Montreal, 1535-1914. Vol. 2. Under British Rule, 1760-1914

by William H. Atherton

The first Jew known to have settled in Montreal was Lazarus David, who came to this city in 1759. He was connected with the army, but on the close of the war settled in Montreal and became an extensive owner of real estate. He was a man of public spirit who took a prominent part in civic affairs in those early days. He was born in Swansea, Wales, in 1734 and his name appears in a list of residents published in Montreal in 1763. He continued to play a prominent part, in what was then but a little town, until his death on the 22d of October, 1776, and the headstone which marks the place of his interment is still to be seen in the cemetery of the Spanish and Portuguese Jews on Mount Royal. Very shortly after the arrival of Lazarus David there also came to Montreal Uriah Judah and other members of the Judah family, Emanuel de Cordova, Hananiel Garcia, Isaac Miranda, Judah Elvada, Uriel Moresco, Abraham Franks, Simon Levy, Levy Solomons and Fernandez da Fonseca. They were joined by another band of settlers, among whom were included Abram Franks, David Salesby Franks, Isaac Miranda, Jacob de Maurera, Andrew Hays, Levy Solomons and Joseph Bindona. De Cordova, Garcia and Miranda held military offices. Nearly all of these men belonged to distinguished families of Jews who had come to America originally from Spain and Portugal and known among the Hebrews as Sephardin and were members of the first Jewish Synagogue.

Although the members of this congregation were in those days but small in number, they produced a remarkably large number of men who took a very prominent part in public affairs. At the time that Lazarus David was settling in Montreal there had arrived in Canada Commissary General Aaron Hart, who was on the staff of General Amherst’s invading army and who took an important part in the operations which led to the British Conquest. He was born in London in 1724 and had married a member of the Judah family, and after serving under Amherst he afterwards joined the troops under General Haldimand, stationed at Three Rivers, and when that city fell into the hands of the British he took up his residence there. After the war he was created seigneur of Bécancour for his services, and became the owner of six other seigneuries. Another man of prominence was David Salesby Franks. He and his father, Abraham Franks, first appear as residents of Quebec in 1767 and afterwards they settled in Montreal. David Salesby Franks was president of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue previous to 1775. He agitated for the establishment of a House of Assembly and the establishment of representative government in Canada. Business affairs, however, drew him to Philadelphia and New York and when the American Revolutionary War broke out he espoused the cause of the American colonists and became major of a regiment. In May, 1778, he became aide-de-camp to Major Benedict Arnold. When in 1780 the affair of West Point occurred and Arnold fled to escape punishment for his treason to the Revolutionary cause, Major Franks was arrested on suspicion and courtmartialed, but was honourably acquitted and was afterwards placed on the staff of George Washington, under whom he fought during the rest of the war. He played a prominent part in the negotiations for peace between the American colonists and Great Britain and was sent on a mission in this connection to Europe in 1781, and in 1784 he was again sent to Europe by the United States Congress with the triplicate copies for the ratification of the definite treaty of peace. He assisted Benjamin Franklin and Mr. Jay in these negotiations. He was afterwards appointed American consul at Marseilles and he was one of the commissioners of the American Government who negotiated a treaty of peace and commerce with Morocco in 1787. He was one of the marshals who inaugurated George Washington as first President of the United States. There were other members of the Franks family who remained in Montreal and who fought on the side of the British against the American colonists. A sister of David Salesby Franks married the Levy Solomons who is mentioned above and who was at that time president of the Montreal Jewish Congregation “Shearith Israel.” One of their daughters, Rachel Solomon, became the wife of Henry Joseph, who in his day was one of the most prominent Jews in Canada. Henry Joseph was born in England in the latter part of the eighteenth century. He was nephew of Commissary General Aaron Hart and came to Canada when but a youth and entered the army, being attached to the troops that formed the garrison of Fort William Henry at the mouth of the Richelieu River. He afterwards became interested in the Northwest Trading Company and eventually retired from the army to develop trade from Hudson’s Bay to Quebec and Montreal. His headquarters were for a long while at Berthier, but he perceived even in that early day that Montreal was destined to become a place of importance, and he removed his home to this city in his latter days. It is claimed that he was the actual founder of Canada’s merchant marine service, for he was the owner of a line of ships that were the first to be registered as Canadian vessels engaged exclusively in direct traffic between Canada and England. He rejoined the army when the War of 1812-14 broke out between England and the United States and fought for the British crown in many engagements. Associated with him as a Hudson’s Bay trader was Jacob Franks, a member of the family above mentioned, who had married a sister of Mrs. Henry Joseph and who was also noted as a very enterprising northwest and Hudson’s Bay trader. He was the founder of Green Bay, Wisconsin, and Jacob Astor was originally employed by him there. Another very influential member of the early Jewish community in this city was David David, the eldest son of Lazarus David. He was born in Montreal in 1764 and took a prominent part in almost everything which affected the interests of Montreal in his day. Possessed of considerable wealth he employed his means in works of benevolence, and his generous assistance to the early philanthropic societies of Montreal is on record. He was either president or director of a number of institutions. It was due largely to his initiative that the Bank of Montreal was founded in 1817, and he was elected a director on its first regular board on the 27th of February, 1818, and continued to hold this office until his death in 1824. He was also president of the Spanish and Portuguese Synagogue in Montreal for many years.

