David Salomons
Encyclopedia
Sir David Salomons, 1st Baronet (22 November 1797 – 18 July 1873) was a leading figure in the 19th century struggle for Jewish emancipation
in the United Kingdom
. He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London
and Lord Mayor of London
, and one of the first two Jewish people to serve in the British House of Commons
.
, the son of Levy Salomons of St Mary Axe
and Frant
, Sussex
and Matilda de Metz of Leyden (married in 1795), he followed his father into business in the City of London
, where he was a successful banker. Salomons was one of the founders of the London and Westminster Bank (now the NatWest), and a member of the London Stock Exchange
.
In 1835 he was elected as Sheriff of the City of London
. However, he was unable to take up the post, because the mandatory oath of office included Christian statements of faith. The Sheriffs' Declaration Act was passed later that year, and Salomons was able to take up the post. In 1839, he was High Sheriff of Kent
, where his Broomhill estate http://www.salomonscentre.org.uk/history/index.php, now the Salomons Museum
, was located near Tunbridge Wells
.
In December 1835, Salomons was elected as an Alderman
of the City of London, but again faced an unacceptable oath, and on this occasion the law was not changed. Salomons was disqualified, but was re-elected in 1847, after the Religious Opinions Relief Act had amended the oath. In 1855, the Aldermen elected him as Lord Mayor of London
.
In the meantime, he trained as a lawyer
and was called to the bar in 1849, though he did not practise as a barrister
. However, he was the first Jewish magistrate
in England.
candidate at a by-election
in the Greenwich constituency
, and on 28 June he was elected as one of the constituency's two Members of Parliament
(MPs).
He was not permitted to serve in the House of Commons
, because he had not taken the oath of abjuration in the form established by Parliament
. However, he did not withdraw quietly: instead he took the oath, but omitted the Christian phrases, and took his seat on the government benches.
He was asked to withdraw, and did so on the second request, but he returned three days later, on 21 July 1851. In the debate that followed, Salomons defended his presence on grounds of having been elected by a large majority, but was eventually removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and fined £500 for having voted illegally in three division
s of the House.
When the law was eventually changed in 1858, Lionel de Rothschild
became the first Jewish MP to legally take his seat, having been elected in 1857. In the 1859 general election
, David Salomons was re-elected for Greenwich and served as the constituency's MP until his death in 1873.
His country house Broomhill north of Tunbridge Wells is now preserved as the Salomons Museum
.
House and Hannah Samuel. Her aunts Judith and Henriette were the wives of Sir Moses Montefiore
and Nathan Mayer Rothschild
respectively. After her death in 1867 Salomons married Cecilia, the daughter of Samuel Moses Samuel in 1872. He was made a baronet
in 1869.
He died on 18 July 1873, and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery at West Ham. He had no children by either of his marriages, so his estate and titles passed to his nephew David Lionel Salomons, whom he had brought up after the death of Sir David's brother Philip Salomons
.
Emancipation of the Jews in England
The Emancipation of the Jews in England was the culmination of efforts in the 19th century over several hundred years to loosen the legal restrictions set in place on England's Jewish population...
in the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
. He was the first Jewish Sheriff of the City of London
Sheriffs of the City of London
There are two Sheriffs of the City of London. The sheriffs are elected annually by the Liverymen of the Livery Companies, and it is a requirement for a Lord Mayor of the City of London to previously have served as a Sheriff. Sheriffs have only nominal duties now, but previously had large judicial...
and Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
, and one of the first two Jewish people to serve in the British House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
.
Early life
Born in LondonLondon
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
, the son of Levy Salomons of St Mary Axe
St Mary Axe
St Mary Axe was a medieval parish in London whose name survives on the street it formerly occupied, St Mary Axe. The church itself was demolished in 1561 and its parish united with that of St Andrew Undershaft, which is on the corner of St Mary Axe and Leadenhall Street...
and Frant
Frant
-Demography:The population of Frant rose steadily from just under 1,100 in 1801 to a peak in 1891 of around 3,500. The records show a marked drop to 1,692 in 1901, but this is due to the transfer of the Broadwater Down parish to Tunbridge Wells that took place in 1894...
, Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
and Matilda de Metz of Leyden (married in 1795), he followed his father into business in the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
, where he was a successful banker. Salomons was one of the founders of the London and Westminster Bank (now the NatWest), and a member of the London Stock Exchange
London Stock Exchange
The London Stock Exchange is a stock exchange located in the City of London within the United Kingdom. , the Exchange had a market capitalisation of US$3.7495 trillion, making it the fourth-largest stock exchange in the world by this measurement...
.
In 1835 he was elected as Sheriff of the City of London
City of London
The City of London is a small area within Greater London, England. It is the historic core of London around which the modern conurbation grew and has held city status since time immemorial. The City’s boundaries have remained almost unchanged since the Middle Ages, and it is now only a tiny part of...
. However, he was unable to take up the post, because the mandatory oath of office included Christian statements of faith. The Sheriffs' Declaration Act was passed later that year, and Salomons was able to take up the post. In 1839, he was High Sheriff of Kent
High Sheriff of Kent
The High Sheriff is the oldest secular office under the Crown. Formerly the High Sheriff was the principal law enforcement officer in the county but over the centuries most of the responsibilities associated with the post have been transferred elsewhere or are now defunct, so that its functions...
, where his Broomhill estate http://www.salomonscentre.org.uk/history/index.php, now the Salomons Museum
Salomons Museum
The Salomons Museum is a museum north of Tunbridge Wells, in southeast England. It preserves the country house of Sir David Salomons, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, and of his nephew, Sir David Lionel Salomons, a scientist and engineer...
