 1819 date referring to, is it when the will was registered?

The original will aligns with Henry's death but the codocil has been done by someone else. Given the family is in the legal profession it suggests the codocil has been made to help the children from slaves post Henry's death.

[phillip]

I read the 1819 note as when the original will was entered for registration in Jamaica. We are looking at copied extracts from the will and not the original hence the codicil entries and later date of 1831. In section B codicil I read the word as 'Renunciation' ( could be wrong) regarding Asher Levy as executor. In his will dated 16 March 1816 Henry refers to 'all and every my children male and female' and then we have the codicil freeing his 'natural children'.
When you look at the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery under Asher Levy you will see absentee slave owner London Gower Street and records of enslaved and claims paid to him and Elias Lindo 1835; 1837;1832

You also have Sophia as slave owner as we already know.
I read these codicil as part of the executors and executrix claims for compensation the question being what happened to Henry's 'natural children' post Henry's death and what happened to their mother (s)?
I have transcribed large numbers of wills for Synagogue Scribes including those of slave owners who recorded' natural children' in their wills - some of the children were given 'freedom' while others were assigned to the owner's family.
I think the claims for compensation is the over riding reason for the Codicils.

[phillip]

As a follow up to my previous post regarding what happened to the 'natural children' of Henry see Children of Uncertain Fortune: Mixed- Race Jamaicans in Britain and the Atlantic Family 1733-1833.D Livesay,Chapel Hill University of North Carolina Press,2018. The legal and entitlement issues relating to mixed race children are discussed in the book together with 'kinship' and status in family composition.

See also the website Endangered Archives Programme- Manumission of Slaves 1747-1838 folios ( folios 91-99 are missing)- these are original manumission papers for Jamaican slaves. I have taken a quick look but the papers need looking at carefully and may omit the period for Henry's will.

[Eve Mary]

I'm coming into this discussion very late and haven't (yet) tried to read all 52 pages of posts (was trying to avoid going down rabbit holes). I landed in this thread because I want to use some of my family research material to contribute to the Legacies of British Slavery project and was trying to find out more about Sophia Levy Lewis. I arrived at her via my research into LAZARUS/LAWRENCE families rather than LEVY/LEWIS families. Please excuse me if I'm rehashing old ground - tell me, and I'll try to find the right pages.
According to what I've found, Louis Lewis in Jamaica was the brother, one time partner, and attorney of Sophia L. Lewis. Two of Sophia's trustees for the probate of her will were her nephews George Henry Lewis and Frederick Hyman Lewis, sons of James Graham Lewis. According to the Great Synagogue record of James Graham Lewis to Harriet DAVIS in 1829, his father's name was Nachum. So Sophia's father and that of her brother Louis and George Coleman Hamilton LEWIS must have been Nachum. Isabella, daughter of Louis Lewis, and Louisa and Emily, daughters of Asher ASHER, also for a time in Jamaica, married LAWRENCE men, son and grandsons of Jacob Vermshl/Worms LAZARUS (member of the Great Synagogue). The connections come together in part through witness of Wills and Probates and through the 1851,'61 and '71 Censuses for Sophia L. Lewis, George Hamilton Coleman Lewis (her brother) and George's niece, Fanny LINDO, widow, nee Lewis, another daur of Louis Lewis. Also, of course, the records of Jamaica Jews, records on the Legacy of British Slavery site, and records of slave registers on Ancestry.

[Eve Mary]

I haven't listed all the sources for that information because I don't know what I'm repeating of what's already here, but I can provide them. Some are from Synagoguescribes.com also. What I was trying to find out was who Sophia Levy Lewis married. Am I right in thinking that you've identified him as a Henry Lewis? (Sorry, as always, CFS-ME leaves me easily befuddled, overwhelmed by so much info that you have all posted.) Also, that there is a connection to another family of Lewis solicitors, those who were convicted of fraud? I spend quite a while trying to sort them out, couldn't find an obvious connection to Sophia, then found (on Google books)Wealth and Notoriety: the extraordinary families of William Levy and Charles Lewis of London by Robert Ward 2013 in which the author refers to a Charles Vallancey Lewis "of the unrelated 'Jamaican' Lewis family of solicitors." (page 91) Google doesn't let me see the whole page that this is from, but as the book is about the family that I think is mentioned elsewhere in this thread (Lawrence Levy/Lawrence and others who appeared in court, Lawrence eventually dying in prison), am I to understand that you have in fact found a link between Sophia's (ie Nachum's) family and that of her husband, that that includes the criminal lawyers?
All I want to do is write up the LAWRENCE/LAZARUS family and their ties to slavery, but seems to have got me into A. Very. Confused. Mess.
Eve, wondering what I've got myself into.

[ABrooks]

Hi Eve, I have been researching the Jamaican Lewis/Levy line to see if there is any link between Sir George Henry Lewis (Sophia's nephew) and the Lewis/Levy line that I am related to (see thread on Edward Lawrence Levy). My great grandfather Edward Rayner is supposedly the son of Constance (Elizabeth Rose Wilmar) Lewis and was sent to Australia as a remittance man. Family story is that he had an Uncle Sir George Lewis, Sir George Henry is the only one I can find that fits the timeline. I have not been able to find a link to date but its difficult to go back much further than Noah Edward Lewis or William Levy. There are some marriages between the lines

re Sophia Levy Lewis, she married Henry Levi Lewis on the 23rd Nov 1814 in Jamaica. It seems that they had 3 children, Moses in 1815, Charles Vallencey (1816/1817?) and Henry. Cannot locate any further information on Moses, Henry died after 6 months. Charles Vallancey can be traced and returned to England and married Eliza Isaacs.

