WERE THE DEVONSHIRES JEWS?

Circumstantial evidence strongly suggests that the Devonshires were Jews. To understand the reasoning, it would be essential to start with a brief review of history.

JEWS IN ENGLAND
1070-1290. The first recorded Jewish community was established in 1070 by King William the Conqueror, who believed the Jewish population’s commercial skills would make his newly conquered country more prosperous.
English Jews experienced a “golden age” under Henry II in the late 12th century due to massive economic expansion and increased demand for credit. Significant Jewish fortunes were made. 
The persecution of England’s Jews built up from the late twelfth century as a result of their prosperity, and was brutal. The English were endlessly imaginative in inventing antisemitic allegations. Blood libel was central as it incorporated the themes that Jews are malevolent, constantly conspiring against Christians, powerful, and merciless. Fatal pogroms occurred in London, Northampton and York.
Jews eventually became the main taxpaying population. The kings’ depleted even the wealthiest Jews, and debtors’ hatred and mass violence spiked again in the mid-13th century. In 1276, Edward abolished their “privilege” to lend money, restricted their activities and forced Jews to wear a yellow patch. Many started to leave.
In 1278, all Jews were imprisoned, their houses were ransacked, and in 1279, 300 were executed.
In 1290, Edward issued the Edict of Expulsion. The expulsion had a lasting effect of embedding antisemitism into English culture, particularly during the medieval and early modern periods. England was unique because there were no Jews, and the English had superseded the Jews as God’s chosen people. It was the first time a European state was known to have permanently banned their presence.
After the expulsion, there was no overt Jewish community (as opposed to individuals practising Judaism secretly) until the rule of Oliver Cromwell. A small English community persisted in hiding despite the expulsion. There is only one known record of a Jew in Wales between 1290 and the annexation, but it is possible individuals did persist there after 1290.

RESETTLEMENT PERIOD, 16th–19th centuries
Hidden Jews in England
Still, it was not until the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1497 that a significant number of Sephardic Jews found refuge in England. From the beginning of the 16th century, in the wake of the Spanish Inquisition, Jews began to return to England. Although Jews had to conceal their religion for fear of raising discourse, they needed only to hide it loosely. A small community of conversos was identified in Bristol in 1609 and banished.
The oldest Jewish community in Britain is the Spanish and Portuguese Marrano merchants, which dates back to the 1630s when they existed clandestinely in London. There, it formed a secret congregation.

Resettlement of the Jews in England
In 1656, Oliver Cromwell made it clear that the ban on Jewish settlement in England and Wales would no longer be enforced. This informal arrangement allowed Jews to practice their faith openly. The English saw the Jews as a superior group. Cromwell believed they could utilize foreign intelligence and enhance trade (he viewed the Jews as a vital component of Amsterdam’s financial success). Oliver Cromwell sought to attract wealthy Jews from Amsterdam to London to increase trade with Spain.
By the end of the decade, the number of Jewish families had risen to thirty-five. By 1690, about 400 Jews had settled in England. William III knighted the first Jew, Solomon de Medina, in 1700. Bevois Marks synagogue was completed in 1701 and is the oldest synagogue in the UK, built by the first generation of readmitted Spanish-Portuguese Jews to England.
By 1734, 6,000 Jews lived in England. The Jewish upper class still consisted of brokers and foreign traders, but Jews gradually began to enter all areas of life. In 1753, the Jew Bill of 1753 was introduced, which allowed Jews to become naturalized by applying to Parliament. By 1890, Jewish emancipation was complete in every aspect of life.
Until the late 20th century, East London was the primary centre of Jewish life in England, with settlement heavily concentrated in an area around Whitechapel, extending from Bishopsgate to Cable Street. The district of Spitalfields lies within this area and gained the nickname Little Jerusalem.

