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THE LOUSADAS.
Th e Lousada family claim kinship with the Spanish ducal
house of the name, who obtained for themselves the grant of
the dukedon on the extinction of the main line. The evidence
on which this claim was based has not been made public. The
career of the Jewish branch of the family can, however, be
clearly traced.
In 1664 Antonio Lousada, otherwise Moses Baruh, or Moses
Baruh Lousada, was one of the three wardens of the Portuguese
Jewish Synagogue in London. He appears to have come from
Holland in 1660, with two of his sons, Mordecai and Jacob, and
he had other sons who remainded for a time in Holland, Whence
Antonio Lousada came originally is doubtful. Most of the Jewish
immigrants in England in the middle of the 17th century came
either from northern Portugal or from the Canary Islands, and
it is interesting to note that there were Lousadas in both these
places in the 16th and early 17th centuries. Nevertheless, it is
quite possible that some Spanish Jewish family may have ac
quired the name by intermarriage with a branch of the Christian
ducal house. Such marriages were quite common between the
Spanish aristocracy and wealthy families of crypto-Jews, after
the expulsion. However that may be, it is certain that when the
last Christian Duke de Losada y Louzada died in the middle of
the last century, Emanuel Baruh Lousada of Jamaica, a great-
great-grandson of Antonio Lousada convinced the Spanish Govern
ment that he was the next-of-kin, and thus obtained a re-grant
of the Dukedom, with the rank of Grandee of Spain for his son.
The first duke, Isaac, Duke de Losada y Louzada, married his