, was located near Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells
Royal Tunbridge Wells is a town in west Kent, England, about south-east of central London by road, by rail. The town is close to the border of the county of East Sussex...
.
In December 1835, Salomons was elected as an Alderman
Alderman
An alderman is a member of a municipal assembly or council in many jurisdictions founded upon English law. The term may be titular, denoting a high-ranking member of a borough or county council, a council member chosen by the elected members themselves rather than by popular vote, or a council...
of the City of London, but again faced an unacceptable oath, and on this occasion the law was not changed. Salomons was disqualified, but was re-elected in 1847, after the Religious Opinions Relief Act had amended the oath. In 1855, the Aldermen elected him as Lord Mayor of London
Lord Mayor of London
The Right Honourable Lord Mayor of London is the legal title for the Mayor of the City of London Corporation. The Lord Mayor of London is to be distinguished from the Mayor of London; the former is an officer only of the City of London, while the Mayor of London is the Mayor of Greater London and...
.
In the meantime, he trained as a lawyer
Lawyer
A lawyer, according to Black's Law Dictionary, is "a person learned in the law; as an attorney, counsel or solicitor; a person who is practicing law." Law is the system of rules of conduct established by the sovereign government of a society to correct wrongs, maintain the stability of political...
and was called to the bar in 1849, though he did not practise as a barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
. However, he was the first Jewish magistrate
Magistrate
A magistrate is an officer of the state; in modern usage the term usually refers to a judge or prosecutor. This was not always the case; in ancient Rome, a magistratus was one of the highest government officers and possessed both judicial and executive powers. Today, in common law systems, a...
in England.
Parliament
In 1851, he stood as a LiberalLiberal Party (UK)
The Liberal Party was one of the two major political parties of the United Kingdom during the 19th and early 20th centuries. It was a third party of negligible importance throughout the latter half of the 20th Century, before merging with the Social Democratic Party in 1988 to form the present day...
candidate at a by-election
By-election
A by-election is an election held to fill a political office that has become vacant between regularly scheduled elections....
in the Greenwich constituency
Greenwich (UK Parliament constituency)
Greenwich was a parliamentary constituency in South-East London, which returned Members of Parliament to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1832 to 1997 by the first past the post system.-History:...
, and on 28 June he was elected as one of the constituency's two Members of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
(MPs).
He was not permitted to serve in the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
, because he had not taken the oath of abjuration in the form established by Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
The Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland is the supreme legislative body in the United Kingdom, British Crown dependencies and British overseas territories, located in London...
. However, he did not withdraw quietly: instead he took the oath, but omitted the Christian phrases, and took his seat on the government benches.
He was asked to withdraw, and did so on the second request, but he returned three days later, on 21 July 1851. In the debate that followed, Salomons defended his presence on grounds of having been elected by a large majority, but was eventually removed by the Sergeant-at-Arms, and fined £500 for having voted illegally in three division
Division (vote)
In parliamentary procedure, a division of the assembly is a voting method in which the members of the assembly take a rising vote or go to different parts of the chamber, literally dividing into groups indicating a vote in favour of or in opposition to a motion on the floor...
s of the House.
When the law was eventually changed in 1858, Lionel de Rothschild
Lionel de Rothschild
Baron Lionel Nathan de Rothschild was a British banker and politician.-Biography:The son of Nathan Mayer Rothschild and Hanna Barent Cohen, he was a member of the prominent Rothschild family....
became the first Jewish MP to legally take his seat, having been elected in 1857. In the 1859 general election
United Kingdom general election, 1859
In the 1859 United Kingdom general election, the Whigs, led by Lord Palmerston, held their majority in the House of Commons over the Earl of Derby's Conservatives...
, David Salomons was re-elected for Greenwich and served as the constituency's MP until his death in 1873.
His country house Broomhill north of Tunbridge Wells is now preserved as the Salomons Museum
Salomons Museum
The Salomons Museum is a museum north of Tunbridge Wells, in southeast England. It preserves the country house of Sir David Salomons, the first Jewish Lord Mayor of London, and of his nephew, Sir David Lionel Salomons, a scientist and engineer...
.
Family
Salomons married in 1825 Jeanette, daughter of Solomon Cohen of CanonburyCanonbury
Canonbury is a residential district in the London Borough of Islington in the north of London. It is roughly in the area between Essex Road, Upper Street and Cross Street and either side of St Paul's Road....
House and Hannah Samuel. Her aunts Judith and Henriette were the wives of Sir Moses Montefiore
Moses Montefiore
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, Kt was one of the most famous British Jews of the 19th century. Montefiore was a financier, banker, philanthropist and Sheriff of London...
and Nathan Mayer Rothschild
Nathan Mayer Rothschild
Nathan Mayer, Freiherr von Rothschild , known as Nathan Mayer Rothschild, was a London financier and one of the founders of the international Rothschild family banking dynasty...
respectively. After her death in 1867 Salomons married Cecilia, the daughter of Samuel Moses Samuel in 1872. He was made a baronet
Baronet
A baronet or the rare female equivalent, a baronetess , is the holder of a hereditary baronetcy awarded by the British Crown...
in 1869.
He died on 18 July 1873, and is buried in the Jewish Cemetery at West Ham. He had no children by either of his marriages, so his estate and titles passed to his nephew David Lionel Salomons, whom he had brought up after the death of Sir David's brother Philip Salomons
Philip Salomons
Philip Salomons was born in London and was a City of London financier, as were his father and his brother, Sir David Salomons.Solomons travelled extensively in the United States as a young man, and became a naturalized citizen in 1826...
.