Jamaica to England

The enduring English Baruh Lousada family stems from two Jamaican brothers - Jacob #36 (who married Abigail Lamego the younger) and Aaron Baruh Lousada #125 (who married Rachel Mendes da Costa). The Jamaican background of Jacob can be seen from his will; whilst the extract from the will of Emanuel #135 (son of Aaron) does the same thing. From the grant of arms document, it can be seen that Emanuel Baruh Lousada of Jamaica was the father of Jacob #36 and Aaron #125. Accordingly, English Lousada genealogy originates with this one person to whom our PAF software has given the number #41. This conclusion concurs with Uncle Ben's family tree, which gives the wife of Emanuel Baruh Lousada #41 as Esther Lamego #40. Whilst from ref 88 we see that buried at Hunts Bay was Esther d 21 Jun 1720 wife of Emanuel Baruh Lousada her maiden surname is not confirmed. However this deficiency is rectified by the will of the key ancestor Aaron Lamego which lists grandchildren Jacob #36 and his 3 sisters as children of Esther Lamego (but not Aaron #125 - see note 5 below). Therefore Emanuel #41, father of Jacob #36 and Aaron #125, married Esther Lamego #40. Aaron #125 died in 1768 (see ref 89) and he appears to be the Aaron Baruh Lousada buried at Hunts Bay d 7 Mar or May 1768 aged 62 (ref 88). From Aaron Lamego's will it is clear that Abigail the sister of Esther Lamego #40 also married a Baruh Lousada who seemed likely to have been a brother of Emanuel #41. However the Benjamin Barrow Lousada tree shows him as a cousin but gives him the name Jacob and we number him #380 - he had a son Aaron whom we number #1174 and whose will we discuss below. Jacob Baruh Lousada #380 heads a big branch of the family tree - albeit one in which the Lousada name disappeared fairly rapidly. We have found a burial record of 20 June 1722 for a Jacob Baruh 'Loizada' at Hunts Bay Cemetery and we think this is probably Jacob #380.

Barbados to Jamaica?

Whilst the wills of most of the English Lousadas and their related families show a solely Jamaican background, there is one branch of the family that shows a combined Barbados and Jamaican background. This is shown by the will of Aaron Baruh Lousada #1174 (probate 3 August 1768) - Aaron being a son of Abigail Lamego the elder #382. He went to London with his 3 sisters Leah #385, Sarah #384 and Esther #386 (whose wills were proved 1765, 1788 and 1767 respectively). Collectively these wills show cousins in both Barbados and Jamaica but not the cousins who were the offspring of Emanuel #41 (see note 2 below)! The Barbados cousins were David, 'Aron' and 'Jeremy' Baruh Lousada (see note 1 below). David had a daughter Rebecca (according to Leah's will) and 'children' (according to Sarah's will). These 3 cousins were sons of Solomon Lousada according to Leah's will. The Jamaica cousins were Mrs Rachel Abenatar, her sister Mrs Esther Levi, and their brother Aaron Alvin. These cousins can only have come from a Lousada/Alvin marriage - presumably in Jamaica of a sister of Jacob #380.

The will of Aaron Lamego does not show any of these 6, but shows other grandchildren, so we conclude they were Lousada cousins. That is, Solomon Lousada the father of the Barbados cousins was a brother of Jacob #380. The Jamaican Lousada sister of Jacob #380 was thus also a sister of this Solomon whom we number #712. And as remarked above we anticipate that Emanuel #41 was also a sibling. But Aaron #376 - a Barbados magnate as Wilfred Samuel called him (ref 5) - and Rachel Gomez Henriques had 6 surviving children (Isaac died in infancy and was the 3rd son) - David b 4 Jan 1677 was the oldest, then Solomon b 2 Sep 1679, Jacob b 27 Nov 1681, Emanuel b 27 Dec 1682, Esther b 9 Mar 1686 and Hannah b 3 Jun 1688. So not only have we found the Solomon/Jacob pair of brothers we looked for, but we have found a brother Emanuel (incidentally proving that the Benjamin Barrow Lousada tree made an error in showing Emanuel and Jacob as cousins). Though absent from her mother's will, Esther was probably the aunt Esther Touro (see note 3 below) mentioned in the will of Jacob #36. Her mother's will was largely focussed on providing a dowry for Hannah, not a concern with Esther if she was already married! This leaves Hannah to have been the mother of the Alvin cousins (this deduction is verified by the will of Esther Lamego #386). We have thus found that 4 of the 6 children of Aaron Baruh Lousada #376 and his wife Rachel went to JamaicaFinally from his father's will we know that the oldest sibling David went to London, and may have stayed away for a long time (including Surinam in his travels as judged by his inheritance arrangements) but he returned to Barbados where he died in 1741 (ref 100 shows his gravestone and we have a 1738 Barbados deed which appears to be part of his inheritance arrangements and his will in ref 224 refers to it). The Barbados theory needed strengthening - see the question mark which appears at the crux of the theory! By following the clue in the wills of Aaron #1174 and his sisters, we have shown that the theory does not rely on identifying only one sibling out of 6 but is based on accounting for all 6 out of 6 - a huge improvement from the point of view of statistical probability. We have summarized our conclusions in a chart of the 3 Aarons d1768.

