Familieminder

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from the town of Marchena near Seville in which they were

settled. Early in the seventeenth century when the increased

vigilance and severity of the Inquisition stimulated a great emi

gration of Marranos or crypto-Jews from Spain, one of the Mar-

chenas fled with his family to Amsterdam where he resumed the

ancient name of his family and was known in the Synagogue as

Abraham Mocatta. His son, Antonio Nunes Marchena otherwise

Moses Mocatta was an active worker in the Jewish community

and a promoter of Jewish learning.

Very soon after the Resettlement in 1655 there were Mocattas

in England, two of whom bore the name of Moses. One died

during a visit to Lisbon in December 1737. The other was appa

rently an earlier settler, and was connected with one of the Dutch

families. It is from him that in the female line the present Eng

lish Mocattas are descended.

This Moses Mocatta was a merchant of Camomile Street, a

pious Jew and an active member of the Synagogue. He died in

1693 while on a visit to Amsterdam leaving a widow, Rebecca

Mocatta, who was also his niece, and three daughters and two

sons. By his will which is dated January 11, 1693 he made

various bequests amounting to about 25,000 guilders, and divided

the lesidue of his estate equally between his sons and daughters.

To his two sons, Isaac and Abraham, he bequeathed besides his

Sepher Torah

with its mantle and ornaments and his library of

Hebrew books »that they may study them and meditate the law

of God«.

His younger son Abraham succeeded him and became a mer

chant of some wealth and repute. He was admitted one of the

twelve Jew brokers on the Royal Exchange in 1710 succeeding

Gaspar d’Almej^da, and retired in 1749 in favour of his grandson

Abraham Lumbrozo de Mattos.

With the death of Abraham Mocatta in his house in Bevis

Marks in 1751 the English branch of the Mocatta family became

extinct in the male line. By his wife Grace, a daughter of Abra

ham Levy Ximenes, Abraham Mocatta had one daughter Rebecca

Sarah, who predeceased him in 1737. By Rebecca Sarah’s second