Mocatta
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Mocatta, also de Mattos Mocatta, Lumbrozo de Mattos Mocatta and Lumbroso de Mattos Mocatta, is the name of a powerful, distinguished and ancient Anglo-Jewish family famed for philanthropy, leadership and sponsorship of arts and letters, particularly in the United Kingdom.
Contents |
[edit] History
The origin of the name Mocatta is unknown. Potential origins include: (i) Mukattil, Arabic for champion (ii) or a river called Wady Mokatta (iii) or mukata Arabic for fortress.
In the mid 1600s, the outwardly Christian Antonio de Marchena left Spain for Holland, and was welcomed back into the Amsterdam Spanish & Portuguese community, adopting the name Moses Mocatta, Mocatta or a variant thereof having been the original family name before 1492. By 1670, he had taken his family to London.
The Mocatta family are considered to be one of the principal families in the "cousinhood" of senior Anglo-Jewish families; the de facto Anglo-Jewish aristocracy. As such, the Mocatta family has been related over the past two centuries to most of the prominent Jewish families of Europe and to a lesser extent Asia, including d'Avigdor, Cohen, Henriques, Kadoorie, Rothschild, Goldsmid, Lousada, Montefiore (Sir Moses Montefiore's mother was a member of the Mocatta family), Samuel (Bearsted)and Marks.
The family left Spain in 1492 after the edict of Ferdinand and Isabella expelled the Jews from Spain and began the Spanish Inquisition. Much of the family moved to England in 1658, from France, the Netherlands and Italy, when Oliver Cromwell allowed Jews to return to England.
In 1671 Mocatta & Goldsmid, the prominent international bullion brokering firm, and the world's oldest bank in continuous existence, was founded by Moses Mocatta; it exists today largely as ScotiaMocatta. In 1790, one branch of the family obtained a royal licence from King George III to have permission to cease the use of "Lumbrozo de Mattos". During the 19th Century members of the Mocatta family were amongst the principal founders of the British Reform movement(Conservative Judaism in the United States) in Anglo-Jewry.
[edit] Prominent members
Prominent members of the Mocatta family have included Frederick David Mocatta, a prominent philanthropist, bibliophile, patron of the arts, and bullion broker. Also among them are David Mocatta, a well-known architect, as well as more recently Sir Alan Abraham Mocatta, a famous British Judge. The brother-in-law of F.D. Mocatta, Sir Julian Goldsmid, was a distinguished Member of the British Parliament, but the family has tended to be involved in finance, commerce, and the law rather than politics.
[edit] Coat of arms
A description of the coat of arms entitled to be borne by some members of the Mocatta family is "Per chevron, a seven-branched candlestick in base, two cinquefoils in point. Crest: A leopard issuant, gardant, holding a cinquefoil between his paws. Motto: Adhere and Prosper."