Adrian

[Eve Mary]

Hi Adrian,
I'm afraid I don't know anything about your line. As I say, I'm coming at this from an entirely different family and am trying to sort out some collateral connections.
Thanks for the information about Sophia Levy Lewis. Since my last post I have found her marriage to Henry. I also have extracts of his Will from the Jewish Will Extracts on synagoguescribes. Unfortunately, I haven't been able to find his Will or Probate on Ancestry, which is strange. Curiously, his three "natural" children are mentioned, but not those he had with Sophia. I think there may also have been a daughter, Lucretia Henry Levy, who married Isaac Iffla in 1817. This is in the Sephardic Congregation marriage records on jamaicafamily research.com. Henry's Will/Probate gives his name as LEVY, Henry alias Levi Lewis. I think he went as Henry LEVY for a time in Jamaica, so I've been searching for information under that name. I found some slave registers under that name and I think his natural son John appears in a couple of them before being sold with two others to Isaac and Lucretia Iffla. But I don't yet have conclusive proof yet that Henry Levy in the earlier Jamaica records is Henry Levi LEWIS.
Some connections between the different LEWIS families are via solicitors as witnesses or legal defense (as i recall off the top of my head, so don't take those as gospel). At first I thought this would be simply because they were Jewish solicitors and therefore go-to people within a common community, but witnesses to wills at that early period tend to be people known to the family and I haven't found the same Lewis solicitor firm witnessing wills of other non-family-member Jews that I've looked at. Of course, such a connection may not be relevant to you and your research, but who knows, I've found connections by accident by keeping track of such details.

Good luck with your research.
Eve

[phillip]

Hi Eve
I have been on holiday so just seen your posts. First of all, you can see the will of Henry Levy otherwise Levi Lewis on Ancestry under the name Levi Lewis probate 1831. The Synagogue Scribes will extract is one of mine.

Next, there is data on Sophia Levy Lewis 1791-1861 on the website Centre for the Study of Legacies of British Slavery - this data identifies several family relationships.

I hold a copy of the Robert Ward book Wealth and Notoriety and shared data with him on the Jacobs/Lawrence/Levy early lines. I relate to the lines via my Jacobs lines- Lawrence Levy -Rebecca Jacobs.
Charles Lewis c1801-1864 was an attorney and solicitor with step father William Levy and Elizabeth Levy born to Elizabeth from her first marriage.

Robert, myself and others contributed to the very large thread on Henry Levy Lewis and an earlier one.

I don't want to repeat existing data contained in the threads but you might want to look at the early posts in the thread and specifically those relating to Henry and Sophia.
The relationship between the Levy/Lewis/Levi legal occupation individuals is complex because of name changes and who exactly was born to which parent due to second marriages. Similarly, the term 'cousin'is problematic in some of the relationships and in wills.

I hope this initial data is of some use.

[Eve Mary]

Hello Phillip,

I didn't get a quick-reply option, hence full quote.

Thank you for your reply. I haven't yet gone through the very lengthy threads, but will look for answers to specific questions I still have.

I had found your Will Extract for Henry but hadn't been able to find the will on Ancestry. I have now, thank you. I wish the Jewish Will Extracts on Synagoguescribes would give the date the wills were first signed as well as the probate date. These can make quite a difference, especially when there is a large time gap - 16 years in the case of Henry's will.

I wonder what made Henry add the codicil freeing his enslaved children? Were they born after 1818 he wrote his will in 1819? (And therefore after his marriage.) I've been trying to find these children, John, William and Emma, but have found only one enslaved person who may be his. This is John Levy, who first appears as Ireland, the son of Jenny, age 13, in the 1817 register of those enslaved by Henry Levy. In 1823, Ireland alias John Levy, age 19, was recorded as sold to Lucretia Iffla.

I assume that Henry and Sophia were some sort of cousin. As they were married in Jamaica, there must have been some family connection that took her there. I haven't found a link among her family in England, but perhaps it's in the threads here. I do wonder how it is that she apparently has her own estate with 18 enslaved people as early as 1817 (increased to 26 by 1829. I see that she and Louis ended their partnership as merchants and storekeepers in 1859 - I wonder what their occupations were when they had estates with enslaved people? When Henry was alive they each had their own estate, it seems, she in Kingston and he, Coolshade in St. Ann. I wonder who were her beneficiaries when she died?

Under what thread(s) is your Jacobs/Lawrence/Levy information? Is the Lawrence part related to Jamaica? I arrived at Sophia Levy Lewis via a Lazarus aka Lawrence link to Jamaica and wonder if it's the same family.
Oh, what tangled threads we weave when first we research genealogy. To quote someone or other.

Cheers, Eve

Hi Eve
I have been on holiday so just seen your posts. First of all, you can see the will of Henry Levy otherwise Levi Lewis on Ancestry under the name Levi Lewis probate 1831. The Synagogue Scribes will extract is one of mine.

Next, there is data on Sophia Levy Lewis 1791-1861 on the website Centre for the Study of Legacies of British Slavery - this data identifies several family relationships.

I hold a copy of the Robert Ward book Wealth and Notoriety and shared data with him on the Jacobs/Lawrence/Levy early lines. I relate to the lines via my Jacobs lines- Lawrence Levy -Rebecca Jacobs.
Charles Lewis c1801-1864 was an attorney and solicitor with step father William Levy and Elizabeth Levy born to Elizabeth from her first marriage.

Robert, myself and others contributed to the very large thread on Henry Levy Lewis and an earlier one.

I don't want to repeat existing data contained in the threads but you might want to look at the early posts in the thread and specifically those relating to Henry and Sophia.
The relationship between the Levy/Lewis/Levi legal occupation individuals is complex because of name changes and who exactly was born to which parent due to second marriages. Similarly, the term 'cousin'is problematic in some of the relationships and in wills.

I hope this initial data is of some use.