We now finally point out the egregious error that some people have made of confusing Esther Lamego of Jamaica with Esther Sarah (Massiah) of Barbados. As shown above the former person died 21 Jun 1720 in Jamaica and had married Emanuel #41. But the latter person as we know from Langford Oliver (ref 110) died on 20 October 1744 aged 36 years and 1 month, was buried in Barbados, and had married Aaron Baruh Lousada. This Aaron can be unambiguously identified and we number him #714. His exact lifespan is given by Langford Oliver; his death on 24 Mar 1768 allows us to calculate his birth on 3 Apr 1703 which is perfectly of an age for him to appear in the 1703 will of the magnate's wife as her first grandson Aaron, and the first son of Solomon #712. The egregious error is manifest in the Mary Lousada report; the first English Lousada Duke's great-great-granddaughter's notes; and (as quoted) in some of Colyer-Fergusson's notes. These documents were thereby led to teach incorrectly that an Aaron married Esther Lamego and was the father of Jacob #36 and Aaron #125. Of course as we showed above the father of Jacob #36 and Aaron #125 was Emanuel #41. It is possible but not common in Sephardic naming traditions for son and father to have the same name - but this concern in the case of Aaron #125 and his father is now banished!

Conclusions

We have overwhelmingly reinforced ref 5 and ref 21 which teach that Barbados is the origin of the English Baruh Lousadas and we provide an essential clarification to ref 5 in that the grandson relevant to the Lousada Dukes is the Jamaican Aaron #125 and not the Barbados Aaron #714 son of Solomon #712 nor the London Aaron #1174 whose father was Jacob #380. We have shown that making Aaron #125 a son of an Aaron is incorrect - he was a son of Emanuel #41. We have also shown that Esther Lamego of Jamaica who married Emanuel #41 must be distinguished from Esther Sarah (Massiah) of Barbados. She married Aaron #714 (a nephew of Emanuel #41) as set out in note 4 below.

Notes:

  1. The unusual 'Jeremiah' name may assist in tracing his ancestry but we have not pursued this other than noting that the name also appears in London (ref 85). Similarly the unusual surname of Aaron Alvin of Jamaica may assist in tracing his paternal ancestry.

  2. This was initially puzzling. They are undoubtedly cousins as shown in the will of Aaron Lamego. Of course there are many reasons why cousins might not appear in wills. Jacob #36 in 1752 died well before the wills of Aaron #1174 (who died in 1768 and his sister Leah who died in 1764, Sarah in 1788, and Esther in 1767) and so did his sisters Abigail Almeida in 1745 and Rachel Rodrigues Lopes in 1754 while Rebecca Aguilar bore her last child in 1749. Omitting Aaron #125 was not far wrong either - he died in 1768. No cousins at all appear in the will of Jacob #36 and as he was short-lived many would have survived him.

  3. The 'Touro' name is amongst those of the earliest Jewish settlers in Curacao around 1651 (ref 21). It is also the name adopted by the first Portuguese Jew (Manuel Rodrigues Veiga) to take the oath as an Amsterdam burgher (ref 317) on moving from Antwerp.

  4. The surname Massiah of Esther Sarah (wife of Aaron #714) was first indicated to us in a 1742 Barbados will found by Claire Myers, and later confirmed with overwhelming clarity by a bequest found in Amsterdam by Ton Tielen. The bequest was made to Aaron #714 and his wife Esther Massiah from Joseph Suares - see ref 262.

  5.  Aaron's exclusion did not signify that he was not a grandson - for this is confirmed in the will of Esther Lamego #386 a cousin - but presumably happened because he came into the family business in which he was hugely successful.