Moses LAZARUS of Rochford and brother Jacob

[Eve Mary]

The Anglo-Jewish historian Cecil Roth states in 'The Membership of the Great Synagogue, London, to 1791' and in 'The Rise of Provincial Jewry' that Moses Lazarus of Rochford and Jacob b. Eleazer Worms Lazarus, an early member of the Great Synagogue in London, were brothers. This family relationship has been repeated in a number of instances in the decades following publication and appears in the Notes section of some record transcriptions of synagoguescribe.com.

As C. Roth gave no sources for the relationship, I decided to try to sort it out for myself. Going through the records on synagoguescribes.com and C. Roth's publications, I found there were several LAZARUS men who were members of the Great Synagogue, including a hazan, a parnas, a treasurer and a gabay.

Moses' will was written 18 November 1813 and probated 08 March 1815. (The original can be viewed on Ancestry.com) In it he bequeaths a sum to 'each single daughter belonging to my late brother <Jacob>'. (Jacob's name is written in Hebrew. I'm not sure if a more accurate translation would be Yakov.) So Moses did have a brother Jacob, who had died before November 1813. He also leaves bequests for the daughter of his sister Gootle. I don't know when between the writing of his will and probate that Moses died.

Jacob Virmshl (or Worms) LAZARUS, son of Eleazer of Worms, died in 1805 (he was buried in Ducking Pond Cemetery in London 08 July 1805; see synagoguescribes.com Reference DPL 0342). I have found six children of this Jacob from various records. Two were daughters, Elizabeth, married in 1804, and Catherine in 1809; these can't have been the unmarried daughters mentioned in Moses' will in 1813.

The only sibling of Jacob Virmshl for whom I can find evidence is Nathan Lazarus, whose marriage record identifies his father as Eliezer from Worms (synagoguescribes.com Reference GSM 030/7 Date 1796 [21 Jul]).

So was Moses of Rochford's brother Jacob Virmshl, son of Eleazer of Worms? None of the evidence contradicts this. Then again, nothing says he was. We don't have Moses' father's name, and even if it were Eleazer (very likely, given that he used Lazarus as his surname), unless it included the toponym Worms (or variation of that), it would prove nothing.

Moses' will names two siblings, Jacob and Gootle; Jacob Virmshl's only known sibling is Nathan. No overlaps. Nathan's only known child is one who was buried sometime between 1801 and 1808 (synagoguescribes.com BSGSBUR 165/1178); he may never had had daughters to whom Moses might have left money.

Cecil Roth, you should have saved me an unresolved puzzle named your source in at least one of the following:

THE RISE OF PROVINCIAL JEWRY
by Cecil Roth
(published 1950)
THE BEGINNING OF THE COMMUNITIES, 1740-1840.
https://www.jewishgen.org/jcr-uk/sus...ewry/intro.htm

JOURNAL ARTICLE
THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE, LONDON, TO 1791
C. Roth
Miscellanies (Jewish Historical Society of England)
Vol. 6 (1962), pp. 175-185 (11 pages)
Published By: Jewish Historical Society of England
https://www.jstor.org/stable/29777131

The Rise of Provincial Jewry: The Early History of the Jewish Communities in the English Countryside, 1740-1840
Cecil Roth
Published by Jewish Monthly, 1950

[phillip]

Hi Eve
We spoke about some of the issues regarding Roth's research and statements. He spoke to one of my relatives many years ago and stated that our family lines came from France. I know where he got the idea from based on my own subsequent research but he was totally wrong. My thinking is that he based all his evidence on Moses Lazarus on Synagogue records and possibly the work of Hyamson and Colyer-Fergusson who were writing about Anglo Jews family trees.

When you look at the subsequent data on Moses Lazarus of Rochford there is insufficient information to clearly link all the lines. Most family trees have adopted Roth's work and not considered sources.

We don't know enough about Moses of Rochford in terms of his original family roots except for his named siblings in his will but as you say that provides no evidence of the relationships to the Worms lines.

[Eve Mary]

Hi Phil,
I'm glad we're in agreement on this. As far as I can see, nothing in the synagogue records suggest a connection Moses Lazarus of Rochford and the Lazarus families of Worms. I hope to post what I've learned about a few of the early Lazarus members of the Great Synagogue, including the latter, some of whose descendants marry into a family from Exeter. Sadly, the Exeter family is not that of my Lazarus ancestors.