In addition to members of the David and Joseph families already mentioned, who fought for the British flag in the War of 1812-14, the names of a number of other Hebrew citizens are to be found also participating on the British side in that struggle, and there was also a large number of Canadian Jews who fought on the loyalist side in the rebellion of 1837-38, notably Colonel David, Aaron Philip Hart, Jacob Henry Joseph and several members of the Hays family.

The exact legal status of the Jews in Canada was not made very clear at an early date by any definite enactments, and for long they labored under the disability of not having the right of sitting in Parliament. This question was brought to a definite test by the election in 1807 of Mr. Ezekiel Hart, second son of Commissariat General Hart, as member of the Legislative Assembly for Three Rivers. When he entered the House he was required to take the oath in the usual form “on the true faith of a Christian” and upon his declining to do this on account of his Jewish faith the majority of the members objected to his taking his seat and declared the seat vacant. Appealing again to his constituents he was once more elected by a heavy majority, but again the House refused to permit him to take his seat, and after a stormy session a bill was pushed through to its second reading to disqualify Jews from being eligible to sit as members of the House of Assembly. This aroused the indignation of Sir James Craig, who was then governor, and he angrily dissolved the House and prevented the bill from passing. After a long struggle an act was introduced and passed in 1831 by which Jews were accorded the fullest civil rights in Canada and were placed upon an equal footing with all other citizens of the land. Ezekiel Hart was deservedly popular and it is stated that the opposition which was shown to his taking his seat was due more to the political partisanship of his political opponents than to any real feeling of religious intolerance. It is worthy of note that Canada extended full political rights to the Jews more than a quarter of a century earlier than the mother country.

Of the later Hebrews may be mentioned Moses J. Hays, who was one of the most active men engaged in municipal affairs in Montreal in the early part of the nineteenth century, and to his energy the city was indebted for many civic improvements. It was he who established the first Montreal waterworks. He also reorganized Montreal’s police force, of which he was the chief commissioner, and he was the builder of the Hays House, the leading hotel of Montreal in its day, situated on what was then known as Dalhousie Square, but which has since been swept away to make room for the Place Viger entrance of the Canadian Pacific Railway.

Abraham de Sola, the rabbi attached to the Shearith Israel Congregation, was recognized as in the first rank of Jewish leaders in the cabinet. He was elected in 1848 professor of Semitic literature and oriental languages of the McGill University.

During the period of Doctor De Sola’s administration the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation of the Shearith Israel Synagogue, formed by the first Jew settlers in 1768, counted among its members a number of men who were very prominent in Montreal’s social, intellectual and commercial life. Amongst these was Dr. A.H. David, a grandson of Lazarus David, who, besides being a prominent physician, was dean of the medical faculty of Bishop’s College. Samuel Benjamin, Goodman Benjamin and William Benjamin were three brothers who were all very well known in Montreal between the ’40s and ’60s in the past century. Samuel Benjamin took a very prominent part in civic affairs and was for a long while member of the city council, being the first Israelite to attain that position in Montreal. Four sons of Henry Joseph, Jacob Henry, Abraham, Jesse and Gershom, were all prominent. Probably there was no citizen of Montreal better known in his day and associated with more of our public activities than Jesse Joseph. He was either president or director of over fifteen different companies or institutions.

Another member of the Congregation of Shearith Israel was Isidor Ascher, who earned a respectable reputation as a poet. He was the author of “Voices from the Hearth” which Longfellow so highly commended, and of a number of other works, both in verse and in prose. His father, G.I. Ascher, was long a patriarchial and familiar figure in Montreal life in the nineteenth century, for he reached the venerable age of ninety-six years. Alexander Levy, Jacob Levy, Samuel Israel Rubenstein, Edward Cohen and Lewis A. Hart were well-known officers of the congregation in more recent years. The last mentioned was for some years lecturer on notarial practice at McGill University.

Dr. Abraham de Sola died in 1882, and was succeeded by his eldest son, Meldola de Sola.