Norval Dickson acquired his preliminary education in Huntingdon Academy, Huntingdon, Quebec, and afterwards entered McGill University in Montreal, receiving his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1901 and his degree in law in 1904. Immediately afterward he began practice in Montreal, continuing alone until May, 1910, when he formed a partnership with R. B. Hutcheson under the firm name of Hutcheson & Dickson. Mr. Dickson has proved an important and helpful factor in the success of the firm, for he possesses a deep and comprehensive knowledge of the underlying principles of his profession and has a well deserved reputation as a reliable and competent notary. The firm controls a growing and extensive patronage and has a high standing in legal circles of the city.
REV. ABRAHAM DE SOLA, LL. D.
Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., who for many years was so familiar a figure in literary circles in Montreal and who earned so wide and deserved a reputation as an Oriental scholar and theologian, was a descendent of an illustrious Spanish-Jewish family. The marvelous history of Israel must ever be of peculiar interest to mankind, and perhaps no chapter in the post-biblical portion of that history possesses more charm than that which relates about the Jews of Spain and Portugal, or Sephardim, as they are styled. These lived free and untrammeled during those mediæval times when their brethren in less favored countries were weighed down by the burden of oppression, and with the Saracens they kept alive the flame of learning and science in the Iberian peninsula at a time when it burnt lowest in the rest of Europe. Power, rank and honor were theirs; and when afterwards clouds obscured the sky of their prosperity, and the storm of persecution burst pitilessly over their heads, their record of heroic martyrdom and thrilling adventure is a tale as fascinating as that of many of the most imaginative pages of fiction.
Among the many bright names which illumined Spanish-Jewish history, that of De Sola stands prominent. The De Solas had settled in Andalusia as early as the sixth century, whence they had come from Judea by gradual stages through northern Africa. They held various offices under the Saracenic caliphs at Toledo and Cordova, and afterwards when they removed to Navarre they were received with like favor by the Gothic princes. From their estate in this province, their surname had its origin. A particularly distinguished member of the family was Don Bartolomeu de Sola, who, in reward for his services, was ennobled and, after being a minister of state, held for a while the position of viceroy of Navarre.
During the fourteenth century another De Sola distinguished himself fighting under the Infante of Aragon and figured conspicuously in the Spanish wars of that period. During the succeeding centuries the family continued to hold an illustrious place, owing to the large number of eminent scholars, physicians and statesmen it produced. Their fortunes, however, changed when King Ferdinand, having by the conquest of Granada destroyed the last vestige of Moorish power in Spain, decided to drive therefrom all who did not conform to the dominant faith; and in 1492 was promulgated the terrible edict of expulsion, which, at one blow, deprived hundreds of thousands of Spain’s most intelligent and industrious inhabitants of happy and prosperous homes. The De Solas took refuge in Holland, but a branch of the family continued to hold business connections with Lisbon, and eventually some of them settled in the Portuguese capital, where they amassed much wealth. Watched by the Inquisition, they, like many other Portuguese Jews, for some time evaded the danger by assuming to become Marannos or Nuevos Christianos—as converted Jews were styled—while they secretly remained loyal to Judaism. In the latter part of the seventeenth century, however, suspicion was directed towards them, and David de Sola (who to elude his persecutors had assumed the name of Bartolome) was apprehended and charged with having relapsed into Judaism. Although placed under the most fearful torture nothing seems to have been proved, as he was allowed to afterwards go free; but he was physically broken down by his terrible sufferings. Escape from the country by a suspect was then extremely difficult, but in the next generation his son, Aaron de Sola, managed to secure refuge on board a British man-of-war and to make good his escape with his family to England; not, however, before two of his relatives had been imprisoned, tortured and condemned to death at an auto-da-fé, by the Inquisition, for secret adherence to Judaism.
It was in 1749 that Aaron de Sola fled with his wife and family to England, and now that they were freed from the terrors of the Inquisition they openly avowed once more their loyalty to the faith of their fathers. From England they took passage for Holland, where they rejoined their relatives, and taking up their residence in Amsterdam they soon again rose to distinction in the various learned professions.
Previously to this—in the year 1690—one of the preceding generation, Isaac de Sola, had settled in London and had acquired a high reputation in the Hebrew community there as an eloquent preacher and author. Several volumes of his works are still extant.
Four sons had accompanied Aaron de Sola in his flight from Lisbon in 1749, of whom the eldest, David, was the great-grandfather of the Dr. Abraham de Sola who forms the chief subject of this sketch. The youngest of Aaron de Sola’s, sons, Dr. Benjamin de Sola, attained to a foremost place among the practitioners of the eighteenth century. He was court physician to William V of the Netherlands and was the author of a large number of medical works. The other two sons of Aaron de Sola settled in Curacao, and one of them was the grandfather of General Juan de Sola, who became so distinguished as a commander of cavalry under Bolivar and Paez when the South American states revolted from Spain. He took part in the decisive battle of Carabobo, and led the charge on Puerto Cabello when that city was stormed by Paez, receiving a sabre wound during the fight. After the restoration of peace he held important public offices during the Paez regime.
The Rev. Abraham de Sola, LL. D., was born in London, England, on the 18th of September, 1825. His father, David Aaron de Sola, was senior minister of the Portuguese Jews of London, to which city he had been called from Amsterdam, and was eminent as a Hebrew author, having produced among many other works an elegant translation of the Jewish Forms of Prayer; also, in conjunction with Dr. Raphael, an edition of Genesis, very valuable to biblical students on account of its commentaries and copious notes, and the first English translation of Eighteen Treatises of the Mishna. His mother was the daughter of Dr. Raphael Meldola, chief rabbi of the Spanish-Jewish congregations of Britain. The Meldolas had given eminent chief rabbis to Europe for twelve generations. Abraham de Sola received careful tuition in all the usual branches of a liberal education. He became early engrossed in the study of Oriental languages and literature and of theology, and continued to devote his attention to those subjects until he acquired that profound knowledge of them which subsequently won him so prominent a place among scholars. Having been offered the position of rabbi of the Spanish and Portuguese Jewish Congregation of Montreal he accepted the call and arrived in this city in the beginning of 1847, and here, for over thirty-five years, he continued to minister to the spiritual wants of his people. His able pulpit discourses soon attracted attention. Dr. de Sola’s abilities, however, were not destined to be confined exclusively to his official duties. Before leaving London he had been associated in the editorial work of a Hebrew journal, The Voice of Jacob, and soon after his arrival in Canada he delivered a course of lectures on Jewish history before the Mercantile Literary Association. In 1848 he published his “Notes on the Jews of Persia under Mohammed Shah,” and also “A History of the Jews of Persia.” Within the same year there appeared his important work on “Scripture Zoology.” Soon afterwards he published his “Lectures on the Mosaic Cosmogony.” This was followed by his “Cosmography of Peritsol,” a work displaying such erudition that it gained a wide circulation in Europe and was reprinted there in several languages. His next work, “A Commentary upon Samuel Hannagid’s Introduction to the Talmud,” was a book which deservedly attracted much attention, owing to the light which it threw upon an interesting portion of rabbinical literature and to its depth of Talmudic knowledge. In 1853 he published, conjointly with the Rev. J. J. Lyons, of New York, a work on the Jewish Calendar System, chiefly valuable on account of its excellent prefatory treatise upon the Jewish system of calculating time.