Joseph Salvador (1716–1786) was a British businessman in

London London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...

. Descended from Portuguese Sephardic Jews, he is often mistakenly referred to as having been the first and only Jew to serve as a director of the

British East India Company The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (the Indian subcontinent and South ...

. While Salvador invested considerable sums in East India Company stock and was active in Company politics in the 1760s, there is no evidence of his serving as a director. Salvador's ancestors had escaped persecution during the

Portuguese Inquisition The Portuguese Inquisition ( Portuguese: ''Inquisição Portuguesa''), officially known as the General Council of the Holy Office of the Inquisition in Portugal, was formally established in Portugal in 1536 at the request of its king, John III. ...

and migrated to the

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

. From there they immigrated to

England England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe ...

in the eighteenth century. Salvador belonged to the Portuguese

Sephardic Sephardic (or Sephardi) Jews (, ; lad, Djudíos Sefardíes), also ''Sepharadim'' , Modern Hebrew: ''Sfaradim'', Tiberian: Səp̄āraddîm, also , ''Ye'hude Sepharad'', lit. "The Jews of Spain", es, Judíos sefardíes (or ), pt, Judeus sefa ...

Jewish

synagogue A synagogue, ', 'house of assembly', or ', "house of prayer"; Yiddish: ''shul'', Ladino: or ' (from synagogue); or ', "community". sometimes referred to as shul, and interchangeably used with the word temple, is a Jewish house of wor ...

in London, and was a leader in the affairs of this Portuguese-speaking community. He was a prominent businessman and financier. He lobbied for the 1753 Jew Bill to extend full citizenship and civil rights to Jews. In 1759, Salvador was elected a Fellow of the

Royal Society The Royal Society, formally The Royal Society of London for Improving Natural Knowledge, is a learned society and the United Kingdom's national academy of sciences. The society fulfils a number of roles: promoting science and its benefits, re ...

. When

George III George III (George William Frederick; 4 June 173829 January 1820) was King of Great Britain and of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of the two kingdoms on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Br ...

ascended the throne of England, Salvador headed the seven-man delegation that congratulated him on behalf of England's Jewish community. Salvador was a pro-Hanovarian

freemason Freemasonry or Masonry refers to fraternal organisations that trace their origins to the local guilds of stonemasons that, from the end of the 13th century, regulated the qualifications of stonemasons and their interaction with authorities ...

belonging to the

Premier Grand Lodge of England The organisation now known as the Premier Grand Lodge of England was founded on 24 June 1717 as the Grand Lodge of London and Westminster. Originally concerned with the practice of Freemasonry in London and Westminster, it soon became known as ...

and was engaged in anti-Jacobite activities. Salvador was also a great patron; together with the DaCosta family, he sponsored transportation for 42 poor Jews to

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

in 1733. These colonists lay the groundwork for what was to become the Jewish communities of the city of

Savannah A savanna or savannah is a mixed woodland-grassland (i.e. grassy woodland) ecosystem characterised by the trees being sufficiently widely spaced so that the canopy does not close. The open canopy allows sufficient light to reach the ground to ...

and

Charleston, South Carolina Charleston is the largest city in the U.S. state of South Carolina, the county seat of Charleston County, and the principal city in the Charleston–North Charleston metropolitan area. The city lies just south of the geographical midpoint o ...

. Many migrated from Savannah to Charleston after the Spanish attacked Georgia, as they feared getting caught in another Inquisition. From the 1730s, Charleston became the preferred destination for Sephardic Jews in the South. Salvador and the DaCosta family bought hundreds of thousands of acres in

Ninety-Six District Ninety-Six District (not "96th") is a former judicial district in the U.S. state of South Carolina. It existed as a district from 29 July 1769 to 31 December 1799. The court house and jail for Ninety-Six District were in Ninety Six, South Carolina ...

in the colony of South Carolina in the 1730s. He was eventually financially ruined after the great earthquake that destroyed

Lisbon Lisbon (; pt, Lisboa ) is the capital and largest city of Portugal, with an estimated population of 544,851 within its administrative limits in an area of 100.05 km2. Lisbon's urban area extends beyond the city's administrative limits w ...

in 1755, as he had invested considerably in property in that city. Joseph's nephew was

Francis Salvador Francis Salvador (1747 – 1 August 1776) was an English-born American plantation owner in the colony of South Carolina from the Sephardic Jewish community of London; in 1774 he was the first Jew to be elected to public office in the colonies whe ...

, who emigrated to South Carolina in 1773, buying 7,000 acres in Ninety-Six District. He joined the American Patriot cause and in 1774 was elected to the Provincial Congress, the first Jew to be elected to public office in the Thirteen Colonies (and future United States.) In August 1776, he was killed in a battle in South Carolina, the first Jew to be killed in the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Salvador, Joseph 1716 births 1786 deaths British people of Portuguese-Jewish descent 18th-century Sephardi Jews English Sephardi Jews Directors of the British East India Company 18th-century English businesspeople Fellows of the Royal Society Presidents of the Board of Deputies of British Jews Freemasons of the Premier Grand Lodge of England English people of Portuguese descent

See also

References