Were the Devonshires Jews? There is a great deal of circumstantial evidence.
1. THE FIRST DEVONSHIRE
It looks pretty likely that Francis Devonshire (1620-? London) was the first “Devonshire” born in the British Isles. His father was presumably the first Devonshire to have immigrated to England. Being a Jew was illegal. A group of ‘converso’ Jews in Bristol was discovered and expelled in 1609. The oldest known Jewish community in Britain is the Spanish and Portuguese Marrano merchants, which dates to the 1630s when they existed clandestinely in London. There, it formed a secret congregation.
As Francis was born in 1620, this first immigrant appeared to be a gutsy guy. He had to hide that he was a Jew from the very beginning. He picked the name Devonshire (or possibly Devonish first but then realized that Devonish didn’t sound right) as it was common for immigrants with foreign-sounding names to change their names, often adopting the name of a region or district. A wave of anti-Semitic sentiment was occurring in England at the time.
Where did he come from? He was a Sephardic Jew and thus came from either Spain or Portugal. His grandson had the unusual name of Guilielmus, which is a Spanish version of William. It is more likely that he was originally Spanish. Francis could have derived from Francisco, a common Spanish name.
In Spain, violence against Jews culminated in 1391. 200,000 Jews saved their lives by converting to Christianity, other Jews left the country, and 100,000 openly practicing Jews remained.
Being a converso did not help. Starting in 1449, mobs killed, plundered and burned their houses across the country. This is despite the conversos having rendered considerable service to the king and held high legal, financial, and military positions. The Spanish Inquisition was established in 1478.
The term Marrano came into later use in 1492 with the Castilian Alhambra Decree, which prohibited the practice of Judaism in Spain and required all remaining Jews to convert or leave. 40,000 Jews were baptized in the three months before the deadline for expulsion.
These conversos were the principal concern of the Inquisition; being suspected of continuing to practice Judaism put them at risk of denunciation and trial.
Many migrated to Flanders, to its flourishing cities, such as Antwerp and Brussels and elsewhere in Europe, South America, India and all over the world.  
The vast majority of Spain’s conversos, however, remained in Spain and Portugal and were suspected of “Marranism” by the Spanish Inquisition. They constituted most of the over three thousand people executed for heresy by the Inquisition. 
Philip III of Spain, in 1601, granted them the privilege of unrestricted sale of their real estate and free departure from the country.
When did he leave Spain? It is complete conjecture about when Francis’s father arrived in England. Before and after expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492 and Portugal in 1496, many Jews left for Flanders and Amsterdam, at the time tolerant of Jews (or he could have come directly to England).
However the majority of Jews stayed in the Iberian peninsula, some of whom were Marranos that secretly practiced their religion. The majority of these likely left after 1601 when they had unrestricted sale of their land and could depart freely. It is most likely that he went to Flanders first, changed his name and entered England between 1601 and 1620. He settled in London, where it would have been much easier to conceal your Jewish background.
It appeared they became actively involved in the Church of England, where they were married, baptized and buried. They lived west of what was to become the main centre of Jewish life in East London. This was key to disguising that they were Jews, whether they continued to practice as Jews will unlikely ever be known. 

2. THE OCCUPATIONS OF THE DEVONSHIRES
There are not many references to occupations. The first mention was the third Thomas Devonshire (1725-1802), who was a goldsmith working as an apprentice.  Many of their descendants were silversmiths, goldsmiths, spoon makers, and allied trades members of the Goldsmith’s Company, and there are still known examples of their work coming up for sale at auction (mainly Devonshire & Watkins of Paternoster Row, c.1750s—60s).
Edward Devonshire (1810-1861) was a stockbroker.
Adino Devonshire (1854-1931) was a bank clerk employed by the Payne Smith Bank in London. This bank later amalgamated with the Bank of England.
Jews commonly worked as merchants, traders, shopkeepers, artisans (such as tailors, weavers, and silversmiths), and those involved in finance, including banking and money lending. Occupations may have been determined by limitations on land ownership and guild participation.
The only other occupation listed was Israel (1723, Saint Dunstan, Stepney, London) was a naval sailor and privateer.who was a commander of the Saint George in 1756-57. The “Saint George” was a 440-ton vessel with a crew of 240. St Dunstan is an Anglican church located in Stepney with close historic links to seaborne trade, is the Church of the High Seas for registration of births at sea and many sailors were buried here. 

3. NAMES
This provides the most concrete evidence that the Devonshires were Jews.
An analysis of each name in the family tree indicates that names with Hebrew roots were prevalent (and the commonest) in the Devonshires until the early 1800s and then disappeared entirely from the family tree. Of the 29 names used up to that point, 19 had Hebrew roots. Some, like Israel (3), Josiah, Hannah, Abraham, Susanna, Rebecca (2), Sarah (4), and Davida, would only be used by a Jew. After 1800, the only Hebrew names were Thomas 1808, Joseph 1812, Abraham 1817, Sarah 1817, Mary 1825 and the last was my great-grandfather Adino, who was born in 1857. Except for Guilielmus, all the non-Hebrew names were typical English names. 
As being a Jew was outlawed in England until 1656, it seems it would have been essential to use English first names before then. However, Francis had six children and had no problems with Hebrew names in all six (Thomas, Samuel, Elizabeth, John, Jeremiah, and Daniel).

4. WERE THEY MARRANOS?
The family tree shows that virtually all Devonshires were christened and buried in Church of England churches.
There is no evidence that any Devonshires secretly practiced Judaism. It does seem odd that Hebrew names were so commonly used up to the early 1800s and then were never used again. Maybe that is when all ties to Judaism were severed.

5. WHERE THEY LIVED
Jewish London is in the East End centred between Bevis Marks Synagogue, Whitechapel and Fournier Street. Interestingly, Devonshire Place (built between 1788 and 1800) and Devonshire Street, named after the Duke of Devonshire, is in the centre of this area. It was built on the Portland Estate. There was a close family connection between the Dukes of Portland and the Duke of Devonshire.
The first generations lived across north London. In Clerkenwell, Thomas (1725-1802) lived in Jerusalem Passage in 1747. Around about 1800, they had moved to Lambeth in south London. 

6. GRAVEYARDS
Few mentions of graveyards are made. None were Jewish graveyards.